This is the #37 Kmart/Little Caesar's T-Bird driven in 1996 by John
Andretti (later driven by Jeremy Mayfield that same year after they swapped
rides!) It has the distinctive purple and orange colors that were the
trade mark of this team during the 1995-95 seasons. This is a 1996 car so
of course it has slab sides, jack posts, skirts and the usual front airdam
extension modifications to the body!
The kit is a 1996-97 Monogram T-Bird with decals from slixx. This is
another sheet with florescent colors on it so be careful not to handle them
too rough(as little bending as possible except where necessary ... as in
the front airdam and rear bumper areas ... this is where the decal
setting/softening solution comes in!!!
Painting and Decals:
The chassis and body interior are red. The body exterior is purple
...which may not be quite correct because at the time I couldn't find a
premixed paint for this car and had to experiment myself!!! As I said the
decals are from slixx and excellent as usual. Just remember what I said
earlier about the florescent items!!! Of course the stripes have to be
applied before any of the other decals can be applied (except for the hood,
roof and trunk stuff!) Then you can apply the door #37's and contingency
and rear quarter panel decals after the stripes are dry! Once again it
will take some work and patience to get the florescent stripes to lay down
but as you can see they will do very nicely! Once the decals were dry I
applied the high-gloss enamel overcoat. Next comes the usual finishing
steps for these models. Masking and painting of the clear parts, mounting
of the body once the clear coat is throughly dry, painting of center caps
and application of tire and wheel decals, gluing on of clear parts with
clear craft glue and gluing on of hood and trunk retaining pins! I didn't forget the exhaust pipes on this model, actually they are
fake! I just didn't feel like cutting the skirt on the driver side and
making the pipes so I cheated and cut a piece of sheet styrene about the
size of an exhaust pipe end and painted it and glued onto the skirt!!!
Just remember I'm not a modeling purist!!! LOL!!!
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!