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NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR

Carl Edwards' 2004 "SHOPRAT.COM" Taurus


After losing CITGO as a sponsor at the end of 2003, the Jack Roush-owned #99 had no sponsorship lined up at the start of 2004. For most of the season, it ran unsponsored, with occasional one-shot deals coming in. SHOPRAT.COM was one of these, coming on board in September for the Fontana race. At the time there was even talk of them being fulltime sponsors in 2005. That did not happen, and SHOPRAT.COM is now SHOPRAT.ORG:

"...a non-profit organization established in 2004. Our goal is to focus attention on the past and future generations of skilled personnel. These young men and women will propel our nation and the world to the next level of technological advancements. We need to recognize and encourage creative and innovative thinking. We feel by sponsoring a high school-level and career center competitions, we can challenge future Shop Rats to utilize creative problem solving techniques, work together as a team, create innovative solutions, and gain recognition for their hard work."

I have no idea how they are doing, sound like good ideals to pursue, but they appeared to make zero impact on NASCAR. Their biggest claim to fame seems to be being involved with Orange County Choppers. But the Rat is pretty cool, dontcha think??

Unlike SHOPRAT, Carl Edwards HAS made quite an impression on NASCAR. He comes from a racing background - His dad, Carl "Mike" Edwards, raced modified stock cars and USAC midgets for four decades, with over 200 feature wins at several Midwestern tracks. Carl first raced at age 13 in 1993, in four cylinder sprints. By 2002 he was looking at Busch and Craftsman Trucks, running one Busch race, and 7 truck races, with a Top 10 in the latter. 2003 was Carl's breakout year. As part of the Roush Racing Megateam, he focussed on the truck races, getting three wins, finishing 8th in the Series, and winning Rookie Of The Year.

As well as a full Truck season in 2004, with 3 wins, a 4th place standing , and his victory backflip nicely patented, he was promoted to the 99 car, taking over from Jeff Burton in the August Michigan race. He ran 13 races, and proved very fast, with some good finishes (his best being 3rd in the fall Atlanta race), and obviously not intimidated by his sudden rise in the NASCAR hierarchy.

This is the car that Carl drove at Fontana in September, in his third NEXTEL CUP race. It is the car that prompted me, as soon as I saw the graphics on JAYSKI'S back in October 2004, to start making a 2004 conversion from the 2000-vintage Taurus we modellers have been living with for nigh onto 5 years. With REVELL's announcement back then of a further delay I decided to try the conversion, ultimately ending up with the piece being cast by Perry's Resin. (See my write-up on Matt Kenseth's SMIRNOFF car for more info... Click Here)

Randy at Perry's Resin added the hood tether plates, and provided guide holes to drill if you want to use photoetched hoodpins, as I did on this model. Alternatively, they could be filled in and hoodpin decals (SLIXX for example) or silver paint could be used. As with any resin body there was some flash cleanup, and I scrubbed the body with dishwashing liquid to remove mold release agent, to prevent crawling or "fish-eyes" developing. After a light scuff-sand, I laid down a couple medium coats of PlastiKote grey primer (aerosol warmed in hot tap water for a smoother spray), then wetsanded it with 1500-grit until it was smooth. I then laid down several coats of black aerosol touch-up enamel (warmed - see above..) with light scuffsanding in between.

Entire car was painted black, except the front airdam valence, which was masked off, painted white, then fluorescent red. The silver rockerpanel area has a chromelike look to it in references, so I made that a part of the decal. Decalling process was pretty easy - the silver was laid down first, then the roof, side and hood graphics that contain the "lightning bolts" and bolts for the rear quarterpanels came next. Once they had dried, I finished up with quarterpanel logos, contingencies, etc. Everything for the car, except the NASCAR logos on the A-pillars, the airdam grillework and tire GOODYEAR logos is on the sheet, including proper contingencies.

Once all the decals were in place, and had had 24 hours or so to dry, I applied successive light coats of TS13, again from warmed rattle-can, and after a day of two to dry, I polished it all up with terry cloth and Turtle Wax to a nice shine.

While doing all this, the chassis was built box-stock, except for seatbelts, and I moved the ignition boxes up onto the dash. I also, as a finishing touch, added photoetched grillework in the front grille opening, painted semigloss black.

This decal sheet is now listed as available from 3 Amigos (Click here for our catalog page).

PERRY's RESIN is now in a position to supply the body as seen here and on the SMIRNOFF Taurus. If you want the maximum in accuracy - and have as little faith in REVELL as I do - it can be obtained from Perry's Resins. I had originally been going to have Randy cast them, and I would offer them as 3 Amigos Resin, but that is not my area of expertise, so Randy has agreed to handle that as part of the Perry's Resin line. They are not yet in his onsite catalogue, but you can contact him from his website, www.perrysresin.com for more info.

At Fontana, Carl and ShopRat made a pretty good impression, starting in 19th place, and finishing 6th, on the lead lap. But that was first and only appearance of this sponsor to date, and it looks unlikely they will be involved in any further deals, so this is probably a unique "one-race wonder" - but unlike many others, it was not driven by the desire to flog more diecast, but a realworld need for sponsorship money by the team, and public exposure for the sponsor. I much prefer that kind of "one race wonder"!

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