Of course they first send the part and then you send the part back @twisted_nematic57 . There is already a user that only switched the bottom cover in this very thread.
The procedure is more involved, though.
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I Have received my replacement FW12 and transferred my components over. I was one of the ones that had cracking near the expansion card slots. I decided to check the inside of the case on my unit since it was already open. The cracks appear to have gone fully through the case and were spreading towards Motherboard Screw 1 on the left side, and motherboard screw 5 on the right side. I checked the same location on my new FW12 and there was no lines visible in those locations on a new unit.
I did not attempt to fully disassemble my unit, as i want framework to get the unit back as it was used, and i never touched the mainboard screws before or after cracks developed.
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Yours seems more visible than mine was, but exact same placement.
I was only offered a bottom cover replacement.
Here was the left screw1 on mine when I took off the mainboard:
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They offered me a full replacement, as i was also having input cover issues. (my trackpad would not turn off when i switched to tablet mode). So there was multiple components of my system they wanted to inspect. I actually had 2 separate cases open with support for my unit.
did you also happen to notice if expansion cards had a looser fit in the rear slots vs the more forward slots?
Yes, I noticed that too about the expansion slot and card fit, and when I mentioned it in the support ticket thread they asked that I take a video.
I couldn’t tell what it was, but it just felt a little loose. The replacement bottom cover expansion card fit seems better, but hard to tell objectively.
EDIT:
I also noticed the aluminum expansion cards I had were maybe a bit more snug than the plastic ones.
Update: In 3 days of normal usage the crack got bigger and another one popped-up (one more and we’ll have all four corners 
). Support just offered me a full laptop swap. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t go just for the bottom cover tho.
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I have all 3 varieties of expansion card. Aluminum, Solid color plastic, and translucent plastic.
i started off with the translucent ones, but those started to feel a bit loose after maybe 4-5 days, so i ordered black plastic and aluminum modules to try instead.
Swapped to the black plastic ones and they felt more snug then the translucent plastic ones, but after 2 or so weeks those also felt loose. to the point that when i put the laptop down in certain ways i could hear the expansion card rattle a bit in its socket.
I then swapped over to the aluminum modules which were more snug than the other 2 and were snug “enough” through when i swapped the laptop out.
Switching between the rear module slots and the forward slots i could feel a distinct difference in how much play any given module had in its slot. i also swapped from left to right sides with the same modules and the snugness was about the same left vs right. rear vs front mattered much, much more.
In terms of snugness its Aluminum > Solid Plastic Color > Translucent Plastic Color
EDIT: even on the new unit the cards feel slightly more snug in the more forward module slot vs the rear slot.
I also have all three. Translucent plastic, solid plastic and various aluminum (usb-c, usb-a, hdmi, dp, microsd, storage) and even the ethernet card.
I agree with your ordering, but it is hard to say whether the translucent is any better than the solid plastic. I also have a solid plastic one from before the fw12 colored ones were added and that seems even looser. Not sure what the differences in plastics are but could also be slight variations between colors.
I did try the various cards in all the different slots, and some slots were consistenly more loose regardless of type of card. I did notice my mainboard and the alignment of the usb-c ports was ever so slightly off from the factory. May just be I better aligned the mainboard when I transferred it over to the new bottom cover, but I haven’t noticed any particular slot being looser than others now.
I might just get some extra aluminum usb-c cards if it increases rigidity for the bottom cover. I also would purchase a full aluminum bottom cover if that were ever offered in the future.
Just a bit of data for the folks who are curious.
I just tested on my cracked, sage unit. When just assembling the unit normally, I estimate (based on my measurements now that I have a torque screwdriver) that I was applying roughly 4 to 6 inch-ounces of torque to the screws. That’s roughly 0.028 to 0.042 newton-meters. This is based on a 1 to 12 in-oz gauge that was calibrated 4 days ago to within 3% accuracy, lol.
