So, I think it's about time for an update. It's been a quite a bit since I've actually posted anything serious on the car for several months, though a few teaser shots were tossed up here and there from time to time. I was holding out until I could finally get it rolling again and outside to fully enjoy it in its fiberglass/non-painted glory! Well, the time has finally come! It's been a long road, but I'm really happy with the outcome.
When I finished off my last update, I had finally flattened the rear doors to the point I was content (they have a touch more work required, but they're 90% there) and was working on getting the gaps *right* where the back of the door met the quarter panel. After many hours sanding and tweaking, I got the gaps right where I wanted them... but forgot to take pictures of the "final" product, so you'll have to use your imagination
With the rear doors finished, I turned my attention to the front doors. At first glance, I didn't think the front doors were going to be that difficult of a project. A couple minor dimples and otherwise I had to clean up around the handles... or so I thought! They started out looking simple:
but ended up needing considerable more work than I had anticipated
Granted, they weren't TERRIBLE, but they definitely weren't as flat as I had anticipated. But after a few hours on each door, I was able to get them to the 90% mark again. I will probably need to do another light skim coat by the handles, but otherwise they're looking pretty good.
With the doors finished, I then changed my focus to the roof. This panel didn't seem that bad, but had a few dimples/divots in it. The majority of what I flattened was actual waves in the sheet metal itself and had nothing do do with a dent or anything. So what started out as what I thought was one or two little dimples...
Started to grow and grow...
But after some loving w/ the block sander again, it resulted in a lot less than filler than it looked like from the picture above
Once the roof was done, onto the trunk lid I went! I made the decision to shave the rear "spoiler" in lieu of a more aerodynamic wing for down the road (help the back end stick a little better at the track). This was another one of those panels where I could have sworn only had one single dip/dent, but as I ran my hand over the panel it too suffered severely from vast waves across the flat surface. So much so that pretty much the entire lid nice a light skim coat on it. Not terrible, but sort of scary looking when you see it. And par for the course, I sanded off ¾ of what I put on. Still learning, though I've gotten a LOT better over the past year of doing this... lol
At this point, the car was starting to look more and more like a car again! I got the front doors flat and then installed. Then got to work on the front fenders! Luckily, they didn't require nearly as much work as the rear fenders after the grafting job I did. Slowly but surely, it's coming together:
And once I got everything good and flat, after following some advice of those much wiser than I in regards to body work (thanks again Ken - Mentosman42 and Hadyn!!!!), I picked up some Rage Extreme filler to do the final filling at the crease where the fiberglass fenders meet the sheet metal. Obviously, these due to the different material properties, the flare is going to shrink/expand at a different rate than the steel. That on top of the typical body flex this car is going to see when in use, the hopes are that this filler helps mitigate any cracks in the paint forming at the junction. It's good in theory at least, here's hoping it actually works!
After a lot of final sanding, I was happy w/ how everything was looking, and the time came to reassemble the `ol girl and get her closer to being back together!
When I bought the bumpers from Martin, the front core was separate from the skin, and the rear was holding on by a thread due to a bunch of missing clips. So when sanding, I separated everything with plans to get new OEM clips to reattach. Unfortunately the clips I ordered, while supposedly the right piece according to the ETKA, weren't even close to working. Thankfully, a quick look through McMaster-Carr and I found what I needed. They aren't quite as big as I'd like, but they're holding the shells to the core support and show no signs of coming off:
At this point, for the first time for just shy of a year, all panels and bumpers were installed back on the car! I finished up around 1am on Saturday (after coming back from Carlisle) and had to fight every fiber of my being to fire the `ol girl up and pull it outside. Figured I didn't want to make enemies with my new neighbors considering they've been rather excited to see me working on cars, etc in the garage!
But w/o much further delay... the final... unprimered product!
To say that I'm stoked is an understatement. Car is really coming together! There's still a bunch of small touch-up stuff I need to do. Next step is to tear the car down again and do final cleanup on the fenders and doors. Then out comes the sandblaster so I can clean the surface rust off in the tight spots and prep it for primer!
Game plan is I'm going to primer the `ol bird myself in the next month or so. Time is kind of tight, but hopefully will be able to make some headway! Once primer is done, will be carting it off again to a body shop and let them spray the color. Also have a few other treats for the `ol girl, but figured I'd let that wait a little longer as a surprise
That's about it for now... hope you enjoyed the show!
Oh, and more proof that I probably have $100+ of body filler on the floor of my garage that I've sanded off
