I see a lot of great new ideas by this latest group of builders. If only I had the advantage of seeing your ideas before I completed mine.
Anyway, I want to share with you some issues I have discovered in the fiberglass body. I spent hours sanding, blocking, and prepping the car for paint. Now I know fiberglass is somewhat flexible, but gel coat is less forgiving. When the gel coat cracks, you will find spider cracks in your paint. I thought for sure I had reinforced all the potential areas for cracks, but I missed one that is so obvious I'm not sure how it got passed me.
As you work on the engine bonnet, pay close attention to the tail section that the sits on the two pins of the main body. Its very thin and needs additional support. The tail actually sits (mine anyway) on the two "ridges" of the pins so a lot of stress hits those two points. Well it flexes there and caused some spider cracks. I am too anal to let it be, so I added additional support to this area so the flexing is reinforced over a larger area. Now you may have a better idea on how to do this, aka foam, more glass etc, but however you do it, it needs it. I added aluminum gussets and thickened the glass a bit.
I also got some spider cracks in the curve that heads upward toward the gas cap filler in that curve next to the door. I wanted to use some aluminum reinforcement but spacing there to the main body in so tight, I couldn't so I added a few more layers of glass. Probably won't work long term but I had to do something.
The body lacks the same precision of the frame and CNC'd parts so pay close attention to things like air pockets and areas that are just too thin. If you plan to paint, it will pay dividends now to fix the glass and gel. If your wrapping, probably not as big an issue.
Just sharing with you what I've discovered after nearly a year and a whopping 500 miles (no I don't drive it much, but nearly 1500 trailer miles...so give me some credit).