Now the big one: getting the doors, hood and fenders to fit. We swear, when the car left the body shop eight years ago everything fit well but now it appeared that the car has morphed somewhat over time. The door gaps aft were tiny to non-existent and the fenders seemed now to be taller and at a funny angle. Most of the body lines didn't line up anymore either. First, we tackled the door gaps.





There is no adjustment in the hinge system that would allow them to be positioned further forward. All we could do was add shims behind them to move them further back but that, of course, would make the situation worse. At least shimming allowed us to get them to close, latch and be level.

We clearly had to move the hinges forward somehow. We tried hitting them with a BFH but they, and the a-pillar, were too sturdy. We thought about cutting them off and rewelding them on but thought we'd just bugger up the alignment of them doing that. Finally, we settled on cutting slots in them so they would more easily bend and, ultimately weld the slots up. It took a lot of chin rubbing and pacing back and forth but eventually we plucked up courage and were more than pleased when it seemed to work out better than expected.









We gained about 3mm of gap. We could have got more but we knew that opening the doors was going to be challenging even if we had 5-6mm of gap there, so were very happy with this. Next, fender fit!

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Paul Eddleston
BRAID Wheels USA www.BRAIDUSA.com
Team Illuminata Motorsport www.teamilluminata.com

Next, after shimming the doors level and getting most of the body lines lined up, we focused on the fenders. Oh boy! it seemed we may have BMW M3 fenders; they were that far out!











Firstly, we "adjusted" the fit as best we could by adjusting the mounting holes that were once in the right place. That improved things a bit but still left a lot of filling, cutting, grinding and sending left. And that was just to achieve a somewhat race car level of fit. If this was a concours build we would have had to start from scratch.



To lower the tops of the fenders where they meet the a-pillar we first cut a long, thin wedge out about a foot back, squished it down with lead weights and fixed it in place with some fiber glass matt and resin on the underside. We also had to extend both these surfaces to actually get close to the a-pillars. This was followed by fill, sand, fill sand, many times over.







We fixed the sides by adding lots of filler and sanding it down till the panels were in something approaching the same plane as the doors.



We fixed the bottom part that kicks out by cutting it off. Taking a wedge out of it and glassing it back in the right place. Of course, plenty of filling and sanding was also required.



We fixed the door gaps with the Dremel but had to remove so much material that we created holes. We added a lot of fiber glass matt inside this area to restore integrity. Then more filling and sanding, of course.





The lowest and smallest crease on the fenders was so low we had to rebuild it 1/2" higher!



This one made us laugh. We wanted to fix the droopy eye look over the headlights so added material to make them level. This only made them too deep and they no longer lined up with the bottom of the hood return. We decided, at least for now, to hide this issue with black electrical tape. It's quite effective and may become permanent!







Finally, we were happy with the fit and decided to stop. We could always improve it but at some point, you have to remind yourself that it's a rally car and not a show queen. That and the realization that we could tidy it up during paint prep if we really felt the need.

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Paul Eddleston
BRAID Wheels USA www.BRAIDUSA.com
Team Illuminata Motorsport www.teamilluminata.com