Very nice.
I'm glad it fit after all the work you’ve been doing to the windshield frame.

 

You and me both! I'm was pretty sure it'd be fine, but will sleep better now I checked before I bond those fender corners back on!!!

 

I've been staying distracted getting my Jeep and boat ready for the spring seasons, but still making sure I squeeze in at least one long night a week on the vette, this week I got two in. I've been keeping my efforts focused on the rear clip, and i've made huge strides recently:

The last section on the rear I needed to strip was the tail light panel I used a heat gun and plastic razor blades successfully to peel off most of the paint:



I then used acetone to strip the 1K primer left on top of the candy red paint job:



Then tediously hand sanded the rear slip to get the rest of the paint off



Then I got the lower seams of the valance and quarters treated to their first round of fiber glass, while a second coat of VPA was also applied to my quarter seams:



Same to the passenger side:



And by the time I was exhausted from sanding, I decided to strip the paint off the drivers side door. I was able to used a razor blade and light heat to peel it off in sheets:



Most the paint is off the car and the rear clip will next be blocked with 120 and work my way up to 220. Finish any body work and she'll be ready for primer, then I'll do it all over again!

 

The Vette is looking good and you’re getting lots of work accomplished.
I finally got the head off my Jeep yesterday.
Monday I’ll drop it off at the machine shop.
Getting those 5 lower intake/exhaust manifold bolts removed was no easy task and who’s brilliant idea was it to put twin catalytic converters directly under the exhaust flange?
I get that they are up high to keep them up out of the weeds and brush but #$&%@?

 

The intake sandwiched with the exhaust manifold is such a PITA to get them off!!!!! Man I don't miss that job!! LOL

Did you find any cracks in the head, or not going to know until the machine shop goes through it?

Yeah I had to change on my Jeep from that roll over in the fall: windshield, windshield frame, front roll bars, winch controller, winch fairlead, and the lower control arm bracket.... Yeah I did some damage last time, but not bad considering I rolled it down a mountain!!!

 

Yah, Try that in a C3!
Or not!

 

Got some time in the shop this weekend and continued to sand away at my rear clip. I decided tackle the sharp edges that I've been avoiding, but it was time to take the step and remove the many layers of paint on top of them. I carefully placed masking tape on the edge and then carefully block sanded them with 120grit:






I then repeated the same process to the other side:







This process worked for me and I didn't damage any of my sharp lines! I then blocked out the whole rear clip with 120 grit. It's pretty cool how much more paint comes off and it started to feather out jumping from 80 to 120! The rear end is starting to look good, but I revealed some nicks that I need to fill in with VPA and block out before I move onto finer paper than 120 grit.

 

Great progress.
More than I got done.

 

That is practically a "how-to" on body prep.

And I am going to need it!

Thanks

 

I'm glad it's useful! I'm getting a lot of good information from this forum, and learning from some mistakes as well! Done with my Jeep and boat this week - as well as the house projects , so I'll be back going hard on body work next week!

 

makes me feel better, been bothering me I haven't been able to get more done! Too many irons in the fire currently!

 

Past two nights I had to finish getting my Jeep ready for the trip this weekend, and it didn't take long today to finish her up, leaving ample time for my Stingray

Jeep's back in one piece and ready for some more action!



Cleaned off the car with acetone and filled all the little nicks with VPA, including another skim coat on my bonding seam:



Handful of little spots needs some VPA here as well:



While this cured, I had some serious attention to give to the rear valance

I installed the old valance as a reference and started to figure out how I would get everything in place to glass in..





After digging around I found some dry wall toggle bolts and fenders washers I could use to pull the corners into alignment and hold it in place while the glass cures. Put them in, and they worked great:



Worked great to get them in place so glass in the next section in the correct alignment:



Then I grinded down the area, cleaned it up, cut some glass, and went to work: Laid don glass front and back with multiple healthy layers so it would hold it's form and I could continue shaping this corner.





When I get back in , i'm going to clean this area up then glass the rest of the section! Plan is to finish this rear end and blocking out the rear clip next week !

 

Great work on both the corvette and the Jeep.
The new head for our Jeep will be here next week.
I’ve got to get the head bolts and a gasket set ordered so I can get it on the road.
While I’m in there, I’m thinking I might as well replace the water pump and get the radiator checked.

