Wow.. can't believe how long it's been..
I ran into some fitment issues that I could not figure out last May, and walked away from the car and the barn for that matter, until late November.
I studied the car for about 2 hours with my coffee in hand and finally found the issue that was bothering me in the spring time.
The driver side quarter panel was a 1/4" too low.
I called my buddy Fred to come over and confirm what I was seeing and he agreed. Lucky for me that I had only spot welded the
pinch weld on the door seem. What we found was that a tab on the top of the panel was snagged onto something not allowing it to raise any further under the roof skin. After some pushing and pulling it unsnagged and fell into place.
Now you would have thought that by doing this...it would have raised the bottom of the quarter panel off the rocker. But it didn't...We figure that
because the panel was snagged short of going home, it musta flexed (or bowed) the panel as I installed the bottom on the rocker last spring time.
Now it is relaxed and fits really well.
That was enough to start a fire under me and continue on with the build.!!
Fred and I install the new roof skin ( about 10 times) and got the front and rear windshields to fit really nice. The trim showed me that I need to reshape a corner (a small amount) on the roof skin to fit with no gap.
A week later...a pair of drip rails and the driver side outer A-piller showed up that I ordered and forgot about. Yep...I had to remove the roof skin again so I could weld them in. That was a bigger job than I thought fitting it in...(another chevelle owner let me take a couple measurements
to verify the height of the rail.)
I reinstalled the roof and continued on.
I figured I would tackle the firewall at this point. I decided to go for the smooth look so I welded all the holes and removed the caulk
in the seam and welded the seam solid. Then I skimmed it with Duraglass and finished it out with a thin cover of Rage Ultra body filler.
I went this route because I was not comfortable with installing another panel (that they sell) over the firewall. I can see warping and rattles
appearing down the road ..not to mention possible rust forming between the panels going that route.
After I finished the firewall I started on the lower repair to the fenders.. They make a nice lower patch panel for this area.. I cut the rotted stuff out and butt welded the new patch in. The right side was flawless.. The driver side is giving me fits...I am still working on that one as of now...
but I walked away to install the new dash and outer A-piller.
Then our new hood arrived so we took a saturday and drove to NPD to pick it up, and swung by the kids place to say Hi.
They are a couple hours aways from us and NPD is about 15-20 minutes from them. Win Win for us to see the grandkids while buying car parts!!!!
I installed the hood to check the gaps and such because it all comes apart for epoxy and paint. Mainley because Alesia wanted a pic of the car.
She is very excited now. We are within 18 months of completion.
Back on the driver fender...I found that the door skin was dented and creased. This is what was causing my issues with the fender.
So I stripped the door down to its shell then sand blasted the bottom half to reviel more rust.
I am currently fabbing up the structure so I can reinstall the shell only and fit it to the car. Pics of the door fix are about a week out.
This has been a long road so far.. But We are hoping to be done with ALL the metal work in 3 weeks and pet the first coat of epoxy
primer on the car.
Here are some pics of the progress.
This is another item we amassed over the summer. It has been alot of fun and something Alesia can drive.