William learning to strip paint on the driver's side
The driver's fender is almost complete
Doug focused on the passenger's front
and the nose
Test fit of the firewall skin with removable wiper door
Then it was time to prep the firewall and get it ready for the
skin
Firewall Efforts
- 9/15-16
Things are starting to look like they are ONE ;)
Firewall Efforts & Test
Colors
- 9/19
More filling & sanding on the firewall along with wetsanding
inside the fenders & fenderwells
Hard to tell in a photo, but this is Marina Blue (Original color
) - the one on the left has blue pearl laid over it.
Firewalls & Fenderwells
- 9/21
Fine tuning the crevices
...and gaps on the wiper motor cover
(still needs more on left)
more work on the
fenderwells which will be painted gloss body color
Firewalls & Body - 9/27
numerous hours into the firewall however, it is almost finished
- gap around the wiper motor cover is done
William stripped and blocked the
lower front body panel
Passenger's door is stripped and blocked
bulkhead panel sanded and primed
Engine Compartment &
Stripping Paint - 9/28
The
firewall has been flattened, now it is time to build "modesty
panel" for the area between the wheel well and the firewall -
these panels will be removable. Shape templates were formed to
the proper contour.
William made additional progress
stripping the driver's door
New Exterior Test Colors 5-8 - 9/30
Glenda wanted a color that had more pop so, using
House of Kolors paints, we experimented with
S2-04, House of Bluz ...with some additional
enhancements for test colors 6-8 ...using pearl, diamond dust &
metalumes
The
simulated Stinger Hood is with HOK paint I had left over from
our C5 - basically a blue/black pearl mixture
More work in the Engine
Compartment - 10/4-8
First test-fitting of the fenderwell
extentions
After one night of fitting work, they are coming along
William caught me trimming one of the panels -->
The goal was to extend the
panels to the flattened firewall to give the compartment a
"completed look" - the challenge was to keep the lines straight
More work in the Engine
Compartment - 10/18
The fenderwell extensions are
complete
The right
fenderwell extention
the left federwell
extension
The
front end is taking shape, bodywork almost complete, other than
the headlight area
William spent the day
working on stripping paint from door jambs
using a Dynamic Corvettes Kindig-It handle mounting kit
Stock door handle & lock openings
While filling the stock door lock, part of the original door
handle hole needed filled as well
The
Kindig-It handles are really made for metal doors and the mounts
are flat. That didn't work on our curved fiberglass door skin -
so lots of grinding to get the curature and thickness adjusted
for our door
A test piece was
built to help with fitting the curvature of the Kindig-It handle
Right side mount
is epoxed to the back of the door skin with the finish work to
take place after this fully cures
More Paint Striping & Body
Work - 10/29
William got a huge amount of paint striping done on the rear
deck & fascia
Striping the paint revealed way too
many coats of paint
...and the FEARED ...the fender flares were pop-riveted on
...the glassed over
The
real purpose for removing the quarter panel was to repair the
broken body, behind the rear doors -->>>
One
pair of gently used C2 rear fender flares arefor sale - they could be trimmed and "properly
grafted" onto original quarter panels - open to
offers
Sad
to say but I'm GLAD the body was cracked so I removed the 1/4
panels to find the no-no reasons the paint was cracking around
the flares
Quarter panel bonding strips cleaned up - some repairs are in
order to proceed
when
almost an inch thick section of bondo was found on the rear deck
(L), it was time to look under - BIG CRACK in the fiberglass -
the pinkish color is all bondo ->
Body Work & Tweaking the
Kindig-It Door Handle - 10/25
The finishing touches are on the handle opening - then a test
fit with the handle itself
looks
great ...and it is flush front to rear
...and it even opens the door - more work will generate a solid
opening rod
Driver's Side completed
Inside view of the Kindig-It handle - after
this pic, we epoxied the around the handle backing as well
Drilled a
hole in the stock door mechanism & installed an eye bolt w/nuts
- for the Kindig-It door handle striker to work against
Looked at epoxying the
Dynamic Corvettes screws & plates; just for extra
safety - however, I have almost decided against it at this time
These
look great with the widened quarter panels
Body Work - 10/31-11/01
I knew the left splash panel was loose with the body - didn't
realize that it was held on with screws :(
...and I have NO IDEA what kind of bonding material they used
here
I've seen some bad body work over the years however, I've never
seen such a bad job of a repair as this is
William did a great job
striping paint from the rear facia - all the little nooks &
cranies
started striping the underside behind the old quarter panel
One
door stripped and ready for primer
Body & Engine Work - 11/15
The body is coming along very nicely,
even though very slow
some of these areas are very hard to get to by hand
The left body was badly broken so we spread it apart to properly bond
it back
Custom bonding strips
were made to clamp into the weak broken body areas; for more
strength
We took a break from the
body work and tore the engine down
With some of the ideas
we have for a radiator cover, designing new hood hinges was in
order
The wooden mocked-up hinge
works great, now to get with Jason to see if he can cut the
pieces on their plasma system
