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NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR Robby Gordon's Late-2004 CINGULAR Chevy Monte Carlo

This is the colour scheme that Robby used in the last four races of 2004, starting with the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 400 at Atlanta on October 31st. This coincided with an announcement earlier in the week that, for 2005, Gordon would no longer be a driver for RCR, in what appeared to be an amicable split. Robby will field his own NEXTEL Cup team next year, sporting #7, with support from Fruit of the Loom, Harrah's and Menards. (Menards and Robby go 'way back to his Indycar days, and he has had them on previous WC cars he owned prior to coming to Childress.)

I like Robby Gordon's "stick yer nose in and hope" approach - to quote Childress: "Robby is a true racer and I will always be grateful to him for what we've been able to accomplish together and for the positive things he brought to our organization. I've always said that Robby is one of the most talented drivers out there and he has always gone above and beyond for our sponsors. I'm sure Robby will do just fine on his own. His Busch cars run good every week and I'm sure he can translate some of that success to the Cup Series. I wish him only the best."

Of course, one must consider that of the three "regular" RCR drivers, our Robby finished third worst, and likely wrecked more cars than the other two teams combined, in what was all in all a less than stellar year for RCR. The 29 GOODWRENCH car, driven by Kevin Harvick, managed to only finish 14th overall in owner points, while Green and Burton combined to finish 22nd in the AOL car, with Robby next in 23rd. A far cry from the "3" years...

Sam sent this file to me in November, and with other stuff going on, I did not get the graphics "tuned" and on a model until mid December, and am just now getting it posted (early Jan 2005). Sam's graphics provided all the sponsorships, numbers, and the big red "swoops" on the side of the car. (When I first saw them, I wondered why Sam had sent me a silhouette of two giant dodo-bird's heads, but with a little stretching of the image, they worked quite well!). During the "Tuning" I added the correct fender contingencies to the file.

I started with the new 2003-2004 Monte carlo. The painting was quite simple. 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. Next the rear spoiler was sprayed bright red, then masked off. I then shot the body with a bright blue touch-up lacquer aerosol (warmed - see above...); in my case a Canadian Tire colour (MAZDA 1990 Impulse Blue - CTC stock #47-0830-4) appeared to be a good match to the references I had.

Application of the giant red "dodohead" decals was the first step, and was a bit tricky, but came out well. I discovered that if the rear white stripe was lined up relative to the rear sidewindows so that the stripe intersected the top front corner, the rest of the decal could be pretty easily coaxed into position. (It might be easier to apply this one by splitting it in a line from the front windshield to the back of the front wheel opening - I didn't think to try it, however...) Once in position, there was excess red decal material in the windows that had to be cut out with an Exacto knife, but that presented no problem.

The rest of the decal application was straightforward - I trimmed as closely as I could to the graphics to minimize carrier film, and paid particular attention to positioning the side number relative to the "swoop" as per references.

During the body-painting and decalling process, I built up the chassis, basically box-stock, painted Dove Grey. For added accuracy, I liberated the ignition boxes from the roll cage and installed them on top of the dashboard on the right side as mandated by NASCAR for 2004. And once gain, thanks to the GOODYEAR marketing wizards, I had to break into my dwindling supply of SLIXX GoodYear logos for the tires. I definitely need to develop our own...

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.