2022 Nextgen Camaro

[Jhedir6]

13 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Thanks, Jonathan. You won't be disappointed if you do. It's a fine kit so far for me other than the body roof Moulding that doesn't extend far enough and the drive shaft that is too short, but you really can't see the driveshaft after its built, so it doesn't really matter. Just put a drop of glue between it and the floor to make sure it doesn't rattle. Instruction #11 is a little sketchy, so I need to find a picture of the completed front suspension for some help on that.

It's not a bad kit, like you said Mark. It does have a few issues, like just about any kit really, even Tamiya kits people have "issues" with at times, but over all it's a good builders kit. I like the fact that you have to "build it" and not just drop glue into the box and shake to have it come out perfect, you actually have to pay attention to what you are doing and work a few parts here and there to "fit" right, just like in real life...things aren't always perfect. Now for the drive shaft....easiest fix, snip it in half and either just glue each end into its locating spots, since the center is never seen once built anyways so no one would ever know, or like I did on one of mine, I just added in a piece of sprue from the kit to make up the gap in the middle. Or you can just just the driveshaft in half and only put in the rear part, cause once built, it's the only end that can be seen with the body off the chassis. The front end is buried under the transmission tunnel and never seen again. 

Great progress so far. Following along.

[MarkJ]

On 10/26/2022 at 9:28 PM, Jhedir6 said:

It's not a bad kit, like you said Mark. It does have a few issues, like just about any kit really, even Tamiya kits people have "issues" with at times, but over all it's a good builders kit. I like the fact that you have to "build it" and not just drop glue into the box and shake to have it come out perfect, you actually have to pay attention to what you are doing and work a few parts here and there to "fit" right, just like in real life...things aren't always perfect. Now for the drive shaft....easiest fix, snip it in half and either just glue each end into its locating spots, since the center is never seen once built anyways so no one would ever know, or like I did on one of mine, I just added in a piece of sprue from the kit to make up the gap in the middle. Or you can just just the driveshaft in half and only put in the rear part, cause once built, it's the only end that can be seen with the body off the chassis. The front end is buried under the transmission tunnel and never seen again. 

Great progress so far. Following along.

Thanks, David. I agree with your assessment on everything. I have been having some honeydoos lately and a trip out of town so hopefully I can get back on it today. If you have any close-up pictures of the front suspension on one of your models, I would be happy to view them. Instruction #11 is kind of hard to decipher how the parts actually fit.

[MarkJ]

After a lot of lamenting on how bad my dexterity has gotten, I was able to complete instruction #11. Very tight fits on this one. Almost put the disc /caliper assembly's on backwards. That would have really looked dumb.

[MarkJ]

I'm doing instruction #12 which is the rear suspension, but the shock is blocking the half shaft from getting to the rear end. What am I doing wrong?   That is if any of you guys have done one of these and are reading this. I guess I could file a gap in the side of the shock to allow the half shaft to reach the rear end tranny.

Edited October 31, 2022 by MarkJ

[Pierre Rivard]

I'm not planning to do one of these but it looks like a pretty good kit. Thanks for sharing Mark, always nice to see your work.

[MarkJ]

5 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

I'm not planning to do one of these but it looks like a pretty good kit. Thanks for sharing Mark, always nice to see your work.

Thanks , Pierre. This new car has got me interested in modern Nascar again. It seems to be making it a more level playing field and the same 3 or 4 drivers aren't winning every week like before. And the car being run this year is actually available for us modelers to build this year, so I had to get me a couple of them. It has been a very good kit so far except I'm having issues with the rear suspension. I'll fake it if I have to.

[MarkJ]

I found out what I did wrong. The rear lower control arm for the rear suspension looks symmetrical but it's not. One arm is a little bit longer than the other one so if you get it wrong side up or down you won't be able to install the half shafts. Looking at the instructions there is no way to tell which side is up or down, but I figured it out. One side is not cast as pretty as the other and you want to put that side down facing the black floor pan. Just make sure you're using the right number part for the left or right side. Luckily, I was able to disassemble the right side and flip the lower arm over then everything fit correctly. This was instruction #12. 

[MarkJ]

I found a really good video that covers the Nextgen car pretty well.  Click on the graphic below

 

[jjsipes]

I have seen that video. I like it. Discusses the NextGen car pretty good, I think. I found it very interesting

[MarkJ]

So true, Jason. I did too. Anybody who wants to do one of these kits should watch it first.

[bbowser]

Nice work Mark.  I agree the instructions seem to be the weakest part of this kit.  I experienced many of the same issues, should do better on the next one.  (waiting for a Ford or Toyota)

[MarkJ]

2 hours ago, bbowser said:

Nice work Mark.  I agree the instructions seem to be the weakest part of this kit.  I experienced many of the same issues, should do better on the next one.  (waiting for a Ford or Toyota)

Thanks, Bruce. Glad Im not the only one having trouble deciphering the instrutions.  

