Grey Body Work, Advice from your experience request.

[daytonadave283]

Hi All,
Since the Glass Hatch is installed and makes the rear of the coupe look so sweet, I am starting the last of the bodywork today. I figure I will need to cut the front clip from the rear of front wheel well to the hood just below the latch, maybe both sides. Have others had to cut and reglass the front clip above the pontoon section too. I have included pics of how it currently looks.
Thanks in advance for sharing your experience, ideas or pics.
Dave

[DARKPT]

My black bodied Coupe had this same issue. I followed the lead of others over on the other forum and sliced the bottom edge off of the hood very carefully just above the piece that faces the top of the pontoon. Take the piece you cut off and sand any remaining lip so it is flat, then set it aside.

Position the hood where you want it to sit, and use the latches to draw the hood down to where you want it. I bought some rubber weatherstrip to put on the cowl edge that positioned the hood at the same "height" as the hood all the way along the joint. Decide how much of a gap you want between the top of the pontoon and the bottom of the hood. Remember to include the thickness of the piece you cut off, and trim any additional hood edge that's needed.

I taped some wax paper to the top of the pontoon to keep it clean, and used some doweling to sit the hood bottom edge on. Close and latch the hood. If you did it right the hod edge and the cut off piece should line right up. Glass the cut off piece to the hood side, and use duct tape to hold the hood down while the glass cures.

To fill any gap in the new seam you just glassed, either sand off the gelcoat and use HSRF or (if the gap is very small) use Rage to fill it in.

A couple of additional notes. If you haven't installed the lower splash guard, drill and cleco it in place first. It pushes the pontoon out, and the pontoon rotates a bit on the way out which could throw off your gaps. Also, when you measure to make your cut, be aware that the shape you cut off might be a bit wedge shaped. Just make sure your gap is consistent.

Hope that helps!

[daytonadave283]

Thanks DARKPT,
I had a feeling that would be the best way to approach it. I didn't want to just build up the glass between the hood and A pillar area since that would change things "or view" elseware. I do have both lower splash guards clecoed in place and they were bowed outward before attaching. As you can see the pass side will be a wedge cut and drivers side should be a flat cut, but time will tell when the first cut is made.
Thanks so much, here we go with the air saw and cutoff wheel :-) Love the smell of fiberglass in the morning, lol
Dave

[tfalk]

I wouldn't do ANYTHING ELSE until you fit the door windows... that will most likely
change the fit of the doors which will change the fit of the body which
will change the fit of the nose which will change the fit of...... ad nauseum...

[daytonadave283]

Ouch too late tfalk, I cut quick, I love your bubble though,
I have both doors fitted at the top, and latching, but the bottoms need either fill and or remove to get a sweet look.
The frames never fit the doors so like the headers and side pipes that were off a few inches due to differences in motor mounts, I'll cut and weld them to fit too, I did use vclamps to make the side pipes easier to remove since slip joints only slip while new then they stick and eat up too much time to remove or need to be cut off, or dented from a BFH. Those pics are in my photobucket.
After cutting the front clip and reajusting the latch, her ya go, another round of pics, more to follow, I hope this could help others!
Thanks tfalk and DARKPT for your input!

[xlr8or]

Did you leave a gap for some weather strip along the pontoon/hood seem?

I found it helpful to have a strip along there to give the hood some thing to squish down against and it also keeps the hood from wiggling around while you drive.

[daytonadave283]

Yes I did xlr8or, thanks for the heads up, I measured it and doubled up on card stock that would equaled it, due to the resin hardening the gasket. I figured I would get some rubbing/fretting or weird noise without it, or as you said somthing to squish into. Tough getting through the side vent hole with that much wet matting so I elected to only do a 5" piece to hold it in place. Tomorrow, when cured Ill start by rolling larger pieces to do the full length, a few times and move on to the other side. I can't believe how much better it looks where the front and rear clip mate now.
Thanks for all the information DARKPT, tfalk and xlr8or, you guys are great and full of info, the group is lucky to have you here for advice.
Here is a pic of the section while it cures.
Thanks again
Dave

[loeffler1]

Dave,

I'm not so sure about putting weather stripping all along the cowl, the rubber bumpers supplied by FFR would be better and solve the same problem. This gap allows the engine compartment to breathe. Stopping this gap with weather stripping will lead to engine overheating problems. Why do tractor trailer cabs with big diesels have a huge gap where the hood closes down? After putting splash shields on there is very little area for hot air to leave the engine compartment. Just my three cents.

