Dashboard Lip Trimming

[BrewCityCobra]

So I'm in the process of doing my first test-fit of the body and have a few questions for those who have been there before (and maybe I'm just a bit terrified of cutting into this thing wrong).

First, I'm pretty sure the body is about a half inch or so too far back (e.g., toward the rear) and I suspect the first step is trimming back the dashboard lip so I can slide it forward a bit. Which is my big question - is there a rhyme and reason as to how much should be trimmed and where? Should I be measuring a certain distance from the edge of the lip and cutting it even over the entire width (e.g., as measured below)? Any other cutting theories?

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Second, I have the feeling that the passenger windshield aperture was mis-cut by FFR. Although the driver aperture does appear to line-up with the necessary part of the frame (left to right that is), the passenger side is off and visually positioned further away from the adjacent body seam than the driver counterpart. When I took a photo from below the dash, it is pretty clear the aperture does not align with the slot in the firewall sheetmetal (see below). Is this a known mis-alignment that I should ignore or do I need to consider cutting my own aperture? If so, does anybody know the proper measurements?

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You will see that the Passenger aperture is almost an inch from the seam while the driver side is only an 1/8" or so.

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[egchewy79]

start off by trimming the lip of the cowl 1/4". you can always take off more. you'll want your door openings for the body about a 1/8-1/4" in front of the door striker plates on the frame.
center the front of your body left/right by measuring from the shock tower to the lip of the wheel well. Don't try to use the hood opening to center it as it's asymmetric. Once you get it centered, then worry about your windshield posts.
cut the bulb seal going over that notch below the PS windshield opening and extend the notch in the firewall down about 1/2-3/4".

[CraigS]

I like to scribe the dash lip off the dash and sand/grind to the scribe line. It isn't real obvious but when you happen to see the gap between lip and dash it looks a lot better if it is constant. Search here for pics of body to door latch relationship. That is the most common way to be sure your front/rear location is correct.

[Jeff Kleiner]

What Chewy and Craig said. The windshield post cutouts have no relationship to the parting lines…consider this one of your first lessons in learning that the left and right sides of the car are not the same ;)

Jeff

[FLPBFoot]

Another spot to check is the trunk AL across the back. I couldn't get my body far enough forward with the dash trimmed and found that with the bulb seal on across the lower AL it was holding the body back. I had to trim 1/2" off that back lip to let the body move forward to the spot Chewy described.

[BrewCityCobra]

start off by trimming the lip of the cowl 1/4". you can always take off more. you'll want your door openings for the body about a 1/8-1/4" in front of the door striker plates on the frame.
center the front of your body left/right by measuring from the shock tower to the lip of the wheel well. Don't try to use the hood opening to center it as it's asymmetric. Once you get it centered, then worry about your windshield posts.
cut the bulb seal going over that notch below the PS windshield opening and extend the notch in the firewall down about 1/2-3/4".

Excellent, and thank you. This is exactly what I was looking for.

Just to confirm, when you say make the initial cut to 1/4" what you mean is to measure from the curve of the lip in the direction of the arrow in my photo (e.g., toward the front of the car) 1/4" and mark it, then cut along that line, correct?

[BrewCityCobra]

I like to scribe the dash lip off the dash and sand/grind to the scribe line. It isn't real obvious but when you happen to see the gap between lip and dash it looks a lot better if it is constant. Search here for pics of body to door latch relationship. That is the most common way to be sure your front/rear location is correct.

Appreciate the input. My dash is only currently aluminum (I need to put the leather on yet) but I suspect the concept still applies.

Thanks again.

[BrewCityCobra]

What Chewy and Craig said. The windshield post cutouts have no relationship to the parting lines…consider this one of your first lessons in learning that the left and right sides of the car are not the same ;)

Jeff

Hah, I wondered about that - which is what gave me pause. Glad I did.

[BrewCityCobra]

Another spot to check is the trunk AL across the back. I couldn't get my body far enough forward with the dash trimmed and found that with the bulb seal on across the lower AL it was holding the body back. I had to trim 1/2" off that back lip to let the body move forward to the spot Chewy described.

On wow, I'll have to check that out then as well. That back piece of aluminum happens to be the only part I don't have a bulb seal on at the moment so I'll keep an eye on that going forward.

[CraigS]

Excellent, and thank you. This is exactly what I was looking for.

Just to confirm, when you say make the initial cut to 1/4" what you mean is to measure from the curve of the lip in the direction of the arrow in my photo (e.g., toward the front of the car) 1/4" and mark it, then cut along that line, correct?

That will probably be OK but I scribe from the dash to the fiberglass. This will also give you a line out at the ends where the dash starts bending forward and the fiberglass starts going rearward. In your pic w/ the arrow you can see that right at the arrow is your largest gap. Figure a way to use that dimension as your scribe distance. I think you are working on getting the body to move a little forward from when you took the pic. So that gap is now smaller and it looks best if it is the same all the way across.