Lexan Bodies

The number and type of injection molded styrene bodies currently available from Tomy, Mattel and Life-Like is rather limited. Aside from the new Cobra Daytona Coupes and Chaparral 2Ds released recently by Tomy, and the announcement of a Ford GT40 body shell scheduled for delivery in late 2007, very little is happening in new body designs.

The high cost of the tooling required to produce a new body style severely restricts most of the manufacturers from doing much more than offering different paint schemes on an existing body type.

It can easily cost over $30,000 to produce a single new body mold for plastic injection molding machinery. This high cost when coupled with licensing rights and marketing campaigns all but eliminates most new products from ever being produced.

An alternative method of producing slot car bodies was developed in the 1960's to counter the high cost of injection molding. The process involved a low cost mold and a vacuum forming press.

Along with offering an economical means of producing new bodies quickly, the process itself, and the materials used, yielded a much lighter weight body that was also much less prone to breaking or cracking than styrene bodies.

Early vacuum forming used Polybutyrate sheets, but when General Electric introduced Lexan™ in the mid-1960's most manufacturers quickly adopted this new plastic material due to its strength, light weight and crystal-clear appearance.
Painting

Today vacuum formed Lexan™ HO slot car bodies sell for only a few dollars. This low cost and wide selection of body styles to choose from comes at a cost though - you have to trim, paint and decorate the body yourself.

Painting a vacuum formed Lexan™ body is not difficult, but it requires special paint formulated specifically for Lexan. Radio-Controlled R/C cars normally have Lexan™ body shells, so any good hobby shop selling R/C equipment will also carry Lexan™ paint in jars and spray cans.

A Lexan™ body is painted on the inside not on the outside like a styrene body would be. Because Lexan™ is clear, the paint shows through and in the process hides all brush marks. This fact makes it almost impossible to paint a Lexan™ body poorly. Decals or stickers are then applied to the outside of the body as usual.

I stock and sell a wide variety of Lexan™ body shells in most of the more popular racing series, along with some nice vintage sportscars. I do not however sell Lexan™ paint, due to US Postal regulations regarding paint shipped through the mails.
BSRT Lexan Body Mounting Fixture $28.00

BSRT Lexan Body Mounting Fixture I sell this trick BSRT Lexan Body Mounting Fixture shown on the right. This tool makes it quite easy to trim a Lexan body for mounting on any HO slot car chassis.

You can also cut and trim a Lexan body by hand using a small pair of curved finger nail scissors.

The mounting fixture is nice though because it also allows you to properly radius the front wheel openings.
BSRT HT398

  

Clear Lexan Body Shells

The list below includes all of the Lexan body shells I currently stock and sell. Each is molded in 0.010" GE Lexan™ material. These body shells come unpainted (clear) and must be trimmed to fit your particular HO chassis.

Lexan™ bodies can be fitted to all Aurora A/FX, G+Plus, Tomy AFX, Tyco, Life-Like and BSRT rolling chassis. They can also be used with the smaller Aurora and Johnny Lightning/Auto World Thunderjet 500 chassis if wider rear hubs and tires are used.

