building the 70 1/2 Camaro

[my80malibu]

For those who have built one of these, is it better to attach the lower front valance, or should I glue it in place after the chassis is in place?

[Fat Brian]

Attaching the valance first lets you paint it with the body which is nice but it makes getting the grill in a pain. I think this is how I did mine, try this and see if you like it. I remember putting the valance on and the radiator support in and being able to drop the grill throught the hole in the radiator support and position it. Test this before gluing anything in place because it was a long time ago that I did this and I might have forgotten something. If this works go ahead and make sure the grill fits the valance well before gluing it in so you've got more room to work with it.

[fseva]

For those who have built one of these, is it better to attach the lower front valance, or should I glue it in place after the chassis is in place?

I've done it both ways this month. Believe me, there's no "better" way. If you do it after the chassis is installed, the shape of the sides doesn't flow smoothly into the fender above it; you still have the holes for the bumperette's pins to deal with - on one side they don't match the spacing, and you will wind up having to enlarge one of the holes to account for this. I thought that I could get around any install problems even if I had pre-installed the valance, but I was wrong. This is tough plastic, and there is no give in the engine bay - especially the wheel wells. I had to do some major cutting here, to get the thing assembled, and after I was done, the engine bay looked so bad, I decided to make the model a "curbside". This also allowed me to glue the very thin, warpy hood in place.

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=101153

Edited April 21, 2015 by fseva