Inspired by the Osaka Clear Car Bros giftset, I decided to take a redeco Side Burn and make a clear version of my own. All I needed was one 8 ounce bottle of GooGone, a toothpick, and a strong thumbnail to scrape off all that paint! Presented here are several images of the project throughout its various stages. Click on any picture to see an alternate angle of any image! (This page requires Javascript to be enabled for viewing.)
At first I wanted to make clear versions of all three Car Bros, but after close inspection I realized that only Side Burn had enough clear molded plastic to make this work. I didn't want to use my first Side Burn so I went out and bought another one for this project. Having two was good because I then had a platorm to try the parts on once I removed the paint from each piece. (It's really something to see Side Burn removed from his car shell! I thought he looked funny like that, and I used him shell-less in The Adventures of Car Robot, a horribly offensive one page webcomic.) I first soaked all the parts in a small bowl of GooGone. The first parts that I removed paint from were the front & rear bumpers because for some reason the paint on those parts softened up faster than the paint on the rest of the body. It only took about 2 hours of soaking for the paint on the bumpers to come off.
I didn't want to make a TOTALLY clear version-I wanted to keep the tampo'd Autobot insignia, hood & door flames, tail lights, and Dodge Viper emblem on the front bumper. So I used a toothpick to rub off the red paint closest to the outline of those areas. I DID have some problems with the tampos coming off when I accidentally rubbed on them as I was taking off the paint nearby. The most delicate were the blue outlines of the flames and the red portions of the Autobot insignia. I had to go over those parts with paint to restore what I rubbed off. All in all the project took about 12 hours from start to finish. I may buy another Side Burn to make a totally clear version, but I'm satisfied with how this one looks for now.