[Revved]

I deal primarily with the Shelby GT 500Es built by Unique Performance. In their infinite wisdom they bonded together all of the front fiberglass panels so it essentially made a "front clip" that needs to be removed as one piece. Here are some of the issues I see dealing with these cars.

1) Not an issue for you, but with the early E cars and most clones they didn't separate the fiberglass rocker panel between the original rocker and the fender so it is one piece. If you ever needed to remove the clip you have to destroy paint and fiberglass cutting it off. Also not an issue for you but you will see a lot of clone cars where they bond the fenders to the cowl. Neither is a good practice for serviceability.

2) Stress relief... With all of the front panels bonded there is no place to relieve stress of daily driving. Eventually they crack out where the panels are bonded together.

3) Paint repair... When a panel is damaged you repair the damage, paint the area of the repair, and then you clear coat to the edges of the panel to prevent peel back of the CC. If you have bonded/welded all of the panels together without seams, technically the entire front end should be clear coated. In a case like this a lot of body shops run the clear coat to a thinner area of the panel and burn it in with a buffer to blend in the edge of the clear. Depending on the quality of the work, products, and UV exposure it may be fine for a few years but you are always risking the chance of the clear lifting causing a halo, hazy area, or worst case peeling.

4) Complication of removing the front end. Even welded together it is probably easier for you with mostly stock sheet metal with a few extra hands with minimal damage but on these E cars with the whole front end bonded it is almost guaranteed you are going to crack something. IMO it is much better to be able to just remove the components individually as you need.

5) Access... Lets say you now need to get to a component or wiring that is behind the header panel or requires removal of a headlamp bucket that has now become part of the "clip" Are you going to now remove the whole front end for access?


On all the new builds, and when we have reason to go back in and do extensive body repairs on one of these cars we actually cut apart the fiberglass panels and flange everything so they can be removed individually. A front clip is fine for a racecar and maybe I'm too practical but for the real world I prefer being able to remove components for service without taking the chance of damaging them or having to cut corners during a repair.

I'm not saying to do it or don't do it since I can't see the car first hand... Just think about all of the options before you do.


BTW...I love the car! Great lines on the Falcon and the front spoiler is awesome!