Chris' Bodywork Thread - Mk3.1

[Gumball]

Well, here's another bodywork thread... Now that 7074 is running, I'm switching over to bodywork for a while. I'm going to do some of the FFR-specific type bodywork myself over the next couple of months and then turn it over to a friend's shop to take it the rest of the way and for paint. This ought to be interesting, because I've never done bodywork before. But, like many parts of this project, I've read about it here and on the other forums, as well as armed myself with a few books on working with composites. I also have a friend who owns a bodyshop to turn to when I really screw it up, but I'm hoping to learn a bunch, share some of that, and have the warm glow of knowing I did as much myself as I could during this build.

Color is going to be '66 Mustang Ivy Green with no stripes (see John O's 427 streetcar and his 289 conversion for an example). I'm planning a few body mods, too, such as:

hidden body mounts
Mk4 trunk lid
rolled edges for cockpit and wheel lips
rectangular tail lamps with recontoured mounting pads
glass-in 4-6" of leading edge of hood scoop opening
add a lip to the area between rad and oil cooler openings
rivet-on scoop reshaped length-wise to follow contour of hood
better definition of crease along radius of front flares at top of fenders (similar to Mk4)
"bungee grommets" below trunk opening (used to hold a bungee that was wrapped around the trunk handle for racing back-in-the-day)
Breeze hinges (trunk and hood)
mechanical prop rods for trunk and hood
aluminum spats

Today, I started with knocking down the seams. Here are the after pictures, no close-up detail yet because this was just the first pass to clean things up.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Seams1_zps60640b04.jpg

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Seams2_zpsae24dd30.jpg

Here are the rear photos, with the Mk4 trunk lid in place:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Seams4_zpsb385b64f.jpg

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Seams3_zps0a7c789d.jpg

And a couple of close-ups of the Mk4 trunk lid for those of you wondering how one of these fits on a Mk3. I'd say it's just about perfect.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/TrunkLidCloseUp_zpsd6749994.jpg

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/TrunkLidRearView_zpse24ed3d2.jpg

John O's car - my goal, but with a "gentleman's S/C" look rather than streetcar.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IvyGreen427Streetcar_zps878e2f32.jpg

[Jeff Kleiner]

Good start Chris! You did remove the mold release wax before beginning to sand and grind, right?

Keep the updates coming :)

Jeff

[riptide motorsport]

Yep looks great......

[ClemsonS197]

7076 is a couple weeks behind you and I got my MK4 trunk last week. Fits great. Perhaps you should post a materials list as you go so it's easier on me ;)


Good start Chris! You did remove the mold release wax before beginning to sand and grind, right?

?????

[Gumball]

Good start Chris! You did remove the mold release wax before beginning to sand and grind, right?

Keep the updates coming :)

Jeff

Yep - should have mentioned that as the real first step. A few weeks ago, I gave it a good cleaning. First, I rubbed it down with Prepsol degreaser/wax remover, then did the Comet cleanser and scotchbrite scrub, followed by thorough rinsing and more Prepsol.

The seams are going to need another session with the sander and there is a distinct misalignment between the inner and outer parts on the driver's quarter. Not sure if the solution is grinding that down completely so that they're level, but uneven or if I should plan on building that area up with filler. I'll do a bit more reading on how others have tackled such things.

Clem - so far, the materials list is the above mentioned Prepsol, Comet, and scotchbrite. Today I used a random orbital w/80 grit pads. I have a cabinet full of cool, smelly stuff, though... things like Rage, Icing, Featherfill, and fiberglass cloth/resin, along with lots of sanding blocks and sandpaper. I highly recommend getting on the mailing list of autobodytoolmart.com if you're going to do your own bodywork... they have a great selection of materials and their prices are fair.

[David Hodgkins]

Chris, lookin' good! Here's some inspiration:

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=8526&d=1333088605

IMHO MKIII's look GREAT with MKIV trunks!

:)

[skullandbones]

Gumball,

Take a flexible "french curve" and lay across the two panel curves say on the front fender side to side. You will see a space under the curve at the point where the seams used to be. However, if you examine the way the curve runs across the panels, I think you will agree that the panels are in perfect alignment. So, you should not have much material to remove if any. If you take off the material from the inside to meet the low spot you will create a bigger space and require much more filler. Hope that helps. WEK.

[Jeff Kleiner]

...there is a distinct misalignment between the inner and outer parts on the driver's quarter. Not sure if the solution is grinding that down completely so that they're level, but uneven or if I should plan on building that area up with filler.

Probably some of both. Taking the high side down too far can make for some wonky contours. Towards the left side of this pic is an example of where I quit on a Mk4:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj43/jkleiner/Mk4%207276/100_2135.jpg




?????

