One of the remaining tasks for my seemingly never-ending body fit-up was to get the cowl and pontoons lined up the way I wanted them. Seems like a pretty simple thing, but was a little more complicated once I dug into it. There were two issues, both that I’ve mentioned before. First, I had an alignment issue between the bottom of the cowl and top of the pontoon on the right side. OK at the back, but to a hard interference fit at the front behind the wheel. No amount of juggling the body or the cowl eliminated the problem without creating other issues. I could pull the pontoon down a little and anchor to the splash guard. But not nearly enough. So I’ve left it to now to resolve. Second, I found that the gas shocks push the cowl out of alignment when it’s closed. Without anything holding it, moves the entire cowl forward 3/16 to 1/4-inch when you close it. Kind of a big deal, and not good if you want everything to line up nicely and position consistently. Some have solved the problem by removing the gas shocks and using a prop rod arrangement instead. That’s a good solution, but I wanted to stay with the gas shocks if possible
Part of the solution for both issues is alignment pins for the front of the pontoons. The kit provided some receptacle pieces for one side. But the pins provided were much smaller than the 3/8-inch holes in the receptacles. Plus, they were plain pins with no obvious way to mount. Talking to other builders, seems I was probably provided the wrong size pins, as 3/8-inch ones are apparently available. But rather than pursue that, fabricated my own pins and mounts. One of the challenges here is the pins not only need to do the alignment task, but IMO need to be robust enough to catch and hold the cowl against the forward push of the gas struts.
First up though was to fix the alignment issue between the cowl and the pontoon. After a lot of consideration, decided a little glass work was my only option. I cut through the glass at the top corner of the pontoon about 18-inches back from the front corner. Then made another tapered cut starting about 1/4-inch wide at the front down to zero at approximately 18-inches. Then, using the closed cowl and paint stick pieces as spacers, glued the edge back down with HSRF to provide the needed clearance. When that set up, put a healthy filet of HSRF on the inside of the corner where I cut. Then added two layers of 8-ounce glass on the inside with vinyl ester resin. Turned out pretty well with just a little bit of additional HSRF filler. Now I had the clearance and alignment I needed.
Next I made the alignment pins and mounts out of 1/4-inch flat steel stock and cut down 3/8-inch SS bolts. Tapped the hole in the mount for the 3/8 x 16 threaded portion of the pin and used a jam nut on the bottom. Looked like this before installing. The bottom piece is the receptacle provided in the kit. Had to trim one edge slightly to fit where I wanted it. Note this is an early picture. I had to make new longer pins. Slight miscalculation.
Won’t go through all the steps, but got the cowl and pontoons positioned where I wanted them and clamped everything down. Then attached the pontoons to the lower splash guards. Then located the holes for the alignment pins and receptacles. I bonded the pieces in with HSRF, and don’t plan to have anything removable except the pin itself. Since there wasn’t a lot of surface area on the receptacles to bond to, I added a couple 8-32 bolts in each.
Left side pin mounted to the steel plate bonded underneath in the front corner of the pontoon.
Mating receptacle mounted on the inside of the cowl. Ditto everything for the right side.
I’m pleasantly surprised how this turned out. Between the gas struts, the rollers shown in the last update, and now the mostly self-guiding alignment pins, the cowl easily drops down into place and latches in exactly the same place every time. The alignment pins easily manage the push from the struts. There will be some minor body work, but generally the gaps and panel alignment turned out really well. Hopefully my body/paint guy will appreciate all the work here! I did have to sand the profile some where the cowl and pontoons meet at the rear of the front wheel wells. With that, the wheel well outlines match reasonably well. That was one of the areas I was focused on. I’ve noticed on some Coupes that area doesn't align very well. Couple of quick side views. You can see the repair I made on the right side.
Now that I have this part done, I can do some final tweaking on the cowl to body gap and that’s it. Only remaining fiberglass work is to get the rear spoiler fitted and I’m going to cut in a third brake light. I’ll be glad to move on from this part of the build.
Thanks: 
Likes: 
Originally Posted by Fat Larrys Garage
Reply With Quote
) I can't give you any specific recommendations. I'd suggest you make a new post describing your situation. There are others on here with track experience and I'm sure could offer some advice. Good luck.
