One thing I did on my Original install that is not necessary for your permanent installation is the use of riv-nuts. Riv-nuts (and by other names) are large rivets that are threaded on the inside allowing the use of bolts where you can not get to the area behind for a nut, for any that do not know. I used ¼-20’s in the door opening and under the sail panels among other places, with button head screws in them. Neat and easily removed.

This will make it easer to get the rear clip off for other builders that may wish to. Another mod. I made to help simplify the removal of the rear clip was to the stock panel at the rear of the roof. The small stock section that you reuse has a couple of small humps for indexing, that I ground flat. Then I slotted the holes at the very front edge of this part and enlarged the hole diameter to clear washers I used to maintain the space between the roof and the dill-and-mill pads on the chassis. With these mods you can pull the rear clip strait back with the front roof panel, interior, and bumper in place.

The draw back is you can not fill the seems with any thing but silicone. You will be exchanging smoothness for serviceability and reparability a tuff call in anyone’s book I think.

As for filling and smoothing the seems I prefer a somewhat labor intensive method. I use a 3” sanding disk on a angle grinder (rite angel dia grinder) to grinder thru the gel cote and form a channel about half the thickness of the glass deep and 1 ½” wide. Then fill the channel back in with glass mat and resin. Use wider strips of matt first then successively narrower strips as needed. Grind the cured glass back to just below the surface of the panels being joined then cover with gel cote or filler.

Possibly the trickiest spot on the seems to do well is were the front fender meats the facia forming a square corner for the hood, extra effort is needed there. As you should come over the edge and across the flange as well as along the front edge.

I hope this helps someone and offends no one.

And thanks again Russ

George

Speaking of panel flex (which you were, kinda)...

Would it be possible to have the front and rear fascae made in urethane instead of glass fibre? That way we wouldn't have to worry quite as much about having a rigid (and thus easily cracked) fascia at each end of the car.

Also, would Sage be willing to modify the molds to incorporate the larger wheel openings that you made? If the parts were molded with larger wheel openings, then they'd have basically the same trim strips as a stock Fiero, and the molds could be further modified to make the panels accept factory trip strips... Thoughts?

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Turn the key and feel the engine shake the whole car with its lope; Plant the gas pedal and feel in your chest neither a shriek nor a wail but a bellowing roar; Lift and be pushed into the harness by compression braking that only comes from the biggest cylinders while listening to music of pops and gurgles. Know that you are driving and American V8. There are finer engines made, but none of them are this cool.

I don't think that would be possible (anything is possible, but I mean within reason) due to the way the fenders join the facia. Also the wider fenders wouldn't meet up very well with the OEM facia.
I don't see where the rear soft facia would be a benifit actually, and the front ones always seem to be warped on top and not very attractive anyway. One area that I do have on my agenda however it to try and use the more speedbump friendly "skitime" type air dam. I haven't actually tried to fit it up yet, but I'm hoping that the stock lower facia will flex out enough to meet the wider IMSA nose piece OK. I'll be finding that out before too long and will of course pass that info along in this thread.

Perhaps Sage will answer that himself, but I've mentioned to him that the larger wheelwells would certainly be a welcome change for many potential buyers, and he did say he agreed and might be willing to make new molds for that at some point if there were enough interest. Perhaps with more input from you and others, he can be further persuaded It is pretty simple to enlarge the wheelwells as I have, but of course if you planned to use inner wheel tubs those will need to be fabricated as well, as the glass extentions supplied wouldn't work with enlarged openings (which is why I ordered my kit without them to begin with). I most likely will make/modify some for my enlarged wheelwells, but the tubs actually aren't vital to the kit anyway IMO.
The trim is molded into the IMSA body panels and can't be changed.

Thanks for the tips George. The process of grinding out the joints and using glass is probably an especially good idea. I didn't do that, so time will tell if cracks show up in mine eventually. I did use plenty of panel adhesive in the joint as it was being bolted together however
BTW George. what happened to the photo of your car in your previous post?

Thanks
George

I know it's molded into the panels, but if the molds are being changed to go to the larger wheel wells, how hard would it be to change them to get rid of the trim and set the panel edges up like stock as well? Then the panels could be screwed/glued together just like stock panels and the stock trim applied to them... I think that would lead to a better integrated wide body kit...

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Turn the key and feel the engine shake the whole car with its lope; Plant the gas pedal and feel in your chest neither a shriek nor a wail but a bellowing roar; Lift and be pushed into the harness by compression braking that only comes from the biggest cylinders while listening to music of pops and gurgles. Know that you are driving and American V8. There are finer engines made, but none of them are this cool.