The very important first step is to remove the wax which remains on the body from the molds. Failing to do so can lead to all sorts of problems with fillers, primer and paint due to contamination. Using a wax and grease remover such as the Prepsol Chris mentions, PPG MX190 or similar do the following:

1) Scrub with wax & grease remover using green Scotchbrite then wipe with clean rags to pick up the residue.
2) Second wipe down with wax & grease remover using rags, again following up wiith clean ones to pick up the residue.
3) Scrub with Comet and Scotchbrite using warm water. This will start to scratch up and dull the gelcoat.
4) Rinse well with warm water.

Don't forget the inside of doors and underside of the hood and trunk lid.

Feel free to add beer to any or all of those steps.

Jeff

[Gumball]

Finally getting back to my bodywork this past week. Over the winter, I finished-up the mechanicals (still need to do wiring) and did quite a bit of body fitting. The body was on the chassis most of the winter and I spent that time bolting everything I could to it and making sure that things like the lights, bumpers, sidepipes, soft top, windshield, etc. all fit properly. I also hung the doors and hood on the hinges, but haven't done the gaps yet.

I decided that the things I need to tackle on the inside of the body, like hidden mounts and some fiberglass patches, would be easier with the body upside-down, so I made a couple of attachments for my buck that allowed me to flip the body over.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/InvertedBuck1_zps9b238912.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/InvertedBuck1_zps9b238912.jpg.html)

Today I trimmed the tail lamp pad holes to fit the rectangular lights. FFR cut the holes, so I have to do a bit of patching on these openings at the top and bottom to give me a place to drill for the mounting studs. The next step will be to temporarily bolt on a pair of metal templates that I made so that I can re-contour the pads to match the footprint of the rectangular lights.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/TailLampPads1_zps0a1ae12c.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/TailLampPads1_zps0a1ae12c.jpg.html)

One of the things that has had me filled with trepidation is the art of mixing things like Rage, HSRF, and fiberglass resin. So, I did a bit of experimenting today with a few small batches of HSRF to see how long it would take to set-up using varying ratios of hardener. Once I was satisfied, I did my first small bonding project and installed a couple of perforated base studs that will hold the small "Z" tabs that were originally on the underside of the FFR trunk hinges and used to secure the rear cowl to the 3/4" tube. These are hidden at the top of the trunk, so they didn't need to be pretty... just functional... so I figured they'd be a good starting place.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RearCowlHoldDownStud2_zpsd2c63f21.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RearCowlHoldDownStud2_zpsd2c63f21.jpg.html)

Bolstered with confidence from that experience, I decided to try something a bit more critical... the Breeze hidden trunk hinge stud plates. I'm using one of the Gess trunk lids that Karl made a few years ago (decided to use this rather than the MK4 lid), so the inner and outer skin are bonded together in the area where the stud plates mount, so no need to cut the fiberglass. I started by drilling six holes in each stud plate to allow the HSRF to bite, then I countersunk the holes so that once the HSRF pushed through, I could smooth it down, resulting in a better bond. I removed the gelcoat and scuffed the fiberglass with 40 grit before bonding the plates to the lid. The plan is to grind down a bit of the excess HSRF (I know... it'll be tough to sand once it's set-up like this), then smooth over the area with Rage around the edges to make it look good. Here's the rough work with just the HSRF.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Hiddentrunkhingestuds4_zpse3a5ac90.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Hiddentrunkhingestuds4_zpse3a5ac90.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Hiddentrunkehingestuds2_zps0607a0ef.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Hiddentrunkehingestuds2_zps0607a0ef.jpg.html)

Next, I'm going to tackle the body side mounts and the front studs. Once I'm done bonding these things to the body, I'll do some fiberglass patching, then it'll be time to flip the body back over and work on the seams and a few other things I have planned.

[Deebenarc]

Who is John O, and how can one get in touch with him. I love that "No sidepipe" look on his green coupe. Really curious how he did That.

Dan

[Gumball]

Today I bonded in the hidden body side mounts. Unlike the current Mk4 body, the earlier bodies didn't wrap around the bottom of the chassis - instead, they used four button-head bolts per side to hold the body in place and in/out adjustment was done via adding or removing washers from behind the panel. I borrowed this idea for hidden mounts from Karl Gess (and others). Using some .040 aluminum, I bent a pair of 18" x 5" pieces in two places to form the angles that I needed to have the panels sit flush on the inside of the body and the underside of the outer 2x2 chassis tubes.

