rear top panel
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Intermediate
Joined: Aug 2015
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rear top panel
If anyone will know the answer to this question it'll be one of you guys. How did people do this stuff before the interwebs?
My husband and I are restoring a 1969 big block corvette. We had the chassis powder coated and I have sandblasted and painted every darn part on the car and of course we had to replace stuff. It's the original rebuilt (by us) engine...
We had the body off the car and did a lot of body work...getting rid of the rear tail-pipe cutouts and repairing the left rear panel. Then we put the body back on the chassis and spent time reducing the 1/4” uneven gaps on the doors and headlamps to 1/8” and lots of other stuff...so you know we're serious.
We're almost ready to primer the thing. My husband is block sanding (cause he's the expert) and he's pretty sick of it, although he's done a lot of body work before. I noticed there are two ridges on the back panel (the one with the gas tank hole). They run side to side and apparently are from the supports underneath. If you put a straight edge across them there is about a 1/32” – 1/16” dip. Have you heard of anyone filling this or should we just let er go?
Or...maybe we have too many shims on the body mounts?
PS. How good does the underside need to be?I have washed and sanded it and we're going to paint it but there are a lot of factory globs of hard stuff. We want to sell it.
Your advice is much appreciated
My husband and I are restoring a 1969 big block corvette. We had the chassis powder coated and I have sandblasted and painted every darn part on the car and of course we had to replace stuff. It's the original rebuilt (by us) engine...
We had the body off the car and did a lot of body work...getting rid of the rear tail-pipe cutouts and repairing the left rear panel. Then we put the body back on the chassis and spent time reducing the 1/4” uneven gaps on the doors and headlamps to 1/8” and lots of other stuff...so you know we're serious.
We're almost ready to primer the thing. My husband is block sanding (cause he's the expert) and he's pretty sick of it, although he's done a lot of body work before. I noticed there are two ridges on the back panel (the one with the gas tank hole). They run side to side and apparently are from the supports underneath. If you put a straight edge across them there is about a 1/32” – 1/16” dip. Have you heard of anyone filling this or should we just let er go?
Or...maybe we have too many shims on the body mounts?
PS. How good does the underside need to be?I have washed and sanded it and we're going to paint it but there are a lot of factory globs of hard stuff. We want to sell it.
Your advice is much appreciated
Last edited by edthegreat; Apr 1, 2016 at 04:15 PM.
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 31,237
Likes: 4,330
From: Westminster Maryland
Hi e,
In 71 the rear bulkhead was not bonded to the rear deck with the usual 'bond' material to insure the joint didn't telegraph through the deck fiberglass.
Instead a cement called out as #188 was used.
It's typically a thick black material and that makes it so it's identifiable from the usual panel bond St.Louis used.
This material was used at the rear quarter panel to apron joint too.
I'm not sure why you're seeing what you're seeing. I'm wondering if in 69 the regular bond material was still being used???
Regards,
Alan
In 71 the rear bulkhead was not bonded to the rear deck with the usual 'bond' material to insure the joint didn't telegraph through the deck fiberglass.
Instead a cement called out as #188 was used.
It's typically a thick black material and that makes it so it's identifiable from the usual panel bond St.Louis used.
This material was used at the rear quarter panel to apron joint too.
I'm not sure why you're seeing what you're seeing. I'm wondering if in 69 the regular bond material was still being used???
Regards,
Alan
Thread Starter
Intermediate
Joined: Aug 2015
Posts: 32
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I'm not seeing it...I'm feeling it. It's definitely there. What I'm afraid of is that when we get the thing painted it will really show up.
For some reason my last post has disappeared so I'll explain again. I looked underneath the bulges. One starts where the back of the storage compartment joins the deck. The next bulge is where the two vents are joined to the deck underneath. The distance between is about 16". The dip is about 1/16+.
I'm thinking that we could work together and apply the bondo and then use a flexible squeegee to spread the material. But as you probably know nothing is ever that easy and we might end up with a bigger eyesore or five days work. I'm just wondering how unique this issue is.
Alice
For some reason my last post has disappeared so I'll explain again. I looked underneath the bulges. One starts where the back of the storage compartment joins the deck. The next bulge is where the two vents are joined to the deck underneath. The distance between is about 16". The dip is about 1/16+.
I'm thinking that we could work together and apply the bondo and then use a flexible squeegee to spread the material. But as you probably know nothing is ever that easy and we might end up with a bigger eyesore or five days work. I'm just wondering how unique this issue is.
Alice
