`There's a saying that goes, "Everything old is new again." When it comes to our hot rods, nothing could be closer to the truth, as more and more dudes and dudettes look to the past for inspiration in the present. One of the up-and-coming retro trends is the vintage Stock car look. With their slammed suspensions, monster superspeedway gumball tires, and loud race car graphics, there's nothing else like those big-block-powered high-banks screamers from the days before NASCAR went all disco on us and mandated restrictor plates and small-blocks.
So when Car Craft scored a clean '67 Comet 202 sports coupe to use as a project car in association with Timber Wolf smokeless tobacco (read all about it in last month's issue), we knew it was a perfect candidate for the retro Stocker vibe. Right about now some of you might be thinking we have our wires crossed. After all, weren't all those Ford and Mercury Stock cars based on the fullsize Galaxie and Marauder? Yes and no. While FE 427-powered fullsize Stock cars were the Blue Oval rule for the first half of the '60s, the fact is the Mopar Hemis made life real difficult for them. Not only did the 426 Hemi hold a breathing advantage over the wedgehead 427, but the Mopar B-Body race cars were technically midsize cars . . . with less frontal area than the fullsize luxo-barge-based Merc and Ford racers.
That is, until 1967. Finally caving in to pressure from Ford and Mercury race bosses, Nascar allowed the use of the smaller midsize Fairlane and Comet body in all competition events and even released a limited number of street-legal 427-powered Fairlanes and Comets in 1966 and 1967 to homologate the package for race duty-- both on the oval as well as on the dragstrip. So this gives us the green light to have some Stock car fun with the Comet's outward appearance.
But unlike the '60s, when everything was hand-lettered in paint and only the smallest sponsor logos were vinyl stick-ons, today we can turn to companies like JN Designs for vinyl decoration. Not only does this simplify the application process, it also makes removal possible if you wake up one day and want a change. Let's tune in as JN's Jim Naylor, with assistance from Gold Coast Customs' Russ Stevenson, adds retro Stock car vibes to the Comet. If you like what you see, you can call JN Design and Jim will work with you on a graphic treatment for your car.
 Jim Naylor (left) and Russ...  Jim Naylor (left) and Russ Stevenson worked with photos of vintage Ford Stock cars to come up with an appropriate "phantom" graphics package using Corel Draw and FlexiSign computer design programs. All you do is scan or import a digital photo of the graphics you want and then manipulate them on the computer screen over a side shot of the subject vehicle. Ain't technology grand? |  Once the four-color graphics...  Once the four-color graphics were finalized, they were sent to Jason Irish's computer in the next room for final sizing to suit the car. If you think the end result looks a lot like the decal sheet for a plastic model kit, you get extra points. It's the same idea, just 25 times bigger. |  Essentially a gigantic color...  Essentially a gigantic color copy machine, the Seiko 64S color printer spits out the four-color logos and graphic elements on a continuous sheet of 2mm adhesive-backed 3M vinyl. |
 Each logo was hand-trimmed...  Each logo was hand-trimmed from the sheet using a sharp X-Acto knife. Jim says for one-off jobs like the Timber Wolf Comet, it's faster to just cut them by hand. But for most of the high-volume jobs his company does, he can program a plot cutter to trim them out automatically. |  As for the simpler one- and...  As for the simpler one- and two-color graphics, they're generated by a Graphtec FC 2100-120 plotter. This CNC machine uses a swivel-mounted blade and computer guidance to trim letters, words, and numbers from a sheet of adhesive-backed Avery high-performance vinyl. Dozens of color choices are available. |  After the centers of numbers...  After the centers of numbers and letters were carefully picked out and peeled away by hand, the logo was covered with a strip of transfer tape. Then the transfer tape was lifted, pulling the design up and off the backing paper so it could be applied to the body. |