Before bonding them in place, I drilled quite a few holes in the part of the panels in contact with the body and I slotted the under-chassis part in two places so that I will have some room to adjust the sides to align the body and doors. The chassis will get a couple of riv-nuts for the hold-down bolts.

Everything was bonded together with some HSRF after I roughed-up the fiberglass to give it some bite.

I'm going to be doing some fiberglass patching soon, and will fill in the four holes per side.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HiddenSideMounts1_zpsd021aff1.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HiddenSideMounts1_zpsd021aff1.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HiddenSideMounts2_zps941f6555.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HiddenSideMounts2_zps941f6555.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Who is John O, and how can one get in touch with him. I love that "No sidepipe" look on his green coupe. Really curious how he did That.

Dan

Dan - I think he goes by the name jolsen42 around here. Do a search on "slabside" and you'll find his latest artwork.

[Gumball]

I spent some time today working on the rough-cut edges of the body to give them smooth, rounded edges. Since the body is still on the inverted buck, it was relatively easy work. Although it's probably something not too many people will notice, I think it will make the finish a bit more durable, since the paint will lay nicer on the rounded edges than on sharp corners - hopefully leading to less chips. I did the entire bottom edge all the way around the car, the radiator / oil cooler / air inlet openings, and the sidepipe cutouts (I trimmed those previously with the body and sidepipes on the chassis to get the correct fit). I also worked on fitting the side louvers (**********) and the brackets for those are now ready to be bonded to the body using HSRF. I decided to use a couple of button head (allen) machine screws to hold the rivets to the brackets, as was done with many of the original cars. This will give me the flexibility of removing the louvers, as well as a solid mechanical mounting for durability. Pics of the louvers to come as soon as installed.

Just a couple pics from today:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/BottomEdge1_zpsc10b7f5a.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/BottomEdge1_zpsc10b7f5a.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/BottomEdgeHeaderOpening_zps9304adaa.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/BottomEdgeHeaderOpening_zps9304adaa.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Working on the hood and scoop today. I previously cut-off the molded-in scoop that was standard on the Mk3 and earlier cars so that I could switch to a rivet-on scoop. One part of that will be to add a fiberglass extension under the scoop to close off the front portion of the opening - details on that later (when I figure out just how much I want to cover). For now, I cleaned-up the opening in the hood and then focused on the scoop itself. I used some narrow tape to get the edges straight. The stuff I used is a 3M vinyl product that bends easily and allowed me to mark a radius at the back end of the scoop. I trimmed most of the flashing away using a bandsaw, then finished the last 1/8" or so using an angle grinder with a 36 grit 2" disc. I was able to get the two rear curves relatively close, then I used a profile gauge to get them uniform. I used a straight edge and some 80 grit on a piece of paint stir stick to get the long sides of the scoop flat, then turned my attention to the opening. Using pictures of original cars that I've taken over the years, as well as some in the 50th anniversary book by Colin Comer, I came up with a shape for the front that I like. I removed most of the excess fiberglass at the opening, too, and rounded the front edge over a bit.

I think I need to make the flange a little narrower, though, so more to come on the final shaping.

Finally, you may notice the two huge cuts in the length of the scoop! Thanks to CompetitionCobra for the idea of taking a 3/4" pie-shaped slice out of the sides to get the side profile of the scoop to match the curvature of the hood like the original cars. I still have to do the fiberglass repair, but I'm done with the shaping process for now.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Hoodscoop4_zps5e33b5b6.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Hoodscoop4_zps5e33b5b6.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Hoodscoop2_zps32bf3d84.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Hoodscoop2_zps32bf3d84.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Hoodscoop1_zpsd54947cb.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Hoodscoop1_zpsd54947cb.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Hoodscoop3_zpsab166b80.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Hoodscoop3_zpsab166b80.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Hoodscoop5_zpsa7a8aa6b.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Hoodscoop5_zpsa7a8aa6b.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Well, this is fun... not! I'm going to back-fill the wheel lips with some Rage and then roll the edges, as well as feather some up into the wheel wells. So, one thing leads to another and I've decided to smooth all areas that are visible once the body is mounted (admittedly, some are only visible by laying on the ground) and then paint the entire inner body silver with a brush to replicate the mill finish of raw aluminum. It certainly won't be as good as what Metal Morphous does, but I think it'll be a nice touch.

So, what started as just a little grinding to knock-down the shine on the inner fiberglass turned into this... and I'm only about halfway there. I still need to do up around the headlamp area and the rear quarters, but I'm getting there. Although an air-powered angle grinder works great, it's still tedious work and really messy. I can say for sure that you want to do this work when it's relatively cool and you can wear full-coverage (long sleeves, long pants, gloves, hat, goggles, respirator, etc...).

