ptwohey

Pauly, thanks but the original issue with the pillar has been fixed and all I had to do was to remove the fiberglass cover, cut the bottom of the pillar along with the corner braces, get a porta power and bend the top of the pillar with the w/s frame and cowl all connected forward 1/4", remove the hinges and use a milling machine to make the slots 1/4" longer, then weld everything back in place! Very simple job, yea...right, but it did fix the fit problem.

The latest problem was the drivers fender being longer than the pillar cover but I received a PM from a member telling me that my door should be wider. The 40 5/8" isn't correct. If I was to make the leading edge of the door 1/4" wider plus the MAX spacing between the door and fender gap, it might fix the issue. If I had any idea of how wide the door should actually be it would help solve this.

ptwohey

Miss me? Some of you might have been wondering what became of my and my '66 project. Nothing in over a year. It is under dust but soon to be brushed off. The reason, I didn't want to work on this car since 2004 only to mess it up at the end. I believe it is ready to glue back together but that is my weak spot.. never did that before. I will be asking (again) for help and thanks to the responses from many of you I got this far looking pretty good. Now that the new front fglass has been sitting in place for a year and the quarter panel is clipped on, I need to find out what is my next step? I tried lining up the doors with no load on either the front or rear pillars. The doors are tight. Should I start by working the rear quarters and pillars first or the front clip or does it matter?

DansYellow66

Welcome back Pat. You are way in over my head but I'll offer 2 cents worth that there is a lot more involved in putting a front end on, versus quarters. So maybe it makes sense to get the front end in place and fit the doors to the front end and the rear quarters to the doors. At least as long as it doesn't push the doors too far back to where they bind at the rear. Hopefully some of the experienced rebuilders will weigh in for you.

Dan

Scott Marzahl

Doesn't matter what kind of car your building, Fit doors to opening first and match up to them or nothing else fits correctly. In your case with the B pillars needed to be welded you need to locate them with the door gap to the A pillar being set first correctly.

ptwohey

Dan, you are not the first one to tell me how far over my head I've gotten with this project...but...I have spun quite a few heads with my progress.. know to be the only one who has rescued this much crap from the junk bin.
I will take your advise and concentrate on the nose first. I have already cut through the lower hinge pillar and pushed it forward 1/4" at the top to help the vent frame to fit better. A 1/16" saw cut at the bottom pushed to open 1/8" made a huge difference at the top... but I have no way of knowing if I did that for a good reason.

Nice hearing from you again.

I did get a lead on a veteran body tech who did Corvettes in the '70's who just might come visit and help out. Waiting for him to return my calls.

ptwohey

Just woke up to reality again! Scott and Dan, I'm keeping a log of the information you are offering and every once in the while I visit the shrine. Lining up the doors makes sense so I am working with a piece of wood 3/8" think under the doors and setting up the hinges so the outer door skin is about 3/16 to 1/4 inches to the outer edge of the nose bonding area. I'm guessing that the bonding cement will be that thickness once dried. The drivers vent window is my concern now with the line up to the windshield frame. I'm taking it slow, as you well know, trying different shims on the hinges and still keeping the door lever with the rocker. My only alignment point so far is center of the door to center of the rocker as a go by thinking that is how the factory would do it? The lock pillars are still floating and I'm hoping that once the nose is in place and bonded, the rear pillars are loose enough to make them fit before welding in the cross divider. If anyone knows of a thread explaining how others have done this please forward the link. Working blind is making it difficult to see the light.in this never ending tunnel I have gotten myself in to.

Question! It is obvious that my project has been abused prior to my owning it and who knows who repaired it. My question is: does the rear seam of the fender bond flush with the inside edge of the hinge pillar fiberglass? When the original nose was on this car there was 1/4 to 3/8" filler of bondo at the door seam. If I trim the new nose to match the pillar f'glass the door will need extending which seems doable but is this correct? If I line up the door/fender gap to be even, the fender over laps the hinge pillar big time. Stay cool!

ptwohey

This new way of loading photos is awesome! Thanks to whomever came up with this program.

Scott Marzahl

Hi Pat, first I would install the vent windows back on the door and temporarily tape the weatherstrip to the windshield frame otherwise you might end up in trouble down the road trying to fit the vent windows to the windshield frame. The vent window frame has very little adjustment fore and aft. You can end up with too much of a gap or too little that will put excessive pressure against the window frames. This will help you locate the door fore and aft. Secondly do not shim the door that far out. If you plan on using epoxy adhesive, the best bond strength is with minimal adhesive, not even 1/16” thick. In some areas you may need to shim out the panels for the best fit but otherwise use minimal adhesive.

