Donnie Allison's '74 Monte

[Belugawrx]

After alot of body and bumper mods, I'm calling this one complete

Wanted to thank Mark @Mark W for sending me the fine mesh you see on the front grille, as well as the many visitors to the WIP with comments and suggestions about the build.

The WIP

https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/forum/32-wip-nascar/

Being my first Salvinos build, the learning curve was steep, but not impossible,... I would build another.

Most of the extra work involved getting the body into a shape that more resembled the actual car.

Thanks for looking in,.. questions, comments, and critiques always welcomed.

Cheers

 

[Mark W]

2 minutes ago, Belugawrx said:

After alot of body and bumper mods, I'm calling this one complete

Wanted to thank Mark @Mark W for sending me the fine mesh you see on the front grille, as well as the many visitors to the WIP with comments and suggestions about the build.

The WIP

https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/forum/32-wip-nascar/

Being my first Salvinos build, the learning curve was steep, but not impossible,... I would build another.

Most of the extra work involved getting the body into a shape that more resembled the actual car.

Thanks for looking in,.. questions, comments, and critiques always welcomed.

Cheers

 

Hey Bruce, the build turned out beautiful! Glad I could help.

[Horrorshow]

Real sharp! Donnie was my favorite driver growing up, fabulous build.

[Belugawrx]

1 hour ago, Mark W said:

Hey Bruce, the build turned out beautiful! Glad I could help.

Thanks Mark ! and again thanks for sending the screen 

1 hour ago, Horrorshow said:

Real sharp! Donnie was my favorite driver growing up, fabulous build.

Glad you like it Jack

The sun came out so got some sunshine pics

[Jim N]

Looks great Bruce.  The color really pops.

[Pierre Rivard]

You have produced an absolute winner. The body modifications fix all the kit's inaccuracies. Most impressive is the front end & bumper. It looks so spot on. The engine in this kit may be a bit generic looking but with all your added detailing and paint finishes the whole engine compartment now looks very cohesive. Altogether a most impressive replica of this beautiful race car.

['70 Grande]

This is the finest build of this kit that I have yet to see!  Very well done! Is it just me, or were these mid-'70's Monte Carlos just plain gigantic race cars... it looks so long and wide! 

[Shark]

10 minutes ago, '70 Grande said:

This is the finest build of this kit that I have yet to see!  Very well done! Is it just me, or were these mid-'70's Monte Carlos just plain gigantic race cars... it looks so long and wide! 

I agree with you on all points. Excellent job on this build. The cars were actually great race cars along with the Caprice a year or two later. One advantage they had with the long front end was the natural engine set back for better weight distribution.

[catpack68]

Very nice work! The mods you did really improved that kit

[ChrisR]

Looks great.

[bobss396]

It looks like a real car. Nice job!

[Volzfan59]

16 hours ago, '70 Grande said:

This is the finest build of this kit that I have yet to see!  Very well done! Is it just me, or were these mid-'70's Monte Carlos just plain gigantic race cars... it looks so long and wide! 

You are correct, they were big race cars! I ran a 1977 Monte Carlo in the limited sportsman (asphalt) class. Wheelbase was 116”. Now it had some racing parts and was cheated up a little, but it was the best handling car I ever drove. 

['70 Grande]

Volzfan59: Thanks for that last sentence in your post above... beings that I've never driven a race car, I always thought a bigger race car would be harder to drive... big race car = more likely to be a loose-n-sloppy race car! Thanks for shedding some light on this for me!

Edited Thursday at 05:29 PM by '70 Grande

[bobss396]

18 hours ago, '70 Grande said:

Volzfan59: Thanks for that last sentence in your post above... beings that I've never driven a race car, I always thought a bigger race car would be harder to drive... big race car = more likely to be a loose-n-sloppy race car! Thanks for shedding some light on this for me!

I shared a ride in a '72 Torino with a 429 in it for a season. Talk about tons of torque. It handled quite well. Other drivers mentioned that big cars are harder to pass than small cars.

The car got protested all the time, it was puffed and scaled more than once, always found to be legal. 

[Belugawrx]

On 4/30/2025 at 4:17 PM, Pierre Rivard said:

You have produced an absolute winner. The body modifications fix all the kit's inaccuracies. Most impressive is the front end & bumper. It looks so spot on. The engine in this kit may be a bit generic looking but with all your added detailing and paint finishes the whole engine compartment now looks very cohesive. Altogether a most impressive replica of this beautiful race car.

Thanks Pierre, I think it's closer to the actual car, but not perfect..the whole front clip should be turned down another 1/8"...or more

But it's done and I like it...

On 4/30/2025 at 6:19 PM, '70 Grande said:

This is the finest build of this kit that I have yet to see!  Very well done! Is it just me, or were these mid-'70's Monte Carlos just plain gigantic race cars... it looks so long and wide! 

Thanks Mark..my grandparents had a couple generations of Montes back in the day, and I remember they were huge ,..front end wise..the doors were 6' long it seemed..

 

On 4/30/2025 at 3:18 PM, Jim N said:

Looks great Bruce.  The color really pops.

On 4/30/2025 at 6:34 PM, Shark said:

I agree with you on all points. Excellent job on this build. The cars were actually great race cars along with the Caprice a year or two later. One advantage they had with the long front end was the natural engine set back for better weight distribution.

Thanks Jim... Duplicolor Victory Red wins again 

Thanks Todd

On 4/30/2025 at 8:03 PM, catpack68 said:

Very nice work! The mods you did really improved that kit

Thanks Scott..Sanding the spears on top of the front quarters down to the front really helped the look, as well as about 100 other things..lol 

On 5/1/2025 at 6:20 AM, ChrisR said:

Looks great.

Thanks Chris

On 5/1/2025 at 7:36 AM, bobss396 said:

It looks like a real car. Nice job!

Thanks Bob, can't ask for a better compliment than that !

All in all it wasn't too bad to build, this is one of the first Salvinos kits they released, albeit the upgraded boxing, the instructions are terrible, the parts fit as well. The thing that saved me was going back in the NASCAR threads and researching all the downfalls and fixes listed by other builders here.

Like @jjsipes mentioned in his thread that the chassis needs to have a certain set back when joining them together of 6/32" ...little things like that saved the build.

Cheers

[PappyD340]

Super nice build, well done!

[Jim B]

Nicely done.