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/BodyInside2_zps44aec111.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/BodyInside2_zps44aec111.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/BodyInside1_zps5d0b0211.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/BodyInside1_zps5d0b0211.jpg.html)

[SCFFR]

Great work Chris. Bodywork is one of the most tedious jobs on the entire car but the work will be worth it when you look at the finished car.

Ron

[Gumball]

Burning through a PTO afternoon here at the hangar... just about to clean-up and call it a day, though. I'm calling the inside of the body ready for filler and paint... enough grinding, I say!!!

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/BodyInside4_zps338c53e2.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/BodyInside4_zps338c53e2.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/BodyInside5_zps48c28622.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/BodyInside5_zps48c28622.jpg.html)

And here's a shot of the idiot who thought this was a good way to spend an afternoon off:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/GrindingFiberglass_zpsdb07a446.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/GrindingFiberglass_zpsdb07a446.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

More progress and something new to add to my skill-set thanks to FFR. Today I tackled actual fiberglass work. There were quite a few holes I needed to fill, as well as some that just needed a bit of "adjustment" due to overzealous trimming (by me and the robot at FFR). These included closing up the tail lamp holes that FFR cut for the round lamps (I'm using the Lucas rectangular ones), as well as two of the bumper stand-off holes on the front, the windshield post holes, and the roll hoop holes (I switched from the 2" hoop the 1 1/2" version). I also filled the holes in the nose and the sides of the body as I'm converting my Mk 3 to hidden mounts for those points. Finally, I filled the original trunk lid hinge holes and some "oops" holes that the builder (that'd be me) drilled in the wrong places (mirrors - decided to remove the bases and the spats - moved them closer leaving a few extra holes in the rear flares).

On advice of one who knows much more about this stuff than I do, I used some heavy aluminum tape to cover the holes from the outside, then filled the holes first with 'glass and resin, followed by large backing patches on the inside of the body. Everywhere that I was adding fiberglass, I ground the finish to remove the shiny surface to ensure a good grip for the new stuff. After letting everything set for a few hours, I removed the tape and was pleasantly surprised by the results. Of course, I'll need to make the repairs a bit concave in a larger area than the actual patch so that I can blend the surface using some HSRF and/or Rage, but this is a great start.

To give me a good base for the "adjusted" holes, such as the need to make smaller holes for the roll hoop and to move them slightly from the on-center that FFR cut them, I actually completely filled the holes. I'll then drill and grind these and the windshield holes to the point I actually need, as measured by templates I made.

If you're going to take this type of a job on yourself, make sure to have plenty of flat work surface to lay everything out, cut as much of the fiberglass in advance as you can, and work in small batches of resin - changing or cleaning things like brush, paint stir stick, tweezers, roller, gloves, mixing plate (I used some left over aluminum sheet), etc... Once you've mixed a batch of resin, it's a bad time to try to cut and adjust things - especially if you've already touched something with your gloves and they're all sticky.

Saturday I'm going to tackle the last of the major fiberglass work, then it's on to Rage and filling the wheel lips and smoothing around the lower edges up a few inches into the body - just to have some fun with those guys at cruise nights who like to run their hands up under the body to check for the rough texture of fiberglass.

Here are some pics of today's progress:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FillingHoles8_zpsf9c44dff.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FillingHoles8_zpsf9c44dff.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FillingHoles9_zpse237ab2e.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FillingHoles9_zpse237ab2e.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FillingHoles7_zps41d7ff17.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FillingHoles7_zps41d7ff17.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FillingHoles6_zps48b7cbfd.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FillingHoles6_zps48b7cbfd.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FillingHoles4_zpse2ea376a.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FillingHoles4_zpse2ea376a.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FillingHoles3_zps8244d109.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FillingHoles3_zps8244d109.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FillingHoles2_zps59b58be2.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FillingHoles2_zps59b58be2.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Day I-don't-know-what of my bodywork project (I'll chalk it up to too much MEK and resin fumes), and I'm really getting into this phase of the build. I mentioned before about the overzealous trimming that FFR's robot did on this body and that was really evident on the cowls - especially the front one. I'm using filler to roll the edges (it's a Mk3, so mine are the old flat edge style) and the front cowl lip was less only about 3/8"... way too short to use as a base for the filler. After the success I had yesterday with the first day of laying-up fiberglass, I decided to add a couple layers of 'glass to the cowl lips. I used some woven tape that I bought from a local auto body supply house (it comes in 1" - 4" widths in 50 yds) and gives a very consistent edge. I put a couple layers of the 1" tape on both cowls and will grind the exposed edges down to a consistent size, then add the filler to get the rolled edge effect.

