Engine side cover fitment

[MonstaS4]

As others have found, I've had to take a fillet out of the engine side covers to get them to sit low enough to clear the hood.

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I've glassed the join from the back side with four layers of 450gm/m² mat, ensuring the edges were beveled like this:

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Hopefully that makes sense....

Is there a need to glass the outside or is what I've done plenty strong enough? My fiberglass experience has been 0 up until now.

The front upper edge also doesn't sit flush with the grill. What's the go here? Cut off the offending protrusion and glass in a thinner tab?

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While I didn't expect this to be a bolt together kit, I'm getting frustrated with the constant modifications required to make parts fit correctly. The side covers are not 'a little out'.....I've had to take a 10-15mm section out to get them to fit.

[wallace18]

All part of a build. You seem to be doing very well for a first timer. Keep up the good work! Grill location has a lot to do with fitment of the sides and hood. Of the 3 -33 kits I have done so far I have not had to trim off any on the top of a side. The tab at the front always needs some modification.

[FF33rod]

When I get frustrated or cant see the path forward, i leave it for a few days and then come back to it. Quite often fresh eyes really helps. You shouldnt have to glass the outside of the sidecover, put enough layers on the insde to give the needed strength. These are just covers and shouldnt be stressed any way. For the front tab, i jut ground away the material from the back side until the contour matched the grill. I was lucky that after doing that the tab was still plenty strong (but a weird shape)

Hang in there, keep at it!
Steve

[peterh226]

You’ll see in my build that I spent a ton of effort on the lowers and sides. My first time with anything like bodywork that I actually have to make look good. At least fiberglass is not to expensive. Then I had the jack slip and break a piece. Lots of learning experiences. Remember that there are lots of things to work on. Hang in there and look to all of us here for help.

[MonstaS4]

Thanks for the good words guys. Definitely plenty of learning experiences and I love that aspect of the build. I guess I expected the kit to be a little more 'refined'.

[narly1]

Thanks for the good words guys. Definitely plenty of learning experiences and I love that aspect of the build. I guess I expected the kit to be a little more 'refined'.

I think we can all agree that stepping up the quality of these bodies by FFR would go a long way towards improving overall customer satisfaction with their product

I'm sure it's a fine balancing act between cost and quality from a manufacturing perspective.

[33fromSD]

I think we can all agree that stepping up the quality of these bodies by FFR would go a long way towards improving overall customer satisfaction with their product

I'm sure it's a fine balancing act between cost and quality from a manufacturing perspective.

Maybe it's because I dealt with a lot of "iffy" reproduction metal panels on all the other classic mustangs, and Challenger I have done and also the 55 F100 I'm currently working on, where there was a ton of body work / tweaking / fitment issues to take care of but I went into this 33 Hot Rod expecting a much bigger mess than I have found, I'd have to say so far I'm pleasantly surprised with the panel fitment / quality.

I was done with the major panel fitment way sooner than I was expecting. I think I got lucky

[MonstaS4]

I don't understand how some can have little trouble with panel fitment while others tear their hair out. Surely they're coming out of the same molds? Is it just that some builders are more fussy than others?

[33fromSD]

I don't understand how some can have little trouble with panel fitment while others tear their hair out. Surely they're coming out of the same molds? Is it just that some builders are more fussy than others?

???? ..... Hopefully your comment isn't suggesting folks with little trouble are just slapping theirs together and calling it good not caring how it looks.... My body lines and panel alignment are straight as an arrow, very little prep work is going to be needed for final body work.....I'm one of them in "little trouble" bucket.

[33fromSD]

My panel fit pics..... even with the trunk latch open the trunk lid is pretty much spot on. my only tweak areas are the belly pan around the radiator (I need to add material) and I messed up the cut on the hood by the radiator so I need to add material to that, other than than, the hood, doors, trunk lid, side covers, running boards and full fenders all fit very well with only minor tweaking required when I installed them.

The belt line as you can see is straight and aligned on all panels.

Start to finish I did all the body panels in 3-4 weekends (I'd have to check my build thread for the exact amount of time).

Before I started on my hood, side panels & belly panel I talked with FFR on starting point and they were very clear about starting from the hood and working your way down leaving the belly pan for last.

Also, I have a Gen 2 kit so perhaps a lot of tweaking was done on FFR's end between Gen1 & Gen 2 although I have seen posts about door issues in Gen 2 (which in my post I pointed out one of the issue with the doors being the bend on the door frame by the latch which cause the door to bow out).

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[MonstaS4]

???? ..... Hopefully your comment isn't suggesting folks with little trouble are just slapping theirs together and calling it good not caring how it looks.... My body lines and panel alignment are straight as an arrow, very little prep work is going to be needed for final body work.....I'm one of them in "little trouble" bucket.

That certainly wasn't directed at you or anyone in particular. Like I said, I just don't understand why I and only a few others from what i've seen have had to take 10mm+ out of the engine cover to make it fit. There were 1000+ Gen 1s built based on my serial number of 1093. The lower body section under the engine side cover is obviously fixed to the body and it's vertical position in relation to the hood can't change. The hood position is also pretty well fixed give or take a few mm at the grill end, so why isn't everyone with a Gen 1 taking a 'fillet' out of the engine side cover?

Maybe i've been dealt another Gen 1/Gen 2 hybrid issue? Regardless, it's resolved. Time to move on.

[FF33rod]

I don't disagree with you, it is puzzling. I think part of the answer is the fact that there are a number of options that people have or don't (e.g. AC condenser, fan shroud) and many attachment points are slotted in multiple directions allowing for door frames, latches, grill angles, etc etc to vary all over the place. Add on top of that some manufacturing variability....

Steve