damoroso

Good points, I'll take a good look at it. Hell, I've got the adhesive, breaking loose the top half of the fender might give me the oportunity to get the very top right too, or closer anyway!

damoroso

Love making progress. Haven't had a ton of time lately, but I can get some stuff done this week. Blasted, primed and painted the headlight hardware:




And started to work on the drivers side door forward door gap. I ground down the fender edge and back only about 1/2", then backed everything up with tape. Then I mixed the high density filler/adhesive and literaly filled the gap, the tape gave a backing so I wasn't just putting filler in a bottomless hole.




Then as the filler started to harden a bit, I started pulling it away from the door, knowing I'd be using a file and sand paper to get the gap to the right size and shape later.



Now, I'll go in and sand/file it do shape and then use the medium density filler for the final shaping.

damoroso

So, this is how the gap turned out. Kinda hard to see with the tape still on, but it's now clean and about 1/8" all the way around the door. The fender needed some fill work to meet the door. The fender for the top 6 inches or so is out from the door about an 1/8 inch and the top of the fender is up about a 3/16ths of an inch. I'll file down the top of the fender and build that corner of the door. The fill will probably have to go back half the length of the door to make it look right, but that's okay.


Oh, and it's been like this around here since Sunday afternoon!!!

damoroso

Finally, after working on the wifes car, friends cars, and my bass players POS Ford truck, I got some time to work on the vette. I think I've actually removed all the old BS repairs and once I'm done with what I've got in front of me now, I can move on to the doors and rear of the car. I finished the fender work including the lip contour on the passenger side. Here's how I transfered the contour from the drivers side over:





Just a touch more sanding and it was good.


Now off to the hood. I got the hood gaps (an Ecklers L88 from a few years ago) as close as I could, which is great along the front and down the passenger side, and about 2/3 of the way up the drivers fender. Then towards the windshield, the gap opens up to just over 1/4" for the last 18 inches or so.

This is a 5/32" drill bit, an 1/8" just fits in most places, the 5/32 in a few:



The passenger side:



Drivers side:



A big gap....



Also, in grinding away the previous repair, for some reason, there was work done to the top of the firewall. I don't understand why you would ever be here grinding, but they did, so I'm fixing it with something other than bondo...





I used the West System high density filler for the first round of the hood gaps, fire wall and passenger door gaps. Here's how I'm doing the door gaps. Start by roughing up the edge (I'm using a rasp file) and back it with tape. Using the tape behind the fender and in front of the door let's me fill the gap then work the material into shape a bit as it starts to set.



Filler it up:



Cut the tape so you can get behind it with a scribe so you can form the filler a bit:





Used the tape as a "form" for the other areas of filler:





Then fill'er up:







With the filler set, I'll do some more grinding (you can start working with this stuff before it's completely set, and it helps to knock down some of it before this stuff really sets) hopefully today or tomorrow, and will then use the medium density filler for final contours.

You can see how much was necessary to fill this gap:



At least I got some work done, I'd really like this finished by the Turkey Run!!

gbarmore

Looks great, can't wait to see your updates as you get that all feathered in, smoothed out and fitted. I just ordered an L88 hood and front and rear fiberglass bumpers for my 80'. Can't live with the wavy urethane. Hopefully I get lucky and they fit half way decent so I don't have to do too much work to get them glassed in. Time to order another gallon of the West resin / hardener. Keep up the good work, i'm going to try out using tape as a 'form' on my next set of fixes. Thanks for sharing.

ignatz

gbarmore: A tip for you. I had to make my hood fit the surround and elected to extend the hood, as the surround shape was stock and the hood was not. I used some adhesive backed cork tape that I got from McMaster-Carr. I stuck it to the underside of the hood and added fiber glass and resin on top.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#cork-tape/=iu8avy

worked great and gave me a nice stiff backing!

damoroso

Thanks Greg, the plan is to have these areas done by the weekend. I won't have time to get back to it till then. I did get a chance to grind on some of it yesterday though, that high density stuff is really hard, and it's stuck too! I was using a rasp file for some of it and was pressing really hard, this stuff isn't going anywhere....ever. There's a bit more grinding to do, I'll finish it with the medium density filler next.








