Had to cut out a section from a donor car to repair the front revel moulding area of the roof as well as a small section in the back window revel moulding area. I'll post pictures of that repair soon. Working on the doors and front fenders at the moment.
This thread is awesome! It's crazy to think how long ground up, frame off restos can really take when done properly and being done in spare off time. Judging by the first post you've been working on this car for 7 years. Keep up the awesome work!!
Yes, hard to believe it has been about 7 years on this car. We did take a break for several months while we moved into a new house, but still these things take time when on a budget. Below are some new images of the body work progress. Passenger fender required a significant amount of work , but is looking really good now. Should have the car in epoxy primer pretty soon. Gaps are looking good and fitment is coming along nicely. Most of the metal work is now done with the exception of some tweaking to the hood to get out the bulge created from a stiff hinge.
The car is now in the first coat of high build primer so block sanding can commence. Should have the second coat later this week. Getting pretty close to getting color on.
Looks beautiful. Sheetmetal alignment looks great! You must be getting excited. Is the plan to paint it together as it sits or will you be pulling the fenders & hood? Personally, I'm not a fan of painting them with doors and trunk lid removed. I've also put weight in the doors equal to the weight of the glass/mechanism for alignment purposes & that's worked out well. I've always wondered how Fisher-Body did that. Maybe they just knew how much misalignment was necessary to have them come in once the guts were added.
Thanks guys. Car will be block sanded while everything is aligned and then we'll remove the body from the frame - doors and trunk lid remain on and will be painted attached. All the other items are painted separated but at the same time to ensure color match, etc. Then we have lots and lots of color sanding and polishing. We are still a ways off from that point and likely momentum is going to stall here pretty soon as other things take priority.
That's exactly how I'm planning on doing the next one(s) although I'm going to wait to do the chassis until the body comes back off so I don't have to mask it off. Will just bolt the body down with the new mounts. Did you make any provision for the weight when aligning the doors?
