Salvino's MC and Buick windshield fix by Gary66 via Randy's board

[Tom Birky]

The Final Word on Windshield fit concerns on Salvino JR and original Monogram Buick Regal , Chevy MonteCarlo kits and Pontiac GrandPrix.
Can a moderator please pin this.

I Keep seeing this concern going around so here is the final word. I built
these when Monogram first released them and now with the new company re-releasing and modified versions. Here is the deal.

1. The Buick and all MonteCarlo kit windshields install from the outside during the final assembly. Monogram made them that way. The issue is the super tight tolerance of windshield to the dash/firewall area. If you install the window into the body and then do final assembly, when you push the chassis up into the body, the dash will interfere with the bottom of the window.

To avoid this, install the windshield as a final piece. If you were really clean while assembling the chassis plate, the firewall and dash, it should fit nice and tight.
Unfortunately not all of us build perfectly clean.....so here is what i do now to give a little more slack.

As you glue that upper half of the firewall to the lower half that is molded to the chassis plate, file on it a little bit, remove just a nice amount across that entire joint. You will also need to recarve a little the holes that the roll bars pass through. You can also massage the edges of the dash so that it fits through the roll bars to the firewall cleanly. That little bit of material gone will allow the dash/sill plate area to sit just a little lower, thus letting the windshield fit a little better. Give it a try.

2. The GrandPrix and the new 2+2 . The windshield was designed to install from the inside by Monogram. Was always a royal pain to get them in cleanly. Jim at Salvinos knew that and slightly reworked that area so that it would better on the 2+2, but it is still a bugger.

It can be installed per instructions, but that allows the windshield to sit deep withing the frame which looks a little extreme. While not important on the regular GrandPrix, the best way to alleviate the mounting issue and make it look good for the 2+2 is to create small mounting strips inside the windshield frame so that you can install it from the outside like the Buick and MonteCarlo. The 2+2 was super slicked up for aero, so mounting it from outside is much more realistic. You may need file the edges of the window to get it just flush, but the results are worth it.

I am going to post this across all the Nascar Modeling Facebook pages i am on, please post this on any other you may know of.

I am really getting tired of all these new to the hobby modellers giving SalvinoJR a hard time and bad mouthing them for issues that have existed in the tooling from over 35 years ago.

Now, take these tips and go build a great looking race car!