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NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR Dave Blaney's 2003 "PANTHER POWER" Taurus!!

Dave's usual colour scheme is the familiar yellow and white, but for the 2003 WINSTON the team decided to give their Panther Mascot some quality sheetmetal time, in a big way! (If you go to Dave Blaney’s website, you'll see they are really into this scheme!)

Dave ran this paint scheme at the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte, and other selected races early in 2003. As soon as this car appeared, it became a "must-do" for us. Sam was off and running. He sent me the files in early June, and I began to do the first build, using a ProFinish 2000 Taurus. By mid-June, the first version was ready, and I posted an in-progress shot on Randy's NASCAR MODELING BOARD. Then, upon looking closely at the actual car on the Blaney site, I realized the "mouth" would need a bit more shaping, and kinda "unannounced" it...

Well, with work, and the fact my computer finally began to expire, there was a 3 - 4 week delay, while I transferred all the files to mass storage, had a new PC built, then figgered out how to use WINDOWS XP. But finally, I got it all up and running, all the right data and programs reloaded, and was able to make the required changes.

The decals duplicate the Coca Cola 600 car. All decals are here, except the contingency decals, tail lights and some B-pillar decals. I added a MOBIL 1 decal for fender contingency to allow a more accurate reproduction. Most other contingencies were found on the recently-issued SLIXX 2003 Contingency sheet (nice!... and the brittleness problem of a couple years back is gone!). Some came from earlier SLIXX sheets. The rear tail lights came from the JWTBM goody sheet, and are excellent to work with. We sized the decals for either the Glue or ProFinish 2000+ Taurus., although the Profinish body, shown here, is most accurate. The chassis was assembled box-stock, with only seatbelts added and a proper driveshaft. The old one was cut out, and - using the universals from it, and Plastruct tubing cut to the correct length - a new one was built.

I started by priming the body (PlastiKote Grey), then wetsanding it smooth with 600-grit paper. I painted the bottom of the body white (I know – it should be light grey – mistake… altho, that might just be a shadow thing in pics..). I then masked and painted the upper body black, and lightly sanded down the breakline. I used a photocopy of the sidestripes to ensure I located and shaped the white-black breakline properly.

I started the decal application by applying the blue/green “jagged” graphics on the lower sides to separate white and black. Once these had dried, the rest of the graphics were applied. Once all decals had been in place 24 hours, they were clearcoated by carefully spraying several LIGHT coats of TAMIYA TS13 clear from the heated (hot tap water) aerosol can, then polished to a nice shine with Turtle wax.

Now I have a model that I feel captures the "Panther" look quite well! The "mouth" is cool, but those eyes Sam came up with are the real grabber on this model! One note - if I were to do this one again, I would sand off the lower grille on the front airdam so it is totally smooth. That is how the actual car looks...(For good references for this car go to Dave Blaney’s website, then follow the links to the Gallery, then to pictures of the car as run at Charlotte (http://www.daveblaney.com/gallery/2003/2003CocaCola600/index.html)). In the race, Dave started 8th and finished 14th, so Panther Power did not fare too well against some of those other big cats out there! Since then Dave has gone on for his first win. Too bad it wasn't in the PANTHER POWER car!

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