Hi all,

First post. I’ve been lurking for a bit, and finally got to a point where I had to get specific. I’ve got a ‘68 convertible that has a challenging bit of body work to be done. It’s been hit in the rear (got that fixed mostly) the front clip was glued on very poorly by what appears to be a blind person, and a previous jealous ex worked the car over with a ball peen hammer. In case you’re wondering, a ball peen will make a 3” square hole in fiberglass when used with force. I’ve been doing body work on steel body cars off and on for many years, but this is my first Vette.

I’ve detached the taillight panel, in order to repair the damage to the rear top panel from the crash, as well as to repair the damage to the tail panel, and i’ve detached the passenger fender and skirt (the skirt was already debonded) due to the bond between the hood surround and fender bonding strip being essentially nil.

My first question is, should I rebond the fender prior to removing the clip, or remove the clip and then attempt to bond the fender, since the clip is on so wrong to begin with. Additionally, I worry about the quality of the bonds on the rest of the clip, since the one I’ve worked on was so bad. I debated just dismantling the front clip and rebonding everything. I’m not too excited about the fact that I have all those screws in the fender and taillight panel, but i’m struggling with keeping the clip stabile and not warping it with heavy clamps. Suggestions here are also welcome.

Second question. The exhaust panel was broken in two places so i repaired that (kinda). It looks like its lining up with the taillight panel, but there’s a half inch gap between the bottom of the quarter and the exhaust panel. Not sure if that quarter is going to move that much. Debating just extending the exhaust panel a bit, but that seems hokey and wrong.

Third question. There are little hairline cracks around the taillights and some edges (hood, door latch, etc). Would a grind and VPA be the way to address these?

Feel free to pore over the photos and find more stuff I’ve botched. As fyi, the glass work on the driver’s fender is just to hold it together till i can do better. It’s a pretty big mess. I might replace it, but i was testing my ability to repair it first.

Thanks for everyone’s time. Dub, if you’ll just tell me when’s a good time, I‘ll just give you a call. No sense in typing out what is probably going to be a novel’s worth of advice.

Absolutely! I titled it that way because i’d seen a couple done that way and it seemed to be the conventional wisdom. Any and all help is welcome.