If the rolling part of the project works out to my plan, I'm going to have a surprise for everyone that I haven't seen tried yet... more to come on that if I can make it work - stay tuned!

I also took a Dremel to some of yesterday's repairs and trimmed the front bumper stand-off holes and the tail lamp openings a bit (not enough to fit the lamps yet, but just a little to get an idea of how the patches worked)

Here are some pics of today's progress:

Here's what the cowl lip extensions looked like as they were setting-up (note the aluminum tape used as a mold:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/CowlExtensionswithTape_zpsc6d5fd69.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/CowlExtensionswithTape_zpsc6d5fd69.jpg.html)

Aluminum tape removed:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FrontCowlExtension_zps04363c67.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FrontCowlExtension_zps04363c67.jpg.html)

Detail of the cowl lip extension:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/CowlExtensionDetail_zps9bd560e9.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/CowlExtensionDetail_zps9bd560e9.jpg.html)

... and the trimmed openings:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/TailLampOpeningsTrimmed_zps988be775.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/TailLampOpeningsTrimmed_zps988be775.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/BumperOpeningsFilled_zps2437e7c5.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/BumperOpeningsFilled_zps2437e7c5.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

I'm on a roll... today was yet another fiberglass day! I removed another 1/4" from the perimeter of the rivet-on hoodscoop flange, then tackled the job of fiberglassing the sliced sides. My hood has been edged just enough so that it fit snug in the opening at the correct height, so when I gap it I should be able to take a uniform amount off around all sides. So, that allowed me to locate the hoodscoop and drill the two front holes and the center rear hole through the hood so I could cleco it down tight and 'glass in the side slits while everything was in the place it will be permanently.

Using the aluminum foil mold method I taped off the outside of the scoop - making sure to push the tape slightly into the gap so that I would have a beveled outside surface to work with later. I started with a thin single layer of mat, then added three staggered layers of 2" wide woven cloth. I then added a single piece of 2" woven cloth to the outside just to give it a bit more hold. The final step will be to grind down the surface of the 'glass patches and use HSRF and filler to blend the repairs into the surface of the scoop - while at the same time giving the inside of the scoop a smooth surface.

I'm really happy with this mod (thanks again to CompetitionCobra for breaking the ground on this one) and found it to be easier so far than I'd expected. To make sure everything stayed in place, I left the aluminum tabs and clecos that were pulling the slit together in place on the outside while I first laid-up the fiberglass on the inside. Once that had set for a few hours, I pulled those and did the outer patch.

Here are some before, during, and after pics of the scoop mod, as well as one of CSX3049 - one of the original S/C cars.

Here's a before pic of the original FFR molded-in scoop, complete with asymmetrical front side angles, which was molded a little off-center and slightly out of align with the centerline of the car:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FrontPassThreeQuarter.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FrontPassThreeQuarter.jpg.html)

Here is the goal... CSX3049's scoop:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/CSX3049/img_4294.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/CSX3049/img_4294.jpg.html)

My scoop with the 3/4" pie-shaped slice taken out of each side and the contour that I originally had on the flange - since this was taken, I've removed another 1/4" off the perimeter and toned-down the curvature at the front. This pic shows the two clecos that are holding the sliced scoop together - not visible is the small piece of aluminum that was inside in this pic, later moved to the outside so I could do the patch completely on the inside first:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Hoodscoop4_zps5e33b5b6.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Hoodscoop4_zps5e33b5b6.jpg.html)

This shows the aluminum brace tab moved to the outside - in this shot, the inside patch is complete; flashing sticking out the front will be ground as part of the finishing process. Note also the narrower flange and the recontoured front corner in comparison to the pic above:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopPatch1_zpsb967bd51.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopPatch1_zpsb967bd51.jpg.html)

Here is the patch from the inside:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopPatch3_zpsa1660834.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopPatch3_zpsa1660834.jpg.html)

Up next... filling the leading edge of the scoop hole... stay tuned!

[Diggem]

Gumball Chris: Give me a time and date and I would like to see your build. Maybe help if you wish. Wayne

[Gumball]

Today found me still working on the hood. Instead of the scoop, though, today it was the under-scoop extension. Since my car has a turkey pan for the carb, I wanted something that more closely aligns with that. Unfortunately, the engine sits so far back in our cars that a portion of the pan is actually further back than the rear of the scoop, so it would be very difficult to make is completely match. So, I settled for something that covers the majority of the pan and gives a good look of matching the pan when the hood is open. To accomplish this, I extended the hood back 8" under the scoop.