Lexan™ bodies are most easily fitted to a chassis using a Velcro Body Mounting Kit, or with BSRT Body Posts & Pins, also listed below in the Mounting Supplies section.
Lexan Group C Bodies
  Lancia Group C Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Porsche Group C Clear Lexan Body $2.00
Lexan GT/GT1 Bodies
  Ford GT40 MkII Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Jaguar XJR-14 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  McLaren F1 GTR Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Toyota GT1 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Nissan R390 GT1 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Mercedes CLK GT1 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
Lexan GTP Bodies
  Toyota Eagle GTP Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Aston-Martin GTP Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Mercedes C-11 GTP Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Peugeot 905 GTP Clear Lexan Body $2.00
Lexan WSC Bodies
  Ferrari 333SP WSC Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Joest Porsche WSC Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Riley-Scott WSC Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Courage C-34 WSC Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Spice WSC Clear Lexan Body $2.00
Lexan LMP Bodies
  Audi R8R $2.00
  Panoz LMP-1 Roadster $2.00 Temporarily Out of Stock
  BMW LMR-V12 $2.00
  Cadillac LMP-1 $2.00
Lexan Porsche Bodies
  Porsche 911 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Porsche 911 Carrera Lexan Body $2.00
  Porsche 911 Turbo Clear Lexan Body $2.00
Lexan Vintage GT Bodies
  Chaparral 2D Clear Lexan Body $2.50
  Chaparral 2E Clear Lexan Body $2.50
  Chaparral 2J Clear Lexan Body $2.50 Temporarily Out of Stock
  Porsche 906 Clear Lexan Body $2.50
  Porsche 908-3 Clear Lexan Body $2.50
  Porsche 935 Moby Dick Lexan Body $2.50
  Porsche 962C Lexan Body $2.50
  Ferrari 512S Clear Lexan Body $2.50
  Ferrari 512M Clear Lexan Body $2.50
  Ferrari 275 LM Lexan Body $2.50
  Jaguar D Type Clear Lexan Body $2.50
  Cobra Daytona Coupe Lexan Body $2.50
  AC Cobra Roadster Lexan Body $2.50
Lexan Formula 1/IndyCar Bodies
  Williams F1 Lexan Body $2.50
  IRL Dallara Lexan Body $2.50
Lexan Vintage GT/GTP Bodies
  Porsche 917K Lexan Body $2.00
  Gulf/Ford Mirage GT Lexan Body $2.00
  Lola T-70 Coupe Lexan Body $2.00 Temporarily Out of Stock
  Ferrari 250 LM Lexan Body $2.00
  Ferrari Dino 246 GT Lexan Body $2.00
  Ferrari 250 GTO Lexan Body $2.00
Lexan Vintage Can-Am Bodies
  Lola T-260 Can-Am Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Ferrari 312 Can-Am Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  McLaren M8E Can-Am Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Porsche 917 Can-Am Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  UOP Shadow Can-Am Clear Lexan Body $2.00
Lexan NASCAR Stock Cars
  Chevy Lumina 1990 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Monte Carlo 1995 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Monte Carlo 2000 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Grand Prix 1990 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Grand Prix 1996 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Thunderbird 1992 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Thunderbird 1996 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Ford Taurus 1998 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Ford Taurus 2000 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Intrepid 2001 Clear Lexan Body $2.00 Temporarily Out of Stock

Lexan NASCAR Trucks
  Dodge RAM 1995 Clear Lexan Body $2.00 Temporarily Out of Stock
  Ford F-150 1995 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Ford F-150 1997 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Chevy C1500 1995 Clear Lexan Body $2.00
Lexan NASCAR Vintage
  Plymouth Stock Car Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Mercury Stock Car Clear Lexan Body $2.00 Temporarily Out of Stock
  Chevy Stock Car Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Dodge Stock Car Clear Lexan Body $2.00
Lexan Trans-Am Bodies
  Mustang Trans-Am Clear Lexan Body $2.00
  Camaro Z Trans-Am Clear Lexan Body $2.00

Mounting Supplies

Along with the Lexan bodies listed above, I also stock a complete line of Lexan Body Mounting Kits, supplies and tools.

A Velcro Body Mounting Kit is the fastest and easiest way to mount a Lexan body on any HO chassis. One kit contains enough material to mount two (2) bodies.
  HO Lexan Body Interior $0.50
  BSRT Velcro Body Mounting Kit $2.00
  BSRT Reinforced Body Tape $1.00
  Loctite Black Max Adhesive $7.99

BSRT Body Tubes Installed on a BSRT G-Jet Chassis The second method of Lexan body mounting uses small hollow tubes attached to the sides of the chassis, and small pins which fit through the sides of the body itself and then press into these tubes.

Holes must be drilled in the sides of the chassis first, and then either plastic tubes are glued in place, or threaded aluminum tubes are screwed into the holes you've drilled.


The picture on the right shows these body mounting tubes mounted on a BSRT G-Jet Chassis. The new BSRT G3 Chassis comes with these body mounting post holes pre-drilled for you!