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Kasey Kahne's 2004 MOPAR Dodge Intrepid


From the Kasey Kahne bio page at FOXSPORTS.com:

"Like many great drivers before him, Kasey comes from a grass roots racing background, as he began his career on dirt tracks in his home state of Washington.
Kasey's progression onto the racing scene was anything but gradual, as he won 11 of 14 mini-sprint feature events en route to winning two championships in his first two seasons.
By 1998, Kasey began running full-sized sprint cars and won 12 events in his first season, displaying his raw talent for handling anything with wheels.
A pivotal career move came next, when Steve Lewis, who has employed the likes of Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, offered Kasey a sprint, midget and Silver Crown deal that would run the full United States Auto Club (USAC) schedule.
In his first season on both asphalt and dirt tracks, Kasey compiled enough wins to garner the USAC Silver Crown Rookie of the Year award, and both the USAC Midget Series Champion and Driver of the Year honors.
In 2002 Kasey signed with legendary car owner Robert Yates to run a limited NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division schedule.
Kasey's first season in the Busch series was impressive to earn him a full-season in 2003 with Akins Motorsports. After less than 30 races in a stock car, Kasey's raw ability to drive has placed him among the elite young drivers in NASCAR."

Pretty impressive! In his rookie year Kasey is performing quite well, but everyone seems surprised he has yet to win a race, with just two left in 2004 as of this writing. Cut him some slack, folks! Rookies winning races is a pretty elite crowd!

Anyhoo, this is the special colour scheme he used in the UAW-GM QUALITY 500 at (sigh...) LOWES MOTOR SPEEDWAY in Charlotte on October 16th, to promote the MOPAR brand. It was a pleasant surprise when these graphics popped up in my email from Sam a couple weeks after the event, and I got right on them!

John Beatty had already previewed his excellent build with the decals he has available, so we are a little slow off the mark, I suppose. There are differences in our approach to them, which will be apparent as you read on. (I am not going to judge the relative merits of the two graphics, I think it will be dependant on what various builders' preferences are on which ones suit them best...)

The graphics have the various numbers and logos on them, and a bunch of curvy and straight barbed wire to be applied where needed. (Sidenote: Can anyone clue me in on the significance of the barbed wire in the colour scheme??)

Starting kit was the #40 2003-2004 kit with the more accurate nosecone in it. The body was primed with white PlastiKote primer (from rattlecan warmed in hot tapwater) and topcoated with a GMwhite touchup aerosol lacquer from Canadian Tire. (warmed - see above...) It was then necessary to fog on the blue-white fade, as this is not part of the graphics. For this I shot some TAMIYA TS15 blue into an airbrush bottle, plus a shot of white to lighten it a bit, then fogged it on the body up to the middle of the side window. After that was dry, i masked off the body to paint the rear portion and roof dark blue. The pictures below show the two stages in this process. The breakline between the dk blue and the fogged area over the rear wheelwells should be about halfway along the base of the sidewindow, where it will be covered by a decal. Be sure to sand down the breakline so it does not show thru the graphics!

Once i was happy with the paint job, I shot it with some TS13 clear to give a smooth surface for the rest of the decals. I had to figure out the best order for decal application as I went along - initially, I assumed put down the "barbed wire" first, then just lay everything else on it. Not so - in some cases the barbed wire stops at the graphic, in others it is visible thru openings in the graphic.

Approximate application order was:

  • 1 - apply "BW" to bottom of nose, from cowl over fenders to headlight area, front fenderwell up A-pillar down C-pillar to back, and down to bottom of rear fender just in front of bumper. Note: altho some of the barbed wire (BW) provided is curved, none is precisely matched to a particular area, you will need to use some Solvaset to soften it up where it curves for a snug laydown to the body.
  • 2 - Apply MOPAR logos to side and hood and roof number.
  • 3 - Apply DODGE logos, side numbers, and white MOPAR logos on rear fender. Apply decklid and tail panel decals.
  • 4 - Apply BW on hood that runs from MOPAR logo to various areas at the front of the car.Apply BW along bottom of rocker panel from MOPAR LOGO to front fender openings. Apply short lengths of BW on roof, rear quarterpanel and decklid as in references.
  • 5 - Apply DODGE lettering on hood, and headlights.
  • 6 - finish up with B-pillar graphics and fender contingency decals. These are part of the decal sheet - full contingencies - a first for 3 Amigos! You still need the grillework from the Revell kit, it's perfectly usable, reproducing it would have been redundant.

Last step was to clearcoat and polish the finished body after it had dried a couple days. After I did that the graphics really came to life!

The chassis for this pictureis,...I admit it... a mule... lifted from under the #12 50th win. I have the proper chassis, with the relocated ignition boxes, well underway, but did not want to delay showing this one off, as it is really a striking model!

So, how did KK fare in the race? Good news and bad news, and typical of why we doesn't have that much-anticipated first win yet. He qualified second, covering the 1.5-mile oval in 28.829 seconds at 187.311 mph. Kahne called his Dodge "the best race car I've had in my life." Even the competition said he clearly had the best car on the track.

Kasey Kahne was dominant, leading 207 of the first 267 laps and appeared on his way to his first career victory. He was leading for the fourth time in the event and easily pulling away from his challengers as he had throughout the race, when he cut down a tire, sending him into the Turn One retaining wall with a hard hit. Kahne's favorite Dodge, known as Chassis No. 55, was out with extensive damage. With just 67 laps left, there was no time to get the No. 9 Dodge repaired and back on the track, so it was retired for the race, and was classified a disappointing 32nd... thanks to FOXSPORT NEWS for this info on the race.

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