Although that sounds like a lot, I cheated a bit. Instead of laying-up my own patch, I used a pre-made piece of vinyl-ester resin based 'glass. It was pretty thin, which allowed me to get the appropriate contour, but stiff enough once installed. After trimming the piece to fit, I removed the gelcoat from both the patch and the recessed area inside the scoop opening on the hood. I also scuffed the raw side of the patch, which was applied face-down onto the hood - leaving the smooth gelcoat surface of the patch visible from the inside of the hood when it's raised. That will make it somewhat easier to get a decent finish on the side that is mostly visible.

Since my hood scoop is a rivet-on version, I have complete access to the exposed raw side of the patch, which will be skim coated and sanded to add a bit more body, blend it in with the opening, and give it a smooth surface.

Once all the gelcoat was removed, I aligned the patch and drilled the rivet-on scoop holes through it. I made the patch large enough so that there are four rivet holes down each side, leaving only the front edge to be secured only with resin and 'glass. I brushed some resin onto the clean surfaces, placed the patch, then added a bit of weight to hold it down while I put the clecos in place to hold it firm. With the clecos holding it, I was able to remove the weight and the patch held it's profile and set-up very nice.

Once the initial bonding was done, I added a couple strips of 1" woven cloth along the sides and the front on the inside of the hood just to secure the edges of the patch. The final work will be done using HSRF and Rage to fill and smooth everything, including the somewhat jagged opening that was left when I cut off the original molded-in scoop (the inner and outer skins of the hood did not align, leaving me to have to do a bit of filling and grinding.

Pics of today's progress:

The patch before gelcoat removal, but fitted and drilled - note the uneven inner and outer skin of the FFR hood... just a bit more finish work for me to do on that.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopOpening1_zps7e819165.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopOpening1_zps7e819165.jpg.html)

Hood with gelcoat removed:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopOpening2_zps7e324327.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopOpening2_zps7e324327.jpg.html)

The patch with gelcoat removed:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopOpening3_zps6382cab6.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopOpening3_zps6382cab6.jpg.html)

The patch 'glassed in place:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopOpening4_zpsec4f2624.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopOpening4_zpsec4f2624.jpg.html)

The view in through the scoop opening... the reflection of the inside of the scoop on the shiny gelcoat of the hood makes it look like the patch is sort of floating... it's not.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopOpening5_zpse94dec04.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopOpening5_zpse94dec04.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

I came across this photo from when I did the first body test fit last summer and was captivated by how the front wings flow from the headlights. There's not a bad angle to these cars, as far as I'm concerned, but this picture is my favorite of mine so far. It's things like this that keep me motivated to finish the project and get on the road! My advice to all new builders... take as many photos as you can - you never know what you're going to enjoy looking back at fondly when the project is done or what will keep you going during the times when the build hits a pothole.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FrontThreeQuarter2_zps89ad92d7.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FrontThreeQuarter2_zps89ad92d7.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Yet another daily update... this must be the most consecutive days I've worked on the car since I started!

I didn't have much time tonight, but I did manage to do some rough grinding and shaping on the modified hood scoop and clean-up the hood extension.

Here are a bunch of pics of how the scoop and modified hood are coming along.

Inside of the slit and patched scoop after initial grinding:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopPatchRoughSand_zpsef7a3e7a.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopPatchRoughSand_zpsef7a3e7a.jpg.html)

Outside of the scoop patch after some initial sanding:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopPatchRoughSandOutside_zps2e17e2ff.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopPatchRoughSandOutside_zps2e17e2ff.jpg.htm l)

Top side of the hood extension patch - this is the part that will be under the scoop:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodExtensionBondedInPlace_zps271a6b4f.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodExtensionBondedInPlace_zps271a6b4f.jpg.html)

Profile of the modified scoop on the hood:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopProfile_zps5df0483d.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopProfile_zps5df0483d.jpg.html)

Front detail of the scoop:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopOpeningDetailRoughSand_zps5db1fc93.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopOpeningDetailRoughSand_zps5db1fc93.jpg.ht ml)

I like this one - the picture is of an original S/C scoop:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopComparisontoOriginal_zps46d97a07.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopComparisontoOriginal_zps46d97a07.jpg.html )

[Gumball]

I received a heads-up from CompetitionCobra on ffcars that the woven 'glass can tend to print through paint more than the strand mat. So far, the only woven that I've used on the outside of the body is a single strip on either side of the modified hood scoop sliced area. I'm going to grind that down and use HSRF and Rage to fill and blend that area, feathering it into the gelcoat to hopefully avoid that issue. I'm trying to do whatever I can to limit printing as I'm planning on a dark color, which seems to make printing all the more noticeable.

