Ernie Irvan's 10th Anniversary Texaco Havoline T-bird


This is the Texaco Havoline 10th Anniversary 1997 T-Bird driven by Ernie Irvan at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May (Coca-Cola 600) and Talladega Alabama in October (DieHard 500) it commemorates 10 years of involvement between Texaco and Robert Yates Racing and carries the colors from the 1987 car of then rookie of the year Davey Allison!

This model is a 1996-97 Monogram T-Bird with Slixx decals. As with all of my T-Birds from 1996 on this kit was modified with slab sides, side skirts, jack posts and front airdam extension (to lower the front airdam) all made from .020 sheet styrene. I also sanded off the brake duct screen on the right side (as per the charlotte car) and added an Earnhardt bar between the dash and top front crossbar in the roll cage and my own exhaust pipes. The chrome wheels came from a early Monogram Monte Carlo kit (pre-late-1997).

All painting was done (with the exception of engine parts, shocks, and chrome plated parts) with an airbrush. The chassis is painted bright red (50-50 mix of testors red and orange) as was the body interior. The body was then masked on the inside (after 1-2 days drying time) and the white was applied to the entire body. Then following a 2-3 day drying period I masked off the area to be painted black. The first step in this process was to cut templates made from tracings of the side red and gold decals. This is quite simple, just take a pane of glass (I have a piece of tempered shelving) and carefully tape the decal sheet face up to it (put the tape just barely on the edge on opposite sides, making sure that the tape touches none of the decals) then tape a piece of paper over the decal sheet(I use printer parer) and put a light under the glass and trace! The cut out the tracings of the side decals and hold them on the sides of the model and mark a line! Then just mask to this line and spray the black!

Once the paint is dry 2-3 days apply the decals making sure (after the decals have set for a couple hours) to wipe off any excess decal adhesive residue (this residue will definitely cause a gloss coat to wrinkle) then add a coat of gloss (I use testors high-gloss enamel overcoat...in a spray can). Don't spray any more than needed because the more you spray the more chance there is that the white will be yellowed!!! Make one pass and let it dry a few minutes and hold it up to the light and if another coat is needed to get a smooth finish go ahead! Wait a few more days (it's easy to leave finger prints etc. on a body if it isn't dried well) and install the body on the chassis.

Then all that's left was to paint the clear parts (windshield etc.) and glue them on with clear craft glue, apply the tire and wheel decals wedge adjustment hole decals etc. and you're done!

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!

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Additional Pictures

Left Side View
Left Front View
Right Rear View