Like the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. IMHO focus on getting your rear end and B pillars tacked together. I would make sure your rear deck lid is adjusted with good gaps to the rear deck panel. Put rear tires on the car to ensure that when you duct tape, clamp or screw your rear quarters in place that the wheel is centered in the wheel opening. Install the rear bumpers, this is key on fitting your rear quarters. Install the door latches to the B pillar with the B pillar covers and latch the doors to them. Use the interior fiberglass wheel well trim panels as a guide to help locate the B pillars with the covers installed, and you can tack the B pillars and luggage stop for now. All these items will help you make sure the doors are in the right location and the rear quarter mid lines fit to the doors perfect. You should have even gaps at the inside of the doors to the A pillars, approximately 3/8” +/- and you should have even gaps from the vent window frame to the windshield, the vent window should fit nice and snug against the windshield weatherstrip.

With these items located I would move to the front end.

ptwohey

Thanks Scott, I appreciate all your input and the way you explain why each step is important. That vent frame alignment has been an issue and that's why it is off now; with it on I could not get a close fit on the door seam..now it's my guess that the original door seam was shaved back. Like everything else on this car, I spend many hours putting it on and taking it off, to make sure I can duplicate the assembly as a hint that it is being done correctly. I made note of the close gap for epoxy.

Can you comment about the seam between the fender edge and A pillar cover? Flush or bondo fill? Of course, the after results of filling with bondo will give the appearance of flush.. but just how much bondo should be there if any? My present direction is no bondo with just a sanding of the epoxy bonding agent.

alexandervdr

Unclear to me if the epoxy bonding agent you used is on the outside of the body or not. But if it is, there are reports of epoxy adhesive swelling from sun heat and making seams visible through paint and surface finish. I did use epoxy panel adhesive to glue panels, but not for seams on the outside of the body. I did a test in the oven at 100°C (212° F), and the (car industry grade ) epoxy does swell slightly and becomes somewhat softer, confirming the reports.
Evercoats "Vette panel adhesive" does not seem to have this issue, if only I could get in in Europe...

ptwohey

So you are suggesting the quarters first, front end second?

ptwohey

alexandervdr, interesting point, The bonding adhesive I plan to use is made by EverCoat. I have used it to bond the pillars and firewall areas that I cut to gain access. I do know that a heat gun will soften the bond but I'll have to inquire about swelling. That could be an unsightly mess under an expensive paint job! Thanks!

ptwohey

As I stare at the B pillar to quarter joint, I remember why I have not bonded it yet. I'm not sure if the quarter panel delivered is trimmed to the proper lines. When I had the door on the latch did catch but it rubbed the pillar enough to remove pillar material. Now I'm guessing that if I did bond the quarter to the pillar and shimmed something somewhere, I could gain the clearance needed for the latch but there is a but. If I use the quarter to pull the B pillar back, with the body distort from the stress? Such a mystery.

ptwohey

I want to step back to the beginning... the door again. Using the bare body door sill , no carpet and no molding, what thickness of wood should I use to set the doors parallel to the sill and maintain enough area under the door for final assembly? I'm presently using 1/2". Reason? Because that is how I am lining up the body lines of the door to the fender and quarter. Using the pillar bonding areas the door is tilted up in the rear.

Scott Marzahl

Pat, where is your rear deck panel? Can't very well out on quarters without it. Dont pay much attention to those repro CI B pillar covers, they fit line crap. You might gave to cut them and reglass to fit correctly. I used a 1/2" board with some cedar shims under my doors to get the correct height.

ptwohey

I'm getting old but still have enough hope to someday get this thing started and completed, again. 10 years have passed since this project was trailered onto the property and I see that Classic Car prices are roller coasting but from what I've spent so far on this car my only gain is to finish it and feel some accomplishment.

Another winter is here so the other rides are being stored and I'm moving inside for a few months. My TO DO list has "clean up" on the top line and when there is room to move around the jig I have a intentions of once again messaging this body.

Reading back into this thread I am making a list of what to recheck and still feel that I'm putting too much into "perfection". I have measurements from 3 local Vette's and none match, DUH!

My neighbor who has been doing body work for over 40 years is still amazed that I took on this project but is willing to help. His own '65 that he's owned since he was 18 is one of my go-by's but at his shop so every time we need to check something we take a trip with the list.

So clean up is under way and when the snow starts falling, the door line up to the pillars and w/s will get started, I think! I'm getting a new tax adviser this year to see if this project can be written off as a dependent.

DansYellow66

Give it a name and marry it. Seems that more states are allowing about any type of marriage now. (I know politically incorrect).

Doug F.

And now the "supreme court"...

ptwohey

The day after elections and it does not take a genius to figure out who voted for who and it has a lot to do with reputation of RI being a free state... if you don't work that is. Phones at the local department stores have eliminated #1 from the key pad... opps... am I getting off tack here?

One of the many reasons to get this Vette done... to drive south with it before this state votes to tax me on what it cost to restore! They may even charge me a penalty for not claiming wages that can be taxed!

Does your state have a 6 member board that determines what your car should be valued at for tax purposes? Not one member on this state's board owns a car that is more than 3 years old...hmmm.

JohnZ

My state doesn't tax cars, nor does it levy personal property taxes. Move.