GTM Hood Issues II

[Rigdotcom]

For some reason the last post completely stopped working for me. I can view it as a guest, but not logged in.

Here are the pictures of the hood alignment issues.

[kabacj]

So for those edges you need to do bodywork to make the hood fit like you want. I went pretty crazy in that area moving the edges and surfaces around.

The really important thing is to get the hood opening and closing movement setup the way you want. When thats all done then I just adjusted the edges.

[Rigdotcom]

I'm starting to see that now. Getting the hood to work smoothly has been my biggest problem so far. This is the car that I chopped the front off of and welded in a new frame with dimensions from Shane. So it's a combination of a crappy hood and my work needing a little tweaking. Screenshot_20231227_195916_Gallery.jpg

[Ajzride]

If you haven’t deduced it yet, building a FFR = PHD in bodywork.

[kabacj]

I'm starting to see that now. Getting the hood to work smoothly has been my biggest problem so far. This is the car that I chopped the front off of and welded in a new frame with dimensions from Shane. So it's a combination of a crappy hood and my work needing a little tweaking. Screenshot_20231227_195916_Gallery.jpg

Yeah well the biggest challenge of building a GTM is definitely the bodywork. There are so many variables from how you put the body on. Its s easy to move the body 1/2 inch forward or back on the frame. Of course that has a major impact on all the other bodywork. the hood and doors all have rigid mounting points so if your body is 1/2 inch back the doors and hood are both also going to off a half inch as a starting point. When you have a whole car to complete you can average all the parts so they fit as well as possible.

Since your body is already done, just get the hood to open close and latch nicely . Then move the body lines on the hood as needed.

[Rigdotcom]

That is the biggest understatement. There are bodyshops that won't touch these things lol

[Rigdotcom]

Yeah well the biggest challenge of building a GTM is definitely the bodywork. There are so many variables from how you put the body on. Its s easy to move the body 1/2 inch forward or back on the frame. Of course that has a major impact on all the other bodywork. the hood and doors all have rigid mounting points so if your body is 1/2 inch back the doors and hood are both also going to off a half inch as a starting point. When you have a whole car to complete you can average all the parts so they fit as well as possible.

Since your body is already done, just get the hood to open close and latch nicely . Then move the body lines on the hood as needed.

Thats where I am now. The hood is definitely off, but it is opening and closing fairly smoothly now. I'll just adjust all of the lines when I'm comfortable with it's operation.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

So you're running out of room for the striker to mount to the hood? That's what I'm seeing from the first photo? Do you have your latches installed on the right side?....so that the area where the striker is located is centered in the "divot" moulded into the body? Having your latches installed on the wrong side of the car would definitely cause what I'm seeing in the photos you posted.

Yes, what you're seeing with the edges of the hood lining up with the edges of the body is very typical. Depending on how the hood wants to fit, normally I push the hood forward so that the wheel arches line up as well as possible, which leaves the rear edge of the hood short of the rear edge of the main body. I end up cutting the whole back edge of both sides of the hood off and bonding them back on to line up with the body and then fill in between.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

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Yeah, it's a lot of work....

[Rigdotcom]

20231116_143918.jpg20231116_152218.jpg20231120_112224.jpg

Yeah, it's a lot of work....

Yes. I am running out of space. I had no clue how I was going to work around that, the cutting and pasting for the edge is genius

This reply gives me so much grief lol. It looks like I'll only have that issue on the passenger side. I'm not 100% positive that they're on the correct sides. This may end up with a special bracket if they are, and I'm still running out of real estate.


Side note, did you already knock all the rough edges off of the hood pictured?

[Rigdotcom]

Are you bonding with 3M 8115? Or glassing? I'm doing the headlight holes too and I planned to fill the gaps between the layers to make it smooth.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

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I just spanned the gap on the outside with masking tape to create the "outside of the mould", then roughed up the back side of the hood with 60 grit, cut some narrow strips of FG mat that fit down inside the gap and then 3 larger pieces of mat to span across the gap with 1.5" or so of overlap on both sides of the gap. Use the strips of mat and resin to fill the gap until it's flush and then the 3 larger layers to hold the pieces together. Once cured, remove the alum brackets (I riveted them on, fg's over the ends of the rivets on the back side, then drilled just the front part of the rivet out on the outside), rough up the new strip of fg with 60 grit and use short-strand fiberfill to fill things in and just regular bodyfiller over the top once I got everything close to where it needed to be.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Make sure you open up the holes in the headlight buckets to allow for adjustment of your headlights before you fill the gap. We don't fill the gap here.....you can't see that once the headlight is in place.

[Rigdotcom]

The buckets that were in the other hood were filled. I thought it was the norm. Good to know. I have a good bit of work ahead of me.

I pulled the hood forward and the back side on the passenger side is the only one that needs modification. The brackets were on the right sides, so I cut the original hood latch, welded it to a steel plate the same thickness, lined it up, and I'm bonding it now.