Bill

[Fluge]

Sorry I didn't see this earlier but the guys covered it very well. I had to do the same.

[RonSchofield]

Good work. I had to do major work to get my hood to fit. It seems when the mold pieces were put together, there was some problems on the drivers side. With the normal lower edge trimming, I also had to cut the upper seam.

http://www.mycoupe.ca/modules/wordpress/images/20101116_3.jpg

With the cutting done, it fit much better.

http://www.mycoupe.ca/modules/wordpress/images/20101116_4.jpg

I did have to grind it down quite a bit to make the correct shape.

http://www.mycoupe.ca/modules/wordpress/images/20101128_2.jpg

I made sure that I had good coverage with the new fiberglass.

http://www.mycoupe.ca/modules/wordpress/images/20101128_6.jpg

With some finishing with HSRF, it looks like new.

http://www.mycoupe.ca/modules/wordpress/images/20101202_3.jpg

[daytonadave283]

Thanks Ron, I see your's needed more work than mine, wheww. I finished the drivers side and the Pass side is curing now. Here are the pics of the glass work on drivers side. It would be so much faster if I was mig'ing it, so the course for light weight fiber glass "time".
It is easy, for me, just muster up patience, like watching paint dry. lol

loeffler1, I am using them "rubber bumpers" where the hood meets the rear section currently, Dave Smith's coupe, I saw while picking up the Glass Hatch used the long rubber molding. I may use the chaff material they use on my "airplane where the couling meets other body sections on a PA-28" between the Hood and Pontoon section to avoid rubbing and something to squish into.

Thanks All :-)
Dave

[flajctype65]

Dave, your work looks almost exactly like mine although only the passenger side on mine was necessary to adjust. The difference with my work was that a wedge was cut from the back of the hood up to almost the fender lip, then glassed in and the resulting seam was filled with HSRF. After seeing yours, it gives me confidence that my adjustment was properly done.

[tfalk]

I don't recall mine being as far off as any of the pictures posted in this thread.
When you latch the nose down, mine it out a little bit on the one side but nothing dramatic.
I had more trouble with the angle of the nose since it kept hitting the radiator,
we had to cut and reweld the radiator mounts to get the front down.

[daytonadave283]

Hi All,
I completed the front clip cut and adjustment. Using West Systems resin and one layer of Bondo brand Glass Matting on the inside. It feels as strong as it was before cutting it. Ill sand the exterior of the cut to remove the gel coat and fill voids with resin this weekend. I now have a level transition from front to rear body panels. As you can see from the pic's the doors are level at the top but need glass work (Layer and/or remove) to make them a sweet fit too.:cool:

flajctype65, was your chassis number, lower a number than mine (#283)? I wonder if, as the molds were used over time, they fell out of alignment, Does that make any sense tfalk??? Is yours a lower chassis # than mine. Was RonSchofield higher number than mine, since his required more work?
I also did cut the radiator support channel for hood clearance too! about 3/4".

Thanks everyone for your posts and guidance, I hope this helps or instigates others to get'erdone;)
If anyone has coupe questions that I can help with, please send me a post, I am more than willing to provide pic's as well:cool:
Thanks
Dave

[flajctype65]

Dave, my chassis is 438. I do believe that the production from the molds varies a bit as some of the difficulties seen by others has not been a problem with mine but there are other issues that have not been reported by others. Probably just normal production variation.

[bil1024]

Nice work guys

[loeffler1]

I can't quite figure out why these bodies differ from one another so much. Mine is #421 and the nose only required minor surgery to fit at the cowl. It looks to me you had major surgery to make it fit. Maybe FFR can chime in here and explain why one body has so many flaws and another doesn't.

Bill

[daytonadave283]

Bill, now if we could only find out if the ones really far off were made on a Monday;) :D
I believe the newer red body v2.0 fixes all of these issues, or at least I hope they do.
I know when I made a body buck to hold them, they didn't line up then. I figured mabe it will look better on the chassis, it didn't, but I am glad I asked you guys before just leveling them with fiberglass matting, resin and filler, It wouldn't look as good as it does now.:cool:
Thanks
Dave

[RonSchofield]

Hi All,
Was RonSchofield higher number than mine, since his required more work?


Mine was coupe 296. The problem on mine I suspect was that the mold joint wasn't fitted tight together. There might have been some left over gelcoat from a previous application that was missed. It happens. I suspect this as the joint area wasn't a curve, but flat.

[riptide motorsport]

Nice work!