Over two years ago I posted about modifications that I was going to make to the side of car.
I decided to go with Option A3, which requires the most work. I focused on the area behind the front wheel (i.e., the section circled in red). Option A1 is stock in this area so comparing it to A3 illustrates what changes need to be made. I purchased a pair of QL-38 Quick-Latches and made several point-of-no-return cuts to the doors and spider, but I got busy with other parts of the car.
Last week I worked with Allan to finalize the mod. The two pictures below show where the initial cuts were expanded.
To achieve clean aesthetics all fiberglass under the nose flange that wasn’t required to enclose the body was removed. This included the entire surface to which the stock AeroCatch was mounted.
The top of the wheel well exit was cut to be as open as possible and the inside edge of the vertical piece on the left was also trimmed
We were able to cut the wheel well higher than what we initially thought. This not only looks better, but it will enable more air to flow from behind the tire. We also took the opportunity to fill in the “beer holder” and the curved vertical piece behind the wheel. Everything still needs to be fine tuned, but the heavy lifting on this part of the mod is done. Note that the pictures depict the Quick-Latch ball stud inserted into the latch. It will eventually be installed in the nose flange.
Top rear of wheel well is significantly more open than stock
Backside of curved vertical piece has been trimmed and filled solid
“Beer holder” removed and patched; Quick-Latch installed flush with the top of the body; nose locating pin remains in the stock location
The vertical piece has been significantly strengthened and the underside of the opening has been made flat. Some additional bodywork is required.
The Quick-Latch has several advantages over the AeroCatch;
Significantly smaller
Significantly easier to install (one cut with a hole saw vs. a large awkward shape and five holes)
All metal
Ball stud is stainless steel
Rated to 500 pounds each
Allan plans to recommend upgrading the AeroCatches to Quick-Latches on his future builds.
The next step is to mount the ball studs to the nose flange, blend the cuts in the doors to match the new body line and fabricate covers for the door hinge cutouts.