Gen 1/Gen 2 door striker brackets

[MonstaS4]

So I have what others have called a 'crossover' build date - the chassis has a dip in the footwell area while the body does not. I think it was FF33Rod that mentioned I'll need to request new door striker mounts as the originals can't be adjusted low enough.
After a 3 week wait to get the brackets, to say I'm a little frustrated that the new ones don't seem to fit either is an understatement.
Some pics:
Original - 137944 Large - 137945

Al the new bracket seems to have done is move the striker closer to the door opening - it's not lowered at all.

Can any others that have a similar serial (#1093) share any wisdom as to what I'm missing here?

[wallace18]

So I have what others have called a 'crossover' build date - the chassis has a dip in the footwell area while the body does not. I think it was FF33Rod that mentioned I'll need to request new door striker mounts as the originals can't be adjusted low enough.
After a 3 week wait to get the brackets, to say I'm a little frustrated that the new ones don't seem to fit either is an understatement.
Some pics:
Original - 137944 Large - 137945

Al the new bracket seems to have done is move the striker closer to the door opening - it's not lowered at all.

Can any others that have a similar serial (#1093) share any wisdom as to what I'm missing here?

I had same issues. It took 3 tries for them to send the ones that worked. Unfortunately Tony Zullo has left FFR and he was guy who fixed me up. See post 63 onward.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?34246-Marsha-s-Gen-1-33-build-by-Wallace18/page2

[JimLev]

Mine was all a Gen 1 kit but I did need to machine out the holes in the plate to get it flush with the body.
Sorry to hear that Tony Z left.

[MonstaS4]

I don't suppose you have any pics of the correct mounts wallace18?

FFR have told me I must have installed the door hinges incorrectly and that I need to raise them in order to match the height of the striker.....I'm confindent I installed them to the letter and I sure ain't cutting new holes in the body. If I had some photo's or measurements of the brakets that work, this would help my cause.

[fostia]

I don't suppose you have any pics of the correct mounts wallace18?

FFR have told me I must have installed the door hinges incorrectly and that I need to raise them in order to match the height of the striker.....I'm confindent I installed them to the letter and I sure ain't cutting new holes in the body. If I had some photo's or measurements of the brakets that work, this would help my cause.


This is what I had to do. I have GEN 1 everything.

137995 137996

[wallace18]

I don't suppose you have any pics of the correct mounts wallace18?

FFR have told me I must have installed the door hinges incorrectly and that I need to raise them in order to match the height of the striker.....I'm confindent I installed them to the letter and I sure ain't cutting new holes in the body. If I had some photo's or measurements of the brakets that work, this would help my cause.

Every photo I have is in the build thread I referenced above. I had to cut new holes in the body also. We just glassed the incorrect ones closed during bodywork.

[FF33rod]

FFR have told me I must have installed the door hinges incorrectly and that I need to raise them in order to match the height of the striker.....

That is complete and utter bullsnorties.
They raised the striker bracket mount on the frame up a few inches and that caused this problem. Took a couple of weeks and at least 2 tries working with Tony to correct this. A local builder took pics and measurement of a pure Gen1 frame so I could compare to the "hybrid" that we got and it proved they moved the mount. The original striker mount bracket has a slot at the top of the bracket, the replacement to make it work basically puts that slot at the bottom... (not sure that's very clear)

Here's a pic of the original bracket showing that it is a couple of inches too high

138015

Here's the new one installed without moving anything...

138016

Surely someone at FFR knows about this other than Tony, Jesper or someone would have had to make the parts and we're talking multiple sets here not just 1 set for me...

Steve

Steve

[RoadRacer]

Bookmarking this - next month will likely be door month for me. With my pure Gen 1 chassis and pure Gen 2 doors/frames I'm curious what that gets me :D

[MonstaS4]

That is complete and utter bullsnorties.
They raised the striker bracket mount on the frame up a few inches and that caused this problem. Took a couple of weeks and at least 2 tries working with Tony to correct this. A local builder took pics and measurement of a pure Gen1 frame so I could compare to the "hybrid" that we got and it proved they moved the mount. The original striker mount bracket has a slot at the top of the bracket, the replacement to make it work basically puts that slot at the bottom... (not sure that's very clear)

Here's a pic of the original bracket showing that it is a couple of inches too high

138015

Here's the new one installed without moving anything...

138016

Surely someone at FFR knows about this other than Tony, Jesper or someone would have had to make the parts and we're talking multiple sets here not just 1 set for me...

Steve

Steve

Perfect! Thanks Steve. I just received another email from FFR stating that I must have installed something wrong, so i'll fire this photo back at them and see what happens. Sadly, it'll be another month before I see anything :(

[FF33rod]

"You've done something wrong" is their immediate go to. I imagine they see a lot of goofy things so more often than not they're right. However, in this case they caused the problem and it always takes awhile to convince them
Good luck!

[tony]

Wow, that is frustrating. You are a patient man.

[MonstaS4]

The really frustrating part is that someone at FFR knows this is a problem as they've had to fabricate brackets for others. They *should* also know which serial numbers are affected and *should* send new brackets to all affected owners rather than waiting for us to raise the issue, especially when some of us are on the other side of the globe and face a minimum 3 week turnaround. Doesn't do their customer service status any favours.

[MonstaS4]

So FFR have finally realised their error and are fabricating new brackets for me. So for anyone else that has one of last Gen1 chassis (mine is #1093), i'd drop them a line now to avoid getting screwed around.

Thanks to FF33rod for providing a photo of the bracket in question.

[MonstaS4]

Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there. After a quick turnaround by FFR, my new brackets arrived over the weekend. However, they are exactly the same as the last brackets they sent. I can't describe how frustrated I am right now :mad: They even stapled Steve's photo to the picking sheet for reference and it's pretty clear the part they sent does not match the one in the picture!

[FF33rod]

138865

You know, if FFR could just correct the number of mistakes that they make in the parts they send and the quality problems that require resending new parts, I swear they'd increase their profits by 20-25%....

[fostia]

Can you weld or have access to someone who does? Now that you have two sets it may be time to see if you can do some modifications to one. I sent you pics of hacking mine apart and then welding on some extensions and modifying the slot. Its just a striker bolt. You dont even have to do good welds. Mine are terrible but its not going anywhere. With some time and patience, you can make something work if you dont want to deal with FF5 again. You can do slots with a drill, angle grinder, dremel, die grinder with a good burr or plasma cut it if you have access to one.

[MonstaS4]

Yep, that's probably where I'll end up fostia. It's more about the principle for me. FFR have created the issue, already know about it and rather than send corrected parts to affected owners, they wait for them to raise the issue then treat them like incompetent fools who must have done something wrong.

I've got enough mods in progress in order to comply with the regulations here in Aus so the last thing I need is to be fabricating brackets that should have been correctly supplied in the first place.

[RoadRacer]

I sent my email off to FFR today. With my Gen1 #997 chassis and Gen2 (summer 2020) body I seem to have a similar issue.

Here you can see it when bolted up to the latch (the door fits perfectly and latches beautifully) - and I used the aluminum template so I can't be out on the vertical positioning of the metal framework..

139673

[MonstaS4]

I hope you get a better result from FFR than I did. The last email from them suggested I'd done something wrong in the door hinge fit up and until I resolved this, there was nothing more they could offer. This was despite me confirming every aspect of the door fit up was as per the manual, along with the photo's from FF33rod that clearly show a different bracket that I was sent.

I've done as Fostia suggested - cut a section off the incorrect brackets and weld onto the original bracket I was supplied.