[Gumball]

Another fun evening of grinding fiberglass... yeah!!! Just a few more hours tonight to smooth all of the fiberglass patches and mods on the inside of the body. While I was at it, I knocked down all the shiny surfaces of resin that were around those spots, as well as drips, runs, and spills. The inside of the body is now ready for filler in the wheel well lips, the top of the radiator opening, and around the lower portions of the nose and tail.

I also trimmed the cowl extensions that I had to add back to the body after some serious trimming took place by the FFR robot. The Mk3 and earlier cars had a 90* cowl edge, not the curved edge like the current Mk4 bodies. But, the front cowl on my body was as little as 3/8" in a few spots and no more than 1/2" at the largest. The rear was a bit better, measuring a consistent 3/4". As detailed a few posts above, I added some woven fiberglass to the cowl lips and tonight I trimmed both to a consistent one inch height which will give me enough to get a very nice rolled edge. I'll probably also reinforce this from behind with a bit of HSRF, just to make sure that I don't get any cracking in the filler that will make the rolled edge illusion. Stay tuned for that process once the body is back right-side up.

Just a couple pics of the cowl extensions, in case there are any other Mk3 or earlier builders still out there doing bodywork with a similar situation. These also show the fully sanded interior, nearly ready for filler and the silver/gray paint.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/CowlExtensionFinishedFront_zpsfc30c290.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/CowlExtensionFinishedFront_zpsfc30c290.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/CowlExtensionFinishedBoth_zps0d03aaf3.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/CowlExtensionFinishedBoth_zps0d03aaf3.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

I put the body back on tonight in order to check some of my work so far and to confirm the location of a couple things, like the front hidden mounts that need to be bonded inside the cold air openings and some form of reinforcement for the soft top bow ferrules that pass through the body just behind the doors.

Although I didn't do any substantive work tonight, I though a few pictures were in order - here are a few showing the revised hood scoop profile, as well as one taken just for fun from a low front vantage point.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScooponCarTestFit3_zpscab7dd79.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScooponCarTestFit3_zpscab7dd79.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScooponCarTestFit2_zpseefcfa1e.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScooponCarTestFit2_zpseefcfa1e.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScooponCar_TestFit_zpsc01041bc.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScooponCar_TestFit_zpsc01041bc.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/BodyFitment_LowFrontThreeQuarter_zpsde0769a7.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/BodyFitment_LowFrontThreeQuarter_zpsde0769a7.jpg.h tml)

[Gumball]

Back at bodywork today... this time doing all the little detail stuff associated with fitting the body back on the chassis. After dropping it back on the other night, I found that I had to fiddle with quite a few spots to get everything to line up again. There are a few changes, though, from the last time the body was on that have caused a bit of extra work.

First, during the last test-fit, I noticed that the front of the hood opening was a 1/4" or so above the 3/4" rails due to some boogery welds - after taking the body off the last time, I ground those down a bit (being careful not to take too much of the bead off). But, I knew that would throw a few of my other tweeks off a little. The most noticeable was the location for the hidden front mounts. I'm going to slot the four holes at the front so that I can add a pair of perforated base studs to each side of the nose. When I was doing the 'glass repairs, I filled the original nose mount bolt holes and patched over them. Now that the body is back on, I was able to fiddle with everything again and get the nose to sit flat on the upper 3/4" rails and re-mark the spots for the hidden front mounts.

Second, I found that the hidden side mount brackets will not provide the rigidity to the top of the rear quarters just behind the doors as the rear-most side bolts. The reason is that if you push down just behind the door, the thing keeping that force from being transferred straight down to the bottom of the car and allowing some flex is the side-mount that is farthest back towards the wheel. Since my car is going to have the soft-top, the bows for which mount in that exact spot just behind the doors, there will at times be a good amount of pressure pushing down on the body there. So, I decided to use one perforated base stud on each side for that rear-most mount. I'll bond those in tomorrow using HSRF and that, when combined with the 18" long hidden mounts, should give me a fair amount of both adjustability and strength.

I did a couple of other fun things today, including test fitting the rectangular Lucas tail lamps and getting the final fit done for the side louvers (********** version). The side louvers fit very well, but I did need to re-contour the holes that FFR cut in order to get the openings symmetrical and rounded. The flare on those that goes into the body can be worked over to give a nice edge to support the louvers and give the whole thing a very finished look... more pics on those to come once I've bonded the brackets in place.

The tail lamps went in nicely. Now that I patched over the two round holes per lamp pad that FFR cut, I was able to drill for the Lucas rectangular lamps. I also made a pair of templates to use when reshaping the pads - as you can see in the pics below, the oval pads just don't look right with the shape of the rectangular lamps. I also included a pic of how Kirkham shapes their quarterpanels for the tail lamps... this is the look I'm going to try to achieve with a bit of fiberglass, HSRF, and Rage - wish me luck!

