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NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR Robby Gordon's 2002 "SPIDERMAN" Monte Carlo

3 Amigos' resident artiste, Sam Lopez, as usual, came through with some great graphics, and I played around with them a bit to improve the fit... (you never really know what you've got until you actually try them out on a model...)

I used the ProFinish 2000 Jeff Gordon silver car for this one, since I think this body is more accurate than the glue kit body. And I finally tried reworking the nose to add the extra couple inches forward extension that NASCAR has given the Montes to try and "level the field".

I followed directions that had been given on Randy's NASCAR Modeling Forum, basically cutting the spoiler at each corner, then bending it forward, and using plastic and putty to fill and reshape it. The shot to the right compares the standard kit nose (NesQuik) with the revised nose on the Spidey car. I feel it greatly increases the accuracy of the model. I also cut off the rear spoiler, made a slot across the decklid, and installed a slightly larger rear spoiler using Plastruct sheet plastic.

The body was primed with PlastiKote white primer, then shot with a deep rich blue to match pictures I had. Starting colour for the blue was Ford Grabber Blue touchup lacquer (no idea why Canadian tire still carries it, but here's hoping they never drop it! Hmmm...could it be us modellers??), sprayed into a bottle, to which I added a small amount of ChromaPremiere red-tone blue to make it richer and deeper. I also added a small amount of violet. Extra TAMIYA TS13 clear was also added to offset the extra pigment load from the tinters I had added, and after adding about 10% lacquer thinner the body was sprayed. After it had 24 hours to dry, I fogged in the black on the bottom between the fenderwells. I also masked and painted the front side of the rear spoiler red, using a red that was a close match to the red on the decals, which I had by this point printed.

After another day or two, I was ready to apply the decals. All was very straightforward, except it is crucial that the roof decal be added first, so the "web" from the C-pillar side decals can be aligned with the webbing on the roof decal. All else went well. The decal for the front spoiler needed some coaxing to fit the revised contours of the new-spec nose, but there was sufficient "give" in the film (with some help from Microsol) for this to be accomplished. All decals but the fender contingencies are on the Spidey sheet. Contingencies came from SLIXX. Other than seatbelts being added, the ProFinish Chassis was built box-stock. It was necessary to take about 1 - 1.5 millimeters off the body mounting posts to get the body to sit low on the chassis. If untouched, it woulda set too high, and looked more like one of Robby's Baja rides!

Of course once it was all finished, and the decals had had a couple days to dry, I clearcoated the whole shebang with TAMIYA TS13 clear from the heated rattlecan. After three coats, with light sanding with 1500-grit paper in between, I polished it all out with Turtle Wax, to a nice smooth finish... 'cause I like 'em shiny...

To date, Robby has driven this scheme twice. First time out was in California in May, where he started back in Provisional-Land in 40th, but worked his way up to 12th, the first car a lap down, so he had a real good seat to watch Jimmy Johnson get his first win.

The second run for this scheme was the following week at Richmond, where Robby made quite a splash, but not the kind he wanted. On lap 309, a caution ensued when Rusty Wallace crashed, and Gordon lost it trying to avoid Dave Blaney in the confusion, and rammed the water barrels protecting the barriers at the entrance to pit road. Robby's day was done, and the race was redflagged to repair the safety barriers. He ended up in 37th place after starting 31st. Pretty hard hit, I suspect Robby had a few cobwebs of his own...