Pro Modified icon Charles Carpenter describes the paint scheme on his 1955 Chevy as a mix of the U.S. Army, hot rods of the past and a wild guess.

Carpenter’s classic Chevrolet is in primer, albeit an odd style of primer.

“We’re just in-between body shops,” Carpenter said, explaining the odd paint job. “I got home with the car on Monday night before the event. We took all day Tuesday to put the car together in order to leave on Wednesday.”

Pro Modified icon Charles Carpenter describes the paint scheme on his 1955 Chevy as a mix of the U.S. Army, hot rods of the past and a wild guess.

Carpenter’s classic Chevrolet is in primer, albeit an odd style of primer.

“We’re just in-between body shops,” Carpenter said, explaining the odd paint job. “I got home with the car on Monday night before the event. We took all day Tuesday to put the car together in order to leave on Wednesday.”

Carpenter’s car will be full painted next week for the first time since a devastating accident last March left him with a sleek ride looking worse for wear.

“When we get back, we’ll take Monday to take it all apart again and take it to the Washington, DC-area and hopefully by the next time we come out, it will have paint on it,” Carpenter said.

While some have lobbied for Carpenter to return to his nostalgic white paint scheme from the 1980s, the auto repair shop owner from Charlotte won’t stray far from his current purple and yellow scheme.

“We’ll reverse the scheme from what it has been,” Carpenter explained. “It will have the purple on top this time. Maybe next time around we’ll go retro.”

Carpenter jokingly admits he’s apprehensive about doing anything to the car as good as it has run thus far this season.

“Our new engine shows a lot of potential and it shouldn’t take long before the car is a 3.80's player,” Carpenter said. “I hate to paint the car -- it’s lighter without the paint.”

Many of Carpenter’s fellow competitors run the Cynergy Composites body, some of which are as light as 45 pounds. Even with the added paint or wrap, they have a large advantage against the larger volume race cars such as Carpenter’s.

“We’re trying to make the car as light as possible,” Carpenter said. “Our ultimate goal is to make a mold over the winter. The disadvantage of running a nostalgia car like ours is that we can’t get the latest and greatest composites out there. We hope to make a mold as light as the other cars out there. I’m guessing we can drop 100 pounds with a new mold.”

Carpenter recorded a career best 3.929 elapsed time at 192.82 miles per hour during the ADRL Dragpalooza last month in Houston, Tex.