BOBBY ALLISON’SBOBBY ALLISON’S
1972 COKE
MONTE CARLO
(Note: this is an article that I prepared for the Toronto area IPMS for their newsletter. It is reproduced here with agreement from them - Les Smirle)
BACKGROUND – NASCAR in the Early 70’s – TRANSITION STATE
The years from 1970 to 1972 were years of transition on several fronts in NASCAR. 1970 was the last year of the big bankrolls from the manufacturers, as Ford and Chrysler curtailed support, cutting back dramatically on the number of teams chosen as "Factory Teams". These were the teams who were bankrolled by the Big Three, and who got the new parts - and engineers "on sabbatical" during the summer who just happened to be found in various NASCAR pits.
Gone were Chrysler’s "Winged Wonders" and the big Talledegas and Marauders from the Ford camp. GM had bailed out a few years earlier, around 1968. AMC was still a joke; it wasn’t until about 1974 that Roger Penske, ironically, with Allison as one of his drivers, made them into respected competitors.
Reasons given for the factory money’s disappearance stemmed from frustration at NASCAR, perceived by each manufacturer as showing bias to the other (Ford were upset when their DOHC 427c.i. monster was banned; Chrysler felt their HEMI was overly restricted…etc., etc…). As well, the cost of all this support probably had also gone well past the point of diminishing returns for the value of the publicity – don’t forget, in 1970, NASCAR was still primarily a regional sport.
The construction of the cars themselves was just finishing a transition as well. Up until about 1962, a NASCAR stockcar was made by taking a showroom vehicle, and adding a rollcage inside, beefier suspension, etc, to make the car safe and durable for the track. Holman – Moody in 1962 began the steps that resulted in the current practice where a race-intent tube chassis is built from the ground up, and appropriate sheetmetal hung on it. This process was just completing its evolution in the early 1970’s, when the car represented by this model was built.
BOBBY ALLISON – DRIVER – TRIUMPHS and TRAGEDIES
The career of Bobby Allison is a poignant blend of personal triumph and winning ways, along with stunning personal tragedy, and wrong decisions made. He came out of Florida in the late 1950’s and settled in Alabama, to be near the NASCAR scene, after a successful career on short tracks in his home state. He began racing modifieds around the state, and built up a strong following, but his move to the big circuit was slow. By 1965 he had only entered eight GN races.
Finally, in 1966, he was able to run a full schedule, and got three wins. Unfortunately, Allison got an early reputation for being quick to jump from ride to ride that prevented him from achieving his full potential early. One of the biggest examples of this was his decision at the end of 1972 to leave the Junior Johnson team after just one season, as he found Junior uncommunicative and hard to read. Junior replaced him with Cale Yarborough, who went on a three-year tear, becoming the superstar of the day. Bobby moved around to various rides over the next few years, often building and fielding his own cars. In spite of all this, he won 84 races; in a career that was ended in 1988, in a serious crash at Pocono, where he received head injuries that required many months of recovery. He was never able to drive competitively again. During his career, he won one Championship in 1983.
Further tragedy struck in the early 90’s as his two sons were killed within a year of each other, Clifford in BGN practice at Michigan in 1992, and rising superstar Davey, in a helicopter accident at Talladega in 1993.
The COKE MACHINE
In the latter part of 1970, when Bobby was driving a Charger for Mario Rossi, he landed a sponsorship from Coca-Cola for 1971. When he went to Johnson for 1972, Coke went with him, and followed him later to his own team in 1973.
By 1972, Junior Johnson-built cars were largely "formula NASCAR" cars beneath the skin, as most others were also becoming. Allison had for years built his own cars, even when driving for someone else. If he thought it suited a particular track better than those Junior was preparing for him, Allison would haul out the Monte Carlo modelled here. It represents one of the Allison-built cars from that era. Being a "home-built", it still used the Monte Carlo chassis, thus, was a bit of a throwback.
One of its most notable wins came in 1972 at Trenton, New Jersey, when he chose to drive it, rather than the Johnson-prepared car, and won the race. This must have been very satisfying for him, as he mentioned it specifically eleven years later, in an interview in the July ’83 issue of Grand National Illustrated. According to the GNI interview, although Allison went on and won the race, Johnson was not happy at the rejection of his cars.
The model represents the car as it was run in that race.
