TOPIC:

I've been looking what I could do in the way of a body for my TA-01 chassis, so thought of Retro Racing, purveyors of 60's/70's/80's European 1:10 scale lexan bodies...

I see Modelsport has a sharknose BMW & the Kadett B, but the range is much bigger than that, so I thought I'd go straight to the source - www.retroracing.com/ - but there's a :not found" message

I think they went a few months ago. I was looking seriously at getting a Mk1 Cortina bodyshell but read too many reports of the shells being fragile. Before I decided they seemed to be out of stock everywhere and it looked like the company was winding down.

bullhead69 wrote:

... too many reports of the shells being fragile...

IIRC the "offical" explanation was that the material wasn't lexan & it should onl;y have water based polycarbonate type paints used on it, but yes, I'd see photos of bodies that had just shattered in collisions

Sounds to me like they were acrylic then. If so, I bet the body explosions were epic!
I can't imagine anyone being dumb enough to use a clear material other than polycarbonate for toy car shells - most clear plastics are REALLY brittle, (uPVC, acrylic, polystyrene) except polyethylene, & paint won't stick to that.

Maybe these shells were intended for display models only?

eddrick wrote:

Sounds to me like they were acrylic then. If so, I bet the body explosions were epic!
I can't imagine anyone being dumb enough to use a clear material other than polycarbonate for toy car shells - most clear plastics are REALLY brittle, (uPVC, acrylic, polystyrene) except polyethylene, & paint won't stick to that.

Maybe these shells were intended for display models only?

tamiyaclub.com/...84&id=6291
tamiyaclub.com/...47&id=6291
tamiyaclub.com/...1&id=25518

Maybe I had a lucky escape

There was someone on the Dutch forum experimenting with forming his own shells.
Although they turned out nicely, they showed a similar vulnerability because of the copolyester (Vivak) he used :

After seeing the pics Jonny posted, I was gonna say "Actually, that doesn't look like an acrylic explosion, it's more like a polystyrene snap" - acrylic (& uPVC if it's cold enough) usually completely shatter from a shock, whereas styrene usually snaps/splits locally from being bent, shocks will show a kind of delamination (Although it's not). 2-pack resins (Like polyester) can be brittle if too much catalyst &/or accelerator are used, but normally they've got a bit of "give" before they snap. Having said that, I've never seen polyester resin set as clear as Edou's pic, unless the screen is of a different material bonded-in? Maybe it's a resin I've just not come across yet....

Vivak

Just spotted that they seem to be selling on eBay - link ... 38 quid seems a lot (even if it does come with wheels) for a shell that can only be used for display