[MarkJ]

This is the 13th instruction box. I also painted and assembled the wheels and tires. I also did some touch up around the chassis that I have been putting off. Some of the stuff was hard to get to. A picture showing that will be in the next entry.

[MarkJ]

This covers the 14th instruction box. the fire extinguishers are in this box but just for the paint instructions. They are installed in the 15th box. I had removed the 2 items you see painted during this part of the build. Clay Kemp had recommended removing them with a razor saw painting them and then installing them back. I think on future builds I will just paint them without removing them. If you get some red on the rear bulkhead you can scrape it off easily with an exacto blade because I see no reason to paint the white bulkhead white. I might hit it with some clear.

[MarkJ]

I got instruction box 15 done yesterday. I forgot to take a picture of the parts involved in that box, but they were the Petty and Earnhardt bars along with the fire extinguisher bottles and the top part of the cage. I ran out of time to take pictures of the finished instruction box but will try to do it today. that one was a little challenging to say the least. There are so many glue points, and some are hard to see much less get glue on them. I had to start with the rear of the cage and move forward. The two bars coming up from the floor are hard to do because you can't see the holes they go into. I finally got it done after much cussing and discussing with myself about how much finger dexterity I have lost over the years. I previewed the instructions ahead and they look a lot easier then these first 15 have been. So, I'm hoping to coast easy to the finish of the chassis and then go onto the body. Overall this kit has proved not to be as daunting as I thought it would be and the next one, I do depending on my memory, should be a lot easier. Well, you'd think it should. I will find out.

[MarkJ]

Here are the pictures for instruction box 15.

[MarkJ]

This is what the model looks like, halfway through the build, 15 of 29 instructions have been completed.

[MarkJ]

Instruction box 16

[MarkJ]

Instruction box 17

[Merkur XR4Ti]

That's coming together very well. I've found that I have to assemble the suspension bits unpainted, using plastic welder, in order to get everything solidly attached. Same for the bumper pads like you've done. Excellent work!

[MarkJ]

1 hour ago, Merkur XR4Ti said:

That's coming together very well. I've found that I have to assemble the suspension bits unpainted, using plastic welder, in order to get everything solidly attached. Same for the bumper pads like you've done. Excellent work!

Thanks Steve. I have a question for you or anybody else reading this. The rear deck that goes over the fuel tank is molded in white, but the instructions say to paint it black. I wonder if anybody has a picture of the rear deck in an actual NextGen car. Finding ref pictures for these cars is very hard. Thanks, if anybody can post a picture here.

[gatorfan69]

49 minutes ago, MarkJ said:

Thanks Steve. I have a question for you or anybody else reading this. The rear deck that goes over the fuel tank is molded in white, but the instructions say to paint it black. I wonder if anybody has a picture of the rear deck in an actual NextGen car. Finding ref pictures for these cars is very hard. Thanks, if anybody can post a picture here.

It's black in this picture..

[Merkur XR4Ti]

Yes, I've painted all of mine semi-gloss black.

[MarkJ]

Thanks, Mack and Steve for clearing that up for me. It would have been a lot easier if they had just molded it in black. I guess I need to go ahead and paint the piece between it and the rear firewall as well. Thanks again, and Mack, if you have any more ref pictures you would like to share, like the dash and switch plate, those would be great to see as well, and feel free to post them here.

[Jhedir6]

1 hour ago, MarkJ said:

Thanks, Mack and Steve for clearing that up for me. It would have been a lot easier if they had just molded it in black. I guess I need to go ahead and paint the piece between it and the rear firewall as well. Thanks again, and Mack, if you have any more ref pictures you would like to share, like the dash and switch plate, those would be great to see as well, and feel free to post them here.

That package shelf was originally white (chassis colour) but I think the teams started painting them to reduce any glare off of rear shelf in the rearview mirror.

Here's a shot of the rear shelf, white, and you can also see the exhaust ports farther back where they were on the original rollout cars. NASCAR then moved the exhaust ports further forward after the teams complained of heat issues. This is one of the reasons that the kits from SJR were delayed while they corrected the molds.

Here's a link to a guy that sells the bits you asked about. You can either order them or use the pics as a guide.

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1264816333/gen-7-add-on-kit?click_key=4bfaf7ba38ba6a46d94e815c2339157deaeb572b%3A1264816333&click_sum=52371383&ref=shop_home_active_15&bes=1&sts=1

Edited November 7, 2022 by Jhedir6