THE MODEL – Planning the Project
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| The Options: Either the $14.00 kit on top or the $100.00 kits on the bottom. Easy call for me!! |
Up until earlier this year there were only three choices if you wished to build this car. Shown in the picture to the left are two of them, the Bobby Allison Monte Carlo by AMT, or the Coo Coo Marlin Monte from MPC. There was a third option, not shown, being to convert one of the old AMT Craftsman Montes to a stocker. None of these options are particularly attractive unless you have deep pockets! There was also a resin body made, but it was not an attractive option, either. You would still need something to provide the GM frame.
Around January – February of 1998, however, the "1970 Monte Carlo Lowrider" was introduced by AMT. This provided an opportunity to replicate Bobby’s 1972 ride at a reasonable cost. (We auto model builders are notoriously cheap…) The other reason I used the newer kit, besides cost and availability, was the fact that both chassis in the older NASCAR versions bore little resemblance to the original car I wished to model, and were, in fact, compromises to any then-current building practice. Making a racing chassis from the new kit’s Monte Carlo frame was more in line with how Allison built the original car.
My strategy then, became to utilize the lowrider body and chassis, and leave the older kits untouched on my shelf (as part of my "shelf queen" collection…) . Rollcage and other chassis bits would come from a donor Monogram T-Bird NASCAR kit from the mid-eighties. Tires that would be appropriate for the era were resin-cast items from Nostalgia Racing Miniatures, one of the pioneers in filling NASCAR modelling gaps. I chose to try and build the car as it appeared at Trenton, New Jersey, in 1972, for reasons the next section will make clear.
FINDING REFERENCE MATERIAL:
Face it, the only reason I knew this car existed was from the AMT box art… I knew that Allison had had Coke sponsorship during his career, but I associated it more with the Chargers of 1970, and the 1973 vintage Monte Carlo and Chevelle (another AMT kit) . Finding reference for those is fairly easy, if you can access older STOCK CAR RACING issues. The first-generation 1971 - 72 Monte Carlo, as built and driven by Bobby, was what I was trying to model, and is not well-documented in any of my reference sources. I found three black and white photos of the car; two in the November 1972 issue of STOCK CAR RACING, and one in a recent commemorative story on Bobby in WINSTON CUP SCENE. I worked from those, plus the AMT box art. I also learned that this car (or one of the Johnson-built ones) was used in the movie "The Last American Hero", about the life of Junior Johnson, but I chose not to follow up on this as a reliable source… The bad news is references were scarce; the good news is, who’s gonna question my accuracy??
THE PSYCHING-UP PROCESS: (ZEN AND THE ART OF MODEL-BUILDING)
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| The Initial Mock-up - Looks pretty promising! This one's a GO!!! |
Years ago, I read about a trick used by the very experienced street rod model builder Tim Boyd. He always mocks up the finished product from the chosen components as a motivator. My simple mock-up temporarily mounted the wheels in the bodyshell’s wheelwells, to see how it would look. Very encouraging, as the photo here shows, so I proceeded with the building of the chassis, and the body modifications.
BUILDING THE FRAME
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| The AMT Monte Carlo frame - note boxed front member and Monogram tranny... |
BUILDING THE CHASSIS
The interior shell for the stock Monte has the cowl and rear seat molded in. The side pieces, which I would not be using, were fortunately separate. The rear seat was cut out, and replaced with sheet plastic, and the heater/air conditioning unit was removed from the firewall. Again, the hole was filled with sheet plastic. . The gas tank was cut out, and replaced with the race version from the Monogram T-Bird chassis. (Fuel cells were in use in NASCAR by this time…)
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| Early Stage in Chassis Construction - T-Bird Rollcage, and Monte Carlo Floorpan |
At this point, I began the process of modifying the T-Bird rollcage to mount on the AMT Monte Carlo floorpan/chassis. As I was fitting the parts from a 1/24th kit into a 1/25th kit, using car bodies that have different heights and proportions, and different rakes to the front windshield, several modifications to the rollcage were needed. This is where another concept, called "eyeball Engineering" came in. This one came from a West Coast Street Rod model builder (darned innovative, those street rod modellers!) named Pryor Passorino. By looking at the top of the cage, I realized that the windshield rake could be followed if I removed the cage’s A-pillar bars, flipped them upside down, exchanged left for right, and re-installed them, as they had a kink at the bottom. I also slightly chopped the cage, as the Monte had a lower roofline. Along with this, there was a need to remove about ¼" from the base of the cage, so that the top sidebars would be below the bottom of the body side windows. (The Kamikaze Modeller – "Eyeball, eyeball, eyeball!!")
