I remember seeing a red F355 Berlinetta kit for the first time on the cover of the November 1996 issue of Kit Car magazine, only two years after Ferrari came out with the actual F355.
I remember it well because I had just completed four years of work finishing my first kit car, a Stinger Ferrari 308 replica, and this announcement declared it was already three models behind the times.
Four years later, Kit Car Illustrated debuted the F355 Spider on the cover of the June 2000 issue, taunting me even more. It was drop dead gorgeous, but of course the photographer knew exactly how to capture the best angles of the kit to impress:
Both kits appeared to have a few issues with them, though it wouldn't be until 2008 before I'd discover just how much those magazine articles glossed over the true effort to make an IFG body kit remotely close to the actual Ferrari. I learned first-hand when a friend became overwhelmed with his IFG conversion, and offered it to me for a price I couldn't refuse.
IFG was one of the original companies making F355 replicas. Over time, they made at least one major redesign to improve their body kit's lines. The second generation kit had modifications to the roof and sail panels among other more subtle changes. They have long since stopped making kit cars, though several less scrupulous entrepreneurs splashed moulds from their earlier body kits and sold even poorer quality reproductions for a while. I believe the body kit I initially bought from my friend is one of these cloned kits.
I walked into this kit with my eyes wide open though. So rather than gloss over the shortcomings of the IFG kit, I decided to document just how poorly it was made, and the overwhelming effort required to turn it around. If it helps even one person make up their mind to spend more money up front for a higher quality kit, then I'll have succeeded in making the kit car world a tiny bit better.
So for starters, this next photo says a thousand words about the quality of the IFG kit. I've drawn a few reference lines to capture not only the obvious deviations from the real F355, but also the many more subtle ones too. (Disregard the difference in wheelbase since the camera does lie in this instance... both cars have 96.5" wheelbases):
1. the most obvious problem is the wheel gaps. Back in post #29, I pointed out the rear wheel gaps were 6-3/8" and the fronts 5-13/16" tall when this body is installed on a stock ride-height Fiero. The stock Fiero suspension doesn't come close to having enough total vertical travel to reduce those gaps to a typical 2 inches without using up every last bit of upward travel. This is probably the biggest design issue with the IFG body, and the biggest hurdle for the average builder to overcome;
2. the shape of the front fender opening is completely different than the Ferrari's, moreover, the left and right front wheel openings on the kit aren't even symmetrical: they're different shapes, widths, heights, and locations fore and aft!;
3. the upper curvature of the front fender makes the hood area look bulbous, unlike the sleek lines of the F355's;
4. the crookedness of the belt line groove along the length of the body is appalling;
5. the rocker panels are integrally moulded to the bottoms of the doors when they shouldn't be;
6. the shape of the rear quarter window frame is wrong;
7. the slope of the B-pillar is wrong compared to the real F355; and
8. the kit doesn't include A-pillar trim panels.
From other views even more discrepancies show up:
From the photo above:
A. all four fender openings are tilted inboard toward the centre of the car as they rise to the peak of the arches;
B. again, the rear quarter windows aren't properly arched;
C. the rear window frame is improperly shaped;
D. the rear deck lid grill is cupped into a concave shape when it should be flat;
E. the upper rear fascia line is bowed downward when it should be horizontal;
F. the lower rear fascia line is bowed upward instead of being flat;
G. again, the belt line is crooked; and
H. the body has a Coke bottle shape with recessed doors and flared front and rear fenders, which aren't features on the actual F355.
Additionally, there are a host of other flaws, including:
-badly warped door skins;
-improperly made door jambs;
-non-existing mounting flanges;
-very poor gel coat application and coverage;
-shallow door and rocker scoops;
-ill fitting engine deck lid; and
-poorly finished edges throughout.
And, as if that weren't enough, some of my own decisions created problems as well, such as choosing the 7" extended windshield. Here's the IFG hood compared to an actual F355 hood:
The IFG hood was designed for use with the stock Fiero windshield which is much less rounded at the cowl than the actual F355. My custom windshield means that in addition to having to re-arch the trailing edge of the hood, I also have to relocate the HVAC inlet on the hood further forward. One advantage by doing so, is that I'll get rid of the wiper arm notch in the hood (see arrow) that isn't supposed to be there.
The changes needed to the IFG body kit to make it simply fit the Fiero chassis, never mind even look remotely close to the original F355, will take an order of magnitude longer than the advertised 48 hours in one of the magazine articles. Several hundred hours of work lay ahead for the would-be builder, and that is only if they are experienced in fibreglass and body work. If one must pay a shop to do the work, then the typical hourly shop rates of $60 -$70 per hour would quickly add up to several tens of thousands of dollars once paint is included.
This partly explains why IFG kits disappeared, and why any as-yet unfinished ones sell for a price no one can refuse. Do yourself a favour though, and spend the extra money to buy an Air Dynamics AD355 instead. As of this writing, they are hands down the best fitting and best quality kits still on the market. While no kit is perfect, the extra up-front cost will literally save many thousands of dollars in refinishing costs, and many hours of frustration.
Luckily for me, I was spared most of the work and cost to make my IFG body kit presentable. More on that in my next post.