I once read an article about the debut of a Formula One team's new car which led off by saying "if a team had ten years to build a racecar, they'd still be working on it the night before it's first race". Anyone who's been in racing any length of time knows how true that line is. With the first race of the 2001 season just over a week away, the final preparations are being made around the Conlin SpeedSports headquarters.

The motors are still waiting their turn on the dyno at McCall Motorsports (our fault, not Butch's - we were late getting the motors over to him this year) but should be ready to go next week. Changes to the trailer have been completed and a lot of "gee, if I had the time" detail items were tended to since the last update.

We've also been working a few sponsorship leads. Nothing to announce yet but with a little luck we may be in the promotion business as much as the racing business next time you visit.

Probably the most visible project is the paint work on the body. Maintaining Greg Moore's Player's Racing colors but not actually duplicating the team's color scheme, we've worked the navy blue/light blue/white/gold into the lines of the bodywork nicely, if I do say so myself. And the really satisfying thing about it is that we did it all in-house. Working on a budget as we are, the $200 - $300 for a paint job done by someone else seemed like it could be better used in other ways - like entry fees and fuel and tires! So instead we spent about $35 on regular hardware store supplies and took about two days to do it ourselves.

Masking the areas not to be painted was, as you can imagine, the most time-consuming part of the project. Measurements had to be taken, guidelines drawn and the masking tape carefully applied to provide, straight, sharp lines. Getting the two major curves on the nose to be symmetrical was a bit of a challenge but came right after a few tries. After lightly sanding the areas to be painted they needed to be cleaned and wiped down on a final pass done with a tack cloth - a cheese cloth treated to be a little sticky so as to attract and trap dust particles.

The light blue was applied first. No, no special spray equipment was used - we sprayed straight out of the aerosol can. Although there was a lot of area to cover, those areas were relatively narrow and a comfortable pass could be made which allowed complete coverage. The enamel we used for the light blue was a good match to the Player's colors we were trying to mimic but it left a little to be desired with regards to glossiness. That, given the hostile environment it will be operating in, doesn't concern me. It will look good at speed and that's all that matters really.

The light blue (does anyone have a more interesting and descriptive name for the light blue we're using rather than just "light blue" - if so e-mail me your suggestion) was allowed to cure a day or two and then the whole process was repeated (masking, sanding, cleaning, tacking) and then the navy blue was applied. We used Krylon enamel and at first it looked like there was going to be trouble with it not covering evenly but eventually I got the hang of the spray pattern and it worked out well. No runs, no drips no errors - just like their slogan.

The next day, once the navy blue had dried and cured a bit the gold pin striping went on to cover the edge lines and generally accent everything. We used the same 3M brand 1/4 inch automotive pin striping that's available at the local auto parts store for your car. 

Lastly, the number graphics went on. We had worked a bit on these graphics in between the painting segments. The number backgrounds on either side of the kart are made up of a white rectangle placed over a slightly bigger gold rectangle. The result appears to be a white number plate with a gold outline which fairly matches the accent pin-striping on the rest of the kart. The materials for these two pieces is the self adhesive vinyl sheeting the quick sign makers use. The numbers are die-cut vinyl we purchased from some kart shop at the OVKA swap meet back in February. 

On the nose, we made our own numbers based on the black vinyl die-cut ones. We then applied them to a piece of the gold vinyl sheeting and trimmed carefully around the numbers so as to leave a gold border. We took this approach for the front because the area we wanted to use for the numbers didn't allow for the number background plate.

I suppose we may have gone a little overboard with all this attention to appearance but the way things were coming along we had plenty of time (can't go out and test when you're motorless) and, in approaching potential sponsors, first impressions can make a big difference. So all in all, time well spent and we're happy with the results. And when you come out to watch us this year, we can be sure you'll know which kart is ours.