Due to the proportional differences (location of greenhouse relative to wheelbase) between the two bodies, I had to shift the rear wheelwells on the rollcage forward, and extend the sides to match up with the Monte Carlo firewall. The photo above shows the final result. The dark parts are from the Monogram T-Bird kit, while the light parts are original Monte Carlo.
Significant cutting and trial-fitting was needed to modify the Monte Carlo suspension bits to lower the suspension and provide a slight rake to the profile. During this era cars were typically a couple inches or more higher in the rear. This was done as a means to "wedge’ the body for better downforce. This was accomplished on the model by shortening the springs in small increments and test fitting until the body, sitting on the chassis " looked right". The wheels were modified to accept the Monogram wheel backings, which were in turn modified to attach to the AMT spindles and rear axle. Again, "Eyeball Engineering" with lots of patience and test-fitting is the name of the game…
MODIFYING THE BODY
In a process parallel to the building of the chassis, I made the body modifications that would turn the street-legal body into one with all the then-allowed changes to produce the NASCAR GN version. The side trim, wipers, and insignia were sanded off, and the inner fenders were cut away. A hole was made in the left rear quarterpanel for the fuel intake, and the fender openings were enlarged to match photos. In order to ensure the openings remained centered properly, I had tack-glued the resin wheels onto the frame/chassis unit, and did frequent test-fitting while grinding away the fenders, to ensure the material was removed from the right place to keep the wheels centered in the openings.
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| A test-fit of the body during the modifications. Note the larger wheel openings and fuel filler hole... |
A drill whose diameter equalled that of the hoodpins from the T-bird donor kit was used to countersink holes in the hood and rear deck to accept the hoodpins. These were not put on until the model was completely built and polished out. Final touch was to add a small spoiler on the trunk, made from a length of PLASTRUCT L- strips of the proper size (eyeballing again…) Final step was to apply a coat of primer, to reveal any rough areas from the sanding, and smooth them, using filler if needed.
DETAILING THE CHASSIS
Once I had worked out the rollcage, and gotten a good fit to the floorpan/chassis, everything was painted in grey primer. I then began adding other items to the chassis, to complete detailing it out. The engine, wheels, dashboard, and seat were detailed out and added, along with various components inside the rollcage – the rear-end cooler, drink cooler, shifter, fire bottle, etc. All these parts, except the seat, came from the donor T-bird kit. The seat is from a mid-eighties Buick Regal NASCAR kit by Monogram, and represents the quality of seats in use at the time. The headers and exhaust also came from the T-bird, and were mated up to the big-block engine in the AMT kit, along with a high-rise manifold, and T-bird carburator, to simulate a NASCAR big block of the time. The oilpan was sectioned to make it more shallow – at this point, drysump engines were not yet part of the NASCAR formula – no external oilpumps or hoses as are prevelant today. Rollcage padding was made by cutting 14 gauge black appliance wire to proper lengths, then splitting them down the middle, removing the copper core, and snapping the insulation over any rollbars that might contact the driver in a crash. A net was made from a small
square of aluminum screening, and strips of masking tape, painted white after assembly as on the prototype. A headrest was fabricated and added to the cage behind the seat. (This would be completely unacceptable from a safety standpoint in today’s racing world, in ANY pro series!) Since the fuel tank and trunk interior would not be visible or accessible on the finished model, no effort was made to detail them. (One of the beauties of building NASCAR models is that there is lots of sheetmetal to hide all the nasty chassis bits you don’t get quite right…)
Finished Chassis waiting for the Body...
PAINTING AND DETAILING THE BODY
Next step was to finish the body, by painting, adding decals, chrome foil, front and rear glass, and the fuel filler. The fuel filler was simulated by a small section of plastic tubing glued to a small piece of sheet plastic as a backing, which was glued to the inside of the rear fender, with the tubing centred in the fuel access hole.A second coat of primer was applied, and wet-sanded smooth with 1200 grit paper. I use automotive touch-up primer, applied straight from the aerosol can, heated in hot tap water. The addition of heat improves the smoothness of the primer coats in two ways. First, the heat causes the viscosity of the material in the can to lower, so it flows better on the surface . As well, the heat raises the spray pressure inside the can, causing higher atomizing on spraying, and finer droplets. (This all contributes to a smooth. Orange peel-free finish.
