Well as the sun has come out, I thought it time to re-commence work on the GTS as it's been sat in the garage under cover and very unloved of recent.

I had the rear arches attached when I picked up the rolling chassis, but there's nothing between the arches and bodywork. I've also got a set of Cateringvan stone guards that I'm going to fit as well, as they appeared on eBay and looked pretty....

I know some people have used tadpole trim between the panels, but I was wondering what the advantage over leaving it out was. Is it worth putting a small bead of mastic or sikaflex along the seam at all to smooth it in and look pretty?

Basically i've seen photos of various builds and just curious. I was going to mastic the back of the stone guards before I rivet them on, but not convinced about the rear arches.

Thoughts?

i suppose it just depends on how stiff your body panels are that you are bolting the wings to. fibreglass can tend to pull, and distort a bit leaving gaps where the body has flexed. putting the tadpole trim in between hides any of the gaps. On the Westfields with removable rear arches i dont believe they fit anything in between as the body is quite rigid due to the shape of it

I must admit, I thought of something similar to the Westies with integral rear arches, but I was going to use metal putty (read JB Weld) as it has more chance of staying in place than filler. I used it to fill the joint along the centre of my bonnet that was fabricated from 2 pieces of aluminium sheet and even though it has been on and off the car and shifted around the garage god knows how many times it still seems pretty intact. Not sure how it would stand up to constant battering from road use on the arches but it might be OK.

I've used tadpole trim on my rear arches on the Panther, makes a nice neat job