Once these areas are done, I'm going to open up those fender louvers, likely the last four or five (of the eight each side) to help let the air out from under the fenders at highway (and higher) speeds. I'm planning on opening up the sides that are straight up and down and I'll drill drain holes in the others. Right now these things are a great water storage device!

gbarmore

Thanks Ignatz, I checked out that link and not only does it look like it would work well, but it's not that expensive to boot. I like that...!! I'll give it a try if I need a backer like that.

Greg

robert miller

Man looks like you have it down and about half way done on the body lines. Great job on her keep the pic,s coming on the job... Robert

damoroso

Thanks Robert, I'm finishing up the sanding on the hood and door gaps this afternoon and will post pics. I think I'm actually done with the front end after this!!

damoroso

Finally!! Door gaps and hood gaps are done!!! On the front end, I've fixed: the left front fender front corner and wheel opening, left forward door gap, hood gaps (particularly on the left side front corner at the surround and fender gap on the left side towards the windshield) the left headlight opening, the right fender wheel opening, and right forward door gap. Lots of work, but so far, I'm very happy with the results!

Right side door gap:



Left side hood now:

damoroso

Here's how I did the door gaps. A few posts back I showed pic of the high desnity adhesive filler I used and how as it started to cure, I used a pick to form it a bit, and then a razor knife to cut it and the tape used to back it from the gaps. After sanding and filing the high desity stuff to shape, I retaped it all just like I did the first time then used the 404 medium density fairing filler to fill the gap. I did the same pick and razor knife thing as it firmed up.

The gap with the filler before I cut it with the razor:



Once it was set, I used a sander to take down the bulk of the material.



To cut and form the final gap, I used a small ignition file, a regular sized metal file, and a drill bit for a pin gauge. For the door gaps I used a 5/64ths drill. I went this size because in the upper part of the door, on the complex curve, the door and the fender come very close to one another when the door opens and I didn't want to chance chipping paint once the car's painted and there's a build up of primer, paint and clear.

The tools:



Using the small file and "pin guage" I opened up an area large enough to get the regular file in the gap.





Then used the larger file for the rest of the way, though I did have to use the smaller file to finish off some areas to make it clean.



Behind the fender needs attention too.





And you end up with this:



There was more work done on this fender than just the door gaps as you can see by the repaired areas.

markids77

That looks awesome! It has come a long way for sure.

damoroso

Thanks Mark, it's getting there. Maybe one more day of minor odds and ends on the front clip and the fender louvers. Then I'll start taking the doors apart and striping them. They look to be straight, but who know what's under the paint!!!

ManiM1191

nice work! i could only imagine how patient you can be with body work AND doing a thread on it. good luck with the rest

ILLUSHN

I'm really enjoying this thread! Keep up the good work!

damoroso

Thanks guys, I hope the information helps others who might want to do this kind of work. The details on the front clip will be done this week (just some minor finishing and priming), and then I'll post some before and after pics of the areas I worked.

After that's done, I can start on the doors and rear of the car. From what I can see, that SHOULD only be a tear down and strip, but we'll see. My work and band schedule have me pretty tied up this week and weekend, so I probably won't be back after it till next week though.

damoroso

Okay, work, family and life have made progress slow, but it's paid off!! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted on this project, after the major work was done that I describe in the previous posts, the rest of the work was striping paint, pulling the doors apart and off, and removing the rear bumper cover. Then filling in the minor imperfections from removing the paint using the same products I talked about before in the thread.

One more bit of "major" body work. The hood. The L88 hood was fine, but it really didn't give me the clearance I needed. The carb stud had been just rubbing the bottom of the hood and after paint, I really didn't want to deal with any chance of cracked paint. So, sitting with a friend of mine looking at the hood we decided to give it another 2.5 inches of height. Here's how we did it:

Cut the top out of the L88 rise and lift it 2.5 inches in the front. We made the new top of the hood parallel to the belt line of the car:

Original:



Lifted (sorry for the cell phone pic...)



Then using fiberglass mat, the West Systems high density filler and medium filler, started filling in the sides and making contours. The panels in the front you see are from the back where we had to take material out to keep the front slope and profile.







After priming and blocking:

damoroso

Then the car was primed and block...a few times....

damoroso

Then it went to the booth. I had a couple friends of mine who paint for a living do the final blocking and had the shoot the car. Glad I did, it really turned out good! Here it is when we brought it back from the booth:







Then color sanding...








Remember the hood??




Then drove it home to put it back together...it was only a few blocks...