Thanks Rogman,

I have to say - this is the first Vette I've owned and the way these cars are put together is horrific to say the least. Quality control? nah! The up side of this, is it allows a hack like me to look like I'm pretty darn good at this LOL!

Thanks for looking!
Adam

 

Managed to spend the better part of today sanding the front clip. As I have been working on the car, I was using my air hose to blow off dust etc. I was getting "chunks" of paint and primer coming off the tops of the fenders just with air pressure - right down to the fiberglass.

At some point, the surround was replaced and it seems like they didn't rough up the fiberglass enough for the primer to bite on. The rest of the car still has the original paint as a base. I have sanded the tops of the fenders and the nose down to a clean starting point which was a lot of work, but really the only option.

The front clip is almost ready for some real primer/sealer. Little more sanding to do on the left side, but it's closer.








Thanks for looking,
Adam

 

I was GIFTED a new (to me) fiberglass front bumper cover. It's a '73-'74 style which are much cleaner looking - no bumper guards etc. it's a fiberglass piece, so I may end up glassing it in and going seamless on the nose and tail. It will require some creative glass work because the earlier covers have a slightly different shape in the center where it bolts to the body (see photos).





Should look pretty nice when it's done!

The person who gave me this cover would like to remain anonymous, and I will respect his wishes - but I will say THANK YOU!!!!! You know who you are and your gift is greatly appreciated!

Thanks for looking,
Adam

 

You are doing an amazing job Adam... Can't wait to see the pictures of you grafting the 73/74 fiberglass bumper to your '77... Remind me of the timeframe you are shooting for paint??? Still looking at a "burnt" orange flavor???

We just started crossing the 90 degree (96 degrees predicted for Sunday) mark in Vegas... How's the temperature in AZ??? Drink plenty of water while you are "slaving" away...



Rogman

 

Thanks Rogman - We're going over the 100 mark this weekend. Combine that with family time Sat and Sun and I won't be getting much done. Should be a little more normal temps by next weekend. If it doesn't cool back down soon it will be too hot to shoot the primer.

Paint won't be happening until next fall. I'm just trying to get it in a coat of sealer for now, and then will continue on with the bodywork after the hot season is over.

We are still tossing around colors at this point. It's pretty fun after we've decided we're going to do whatever the heck we want lol

Adam

 

Wife told me last night - "Isn't it about time to take that thing on a longer drive?" I explained I need to get it shot in sealer and put back together enough to install the tail lights etc. Also need tires before I can drive it very far and a couple of misc. things. I think she understands now that we'll need to throw some more $$ at it to accomplish that.

 

Tass stopped commenting about the amount of money I was spending on the '73 several months ago... Think she is numb!!!

At Coffee and Car today, there was a very shiny DSOM C6... It really looked nice... Thought of you and snapped a photo:



Really sparkled in the sun!!!

Rogman

 

Dang... That is BRIGHT! It looks pretty red on my screen, but I can see where the sun is hitting it, that it looks like a bronze/orange color. Is that Daytona Sunset Orange?

Thanks for posting that up!
Adam

 

Yepper, it was DSOM... And the M for metallic was popping in the Vegas sun light yesterday!!!

Rogman

 

It certainly is screaming at you to pay attention That's a very cool color.

Adam

 

Made a decision today. The fit of the right side fender where it meets the door is complete crap. It's been one of those - should I or shouldn't I attempt to fix it. Well, I'm going in. If I'm not back in a couple of days call the cops and start the missing person search

There is no way I can live with this. It's been put together incorrectly. The fender is cracked in two spots (found that after grinding on it this morning), and the fender was sticking out from the door literally 1/2" at the top. I knew I had some door adjusting to do, but by pulling the fender loose from all the bonding at the firewall - adjusting fit, sanding, grinding etc, etc, I will only be adjusting the door about 1/16" out at the top. Much more acceptable.

I'm headed out to rebond the fender to the firewall now. Kicking some serious *** on this thing today and it feels good!

Photos will follow of course!

Adam

 

"Well, I'm going in"
I don't think any of us doubted that you would :-)
Keep it up.. you are moving right along.

 

Give her ****!!!!!!

 

OK... it's screwed and clamped together and the adhesive is curing. Man, that is stressful when you're doing it by yourself. Zero room for error and it's 82 degrees out right now so this stuff was starting to setup really fast.

If I drank, I'd have one right now

We'll see how it looks after I pull all the clamps off. IF it looks good, then I'll move on to glassing in the cracks and start building up the door gap with glass as well.

It hit me why it was so off. At some point, they replaced the surround and when they did this they didn't use the factory bonding strip as a point to cut the lower fenders off. They did it about 1/2" below that - just slightly above the bottom edge of the bonding strip. Not the right way first of all. On top of that, they didn't get the new surround to fit correctly with the lower fender on the right side which pushed the fender up and made it fit like it was.

If that was a professional repair, they should not only have their business license taken away but their man card as well.

Adam

 

Yeah... I'm pretty at times. In WAY over my head, but what the heck. I'm going for it.

 

Any chance of getting a before and after shot to see your handiwork?

 

Yep.. will be posting photos for sure. I took some before and a couple of it just now. I'll take a few more during the glassing steps and then a finished shot and post them up all at once.

 

AdamMeh,

Looking great dude! Keep it up with LOTS of pics please.

btw PM sent.

michael

 

OK... here is the passenger door / fender progress so far

Here is what I started with when we got the car. The gap is completely whacked and you can see the cracks and the top edge of the fender has pulled away from the bonding strip. It's just nasty looking and the photos make it look better than it did in person. The top edge of the fender was sticking out 1/2" from the door!

To be honest, this was almost a deal breaker when looking at the car because I have zero experience working with fiberglass. But then determination (read that as stupidity ) set in and I went for it.





Now it starts to get really ugly. I ground into the cracks and also uncovered a plethora of pop rivets. Drilled those all out. Notice the top corner of the fender is cracked as well as almost half way into the center line of the front tire. Someone had tried to "bond" the top corner to the bonding strip with silicone Talk about a royal PITA to get off the backside of the fender.




Getting uglier! I ground into the door as well for my work on the gap. I pulled all of the fender to firewall bonding loose and got behind the fender to grind off all of the old adhesive on the bonding strips.




OK... still ugly but a little better now. I used my bonding adhesive and screwed everything together to cure.

 

Still pretty darn ugly - After the adhesive cured, I pulled all the screws and started in on the glass work to fix the cracks.





That was the end of my day yesterday... a very LONG one.