Car 54


I noticed that of all the JL T-Jet cars, the stocker Fairlane seemed like the black sheep.  All the other body types were gone, but there were always Fairlanes left behind.  I was curious as to why people seemed not to like it.  I wanted to try it out.  Upon inspection in the store, it looked like there was plenty of room to lower the body.  The body looked narrow and light, so I made my purchase with high hopes.  I was right about lowering, but mostly for the front.  When I was done I had a nose down, funny car style car.  Since the body was black, I wanted to add some detail to make it easier to see on the track.  The result is what you see below.


Setup
Part Installed
Chassis Stock T-Jet
Magnets Stock T-Jet (not matched)
Brushes Thunder Brushes
Shoes/Springs Stock
Armature Stock
Gearing Stock
Front End BSRT aluminum independent, .370 tires, #40 nuts & washers for spacers (not shown--shown are AFX rear axle, stock hubs, #36 o-rings from Home Depot)
Rear End AFX rear axle, Tuff Ones rear hubs, silicone tires
Guide Pin Stock
3/4 shot of my cop car
I had a black car, and wanted to make it more visible on the track.  White paint would do the trick!  And what cars are black and white?  That's how I started my Car 54.  I didn't want to do plain white (boring), so I used a pearl white nail polish.  I made the mistake of not priming or stripping.  I found out how poorly light transluscent colors show up on dark bases.  So I had to strip what I put on.  Nail polish remover proved to be a great JL paint stripper.  After the paint was stripped, I used acylic white paint as a primer.  Pearl on top of that I had something nice!  It's just too bad that the pearleyness doesn't show in the picture.
Side view of Car 54
See what I mean about "nose down"?  Believe it or not, the front bumper does not scrape.  I used AFX rear axles in front and rear.  The front hubs are stock with O-ring tires (#36 o-rings at Home Depot).  The rears are Tuff Ones hubs and Tuffy rear silicones from Nostalgia Hobby.  
Head On
I used an ink eraser to remove the "427ci" from the hood.  It removed the white and retained the black.  You might wonder what the light bar is.  It's a Q-Tip shaft cut to size.
View from above and behind
The numbers and stars on the doors are just stickers.  The car runs very well, and very smooth.  It's a good accelerator with moderate top end.  The car is also easy to drive, I suppose due to the lowering.  If it's competitive at other tracks, I will definitely race this car.
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