LCD Gauges
12-29-2011, 10:34 AM
At this point I’ve completed what I call the, “First stage” of body prep. which is knocking down the flashing to a level that can be block sanded. The hood will be my starting point, however I’d like to share my ideas before going too much further.
There are three main areas of concern:
Front nose
Light buckets
Blending the seams
There is a lip extending on the front end of the hood which sticks out about 1/8”. The photos below depict the side profile as you look across the front edge from the driver’s side wheel. My plan is to fill the area beneath the lip and blend a curve to approximately the air duct opening for the radiator cooling.
I thought about sanding the overhanging lip back to meet the lower section, but it seems to be more work and will expose the fibreglass.
706470657066
The light buckets are a mystery to me. I’d like to see some close up photos of how you all secured the buckets on the Gen1 and then blended the seams around the opening to mate with the buckets themselves. My plan is to make the edges of the headlight opening as straight as possible, and make the thickness of the glass equal along the perimeter. At the moment there are varying waves of thickness.
Once the openings are symmetrical and ‘true’, I’ll rivet the buckets to the hood and apply some filler along the edge of the hood openings and form a smooth radius to the light bucket (as shown by the red markings).
70677068 7069
These next photos show the sanded down flashing almost to be flush with the hood gel-coat. Aside from the visual remains, there is a slight roughness when passing my finger across the flashing seam from side- to-side. This is expected as I simply used a coarse file, and then light block sanding with coarse grit paper and a wood block.
It has been suggested that I make a small trough along the seam (indicated by black markings) and then apply filler over the trough. I will apply enough filler to extend over the seam on either side (indicated by red markings) to allow me to blend and contour the filler to the shape of the hood profile.
70707071 7072
Am I on the right track with my technique and thought process?
There are three main areas of concern:
Front nose
Light buckets
Blending the seams
There is a lip extending on the front end of the hood which sticks out about 1/8”. The photos below depict the side profile as you look across the front edge from the driver’s side wheel. My plan is to fill the area beneath the lip and blend a curve to approximately the air duct opening for the radiator cooling.
I thought about sanding the overhanging lip back to meet the lower section, but it seems to be more work and will expose the fibreglass.
706470657066
The light buckets are a mystery to me. I’d like to see some close up photos of how you all secured the buckets on the Gen1 and then blended the seams around the opening to mate with the buckets themselves. My plan is to make the edges of the headlight opening as straight as possible, and make the thickness of the glass equal along the perimeter. At the moment there are varying waves of thickness.
Once the openings are symmetrical and ‘true’, I’ll rivet the buckets to the hood and apply some filler along the edge of the hood openings and form a smooth radius to the light bucket (as shown by the red markings).
70677068 7069
These next photos show the sanded down flashing almost to be flush with the hood gel-coat. Aside from the visual remains, there is a slight roughness when passing my finger across the flashing seam from side- to-side. This is expected as I simply used a coarse file, and then light block sanding with coarse grit paper and a wood block.
It has been suggested that I make a small trough along the seam (indicated by black markings) and then apply filler over the trough. I will apply enough filler to extend over the seam on either side (indicated by red markings) to allow me to blend and contour the filler to the shape of the hood profile.
70707071 7072
Am I on the right track with my technique and thought process?