This is the car Dale Earnhardt drove in the 1997 Winston all-star race
at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 17 of last year. This car commemorates
Dale being the first NASCAR star on a Wheaties box!
The kit is a 1997 Monogram Monte Carlo with slixx decals from a Buck
Fever collectable kit. Once again slixx only produced this sheet to go
with this kit just as they did for the DW chrome Buck Fever kit! There
are bootleg decals out there for this one though. This kit I bought 2 of
so I could have one to keep! I used the 1997 kit because I wanted the
slab sides, jack posts and skirts and this way I saved myself a lot of work!
Painting and Decals:
The chassis is chevy red as is the body interior. The exterior of the
body is orange (I added just a little bit of white to a bottle of testors
orange for this one). Once the orange was dry I masked off the skirts and
painted them flat black. I then applied the lower body band (white with
black stripe at the top and bottom...the stripe at the bottom made for a
nice clean separation line between the skirts and the white band). Once
the bands were dry I applied the rest of the decals. You will notice I
didn't paint the jack posts...I did this because I didn't realize (wasn't
paying attention) the little GM logos that mark the position of the posts
was off... this was a sheet designed for a pre 1997 kit! The Buck Fever
kits have the old Monte Carlo kit parts in them!!! Also the Krispy Wheats
and Raisins decals for the band behind the rear wheels were too
long...unless they are supposed to wrap around on to the back of the
bumper? But all in all a very good sheet as usual from slixx!! Once the
decals were dry I applied a coat of testors high gloss enamel for sealing
and a good shine!!! I then painted and installed the windshield and misc.
clear parts and applied the tire decals, inspection sticker decal and the
rear track bar and weight jack adjustment hole decals! I think you will
agree it makes a great looking model and I have always loved the look of the
#3 cars!!!
Complete instructions for painting and assembly of chassis, clear
parts, and construction of slab sides can be found at the bottom of the main page!