MadaboutKitcars

I think Nubodi mentioned something , perhaps send them a pm.

Mentioned but not shared.

The door/bonnet gap

As you can see from the picture the alignment looks pretty good, it looks good but you can't open the door

Two problems, as you open the door the leading edge of the door (LED) hits the inside of the trailing edge of bonnet (TEB) To stop the LED hitting the TEB I have worked out the best way is to "thin" the TEB and also taper it. Before doing this I found that when opening the door, the face of the door would hit the TEB, you obviously can't remove any of the front surface of the door so it has to be removed from TEB.
I noted where it was catching and ground away at the TEB with a mini belt sander.
as you can see I have ground away about 25mm from the bottom of the TEB tapering up to about 8mm at the top. At this time you start thinking "is this right?"
I then marked lines across the gap and measured how much I needed to add to LED.
I then drilled pilot holes in the edge and fitted some drywall screws, screwed them in until they protruded to the measurements on the door and then nipped off the ends with a disc cutter.
I then placed a plastic L trim behind the screws to give me a need edge and back filled with isopon GRP filler
i did this in two stages as it was easier to get round the bend.
Then mark the gap on the new filler and run along the edge to get the approximate profile.
Then rehang the door skin.

I then turned my attention to the trimmed TEB, the edge is much too thick so I again attached it with the mini belt sander.
From this thickness

To this

The thickness is the white line, the grey is the taper.

Refit bonnet and this is the result

Obviously I now have to neaten it all up and get the gap the same all along but the door now opens and closes without catching anywhere even with the door fully open.
The GRP filler with the drywall screws seems to have given a really strong bond which I don't think should crack in the future.

I maintain that you shouldn't need to do this on an expensive panel kit.

If Tribute refined their molds this extra work wouldn't be needed. There are plenty of people out there who might not have the skills to sort out these little issues.

This is the only logical way that I could see to get the door to open without rubbing, unless someone has an easier method.

It would only need a modification to the outer doorskin molds, the inner returns could be left the same and the TEB could be reshaped with a belt sander in a few minutes if you had a template.
Worth considering Chris?

Make your mind up,

One minute you are saying they are a budget panel swap on an ageing Z3, the next they are an expensive panel kit.

Jag, for what it's worth you may want to consider that when the door opens fully it may contact the strip that is spot welded on the inner wing, it held the old front wing on, I will remove mine.

Nice touch on getting the bonnet pulled in, will probably steal that idea.

Hi Jeff,

My thoughts on this is that the completed car is at "budget" price compared to many other kits on the market. This is largely down to the nature of the donor car which can be had cheaply and once all the bits are sold on its nearly for nothing. Paint and finishing touches are down to the builder.

The actual panel kit isn't cheap at £4k and £5k respectively. Its a shame that the attention to detail to allow an easy build is lacking in a few areas.
Its also why a gel coat finish isn't viable on these cars and you have got to have them painted.

If it were a true "bolt on" kit you wouldn't need to get the angle grinder out and start chopping bits off and resort to messy grp work to get an acceptable fit and finish.

Paul

Thanks for replying with out any sarcasm,

Their are issues with the kits, quite a few if I am being honest, Chris is aware that at some point in the future he will have to do a correction and produce a better set of moulds.

This will of course be his decision, as after all it is his train set, and of course depending weather or not the order book continues to fill up.

The original buck needed a lot more time spent on it before sending it off to be moulded.

As regards price, I purchased a new GT40 body late last year, it was £4500, it did not come with the windows or the roof support that you get with the Tribute 250 Coupe.

However, it is a much more involved shell to produce, and of course a lot more of it is on show as the front and rear clip open for access, Jag mentioned that when he cut out the bonnet vent the GRP was uneven, he thought this was normal but a skilled laminator would not have this issue.

The quality of my GT40 shell was fantastic, you could razor the flash lines off and polish them up, when you see the work that goes in to the moulds you can see why they are so good, plus the guy doing the laminating has over 20 years experience.

I got in before the price rise on my kit, their are times when it is very frustrating knowing it could of been produced to a better standard, but when I leave the work shop at the end of the day and look back at the car I do believe the hurdles will be worth it as it is a great looking car.

I do hope Chris doesn't read this and think I am stirring the shite, Or unhappy with my kit. I am being as honest as I can and it is of course only my opinion of things, others may be different.

