Well, the fans, also snowbound, remember, were treated to one of the best Daytonas in history, lotsa last lap dramatics, including a punchup between Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough, who had taken each other out on the backstraight, giving a surprised Richard Petty the win. People were amazed at the speed and determination of the competitors, and a new era in coverage began.
At that time, if you were a GM driver in NASCAR, the hot combo was an Olds Cutlass for the superspeedways, due to their earodynamics, and a Monte Carlo for the short and intermediate tracks, due to the fact that the engine placement gave an advantage in handling vs the Cutlass.
Richard Petty, after years of primarily being seen as a Chrysler guy, gave up on their uncompetitive (for NASCAR) cars in late 1978. After valiant efforts to make the Magnum work, he moved into the GM camp, where he still resides.
The model pictured here, however, is not the STP Cutlass that got all the glory in '79 at Daytona, but the workhorse Monte that ground out the wins and good finishes on many short and intermediate tracks, occasionally sharing that responsibility with a Caprice.
This triumvirate of brands carried The King to the 1979 Series Championship, the Monte being the mainstay of the fleet.
This model was built using an MCW 1979 1/24th scale Monte Carlo resin body, and a stretched Monogram chassis from a mid-eighties Thunderbird. See David Pearson's 1979 Mercury in the Model Gallery for full description of how to prepare the resin body, and the procedure for stretching the wheelbase to the 115" that was in use until 1981, when 110" became the new regulation.
Just remember, you need to scavenge the seat and engine from a GM stocker of that period, such as the Valvoline Buick, or Folger's Monte Carlo, and replace the units in the T-bird chassis. Make sure you use the 5-hole wheels from early T-birds, rather than the more commonly-found 10-holers...
Paint was somewhat of a challenge. Entire body, after careful cleaning (see Pearson page as above for best method...) was primed and sanded, then the Petty Blue was applied. My source for Petty Blue is Ford Grabber Blue aerosol touch-up lacquer, which can still be obtained in local Canadian Tire stores. Recently, Testor's has released a series of racing colurs - I believe this one is available in the series.
Careful masking was required to define those areas that were to be STP fluorescent red. Once masking was complete, I applied a coat of white touch-up lacquer, as a base for the Fluorescent. I then applied the fluorescent red, and gave it several days to dry.
As fluorescents dry flat, I had to apply a number of coats of Tamiya TS-13 clear to bring up the gloss. The first couple of light coats were done before the blue areas were demasked, then after demasking, the whole body received light several coats of clear, with light sanding with 1200-grit in between, then decals and more clear. Final gloss was brought out with Turtle brand polish.
Once finished, this is truly an impressive old behemoth, and you must wonder what 30-40 of these things all going at it must have been like!
A comparison of the MCW body with a typical current kit Monte Carlo body is shown in the shots below. Put some variety in your collection - go resin!
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cleans up beautifully, and is of excellent quality and smoothness. Although the bumpers and grille do not come chromed, the fine finish would lend itself well to being sent for chroming, or, as I did, you can achieve excellent results with BareMetal@ foil. | mid-seventies Monte was compared to today's bodies. The white one is the current Monogram Monte. Both are 1/24th scale! |
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