Right now, the cracks are barely visible if the screws are totally loose. If I slowly tighten the screws as tight as I can without making the crack more visible, it barely registers on the gauge. Maybe around 1 inch-ounce. If I keep going, the crack is as bad looking as it ever gets by around 4 inch-ounces of torque. That’s about how much torque it takes to turn the screw enough to feel the parts fully “seat” against each other.
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Don’t suppose you’ve noticed whether there’s a height difference on either side of the cracks when it’s torqued tight enough to open them?
I appreciate the inclusion of non-freedom units as well! 
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On the front corner, yes. It seems like the plastic deforms and “pulls in” a little bit in a certain radius, while outside that radius it remains at the same height, resulting in a slight shadow showing the recessed area when using a flashlight to cast shadows.
However, on the rear corner that also started to develop a slight crack, there is no obvious height difference. The crack does become more noticeable when the screw is tight and is almost impossible to see when it’s not. But there’s no obvious deflection of the case like there is at the front corner.
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Thank you for that 
really fleshing out the likely stress lines in my head.
I’ll start this rather long ramble by saying I love to hack on hardware, I VERY rarely get a tool that meets my instant approval and I never need to ‘tweak and mess with it’ as my awesome wife loves to mutter. I’m more than happy with fixing something like this, I’m fine with keeping my pre-order and knowing that there’s a likelihood of needing to do this at some point.
That’s not for everyone, I’m a bit weird like that but just saying. I’m only writing this in case there’s anyone else in here that’s thinking similarly so we can pool silly or strange ideas on it.
So, I’m still waiting for mine to arrive but I have a really good idea where and what to look for now, also I’ll pay close attention when I’m assembling it to see if I can see if there’s a tolerance issue here in some of the cases that’s causing them to be stressed in unexpected places. I’ll get some light and magnification out on the rear corners screw holes because that sounds like the case is being pulled in a direction it doesn’t want to move in and as for the front corners, with that radius crack that sounds like a height tolerance issue, that the screw is being pulled in further than the standoff should be allowing so I’ll check the heights and measure what is expected.
If needs be I have no worry about moving the heated inserts to correct centering and as for the front corners I can make up a shimming washer or something so it doesn’t pull the case in too tightly.
Only thing left that I’m really intrigued by is the quality of the plastic. Recycling plastic is a tricky thing to do because most recycled plastic is created first by chipping up the source into small pieces and then melting them all back down into a homogenous material again. This inherently breaks the monofilaments of the plastic itself which gives it it’s strength, it can be partially reintroduced again, but it’s never as good the second (let alone third or fourth) time around, which is why it’s commonly blended with ‘virgin’ material. From what I can find the blend in a FW12 is 30-35% recycled to the remaining virgin material (which is standard).
Now I have a memory (that may or may not be false) that it was ABS with overmolded TPU.
If it is ABS then I already have some cunning plans for fixing any cracks which mostly revolves around solving any tolerances I can see and then when the case is closed and tightened, using a ABS slurry (mix some ABS into a small amount of Acetone) to fill the gap. Only issue with that is that is then the case will be slightly larger than it’s designed to be, potentially leading to the expansion cards being looser than expected.
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There is a sticker on the inside under where the battery is that says what it is.
PC+ABS-TD15 FR(40)(REC), TPU
So its polycarb, ABS, 15% talc/mineral blend, FR40 fire resist rating, using recovered/recycled plastic and the separate TPU over molding.
Standard type of plastic for electronics enclosures.
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My batch 7 arrived today and I took a look at the bottom cover screws and noticed a bit of blue. What do you know? Threadlocker! This gave me all the permission I needed to torque the screws just to the point where the screw faces were flush with the cover surface. We’ll see what happens.
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Is this a new development? 
idk. I suspect not.
I’m pretty certain nearly every screw in every framework laptop has some amount of thread locker on it…
Couple small not very worrying cracks have formed on mine that I’ve had since I got it at the end of July, Batch 2 Lavender. Sent a support ticket in.
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I checked today and my laptop has 3/4 cracks at the bottom cover screws, also a crack on the screen cover outside near the hinge. I have opened the ticket too.
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