Fiberglass Panels Reveiw.. From Alpha Motorsport

[drifta1600]

So i bought

2 gaurds

Bonnet

2 light buckets

Rear hatch

Total $1490

gaurds are pretty good. Line up well with doors and everything. Very few imperfections in gell coat. The only thing is they dont come with the catch bar for the inspection hatch. And they told me to.just make something and glue it on :-(

Light buckets are not to bad.. but dont match the shape of the gaurd 100% but better than repro steel ones.

Bonnet is great. Very light and ridged.

The rear hatch.. was un usable. Sat almost 20mm above the roof line. After hours of grinding and bending the mounts, it still sat high. The alloy mounts were not deep enough in the frame and stop the hatch from droping down level with the roof. The glass hatch is 5mm thicker than the steel one which is no good for fitment. The back right corner also doesnt match the body shape. Ive attached pics so you can see how it all looks :-).

Edited June 5, 2017 by drifta1600

[gav240z]

Ahh so this is how you got the car done so quickly, ya cheated with fiberglass! LOL.

 

Shame about the hatch, did they say anything when you raised this issue? I guess each car could be different and depends where they took the original mould from?

 

If you have a moment can you photograph the inside of the bonnet? I'm curious how it looks from the inside. I've contemplated a fiberglass hood in flat black to emulate the Z432-R look...

[drifta1600]

Well gav, i actually restored the original rear hatch and gaurds/light buckets and then desided to give the fg a go lol. So ive done everything twice now . Im using my steel hatch now. (I got a hold of a rust free steel one now too.. a

) yeah ill get some pics for ya :-)

Ahh so this is how you got the car done so quickly, ya cheated with fiberglass! LOL.

 

Shame about the hatch, did they say anything when you raised this issue? I guess each car could be different and depends where they took the original mould from?

 

If you have a moment can you photograph the inside of the bonnet? I'm curious how it looks from the inside. I've contemplated a fiberglass hood in flat black to emulate the Z432-R look...

[drifta1600]

When i told them they didnt realy beleive me, but told me to drop it off after ive modded the mounts so they can patch it up... But im 2h away from them so thats not an option.

[drifta1600]

Pics of the under side

[GregTas]

That bonnet looks very good. How much was it?

[nizm0zed]

My hatch sits a bit high too, not as bad as yours though.
I suspect they arent trimming enough off the back mould before joining it to the hatch skin, but thats just a guess.

 

 

I ended up using the metal inspection covers because it was easier than fabricating some sort of clip mechanism to the underside, but I still had to make a little bit for it to clip onto. Its just a strip of metal with a nut welded to the end, then a long bolt bent at the end.
Its adjustable so I can fine tune the height of the cover and get it flush with the panel.
Ive only done it on one side, because the other cover is 95% mesh. Nothing to attach anything to...
Once the bonnet is down they cant come open.

 

 

The Alfa F/G stuff is decent, but its definitely not show quality without reworking.
I found that one of the guards was too thick at the bottom where it wraps under the A pillar, needed some trimming there, the edge around the base of the windscreen and front door gap needed a little tidying too.
If i was going to buy FG panels again I would definitely get the Restored brand stuff through Otomoto. (I have their flares, very happy with them)

Edited June 7, 2017 by nizm0zed

[drifta1600]

My hatch sits a bit high too, not as bad as yours though.

I suspect they arent trimming enough off the back mould before joining it to the hatch skin, but thats just a guess.

 

 

I ended up using the metal inspection covers because it was easier than fabricating some sort of clip mechanism to the underside, but I still had to make a little bit for it to clip onto. Its just a strip of metal with a nut welded to the end, then a long bolt bent at the end.

Its adjustable so I can fine tune the height of the cover and get it flush with the panel.

Ive only done it on one side, because the other cover is 95% mesh. Nothing to attach anything to...

Once the bonnet is down they cant come open.

 

 

thanks mate. I like the inspect hatch latch you made looks great! How did you get your pics to stay big like that on your post?

 

Bonnet was 480 from memory

[GregTas]

 

 

 

 

Bonnet was 480 from memory

 

Thanks

[nizm0zed]

thanks mate. I like the inspect hatch latch you made looks great! How did you get your pics to stay big like that on your post?

 

I host them on my Flickr account and hotlink them to the forum in any size I want.

[Andrew_L26]

Hey guys, sorry to bring up the old thread! Just wondering how much modification these need to have a really good finish, I'm planning on grabbing a set (-the hatch) for my street zed on which I want a really polished finish. My current guards and bonnet are essentially garbage so I thought I could save a tonne of money and weight by using fiberglass as they appear to be about half the price of a repo steel one and probably less than half the weight, another reason I'm interested is that it's one less thing to worry about rusting!

Love to hear your thoughts on these panels and how they compare to say repo steel panels.

 

Cheers,

Andrew