Phildaupho

Thanks Albert - I knew it was just a matter of time. Looking forward to someone else building a Garage 56 and using the STS Decals.

The rolling chassis is now complete. I moved the battery to the trunk from the kit engine compartment location. The molded-on plastic spare tire was removed and replaced with a vinyl tire and Academy Cobra Halibrand wheel. I was a little disappointed that the knock offs did not have a more positive fit in the wheels and brakes to allow mounting and removal. I tried unsuccessfully to come up with a solution but ended up gluing the wheels to the brakes. Also, there was some interference with the roll bar supports which required some trimming. This could possibly be avoided by installing the roll bar supports after the rear end with wheels and tires are fully assembled. With the rear wheels/tires attached I was able to glue on the front brakes to the uprights to get everything level and establish the final stance.

Lots of very positive response on Facebook. Congratulations to SalvinosJR for stepping up to the plate to make many IndyCar modelers happy.

I am on board. I too was captivated by the quest for land speed records in the 1960's.

This going to be magnificent. 1/12 WOW

I used CA "crazy glue". I first applied just enough to tack the brackets in place with the frame sitting on the floor and then once off the floor I applied more CA to weld the brackets securely

Thanks Steve - I really like your comment - " You turned a Left Turn Fender Slapper into a sophisticated 24 Heures du Mans contender."

An aspect of building the Accurate Miniatures Grand Sport that modelers have had to resolve is getting the hood to close flush over the Weber carb induction system. Because I am installing the Model Car garage photo-etched parts on the frame I removed all the kit brackets including the front motor mounts. The transmission mount does not have a MCG equivalent so I relocated it to give a more positive mount for the transmission. At the forward end of the engine, the front pulley basically will rest on the front cross member which I ground down to give even more clearance. The radiator also interfered with the hood so I vertically sectioned the radiator about 3mm. I have never been able to find the full story on why Hall & Penske decided it was better to tape over the hood louvers when they were installed to exhaust under hood heat and air pressure which caused the front to lift but I have always preferred the look. Rather than install the complex photo-etched louvers I decided to close the openings from below and then fair them in. Once painted I will cover the areas with the white tape supplied in the kit. The Hall/Penske team did such a good job taping over the louvers that in most photos the taping is impossible to detect. Here you can see the Model Car Garage photo-etched chassis brackets, the repositioned transmission mount and the ground out forward cross member. Also notice that I removed the battery mount as the battery will be relocated to under the spare tire in the trunk.

Thanks Pierre for the great advice. Thanks JC. I am following your 356 build

Your WIP will be a great help to me once I get around to building a 356 which has been on my want to build list for many years

Thanks Carl Thanks Randy - I can highly recommend any of the SalvinosJR NextGen NASCAR kits for an interesting and rewarding building experience.

I cannot say that I have read that other Grand Sport builders have had issues with the front wheel well liners but I decided to install them and found I had to trim about 3mm from the top of the opening to provide adequate clearance for the upper A-arms. Even at that, the A-arms are still a close fit. I have also removed the kit grill for later installation of the Model Car Garage photo-etched grill

Yes I agree with Duane. If a good set of decals was available, a very close replica could be built just using the SalvinosJR NASCAR Camaro and Jim Rogers great 3D printed parts. You could even skip the extended front splitter and rear diffuser, NACA ducts and few other small details and most people would not notice.

Beautiful model. Why oh why can the 275 kits not be re-released by somebody ??

I really enjoyed your post on such an interesting and historic car and model . The scale J-car looks great especially the rear-end.

Thanks Maxx - I have the Grand Sport book and a few other books on Corvette history. With those and internet images I should be good to go. I get updates from the Petersen so was aware of the Corvette exhibit however I do not think I will get a chance to visit the museum during its run. I have many Corvette racing cars on my want to build someday list.

Thanks everyone. After posting I started work on the photo-etch and discovered another interesting and welcome difference with the Revell issue. The photo-etch in the Revell kit is not the original Accurate Miniatures PE. It is made by Eduard in the Czech Republic. The shiny bits look a little nicer and include some parts that are on the Model Car Garage set including the oil cooler cover, hood ornament and shifter gate. For some reason mine is missing all the seat belt hardware unless I forget robbing it for another build !!??

