This is the car Darrell Waltrip drove in the Daytona 500 in 1997! It
is one of 6 different paint schemes he used throughout the year to
commemorate his 25 years in Winston Cup racing!
This kit is a late 1997 Monogram Monte Carlo (Terry Labonte) with decals
from a buck fever kit (slixx) the buck fever kit had 1995 parts in it!!!
This kit has the new chassis and body ... slab sides, jack posts, side
skirts are molded in which means no modifications YEA!!! and the front
airdam is reasonably low so I didn't add to it either!
Painting, well this one was a dooozy!!! I tried 3 ...yes that's 3
times ...to paint the chrome on the body!!! I tried testors chrome
(airbrush) and it was dull! Got out the brake fluid and took off that
coat.
Brake fluid you might ask??? Well I learned from someone at a place
that sells NASCAR models here that if you screw up and have to remove paint
from a body all you ahve to do is soak it in brake fluid (a couple hours
for fresh paint a while longer ... like over night ... for drier paint) and
it will loosen the paint and not harm the plastic in any way! So now you
know what it's all about!
I then tried plasticoat chrome (spray) it looked better but when I
tested the clear coat (on a separate piece of plastic ... which by the way
I didn't do until after I painted the body again, duhhh!!! Oh well
nobody's perfect!!!) It dulled the finish which looked worse than the
testors ... so it was back to the brake fluid!. Well though they looked
fair neither of the two previous paints really gave me the desired effect
so I tried one last time with Rust-olium premium metalized brite chrome
enamel. It was more expensive than the other two put together but it was
very, very slick when applied not quite a mirror finish (but then neither
was the actual car (race). Well I decided I would not gloss coat the body
and leave the decals uncoated as well (didn't want to dull it).
Before I painted the chrome (rust-olium) paint I decided to put the
florescent red on first ... this was easy ... I masked off the lower body
and painted it with testors florescent red (model master) using an
airbrush. I then waited about an hour (leaving the mask on) and gloss
coated the red I let the red dry for approx. 3 days ... wanted to make sure
the paint (red and clear coat) didn't pull off! ... and masked off the
upper body and sprayed it with the chrome. I then applied the decals in
about 2-3 days once again being sure to remove the adhesive residue (even
if you don't gloss coat it can still mar the paint underneath and leave a
mark! The chassis is painted with light gray (2 parts testors white to 1
part grey applied with an airbrush) as is the body interior. The rear
spoiler isn't painted black ... I used black decal material from microscale
cut to size front and rear ... I was afraid to mask on the chrome!!! This
one will not be out of the case or handled because any chrome or silver
paint I have used (whatever the brand) seems to rub off easily and will
even smudge if handled too much and since it has no gloss over it...I think
you get the idea here. The windows (after painting) can be put on the body
before or after installing it on the chassis because with this body you
don't have to spread it over the chassis to get it on, it simply drops into
place! Sometimes these monte bodies (1997) are rather loose so if you want
you can glue small pieces of plastic along the bottom inside to catch the
chassis and hold the body more solid!
It was a pain but well worth it! I dare say there won't be another
built by me! Actually I couldn't if I wanted to because the only source
for the decals is the buck fever kits!!! Slixx didn't release a run to
the general public!
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!