If you are going to replave a considerable ammount of parts with cannon ones, why don't you build your own sides? Here is a good article laying out the steps involved in building hood sides. http://6axlepwr.com/HOOD_SIDES.html
Sides are okay. Believe it or not, the old Roco/Atlas shells were the first to have doors recessed into the sides and not sticking out like most of the other diesel shells of the time. I've seen that website, that's one of the things that got me back into the hobby. It's funny, for what I'm spending on this thing I could have gotten one of the new Atlas SD-35s.