Drivers side hood fitment???

[RF RIDER]

I put the hood on the car last night for preliminary fitment. Turns out that on the drivers side, if I line up the wheel arc with main body, I am about 3/8 to half inch short of lining up with the front of door area.
I know a picture would help to explain this. Sucks that this will add more work, but my idea would be to line up wheel arc and add material to the end of the hood. Has anyone else experienced this?
Also my gap on the drives side is not bad, but passenger side will need a little extra material.

Thanks for your time

David

[Presto51]

I put the hood on the car last night for preliminary fitment. Turns out that on the drivers side, if I line up the wheel arc with main body, I am about 3/8 to half inch short of lining up with the front of door area.
I know a picture would help to explain this. Sucks that this will add more work, but my idea would be to line up wheel arc and add material to the end of the hood. Has anyone else experienced this?Also my gap on the drives side is not bad, but passenger side will need a little extra material.

Thanks for your time

David


Yes and I think your are on the correct path.

Ron

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

If you are installing your hood, just going by the wheel arches and how the hood fits the body, the hood will likely end up WAY off-center....and you'll end up with one wheel sticking out proud from the wheel arch about 1/2" and the other wheel will end up recessed by the same amount. You need to center the hood by measuring the wheel arch to the chassis on both sides and making them even. Yes, you will end up needing to so some significant "repairs" to the hood and body to make them match.....on both sides.

[mikespms]

Hi David,

I had similar problems,you should set your alignment before you center your wheel well openings since in order to get max caster your wheels are going to move forward quite a bit. Also check to see if your body is centered in the front.1249512496

[Kempo]

I had the same problem. Instead of adding to the hood Wally lined up the rear of the hood with the main body and reworked the wheel arch. He also had to ad some high on the main body area in order to have an even gap between hood and main body. On the passenger side the hood needed to be built up to the side order to be flush with the main body when looked from above so be on the look out for that too.

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[VD2021]

Yes, Sir. Likely all of us whom are doing the body panel fitment and body work on our Gen2 GTMs.

There are a few items you want to look at as you adjust and work the hood.

IMO you will want to have the wheels mounted and a fair amount of caster dialed in. You should be able to get it over 6 degrees. Having the wheel mounted and the caster in (even if you change it during your pro-alignment) will give you a reference for the wheel well arch (neither is exactly round and appear OK until the tire is there for reference) and allows you to adjust the hood for clearance of the tire while opening and closing the hood.

The hood can be mounted in ~100+ (exaggeration for effect) slightly different positions. The hood/body are not symmetrical so you will find that each position will have issues.

With every adjustment check that the lower forward portion of the wheel well clears the tire when opening and closing the hood. If your caster is not dialed you may not see this because the wheel may be a little more aft. But it's something you don't want to experience for the first time after your GTM is painted when you have your alignment completed.

You also want to ensure the front of the hood is not resting on the radiator hose.

You may find that the RH side will have a better fit in the latch area and the LH side will be like what you mentioned. You Will also find the LH side (body side wheel well, upper section) is ~1" longer that the passenger side. So this portion of the wheel well arch is protruded into the arch. If you align the hood with this you will quickly see this. The RH side is not as much of an issue there.

You may or may not experience this. I did because I compensated for the LH side of the hood (wheel well area) being slightly lower that the RH side. I raised the LH side to compensate so that it looks good when you look at the GTM from the center front. This now placed the LH side latch area of the hood higher which meant I had to add ~.75” of fg to the hood horizontal there.

IMO (as a DIYer that has learned a lot from some very talented people over the past ~2years) the key is to get the hood in the position that leaves you with the issues you are confident in addressing. Then proceed to addressing the issues.

[LCD Gauges]

It's sort of surreal to see Hugo's car in red gel-coat, and filler. Like a blast from the past!

Dave, you seem to moving ahead quickly on your project; we should plan to get our cars together for the Spring. Ed Konda is up your way as well, and he's got some nice GTM's
ready to roll. I'm still looking forward to the day we hit the streets, and visit Alain again.

Get some pictures over here already! :cool:

As for your issue, my hood is no better. I've been thinking that the wheel arcs would get reworked since they tend to be 'out of round'. I haven't noticed any short comings with the
doors, but that's because they're not mounted yet.

[RF RIDER]

All, thanks for the advice and direction. I will take the time to properly "mount" the hood in the next few nights. I see what you mean by 100 different ways that it can be mounted, a small adjustment here, throws off the other side. I will shot for a happen medium and do what I have to do to make it look right. Good point on the wheel alignment as that is one of the last items I need to purchase. Having a hard time deciding on wheels. FFR doesn't offer the different finishes anymore on their wheels. I am looking to get Matte black. I found a source, but it 2100 delivered to my door. 3-5 week delivery. I almost bought some nice rims and tires from a forum member, but shipping to Canada is expensive and killed the deal. I will continue my search for a better deal and may continue with the passenger door fitment.

Tino, yes I am coming along nicely with the car. While waiting for my trans to get the LSD installed and billet side plate, inverted and ports for cooling, I figured I would jump into the body work. Functing roof scoop is done, I installed scoops where the side windows would go, drivers side is almost done. Drivers door is mounted/gapped. shaved handle and fibreglass over the latch, latch area is a lot cleaner now and looks factory. I installed a gen I diffuser and shanes vents. I didn't like the look of gen II diffuser. There is more, but I need to get back to work.
I am working on getting a build site made up so I can show the build from start to.............

[docglock]

The compromise I made was to get the hood fitment nearest the doors to line up. The hood has real problems with symmetry. If you take a laser level and shoot a center line over where the F5 badge belongs, you will find that you can be off as much as 3/4 inch side to side.

Most definitely you need the tires on and off jacks. That is the only way I got my car to start lining up. I eye balled the alignment and figure I am close. I did not have the tire sticking outside of the wheel well problem, but why tempt fate by taking off the hood.

I know I have issues where the hood meets the body shell behind wheel wells. Howeverf, winter is moving in, so some of that will have to wait until spring.

I must have spent 3 or 4 nights shifting, measuring and rebolting the hood to the chassis. I think I found 100 different ways this thing could sit on the car. Actually, I find this discussion a little refeshing. I thought I was alittle dense, because it didn't seem to line up.

[sk7500]

If you have already tried the 100 ways that didn't work, you must be getting really close to the only way left. Perfection!:D

You'll get it for sure. And when you do, relish the moment. And don't worry there will be plenty more challenging moments ahead for you to feel that thrill of success again.