Initially I was not going to do a work in progress post on this project for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I guess it is because it is summer and people are busy doing other things but there definitely seems to be a lack of activity on the forum. Secondly, there have been other posts regarding the construction of Grand Sport kits like the excellent tutorial by Pierre Rivard last year. Be that as it may I personally enjoy doing these work in progress threads - so here goes. I bought the Accurate Miniatures Hall/Penske 1964 Sebring Grand Sport kit as soon as it came out and shortly afterwards got the Model Car Garage Detail set. Eventually I also acquired the Harold Bradford Historic Racing front A-arms. When the kit was released by Revell I picked up one of those which is identical to the Accurate Miniatures kit except for a revised set of instructions in the Revell format which means a full part name list and superior illustrations but does not include the helpful Accurate Miniatures written instructions. It was not until late 2022 that I got the incentive to build the model due to the thread under this same heading encouraging people to build as many of the cars as possible that were entered in the 1964 Sebring 12 Hours Endurance Race. Starting with the chassis I carried out the modifications done by Pierre Rivard to get the frame to properly mate with the under floor. This required enlarging the cut outs for the roll bar supports. Pierre also found that the fuel tank needed to be sectioned in height to provide clearance for the differential. If it had not been for Pierre’s WIP thread I might not have discovered these two required modifications until after painting. As you can see I also filled the slots in the bottom of the frame with Tamiya epoxy putty. Up front I used the Harold Bradford resin A-arms which are considerably smaller than those in the kit. Installing these requires drilling the lower A-arms for brass tubes and drilling the uprights for brass rods which then mount in the tubes. In order to lower the front end Harold came up with the great solution of cutting about 2mm off the bottom of the brake mounting boss on the up rights to allow the brakes and wheel mounts to be installed higher and thus lowering the front end. There were two distinctive features of the Hall/Penske Grand Sport at Sebring that I wanted to replicate. Firstly, I have never been able to find the full story on why Hall & Penske decided it was better to tape over the hood louvers when they were installed to exhaust under hood heat and air pressure which caused the front to lift but I have always preferred the look. Rather than install the complex photo-etched louvers I decided to close the openings from below and then fair them in. Once painted I will cover the areas with white tape. The Hall/Penske did such a good job taping over the louvers that in most photos the taping is impossible to detect. Secondly, Grand Sports initially had a problem with over heating differentials so were fitted with an oil cooler centre mounted behind the rear window. For the 1964 Sebring race two coolers were fitted on the Hall/Penske Grand Sport. The original Model Car Garage Detail kit came with a single resin oil cooler which was cast by Replicas & Miniatures. This part has not been in the R&M catalogue for several years. These oil coolers were standard GM parts. I did a fair amount of searching through my stash and on-line but could not come up with anything I could use or acquire. I made two coolers up with 2mm wide Evergreen Styrene flat stock and the most supple wire I had. They still need some finessing but once painted and mounted on brackets I think they will look OK. I did remove the cast on center oil cooler and drilled holes where the mounts would have attached and for the oil lines. I also removed the Grand Sport script which will be replaced with photo-etch. I decided to open up the vents in front of the windshield. I started on the right side grinding material away from the underside and lightly scribing from the top. The right side went very well so I moved on to do the same on the left which did not go quite as well. The windshield wipers should cover up the deficiencies. So that is where I am at as of today. Next I will work on installing the Model Car Garage photo-etched chassis pieces.

Pierre I am back to work on my model of the Hall/Penske Grand Sport and referred to your excellent WIP thread regarding your GS build for getting the rear of the chassis to fit properly. I likely would not have discovered the fitment issues until after painting otherwise, without your excellent tutorial. Thanks Pierre. To summarize for others, it is necessary to trim the cut outs in the inner fender liners to give clearance for the roll bar supports otherwise the frame will not mate properly with the under floor. The gas tank needs to be reduced in height to give adequate clearance for the differential. I also filled in the slots on the bottom of the frame.

Thanks Mark. This is a modified NASCAR Cup car based on a SalvinosJR kit. I am not very familiar with current Trans Am Camaros but I think they are considerably different than Cup cars. Is there a kit available of the Trackhouse Trans Am Camaro? I have been following your 63 Ford build as one day I want to build a model of the 63 Ford Dan Gurney won in at Riverside

How's this for cool - a Nürburgring support vehicle

In case you missed it, I thought you NASCAR modelers might like to see my Garage 56 NASCAR Camaro that raced at the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans. If you want to see more photos and details check out my post in Other Racing

Saw this nice AC Bristol at a Cars & Coffee yesterday, Great looking engine. The first one I have seen.

When I rearranged my display cabinet to make a place for the Camaro I thought it would fitting to have it displayed with my other Garage 56 build from 2012 - the prototype of the Delta Wing

Thanks Tony Thanks Bruce Thanks Jim Thanks Bill - I was thinking the same thing. wish I had kept track of how long it took me. It was built over the course less than two months and by notes in my calendar I was at my workbench on 20 separate days for an average of 2 to 3 hours at a time so I will estimate 50 hours. Plus there was time researching. Thanks Misha - Good to see you posting again. If you did not notice - Danno wants you to contact him, Thanks Chris