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NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR Kyle Petty's 2006 WELLS FARGO Charger

Ultimately, I decided that, if I wanted to build this, or any other speedway car, I'd need to make my own body, and get it cast. I have already described the gory details of that conversion, in my article "Building a NASCAR 2005-2006 Charger from the REVELL INTREPID Kit" (click here to check it out) so I won't go into any detail. Suffice it to say, that once I had the first master done, I turned it over to Randy Frost at Perry's Resin, to run me a couple bodies. (I also gave him the go-ahead to produce them and sell them through his Perry's Resin line) While waiting for the body, I started poking at the decals. The biggest challenge, of course, was recreating the stagecoach and the background sky colouration. I learned a lot about CorelDraw on this one! It ain't exactly right, as the few pics I had were in different lighting situations, so there is a bit os S.W.A.G. in the colours I chose.... but it looks good enough to grace my shelf! I also got the chassis (Newman Intrepid, pretty well box-stock except for the added ignition tray on the dashboard) completed while awaiting the body.

Once I got the body from Randy, I started prep work. Body was washed and scrubbed using dishwashing soap, and all flash was removed. I drilled out the hoodpin holes (there are indentations to guide you in the casting) but was satisfied to retain the molded-in pins on the decklid. It took a bit of sanding and finess to get the hood to sit properly in the body, but I felt it was better to do this prior to painting and decalling! The one error I made was I did NOT check the fit of the Intrepid window unit into the resin body prior to painting and decalling. I did separate it into it's component pieces (windscreen, side windows, rear window) on the assumption that variations in the resin molding process would make a good fit unlikely, and of course, the rear side windows needed to be reshaped for the Charger-specific openings. I found I ended up doing a fair bit of dremelling due to roof thickness variations to get a good fit of these pices, and that required a bit of paint touchup later in the build.

The washed body was primed with PlastiKote grey primer, inside and out. I then sprayed the exterior with a couple coats of PlastiKote white primer, so that the red topcoat would be as bright as possible. I followed that up with a coat of white touch-up lacquer, then masked off the TV panel and the white "darts" on the top of the front fenders/hood. I made sure they went far enough forward to allow the headlight decals to cover the leading red/white breakline.The only other masking was to allow painting the rear spoiler black. I chose to make the black area on the sides as part of one large decal for the side, containing the stagecoach and skyline graphics, plus the door numbers (This would eliminate any showthru of the red vs black that would affect the colour of the white. Although I triple-print all my whites, this is my MAJOR hang-up with any decals, that I try and avoid.) The shot to the left shows the body with just the large side decal applied.

Before proceeding with the rest of the decalling, I applied some light coats of TAMIYA TS13 (warmed from rattle-can) to protect those large side decals. All the rest of the decal process was pretty simple, I had chosen NOT to incorporate the WELLS FARGO and various contingency decals that go on the black portion of the sides as part of the large decal to allow some flexibility in positioning.

At this point I need to make a call-out to several members of RANDY'S NASCAR FORUM, especially "BrAkEs2oo6" and "Pyeager" for help in ID'ing some of the graphics I needed. Randy's site is often a Godsend when looking for information on anything to do with circle-track racing!

After it had all dried for 24 hours, I applied several light coats of TAMIYA TS13 clear from the warmed rattlecan, and after a further 48 hours, it was lightly sanded with 1500-grit paper, then polished with Turtle Wax compound.

I then inserted mesh screening in the grille area, added R&M hoodpins, fitted and fastened in the windows (see above...) and it was done. All in all, I was happy with how it turned out, I feel I managed to capture the original pretty well.

Kyle's Daytona performance was not overly memarable. He started the 2nd Gatorade duel in 19th, finishing 6th - a pretty good run... In the 500, he started 12th, but got caught up in an accident, finishing 39th. Things improved slightly as the 2006 season worw on. Ultimately, with two top 10 finishes, Kyle managed to break into the covetted Top 35, finishing 32nd in the drivers' standings. In 2007, we are seeing Kyle take a few breaks, during which he fills in in the announcers booth. I would look forward to him in that role in future, once he retires, and if he can find time away from managing the Petty organization. From what I've heard, it would be a big upgrade over the efforts of the relentlessly ebullient Rusty Wallace!!