I've got my front flares riveted on and the rears Cleco-ed in place and have discovered that the FG rocker panels I was planning to install are too short by about 1.5 inches. This is at least in part due to the fact that I aligned the front flares with the front of the front wheel wells - which centered the wheels in the flares. Since the wheel openings in the flares are smaller than the original openings in the fenders, this placed the rear edge of the opening in the flare about an inch ahead of the edge of the original opening. In any case, I'm trying to decide what to do about rockers and am considering the following options:

1. Do nothing - run the car without rockers. After all, they weigh something and don't make the car any faster.

2. (1) but paint the rocker area flat black so no one will notice.

3. Install the FG rockers without mod - misaligned with the flares at the rear by 1.5 inches (or at both ends by .75 inches) - this will look bad.

4. Sell these rockers and get unflared FG rockers (like the steel ones I sold) where the misalignment will be less noticable.

5. Cut the rear ends off the rockers and install the shortened rockers aligned at the front. I'm not sure how this will look.

6. Lengthen the rockers. Cut them in the middle, space the two ends apart 1.5 inches and apply FG cloth and resin to connect the pieces. This will be *a lot* of work.

Right now, I'm strongly leaning toward (1) - since I want to spend more time driving and less time fabricating. Anyone have any advice?

----Bill

PS. I will note that the Hamilton Racing smurfmobile runs without rockers.

PPS. If any of you are installing flares, align them with the rear of the front wheel well and the front of the rear wheel well.

cut the rockers to match the flares. There are a lot of lousy gt rocker panels out there! Your spacing is right the rockers are wrong. Our body shop whines about the fiberglass rocker fit all of the time.

Which brings up the question, who makes GT rockers that are dimensionally correct? I am looking to install my flares (thanks George for the group buy awhile back) and want to have properly sized rockers in hand when I do it.

I haven't thought about this until you explained the above, but what I think that implies is that both GT and regular rockers are exactly the same length. It is just that the GT will have the flare on each end?

I made my flairs center to my wheels. I used 8s for the fit. I am going with 8s and 9s. The Getty’s where not the same length when you put them next to each other on the ground. The right is right on but the Jack hole needs work. The left is 1.5 short. I will cut it and make it Longer and fit it perfect. I think I saw some ones car that had the left front tire not centered and that bugged me. Marty has perfect rear Valance. Fit , Quality is great. Getty is great quality as well, just the left did not fit on my car. I got a set from a another company and they where all flimsy and wavy. Sorry no pictures with me today.

I agree on this point as there is no going back. PPS. If any of you are installing flares, align them with the rear of the front wheel well and the front of the rear wheel well.

Bob Burton

I had to lengthen mine about 3/4's on an inch.

Lengthening should not be a lot of work. The cutting obviously won't take too long. You could make a jig to keep them aligned when you fill in with the glass. However, I would probably mount the halves to the car, get the front an rear halves exactly where you want them, then spray a bunch of expanding foam insulation in the seam. After it cures, carve out the foam to match the contour, go a little deap so you have some structural mass, and then glass over it. After it has cured, pull the rockers, grind all the foam off of the back, and do another layer of fiberglass for strength, and finish the front.

Sure, that is more than an hour, but I would think that it is less than four.

Ken

The front flares should be re-mounted before you get too far. The flares in the front should be aligned so that the REAR and top portion of the flare matches the original opening. If you mount them that way and buy Getty rockers everything will line up relatively well.

If you can pickup a September issue of Excellence, I went into quite a bit of detail about it for the project car.

Remounting the fronts is not an option. The overlap with the fender is not large enough to permit moving them forward a substantial amount.

Bill -

I have molds for FG flared front and back portions of the rockers. (PO gave them to me when I bought the car. He made them to better fit his flares on the car.) They have about 6" of straight run after the flare to blend with rockers.

If you are interested, I'll send pics of the molds and a close up of the modded end. If you already have'glass rockers, we just mold up a set of ends and cut and paste

I could have a local guy 'glass you up a set of ends...then they can adjust to mount and match your flares.

Brett

6. Lengthen the rockers.

Been there, done that. I don't think any flared rockers fit without modifications. Its a bit time consuming but not hard, and its the best looking solution.