The Salvinos Jr Generic NASCAR Charger kit Review/critique

The Bad: Body; Very little in the way of sink marks or blemishes in the plastic but. The door shut lines, disappear at the A pillars. This is also the mold separation point soo...Mold line I think is what obscured the shut line. The line was inaccurate though (What there was of it) Soo some re-engraving will be necessary if you intend to make a go of this kit for shows. The leading edge of the front fenders was also not correct. The kit rendered leading edge was a flat,straight line. Not supposed to be, they should taper in to the hood gap/fender line from outboard to inboard and match the front bumpers curvature/shape. Some re-work and shaping is necessary here but not a deal breaker. Power bulge hood...Nice! But...Many of these chargers ran a flat hood (The power bulge disrupted the air flow at the cowl diminishing the air pressure a bit) Soo a flat hood would be a nice option as well as more correct for most versions but...You don't get one.
Ancillary components like Oil coolers, alternators and remote oil filter set up were very generic? They were not very well rendered or detailed. In short, very un-inspiring. I ended up fabbing my own remote oil filter assembly and added some mesh details to the oil coolers(They had none) I also fabbed a coolant overflow tank. This piece was on a parts tree but, a waste of time for the company to even bother putting in the mold.(But they did) Front suspension is very basic. These cars were basic! Once again bordering on generic. The front spindles are quite robust and wont be a breakage issue like the fragile things you get in some other kits with poseable steering. Front upper control arms are molded to the frame rails (This does preclude adjusting front ride height unless you get creative) That said...The front ride height is low, as it should be for a Stock car of this vintage! So not really an issue. Front wheels are retained by a plastic pin that passes through the spindle and fits tightly to the wheel back. (I didn't use em) The rear suspension...The multi piece axle housing is a bit under sized if you ask me. Axle tubes seem small diameter wise. Separate third member as well as rear cover are well detailed and fit nicely to the housing. The leaf springs...Once again, generic looking but do the job well. I was going to make my own but. You gotta stop somewhere! Salvinos gives you 8 lowering blocks for the rear that sandwich between the axle and the leaf springs. A nice touch I thought. I didn't use these either. The rear wheels are retained with a metal axle that is pushed into the wheel backs.
Decals: Did I mention you get none? Nada, zip, zilch, nothing. I think they should have at least given you a set of tire lettering decals. The lack of decals does reflect in the price though. In my area these kits go for 30 to 39 dollars. Without the decals...26 to 30.
The chrome: Its awesome! Vacuum plating at its finest! But... It does have some flash on the edges of the bumpers where it will be seen. Also the sprue gates on the front bumper are on top where you see em when the hood is open. If this was regular kit chrome, it wouldn't be much of an issue. This stuff is metal! You cant just trim off the flash. It has to be filed off. (Unless you want to chip that beautiful chrome) Same with the marks on the parts from the sprue gates. Its not the end of the world but this chrome being metal makes clean up/touch up more difficult than it needs to be. Also nothing in my arsenal matched the tone of the kit chrome. The rear deck spoiler, the kit piece is LOADED with ejector pin marks. I mean to the point of not being useable as is. Yeah its chrome too, I tried to strip it with easy off. No dice, didn't even touch it after 3 days of soaking in it. If you plan to use it, sand and file till you get a surface primer will adhere too. And you better use an etching primer...Its chrome, nothing will stick to it for long. Fill the pin marks and paint it...LOL (I didn't use it either)... The PE Parts from MCG come in handy here for the rear spoiler along with several other notable pieces that you will most likely want to include if you build one of these. The front lower valence mesh screen is a welcome addition that requires minimal and simple mods to install. The door handle block off plates are a nice touch that adds some depth to the model. The front chin spoiler is a bit fiddly and needs to be worked to get the lip bent and conformed to the shape of the lower valence, but looks great once its mounted. As a side note here, the kit supplied chin spoiler is well rendered and actually quite thin and looks quite nice as well. (if you don't feel like getting a piece of metal to fit). Either one will do the build justice. The P.E. parts come with mesh grill inserts that are very nice but...You will have to file them and re-shape them a bit to get em to fit the front bumpers grill cavities properly. I didn't use em...They just wouldn't conform and this kit sucked enough of my soul out of me at that point soo... I went with the kit plastic grill inserts which are also quite well done and fit without a lot of drama. The P.E parts come with a plethora of things you can use or hang on to for another build, just like most of Model Car Garages P.E. sets. It is a pricy set though 30.00 if I remember correctly.
Next time: The ugly...Yeah...It is. Stay tuned!!!

Thank you for the recap Pete, definitly there's a lot going on when come to do a review on a kit