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NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR Wally Dallenbach Jr's 1996 HAYES MODEM T-Bird - Daytona version

But Wally has had a long and varied racing career, and came into NASCAR with an impressive list of accomplishments in road racing, including 1985-86 IMSA Championships, and three class wins at Daytona and Sebring. His debut in NASCAR, as with many other drivers, came thanks to the #90 car of Junie Donlavey, for whom he ran 11 races in 1991. In 1992 and 1993, he ran a full schedule for Roush Racing, in the #16 Keystone Beer car, with a best finish of 5th, unsurprisingly, at Watkins Glen. A 7th and a 2nd in 1993 at Sonoma and The Glen proved his roadrace cred, but he had great difficulty cracking the top 10 on the ovals and short tracks.

In '94, Ted Musgrave got the 16 ride, and Wally moved to the 43 car, with a best of 4th at Sonoma, and a surprising 8th at Talladega. But after running in 14 races, he parted with the Petty organization, and 1995 was slim pickin's, as he drove in only the two road races, getting a 2nd for Bill Davis Racing in the #22 MBNA car at The Glen.

So... now it's 1996, and Wally finds himself the latest seat-filler in the fading Bud Moore team's #15 unsponsored T-bird, having taken over from 1995's Dick Trickle. Hayes Modems came on board for a one-shot sponsorship at Daytona, and Wally surprised everyone with a solid 5th-place finish in the 125-mile qualifier, and a 6th in the race itself.

This model represents the 1996 Daytona 6th-place finisher in "last-minute-white" with hastily applied sponsor graphics. Sam developed these graphics several months ago for a customer, and we had permission to add them to the 3 Amigos line-up. The sheet has everything, including the coloured stripes, but not the grille and the fender contingencies, which came from SLIXX. At the time these shots were taken, the small 15s on the front and rear had yet to be applied, but they are on the sheet.

This was built box-stock, using a Monogram Bill Elliott T-bird as a starting kit. (Ideally, I should have removed all the front molded-on grillework, as the Monogram kit actually represents a short-track variant... but I didn't...) The body was cleaned of flash and mold lines, and primed with PlastiKote white primer (from aerosol can warmed in hot tap water). The primed body was wetsanded with 600 grit paper. I then shot the body with an off-the-shelf white aerosol touchup lacquer (warmed - see above...) , then masked and painted the spoiler flat black. The decal application was very simple. Using pictures from the April 1996 issue of WINSTON CUP ILLUSTRATED as references, I applied the side numbers in proper position first, then the stripes, aligning the gaps properly with the bottom of the numbers. All other decal application was straighforward, following references.

During the body-painting and decalling process, I built up the chassis, painted Dove Grey, basically box-stock, except for seatbelts.

(Note - It needs to be pointed out that I used the wrong T-Bird for this! Per Tom Mooty, Bud Moore did not have a plate car ready for the '96 Daytona, so used the 1995 body. If you plan to do this one, get the pre-1996 model to be accurate...)

Once all the decals were in place, and had had 24 hours or so to dry, I applied successive light coats of TAMIYA TS13, again from warmed rattle-can, and after a day or two to dry, I polished it all up with terry cloth and Turtle Wax to a nice shine. I tried something else on this one. Once I had finished polishing with the cloth, I then put a bit of polish on a paper towel, and went over it again, kind of a poor man's Millenium Polishing Kit, and found that the shine was even better, with sharper reflected images (We called that Distinctness of Image, or DOI, in my days as a paint chemist...).

It had been a long time since I'd built one of these kits, but, like riding a bicycle, all the old tricks came back quickly. (One thing I am aware of is that I don't sweat ading detail now as much as i did 7- 8 years ago, finding the graphics to be the most interesting part of the build...)

The success Wally had at Daytona in this car led to a full-time sponsorship, and, of course, a much gaudier colour scheme than you see here. I do have those graphics on hand as well... Stay tuned.... Just a small question ofr all you cybertechies: Exactly how fast WERE the "WORLD'S FASTEST MODEMS" in 1996??