Rough Bodywork Complete
OK OK, long time no entry. My MBA has kept me busy, but I managed to finish off 1st year classes with the best grades yet. My house construction is almost complete, and we are planning on moving back in about two weeks. To top it all off, I have completed the rough bodywork on the coupe! Yeah!
Let's rewind. My last entry from April showed that I had just put the nose on. That was a major milestone, and it definitely encouraged both me and Don Mills to get on with the remaining bodywork. That left finishing up the closing panels, the front fender braces, the fog light brackets, and the right side lockpost/fender repair. Oh yeah, and doing a better job of fixing up the old accident damage to the tail. Should I even have to mention that if you are ever looking at doing a car restoration project, looking at one with both front and rear crash damage as your first project is probably a bad idea? OK, no, I don't have to mention that.
Because I was busy with exams, Don worked on getting the right side rocker and fender repairs complete. We had roughly welded on the right side rocker before, but the gaps weren't good and it wasn't laying properly. We cut it off together, and he started over. Additionally, the lockpost area needed tons of work to build back/recreate the proper "stepped" area that is only visible when the door is open, but absolutely critical for proper appearance. Although the original was heavily coated in lead for shaping, metal was needed just the same. Don fabricated much of it by hand, as the reproduction panel didn't fit really well. The end result will need a bit of filler to smooth it out and finish it off, but I'm pretty pleased.
I also finished grinding the welds on the nose and finishing up the various brackets that fit inside the front fenders. There are a pair of brackets that are attached to the battery box sides, the bottom of the headlight buckets, and front fenders that provide both stiffening for the body as well as a mounting point for the horns. I installed those. I also installed the brackets that hold the horn grilles and foglight grilles/foglights. The one on the left fit well, but because of repairs to the right side foglamp area, the one on the right didn't fit perfectly and needed some finessing. It will all look OK in the end, I'm not worried.
Also, the tail underneath the trunk lid needed more repairs. Originally I didn't think this was going to be a real problem. There was some old filler where previous accident damage had been pulled out and fixed, and I thought that the height of the metal was reasonably good. However, when checking fit with the engine cover, I quickly determined that the area where the accident had occurred was still pushed in at least 1/8 of an inch, and needed work. Pulling out the damaged area was difficult, as the metal had become thin from the previous repair and the stud welder was just ripping the metal, causing us to have to apply lots of patches with the welder and generally just make a mess of the area. The decision was made to cut out the area of the highest damage. I did this, and then formed a patch for the area on the english wheel, a tool which I admit I am a neophyte with. The patch was decent, and I got rid of the worst of the bad metal, but filler and further work will be required in this area to have it look really good.
Now that the rough metalwork is complete, I'll be bringing the car back to MillerSport to work on the filler stages with Dee Lashley for a month or so. Hopefully after a month it will be ready for paint, which Dee will then do, and then in July or so I will bring it home for a few months of reassembly work before the 356 East Coast Holiday in September! Cross our fingers.
I'll give a report on the engine rebuild progress next time. As a teaser, the full flow filter assembly has been installed, and I've calculated my compression ratio, which will be in the neighborhood of 9.1:1 for longevity.
Posted by pbrown at May 17, 2005 8:44 PM
