That's so frustrating!!! It's par for the course: seems like a lot of times we're one step forwards and two steps back on these restorations!

 

I as able to put in some serious hours in the shop last night: Stereo blazing, ice cold beer, and letting fiberglass fly!

I'm done with the drivers side so it's time to fit the passengers side. I figured this out now and approached this a little differently: things went a lot smoother and this side needed a lot less trimming



as always I had to fit, trim, and re fit to get everything right. This Milwaukee 4" cut off wheel just cuts through fiberglass like a hot knife though butter! I've learned that besides the right PPE (respirator, goggles, long sleeves, & gloves) that a fan to remove all the fiberglass outside while cutting ensures I'm not covered in fibers afterwards and my lungs aren't polluted.



She's fitting in and I did find an old repair on this corner. I made my own bonding strip that's going in and I'll have all fresh glass in this quarter, so I'm glad I did the full quarters on both sides.



Next I had to sand through the countless layers of bondo and paint - it's crazy how far I had to go to get to the glass! But, you can't fiberglass over bondo, so I got don to the base layer of glass to work into.



Both sides are cleaned up and both quarters are fitted! No the rain has finally stopped today and i'll wait for the humidity to subside over the next few days to glue them in!

 

Great news, progress and pictures.

 

Back on the quarters today and started with finishing up the passenger side. There was a spot on the door sill that was too much in and the gaps and alignment just weren't quite right so I hade to figure out something to raise up the fender and create a perfect alignment with the door. After thinking it over and even experimenting with fiberglass shims, i decided to build the area up Kitty Hair so I could shape it exactly as I needed for the perfect fit.

I haven't used this stuff in years and not much has changed: it's pretty easy to work with, but the long strand fiberglass holds it all together , so it's different than using body filler. It does enable you to shape it more and it holds it place. I'll be able to sand this with 80 grit to my desired shape once it cures and get the correct alignment.



I then used some fiberglass trimmings to make a condo strip on the back side




while that as curing , I was able to sweet talk my wife into helping me glue the drivers quarter on . A second set of hands is imperative to hold it in place to keep alignment while you drill and pop the cleco clips in. we did a dry run to show her what the objective was and the alignment marks, then laid down the 3M structural epoxy, and we carefully put the quarter on. I started at the door paying close attention to the gaps and body molding by putting one Cleco in. Then we checked out alignment and carefully worked my way back. It went really well and we got the drivers side glued in and perfectly aligned:

 

Looks great!

 

Amazing work!

 

Love the sound of it!!!

 

Thanks! Going to have this project wrapped up this week, and then i'll have plenty more fun to dive into!

 

I got sick this week and had to focus on effort on getting through the work week, but come Friday I was itching to get in the shop and get the other quarter on!

Started with completing the fitting and shaping so I could get the door to quarter gaps perfected. This was accomplished by putting the quarter on, making measurements, marking them, and then adding or removing material in the areas required:




And this process continued as I slowly got closer to perfection. A razor blade works well to reveal small 1/16" differences so you can get an accurate picture:



Mark where to remove, sand, rinse, and repeat!!!



After a while I got it exactly where I wanted it, and then had my buddy come help me position the quarter so I could put my alignment marks on and glue it in. You really need someone holding the back in position while you work the front against the door so it doesn't move on you, once we did that and were confident in our position we made a bunch of alignment marks then laid down the 3M panel bond:



And once again, I started from the front with the Cleco clips and carefully worked my way back while my buddy held it in position and we constantly checked the alignment. Got her glued in exactly where she needs to be to leave nice gaps and a centered wheel:

 

Nice work!
Glad you’re feeling better
Check out how stingrayiii67 is filling his door gaps.
Look at the last couple of videos he posted.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...d-restore.html

 

Thank you!

He's a fiberglass wizard! I'm going to copy his method!! Thanks for sharing.

 

Took the wife to church this morning, then had the whole afternoon to spend in the shop knocking out my C3 with sunshine and mid sixties today!

First order of business was to glass in the fenders and fill the seams with glass. Per Custom Image's advice, I cut up and pulled apart fiberglass then mixed a Jelly with it. The first batch ended up being too dry. So I made a second, and it just didn't spread well at all. I think the issue is the strands where too long, and it would pull together. Josh told me he literally put the fiberglass in a paper shredder to make the jelly! So this method wasn't great for me and I decided to not move forward with it.



