Tradin' Paint Gordon- Montoya project

[David Thibodeau]

I have had this project planned for quite awhile and decided to get the itch... I was very impressed when Speed channel aired the show called "Tradin' Paint" in June of 2003 when Jeff Gordon and Juan Montoya traded cars.... it was equally impressive to see Gordon run fast enough to qualify for the Indy 500 in Juan's FW24!! Juan pretty much burned up Gordo's brakes in his trip

Here is a cool pic of both cars taking a lap that day.

Anyways, I always thought doing the 2 cars in 24th scale to look like the cars that they played with would be an interesting project.

FW24 is up first.

I am using the Revell of Germany FW23 kit which is passable for the FW24 that ran that day. I wish I could have used the tamiya kit, but the uniquness of this project is both cars will be the same scale.With exception to the exhaust not being present in the body work the FW23 is extremely close. The car Juan's team brought was indeed an FW24 however it had the FW25 paint scheme. The problem with the sponsor decals in the kit were they are Compaq and not HP like the car that ran that day. I called on John Barker and he whipped me up some needed sponsors on his alps in the HP logos etc.....

I will skip the body details but here it is in basecoat white and Scalefinishes.com BMW F1 Blue. Its a little darker than the car that ran but that was the intention to match the kit decals appropriately which the FW23 blue did appear darker. After all.... I am going for the look and not complete accuracy here.

As you can see like the indy cars, the front monocoqe is 2 pieces. I glued the bottom half on and filled all seams and gaps and drilled locator holes for the suspension that I will pin in place.

As you can see, paint is dark but matches the nose decal perfectly.. a compromise I can live with!!

Wheels and tires are ready as well.... Painted with alclad dark aluminum and normal tire treatment with kit decals!!!! YIKES!!!!! :D

More to come! once the F1 is out of the way I will begin the flame job...............

DaveT

[58 Impala]

Looking good so far Dave. I have wanted to do this build myself. I got the same idea as you did after watching that show on Speed. I enjoyed seeing them driving something totally different. Gordon was a pretty quick learner,and we can all see now that Montoya has become comfortable in a Sprint Cup car.

Keep us posted on your build, I'm looking foward to seeing the finished product. I just might be tempted to pick up those kits myself.

[ScrappyJ]

Two of my favorites, Dave! I know you will do them justice.

[Peter Lombardo]

Here we go again…..two more perfectly built cars in one post. These will be stunning I am sure. The F1 is starting out beautifully. Great idea, I am sure you will do them justice.

[David Thibodeau]

Thanks guys!!

Here is more..... all decal work is complete. A combination of kit and John Barker alps decals.... again, John did a great job matching the blue I used... His decals are all HP and nicoderm decals.....

I also began the front suspension work. The lower arms and air deflectors were covered in High Def CF from scale motorsport..... more to come.....