SAFETY CONCERNS:
Just don’t overdo the heat, and burst the can. As well, Automotive paints contain strong solvents, and should only be sprayed in well-ventilated areas, away from areas of normal household activities. Keep fumes and paint away from children.Once a good smooth prime coat has been achieved, I applied the gold metallic that is the primary colour on the horizontals. The colour used was a Canadian Tire gold metallic touch-up lacquer from an aerosol can. All the handling concerns and spray techniques that apply to the primer above apply here as well. After a day or so to dry, the gold was masked off, using Tamiya Masking tape, which has an excellent sharp edge, for clean separation between colours. I use it to define the masked areas, then use regular masking tape to fill in area to be masked (cost-sensitivity again!). Be sure there are no gaps that will let overspray from the second colour get under the tape and onto the first colour! I chose the shade of touchup lacquer for the areas to be red (the sides) by taking the aftermarket decal sheet to the CTC shop, and finding a good match to the roof numbers.
The model was demasked after the application of the second colour. The separation line was lightly sanded, to smooth it, then the whole body was clearcoated with Tamiya TS-13 clear from the warmed aerosol can (see above). Entire body was then lightly wetsanded with 1200 grit paper, and a second coat of clear applied. At this point, with a smooth, glossy surface, it was time for decal application – Valium, please….
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| Painted body ready for decalling. Decal sheet in background - enough for three cars, including CDN Earl Ross! |
Decal application is a total separate topic that I’ll only touch briefly. There are key issues to consider for satisfactory results. First, the paint surface must be smooth and glossy, so the decal makes full contact with it. If any air is entrapped, it gives an effect called "silvering". Use of a good decal setting solvent, such as MICROSOL@, will help. Trim decal close to remove unnecessary clear carrier film. Dip the decal in warm water with a drop of detergent in it. Allow to sit on desktop until decal can be slid on paper backing. Do not leave to soak in water! Put a few drops of Microsol on area where decal is to go, then slide decal off paper backing into place. Move around gently to position properly. Use dry paper towel to lightly press water out of the decal. Gently work air bubbles and excess glue/water from under decal, starting at centre and working out. Apply all decals and leave to dry for 48 hours.
I prefer to clearcoat my decals once they are well-dried in place. This protects them, and allows me to polish to a better shine. Use airbrush, or heat the aerosol can (as covered earlier), and apply in THIN coats. Do not panic and/or touch the decal if it appears to wrinkle a bit after applying first THIN coat of clear. It will usually dry smooth enough to accept 2 – 3 more light coats of clear, then, after 24 hours minimum, polishing. I usually use Tamiya TS13 clear right from the warmed rattle-can, applying in very thin oats, with 1 – 2 hours of drying between, plus some light sanding to remove decal edges, and to improve smoothness. Final step is to polish the clearcoat, using Turtle brand wax. I went over the top, and got one of my best-ever finishes on the Coke car, far glossier than I suspect the subject car really ever was! (if I were a military or railroad modeller, I’d spray on a coat of Grimy Something-or-Other….)
Now windshield and backlight were epoxied in place. I used those from the AMT kit, trimmed slightly on the interior to clear rollcage components.
Final assembly step was to mate the painted and detailed body, frame, and chassis, then attach the front and rear bumper/grille assemblies, and the hoodpins. I reversed the red plastic rear tail lights, and glued them into the stock location, and painted them silver, to simulate crude sheet metal filler panels – common practice in the era, when appearances were not up to current corporate-imposed standards. Bare Metal@ was used for windshield trim, and to cover the rear spoiler. Final touch was to fabricate a chin spoiler out of printer’s aluminum, and epoxy behind front bumper..
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| Bobby's Coke Machine - Ready to Rumble!! |
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| Ready to Rumble - rear view!! |
And there I had it, a very satisfying model of a little-known but significant car in the career of Bobby Allison. After his forced retirement from racing, Bobby became a car owner, but struggled to keep sponsorships and competitive drivers. By 1997, the team was folded, and Bobby was largely out of the NASCAR picture, apart from a few promotional and consultant opportunities.
A sad and unfair end to an illustrious career. To see Allison manhandle this car in old footage of Darlington, runnin’ door-to-door with the Factory Boys, such as Pearson, Petty and Yarborough, and, for that matter, his brother, Donnie, was to see NASCAR in its finest hours!
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