Just to add, I paid £1300 for my doner, and got back a measly £320 for all the old bits, including the wheels and tyres, to be honest I was lazy and valued the space more than the cash.

This is how the GT40 front and rear clips have the width gap set, they mould the outer skins 1st, then before they bond in the inner skins they "set" the gap with a simple piece of wood clamped across the outer skin,they don't do this in the mould as they would never get the completed clip out.

This is Jag's thread, if he thinks i am spamming it up and wants me to remove anything then please just let me know.

I should have mentioned that I cut away the first 30mm, I've left the rest as this is where I intend to run a wire cable for emergency door opening.

The thread is here to help everyone so all are welcome to voice their opinions, just try and keep it civil. It's very easy to write something innocently and for someone else to take it completely the wrong way.

If anyone see's something that I have done wrongly please jump in an correct it or suggest another way, I'm old and ugly enough to take a bit of criticism.

Ahh cool,

I may just shorten my check straps any way to be safe, in case the wind grabs the door etc, I think most do who have these kits.

You can get medicine for that problem

I think the Tribute range can be and are on the whole being built to a very high standard. Like I said earlier, if you can do most of the work yourself then that's going to save you a lot on the build. For me, I get as much pleasure from building a car as I do from owning it and driving it. With IVA rules I think the rebody / panel swop kits will become the norm over the more complex , traditional build from the ground up type kits. To that end I think the quality of the rebody kits will improve especially as such kits increase in cost. I can't see how the current Tribute pricing will continue without VAT being applied. It must be close now so we can expect a further 20% or £1k rise on the Koupe kit, depends if Tribute pass it on to customers or absorb it themselves .

I think the VAT threshold is around 82 -83k at the moment,

It will possibly have an effect on sales. mainly as the customers will be private individuals who can't claim the VAT back.

Agreed ref non IVA kits becoming more popular, the less hoops we have to jump thru the better.

Not sure if this is relevant, but would changing the hinge arrangement allow the door to open in a different way so as not to foul the bonnet/wing?

This is the way I had to sort my similar problem on my build, and it worked.

Shame to change the standard hinge as it works so well.
I was surprised how much modification has been needed as nobody else seems to have reported any problems, but I can't see another way of doing it.

It could be argued that the hinges don't work too well at all if you have to hack bits off the door to make it open properly

I think it would just add another problem.
I gave the front of the door another bit of GRP paste that has closed the gap up further without catching. A bit more sanding and a bit of filler tomorrow should see the first door almost finished.

I noticed the smiley,

He has not hacked bits of the door, he has added to them to make them longer to close the large gap up.

The hinges work fine.

Steve I think the trouble is they are a fairly new kit,

They have not been out for long,The ones we see on a trailer ready for paint are not a true reflection of the work involved.

What I mean is we see them on a trailer ready for paint, then we see them back from the body shop painted, We don't see them "in" the body shop so don't know what extra work is involved.

The good thing is help is available, Chris will always give solid advice regarding these cars, and it can be over come as a few have been finished now , I do think adding to the door will mean you will have to shorten your check straps.

I'd agree with Jeff regarding shortened travel for check straps. Stitch in time saves nine and all that.

The door might not interfere with the wing when carefully opening, but it would with an over enthusiastic effort, or opening on a breezy day when it gets pulled out of your hand, or if the panels move just a fraction, which they can do.

Good point raised there Jeff

I am going to give it the ultimate trial, I'm going to let the wife open it, when I say open it I do of course mean fling it open as hard as possible.

I'll send the grandkids round, they are good at finding the the breaking point of things.LOL.

Success on the door gap/opening problem

First picture shows how much I have had to build up the leading edge of the door
I have just run a thick felt tipped pen along the trailing edge of the wing, this marked the front of the door, I then used this line to sand back to give me a pretty even door gap, obviously needs to be filled and neatened up.


Gap against inner wing with door fully open and a bit of pressure against it.

small section of old wing mount removed



Door fully open with extra pressure applied, plenty of gap and no need to shorten the check straps.
Even passed the wife test.

Small update, I finished the passenger door in the same way. I didn't need to sand away so much of the wing this time so it was much easier. Probably helped as it was a known problem and solution the second time around.
Not much more to report as I have been busy on a custom cafe racer build for a customer, thats finished and i'm off for a month to Spain so not much will be started until August.
I expect the rest of to keep hard at it and think of me laying on my lil for the next month. Might not help you but it will make me feel a lot happier.

Lucky Lil ....