Built by: Rob Riley / Indianapolis, In.

I got this car from Willis Pierce and it needed a total resto. it was not painted, and was 100% complete, but it was covered with years of dust. It still had the original decals on it, and they were litterally disintegrating. I removed all of the decals, and filled in the 2 holes on the rear fenders because those little wings were missing. I disassembled the chassis, and engine and gave them both a good scrub in soap & water. I sprayed the chassis and rearend with aluminum, and clear coated them. I painted the drivers seat flat black with silver seat belts. I sprayed the engine block and transmission gold. I sprayed the blower, valve covers, headers, intake manifold, and injector scoop with aluminum. I painted the sides of the blower with candy red, and detailed the fuel tanks with gold caps and black straps. I sprayed the wheels gold, and then sprayed some dull coat over them. I used a set of skinny 1:25 scale vinyl slicks for the rear, and I sanded them down.

Now for the body paint. I started off with a good coat of gray primer, followed by a base coat of aluminum. I needed some kind of paint job that wasn't just the usual ..it needed something extra. I drew up a flame design, and cut it out and made a template. then, I copied the template onto some 3" wide masking tape and cut it out. I flipped the template over, and copied it onto another 3" wide peice of masking tape and also cut it out. now I had identical flame designs, but one was left and one was right. I applied the 2 stencils to the hood, masked off the rest of the body and sprayed a light coat of copper over the flame stencils. Now i had an aluminum body with light copper flames. I removed the masking tape stencils, and let it all dry for a few days. I masked off the rocker panels so that they would stay the aluminum color. I sprayed the whole thing with transparent candy red. I took my time and applied light coats, because I didn't want to totally hide the flames in the paint. I stopped when you could barely see the flames, so they are true ghost flames. After the paint dried, i wet sanded the whole thing with 1000 grit paper, and then applied a good coat of clear laquer. Wet sanded again with 2000 grit paper, and applied another coat of clear laquer. Wet sanded one final time with 2000 grit, and buffed it out with rubbing compound. the paint is deep, and really smooth...one of my best rattle can paint jobs i've ever done i think. I detailed the window trim, rear bumper and the grill with silver, and i used some old funny car headlight decals. now, I needed some kind of name for it, and decals...Dkal Dan to the rescue !!! Dan made up the "Ankle biter" decals, and little dog graphic with a nice silver / chrome color outlined in black. I came up with the name from the scale of the car and the fact that it's a mean little sucker...just like those real Chiuhaha dogs...small but mean. I know alot of people call little dogs ankle biters....and that is where the name came from. The sponsor decals are left overs from the "Mini goose" that i built for Willis. I left the original "Pinto" decal on the back window, even tho it has yellowed with age. I really love these little 1:32 scale funny cars...there will be more of these little funnies to come from me soon. 

I have to thank Willis Pierce for the Pinto model, and Dkal Dan for the great decals...this wouldn't have been possible if it wan't for these 2 guys.......