Went to the other side and cut piles of then strips of fiberglass and used the tried and true method to fill the seams and glass in the fenders. Messy per usual but it certainly worked!




No I had a couple of hours for the resin to cure, so it was on to the windshield frame! I had determined Friday night that the top of the windshield didn't need to come out, I just needed to weld in some patches. This would be less time and remove the margin for error by cutting up the whole frame. I tackled the worst rust first:



I cut out the cancer, then made a cardboard template to transfer over to some 18ga steel:



After burning and grinding the patch in, the cancer is gone! Not my prettiest welds, and need to do a little more clean up, but she's solid now!



Next was to rip off the band-aid and tackle the lower corner. I committed to cutting the corner and carefully marked my cut:



And the wound is opened up:



Here's my donor corner, that i'll have to cut out to make a patch:



Just have to make this fit now.. Good news is I can't make it any worse LOL
​​​​​​​

 

You are braver than I!

 

It was not easy making that cut!!! Cringed while doing it LOL

 

Today marks 2 years since I bought my car and 1 year since I yanked the engine for a cam swap, then said 'screw it! Let's do a frame off while i'm at it!" LOL It's been constant scope creep, but you don't know what you got until you take it apart. I've had a lot of fun and have learned a lot with this car! Looking forward to having a car I can enjoy for years and be proud of soon! Of course on this special day I had to hit the shop at 4PM and get busy!

First chore as blocking down the previous fiberglass work. Got the highs with the DA then hand blocked it all down:



I noticed a couple of areas that have air pockets. I struggled with this when laying the strips in a couple of spots and it came back to haunt me. This can expand & contract under the paint, so I'll have to grind it out and redo it tomorrow.


I went to the drivers side, sanded it down, then got ready to finish the glass work. Seeing the bubbles motivated me to go back to the glass jelly recommended method. It was obvious my issue previously was too long of glass strands so to mitigate this I cut then strips (1/2" wide) then cut it off in about 1/2" increments into a cup. I then took the scissors and cut it even further. I mixed an ounce of epoxy in a cup and mixed in the glass until I got my desired consistency. This laid in really nicely , didn't clump and pull together, and didn't have any air pocket issues!! I'll be using this method tomorrow to fix the air pockets I'm grinding out.




what do we do while fiberglass cures? Rust repair on that bird cage!

So this is the mess we left off with on Sunday:



And I have a late model corner that's a little different from the 68-72 corners (early ones are fully flat). So I've been cutting this thing apart to make a patch, cutting out spot welds, and hammering on it to make it fit better.. I cut the spot welds on the old piece and remove the lip from on top of the inside corner. This will allow a clean install by welding them both together at the factory location to create a perfect mating surface for the windshield. I kept getting closer and closer and I worked away at my patch panel..




After finally got everything to line up in the factory spots and it fitted, I started to tack it in and get it fitted. There was still some hammering to get that bump on the old piece to mate and blend with the patch.

"there ain't nothing you can't fix with a welder and cold beer" Bubba 3:16

 

It is really coming along nicely!

 

Thanks! I feel like I'm starting to get over the hump!

 

I had to go back and grind out those dry spots of glass on the drivers side, so let me tell you what I found out I did wrong: Should of made generous bevels so the glass could lay down without steep edges and I could then use a roller to get all the air out. I decided to make very short strand glass and mix epoxy into a jelly, then use fiberglass rollers to press the air out. This second attempt was successful! the problem with the air pockets is expansion/contraction of the air that could of damaged my paint job in the future.

Grinded the dry spots and prepared to reglass:



Blocked out the passenger side:



Then put down another layer of glass:

 

Could you show what a more 'generous bevel' looks like? I'll be there soon (on the front end, and various repairs) so it would be good to have a visual.
thanks

 

I don't have a picture, but let me better describe it for you: You have the groove above the top of the fender from the exposed bonding strip. You want to sand down the edges of the new quarter so it's not a sharp 90 degree incline from the groove, but sand it down so it's more of a 45 degree angle from the groove from the bonding strip. This allows the fiberglass the spread out and doesn't pull the bottom up making air pockets, and will make your time working with the fiberglass easier. I also purchased fiberglass rollers off of Amazon to help press the air out of the glass.