Body work
Thread Starter
Cruising
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 10
Likes: 0
From: Union Grove Wi.
Body work
Hey folks,
Is there a forum for body work? I keep looking and have not found it yet. I just bought a project 80 vette. I'm trying to get the lines straightened for paint and found the hood is a half an inch higher then the quarter panel. It lines up at the hinge and the hood latch but not in the middle. I bieleve the problem is in the quarter panel. The hood is nice and straight. Can I raise the quarter panel at the bad spot?
This is my first vette and I do not know the history of the car. I've had the car for a couple of weeks and I am new to the forum. Thanks.
Is there a forum for body work? I keep looking and have not found it yet. I just bought a project 80 vette. I'm trying to get the lines straightened for paint and found the hood is a half an inch higher then the quarter panel. It lines up at the hinge and the hood latch but not in the middle. I bieleve the problem is in the quarter panel. The hood is nice and straight. Can I raise the quarter panel at the bad spot?
This is my first vette and I do not know the history of the car. I've had the car for a couple of weeks and I am new to the forum. Thanks.
Race Director
Joined: Sep 1999
Posts: 11,360
Likes: 382
From: Plano TX
Safety Car
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 3,687
Likes: 833
From: WI
Couple things:
Technically it's referred to as a "front fender" not a quarter panel (that's the rear). No shops or literature that I read refer to it as the front 'quarter panel', and I worked at a body shop for years. Just telling you this so you don't sound like a rookie.
Secondly, how to handle the situation; first realize that Corvette fit and finish in the late 70's and early 80's was atrocious in many instances. If you look closely at bodylines of brand new Vettes in 1980's Corvette News and period magazines, you'll detect poor fitting bumpers and hoods. The body lines were WAY off in some instances. The factory was pumping those cars out as fast as they could at St. Louis, beyond what the factory was originally designed to produce (one reason they built a new assembly line at Bowling Green). All that production lead to fit and finish problems on many cars. Many customers would write into magazines talking about how great the car was but how poor the fit and finish was ... how thin the paint was, runs in the paint, many would refuse the car until the dealer made appropriate repairs ...that kind of thing. In fact, the Mazda RX7 and Dautsun 280Z cars were considered better built back then and gave the Vette serious competition. Additionally, over the years, who knows what work, or parts were swapped on your cars. So, how to fix? First, a lot of restorers will advise to check the adhesive bond at the joint on the top of the fender lip (the part that's on the inside of the fender well where the hood meets the fender. This area can come un-adhered due to body flex and may lose it's position potentially causing the top fender to flatten. People for some reason like to sit on the car fenders and that can cause old tried out adhesive to crack too. That may be the case with your car and it may be a simple matter of raising it and re-adhering it (using the appropriate adhesive for SMC). If not, some suggest breaking the bond with a sturdy putty knife and re-adhering the top of the fender, but lifting it up, or lowering down slightly as needed to make to top of the fender fit the hood line.
My car had just the opposite situation where the hood was lower in that region than the fender. I broke the seam I outlined above, but I did not have success in getting the top of the fender to flex down to a significant level where it needed to be to match the hood contour. The top panel was just too stiff. What I ultimately ended up doing, was applying a couple coats of epoxy primer to the fender and hood. After thoroughly curing, I sanded the hood with 40 grit (to give filler something to 'bite' to. Then, with the hood installed, I applied a big load of bond to the hood and top of the fender ...basically built up the edge of the hood to meet the fender curve. I probably applied 1/4" of filler at the thickest in the center part of the hood. Sanded the contour to match the rest of the hood and finished per normal bodywork. In fact, this is how the car was when I got it. Not the ideal solution I was hoping for, but it worked. Indeed the previous owner ...or someone did the same some years ago and it heald up fine. So, there are a couple ideas for you to try. Note, I had to do a similar thing to get the new bumpers I bought to match realy well to the body. If you are going to try to get a near 'perfect' fit on your panels, you're very likely going to have to use filler in strategic places. Note: don't apply regular fiberglass or filler directly over SMC panels. It won't hold. Try it, you'll see. Thats why I applied the epoxy primer and filled ontop of that. Best of luck.
Mark G
Technically it's referred to as a "front fender" not a quarter panel (that's the rear). No shops or literature that I read refer to it as the front 'quarter panel', and I worked at a body shop for years. Just telling you this so you don't sound like a rookie.
Secondly, how to handle the situation; first realize that Corvette fit and finish in the late 70's and early 80's was atrocious in many instances. If you look closely at bodylines of brand new Vettes in 1980's Corvette News and period magazines, you'll detect poor fitting bumpers and hoods. The body lines were WAY off in some instances. The factory was pumping those cars out as fast as they could at St. Louis, beyond what the factory was originally designed to produce (one reason they built a new assembly line at Bowling Green). All that production lead to fit and finish problems on many cars. Many customers would write into magazines talking about how great the car was but how poor the fit and finish was ... how thin the paint was, runs in the paint, many would refuse the car until the dealer made appropriate repairs ...that kind of thing. In fact, the Mazda RX7 and Dautsun 280Z cars were considered better built back then and gave the Vette serious competition. Additionally, over the years, who knows what work, or parts were swapped on your cars. So, how to fix? First, a lot of restorers will advise to check the adhesive bond at the joint on the top of the fender lip (the part that's on the inside of the fender well where the hood meets the fender. This area can come un-adhered due to body flex and may lose it's position potentially causing the top fender to flatten. People for some reason like to sit on the car fenders and that can cause old tried out adhesive to crack too. That may be the case with your car and it may be a simple matter of raising it and re-adhering it (using the appropriate adhesive for SMC). If not, some suggest breaking the bond with a sturdy putty knife and re-adhering the top of the fender, but lifting it up, or lowering down slightly as needed to make to top of the fender fit the hood line.
My car had just the opposite situation where the hood was lower in that region than the fender. I broke the seam I outlined above, but I did not have success in getting the top of the fender to flex down to a significant level where it needed to be to match the hood contour. The top panel was just too stiff. What I ultimately ended up doing, was applying a couple coats of epoxy primer to the fender and hood. After thoroughly curing, I sanded the hood with 40 grit (to give filler something to 'bite' to. Then, with the hood installed, I applied a big load of bond to the hood and top of the fender ...basically built up the edge of the hood to meet the fender curve. I probably applied 1/4" of filler at the thickest in the center part of the hood. Sanded the contour to match the rest of the hood and finished per normal bodywork. In fact, this is how the car was when I got it. Not the ideal solution I was hoping for, but it worked. Indeed the previous owner ...or someone did the same some years ago and it heald up fine. So, there are a couple ideas for you to try. Note, I had to do a similar thing to get the new bumpers I bought to match realy well to the body. If you are going to try to get a near 'perfect' fit on your panels, you're very likely going to have to use filler in strategic places. Note: don't apply regular fiberglass or filler directly over SMC panels. It won't hold. Try it, you'll see. Thats why I applied the epoxy primer and filled ontop of that. Best of luck.
Mark G
Thread Starter
Cruising
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 10
Likes: 0
From: Union Grove Wi.
Thanks Mark for correcting my bad description. I also want to thank you for some excellent information. I will look into this repair as soon as I can. Darned work keeps getting in my way.
Thanks, Larry.
Thanks, Larry.
