IMSA UPS Cobra

[Team AMG]

Well, it only took :::checks the calendar::: 2 weeks...but here's the first of two UPS sponsored IMSA 2004 Cobra XMODS.

http://www.xmodsource.com/forums/album_thumbnail.php?pic_id=568

The bodies were done for a race that I'll be holding at my home for guys with some R/C experience, the paint scheme is the NASCAR 2002 scheme from Dale Jarrett's Taurus with the old logo.

http://www.xmodsource.com/forums/album_thumbnail.php?pic_id=569

The Mustang was slightly different in body proportions than the Taurus, so some of the decals didn't make it to the IMSA car. I made do with as much as I could do.

http://www.xmodsource.com/forums/album_thumbnail.php?pic_id=570

This is the racing body, so it's a little bit rough in the paint. It's expected to get chipped, smudged and dinged. The second body, still in the paint shop, will be the Concourse body and will have the 2004 NASCAR scheme with the new UPS logos.

Expect pics of it sometime in the next week or so.

[BlackSky909]

kool. nice cr. did they pay u to do that?

[DR3W]

:o :o that is sum nice work that is prety deteld nice

[viperdout]

Very sweet. It's almost a shame to know it's a beater body, but then again, I didn't buy an xmod to look at it, otherwise I could've saved a ton by buying a die cast model!

[5.0saleen]

that is a really nice car. I belive you have some of the same idea I do. make these cars look like a **** race car. lol but anyways congrats on the car.

[Team AMG]

kool. nice cr. did they pay u to do that?

Nope, I've been a Dale Jarrett fan for more than 10 years, when he started racing for Robery Yates I joined the fan club, and I have buku stuff from Ford Motor Credit and UPS. I have shirts, hats, die casts, plastic models, posters, magazines, over 200 pictures of his cars at Sonoma, Phoenix and California Speedway, I have stupid little things like key chains, flashlights, bobble heads...curtains.

Viper, yeah it's a beater. It's going to get bonked in racing, that's what I bought my XMODS for, so I'm not too concerned with making it look perfect. The pictures are very forgiving, it's a rough paint job up close, but I've seen both NASCAR and IMSA cars up close and they're not glass smooth either. That's why two bodies, one for racing and one for the concourse.

[SuperSupra]

niccccceeeee car thats tight

[BlackSky909]

yes that car is nice how long did it take you to paint that? BTW: viper ur icon is gone u exceeded ur bandwith with photobucket. hehe

[Team AMG]

The bodywork took two days, I filled in all of the ductwork on one of the custom front ends with gap filling super glue then hit it with an accellerator so it cured immediately. Sanded and then kept reapplying it until the front was smooth and flat. Using super glue like that make it as hard as the plastic surrounding it, and it's better than Squadron putty. Same with the back panel, I filled in the license plate recess with sheet plastic and sealed it again with gap filling super glue and sanded it flush with the taillights. The rear bumper vent was treated the same way. I left the door handles, vents, panel lines and grill the way they were. A NASCAR style rear blade spoiler was added from 0.15" sheet stock.

The Cobra body is molded in red plastic, which makes it a real problem to paint. Red tends to bleed through most primers, so I used a red oxide primer over it. I then airbrushed 4 coats of Ditzler Arctic White over the whole car and set it in my fruit dehydrator to cure. If you have one of these it will cure a paint job in just a few hours, I left it in mine overnight. The next day I masked the car and airbrushed 2 coats of Ditzler Medium Ebony over it and removed the masking immediately. Back into the dehydrator for an overnight stay. The next night I masked the windows off and shot a coat or two of Testors gloss black over the windows, and again removed the masking immediately. Taking the masking off when the paint is wet lessens the chance of tearing the paint near the tape margins. Anyway, back into the dehydrator of the rest of the weekend.

On Monday the car was removed and allowed to cool completely for a day. The paint set up really hard this way, and small details like the grill and inside the lights were painted. It was set aside for a day to dry.

I found two sets of 1/24th scale vinyl UPS slot car decals at Hobbytown, on sale I might add, so I snagged them both. They were the old logo from 2002 but for my project that was good enough. Once home I washed the cars in soapy water and let them dry, after an hour I put the decals on according to the diagram on the back. Most of the contingency decals wouldn't fit so I just put the Ford Credit decal in their place.

One the decals were down and burnished onto the car I applied two coats of Ditzlers Duraclear, this is a tough clearcoat that doesn't yellow after time. The car was then set back into the dehydrator for two days. Friday afternoon it was released, and here you see the finished product.

The two weeks it took for the project was a minimal time, it's cold and wet here, paint don't dry fast this time of year, so the dehydrator was able to speed things up. Otherwise it would have taken a month, not weeks.

http://www.xmodsource.com/forums/album_thumbnail.php?pic_id=572

[nova_fan]

that is cool tat they sponcerd you