 

Glad you're getting the Jeep back together! Nothing like doing two projects simultaneously! lol

Gotta do the water pump and and radiator. The Rock Auto import radiators have worked well for me.

 

Back on the rear valance and the previous fiberglass work had plenty of time to cure. I removed my bolts and everything held it's form quite well!

On the DS I had to move the bolt to the edge and tighten it up to put the end of it into the correct alignment in preparation of my next round of glass work:



PS didn't need any convincing to be in place:



After observing my previous work, I remembered I needed to bevel the edges out so I could fill the gap and build it up, so I broke out the 2" disc and went to work. Body filler and what not was removed on the DS and I made a good area to build up:



Didn't need as drastic as of a bevel on the DS, this picture does have epoxy on it as I almost forgot to snap a pic!



Building up the bevel worked out really well :



You can see the new work next to the old - have a dry spot that I'll have to re-do, but the form is built and will hold at this point so it's no big deal:



Next I marked out all my nics and lows and made another light pass with VPA:



And while all this work cured I removed the door handles from both doors so I can finish stripping them down:

 

Great work!

 

Had my car building neighbor come by to help me remove the windshield [without breaking it] and take a look at what i've been doing to give me a sanity check. .

He thought the quarters looked good , but highlighted some mistakes that i've made and corrective actions: Dura Blocks don't flex well and aren't ideal for a rookie like me on big fiberglass curves like these quarters. He showed me how flexible his blocks were and how to correctly block out a quarter. You want to attack it from ALL angles on a curve and ensure your block is shaping to it and it's not making flat spots. He described it to me as this: Think about sanding a ball with a block, it'll just make the spot you sand flat. So you have to flex around the ball and lightly sand it from ALL angles to shape it and ensure it's even. So from this point I'm going to epoxy the entire rear clip to seal it off and then lay down body filler on the quarters to get them perfect and build them back up, as well as everywhere else it's needed on the rear clip. It's about ready to spray , and I have my filler ready to attack it!



we then pulled the windshield off and he took a look at the repairs I've done. Some tiny areas with oxidation he said to grind out with a carbide bit to clean it up, then spot sand blast the area and epoxy it when I do the rear clip. So that's the current plan!

 

Looking better every day.

 

Continuing on with all the little detail ons the rear clip so I can get it in primer. Tonight I removed all the the chrome trim and metal pieces around the Halo and T bar , then sanded it all down. There was some kind of play dough like sealant under the trim, and it wasn't fun removing, but I got it all out and cleaned out with acetone so I could sand it down:



All the trim and screws bagged & tagged:



Spent the rest of the evening sanding down all the little grooves and crevices in the car, let me just say that "the devil is in the details!" . I got the inside of the fuel door, inside of tail lights, then worked on getting the door jams in better shape. Over the weekend I had used 3M epoxy 0883 in the gap to build a strong layer in the gap to work from, and it worked well and is sandable. I cleaned up the door jams and around the top of the Halo . All the little spots are almost ready for some epoxy!



The door jams will get some body filler after the primer and get smoothed out in the crevices. The last big piece is going to be the rear valance:

A) I have a factory valance that fits correctly , but is set up for tail pipes.

B) I have an ACI side pipe valance that fits so horribly , I don't understand how they're still in business!!!

I'm thinking of cutting filler panels from the ACI to fill the exhaust outlets and smooth all the gaps to have a exhaust delete on the valance. I'd love to hear from others that had issues with aftermarket valances.

 

I got to work trying to figure out my rear valance, which i have to inherent issues: 1) I ordered the wrong side pipe valance 2) the valance fits horribly!

The ACI valance is for factory side pipe cars and doesn't have ears so I'm considering cutting donor panels from the original one to fill those holes and grafting it all together.... But the valance has horrible fitment issues. The main issue is that it's too narrow to even fit on, so I had to cut it in half to even get it on the car!!! Check this out:



Then there's the gaps:












These gaps are the best it'll get! Yeah there's bumpers and a license plate bezel hiding 90% of this , but it's pretty disappointing fitment! I called ACI and they said they never have issues with this part, and for me to send them pics. So hopefully this is a bad batch and they'll send me another one. If not, I'm going to have to make this one work.