NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR

KENNY SCHRADER's 2001 DOVER "FLAG" Grand Prix

But Kenny Schrader and the MB2 team took it to the limit.. the WHOLE CAR was a flag!! Usual sponsors M&M's gave up their rolling billboard so Kenny and the boys could pay the ultimate tribute. Kenny is one of the good guys - always thought he'd be a heckuva good neighbour, and this really suited him.

Immediately upon seeing this car, I knew it was a must-build. Dropped a line to Sam, and things began to roll. We determined the approach we would use would be to prepare the stars and numbers, and grille/headlights, as part of the sheet - even though the original car was done with giant decals!!. The builder (me..) would be responsible for applying the red, white and blue paint job. So while Sam was doodling, I was tracking down references, and painting up the body.

For this build, I decided to test drive the ProFinish INTERSTATE Pontiac, as I had had good results with the Monte version. Besides, to my eye it looked like the Profinish body had more accurate contours, particularly around the nose and front airdam.

After cleaning up the body, I primed it with PlastiKote white primer, then shot it with white aerosol touchup lacquer from a warm (tap water) rattlecan. I then masked off the areas to be left white, and applied the red stripes (VW MARS RED from a touch-up rattlecan...). I used a blue flexible pinstriping-type tape to define the areas to be masked, to allow me to get the wavy look on the red stripes with no wrinkles in the tape.. This gave me fits, as the glue from the tape, likely softened by solvent from the red aerosol that soaked through, stayed on the white body after I pulled the tape. It took a couple hours to clean that up before I could do anything else. Didn't repeat THAT blunder when I masked and painted the blue portion of the right front (Honda Baltic Blue), and the black spoiler - TAMIYA masking tape all the way, carefully cut to fit the contours!

But, finally, I had the body ready, and eagerly awaited images from Sam for the decals.

During the process of developing the decals, we decided it would be good to include the "smudges" seen in the graphics of the original car during the race. These gave Sam a challenge, but he came though! They were a separate sheet, with sections for each portion of the body. I chose to apply these only to the white areas on the hood, and on the left and right-hand sides, as these were only areas I could find reasonable references to...

Decalling was not overly challenging, other than having to cut out and apply about 25 stars on the right hood, roof front and right front fender. I realized there would be showthrough of the red over white with the decal numbers - not an unusual situation, so I made up an extra set of white underlays to be laid down first for the numbers. This was very effective in minimizing showthru, as shots show.

Fender contingency decals came from the SLIXX 2001 sheet; this car was really bare - other than flag graphics! Once all decals had had a couple days to dry, several light dustcoats of TAMIYA TS13 aerosol clear were applied, and the body was rubbed out with Turtle brand polishing wax. While Sam and I were trading ideas, I built out the ProFinish chassis, after painting it red (I THINK the 36 runs a red chassis, sure looked like it in the various pix I used for reference!) No surprises, appeared to be identical to the Chevy version.. surprise, surprise... Only added engine oil lines.

Once the chassis was done, and the body ready, I tried to mate them together. THERE was a surprise! Body is held on by three screws thru the chassis into posts in the front and rear (no problem; I never turn 'em over once they're finished, anyway...). The posts were too long, so my supposedly low center-of-gravity oval tracker looked more like those spidery things that run at Baja... coulda run 'er thru Penetanguishene in the dead of winter with no hangups in the snow! So, I sighed, disassembled it, took the trusty Dremel, and lopped about two millimeters from the back posts, and one from the front, which pretty well set 'er down where Kenny would want it... although I suspect it was 1/192nd of an inch too low per NASCAR specs...

In the race, Kenny started in 13th place, but only managed to salvage an 18th-place finish, two laps off the pace, after running as high as 8th. He had to pit early during the latter half of the race, costing him time. But it was sure an inspiring car!

I am very pleased to have this unique and symbolic colour scheme in my collection. Thanks, Sam, for some great art!

To Home Page

To Models Index Page

To Top of Page