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130615_114101_zps00507e87.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130615_114101_zps00507e87.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130615_172648_zps26c42c05.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130615_172648_zps26c42c05.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130615_172704_zps236170dd.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130615_172704_zps236170dd.jpg.html)

[skullandbones]

Hey Chris,

Are you going to use the "knee knockers" on the rear like the Kirkham? I think I will for a while at least. I have noticed in several pics that the quick jacks were very close to the body. It makes sense. It would give them better support and it looks better, too. However, if you ever go to a nudge bumper it will have to be spaced out quite a bit further, I think. Have you been thinking about that? Thanks, WEK.

[Gumball]

I was originally planning on quick-jacks, but quite a while ago I switched to front and rear full bumpers and hoops.

I have some pics from the Shelby Collection in Boulder, CO and the originals had their quick-jacks very close to the body and the Kirkham does a good job of replicating that style. If anyone is interested, I can get some better pics and measurements from the Kirkham and share them in another post.

[Gumball]

Today I finished up just about everything I needed to do during this most recent body test-fit. Something I mentioned in an earlier post was the fact that by switching to the 18" aluminum side mount brackets, I lost a bit of rigidity to the part of the body just behind the doors. By pushing down on the body just behind the top of the doors, there was just a bit too much flex for me - especially since the soft top bows will mount there. So, I used HSRF to bond in a couple of stainless steel perforated base studs on each side of the body - one each for the two FFR side-mount tabs. These will allow me to capture the body and keep that rear-most section near the leading edge of the rear wheel wells from flexing when the soft top is in place. Just to ensure that I get a solid body mount, I also bonded in a stud for the side brackets near the foot boxes.

I also did quite a bit more adjusting of the body to make sure that it's sitting right where I want it. Although I did this before, I found that getting it right back to where I wanted it has taken a fair amount of work. Once the body was back on, I installed the rear bumper bolts and the doors. This allowed me to get the body close to where it was when I did the last test fit and with some careful measuring and aligning, I'm satisfied that it's in the right place.

My original plan for the front mounts (those that are in the brake / fresh air duct openings on either side of the radiator) was to bond in a pair of studs on each side. After looking at it quite a bit and ruminating over every single one of my Cobra history books, I've decided that I'll instead use some button head machine screws - either four or six per opening (2 - 3 per side) which will both hold the body to the chassis tab as well as secure the vent funnels I bought a while back from Cobra Earl. This will mimic the look of the original cars' ducts. Most had four bolts/rivets per opening, but many had six. Pics of this to come.

Rear most stud / bracket:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SideMountReinforcements_zps9c91c2e8.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SideMountReinforcements_zps9c91c2e8.jpg.html)

Front stud - near footbox - also showing the front half of the bonded in sheet aluminum side mount bracket:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SideMountReinforcements2_zpsf0236c51.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SideMountReinforcements2_zpsf0236c51.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Tonight I did the final touches for this body test-fit, making sure the doors fit properly again and checking out the bonded studs. Turns out that the front two studs were a little low and are pushing the body up too high when inserted into the chassis holes - I'll just clearance the holes a bit to get them to sit where I want. Everything else is looking good - all of the adjustments have been done and I marked the inside of the body for the padding that will line the areas over the wheels to avoid stars in the paint from rocks. I also marked the areas of the inner body where I want to make sure the surface is relatively smooth and where I'll concentrate my painting efforts to simulate the surface of raw aluminum. I talked with the painter the other day and he said that the type of paint I use for the inside is not too important - he even suggested Rust-o-leum, but said that one of the Eastwood paints would probably be a better choice for the look I want. I'll check that out and probably do some test areas soon just to see what works best.

Here's a tease for a mod to come!

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130504_135252_zpsb594c9cc.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130504_135252_zpsb594c9cc.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/CSX3049/img_4220.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/CSX3049/img_4220.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

I didn't have a huge amount of time to work on the car tonight, but I was able to get the body ready to come off tomorrow so that I can tweak the front mounts (to further align the body over the front suspension and allow room for the cold air duct funnels to fit between the body and the mounts) and the side mounts. The body will be off for a short time to do those things, then it'll go back on for some final fitting. Then, it's off and back up-side down for finishing on the inner surfaces before being flipped over for some final mods (rolling cockpit edges, etc...) and then back on the chassis to fit, gap, and level the hood, doors, and trunk lid. Whew! At least I can rest on the fact that I have a plan.

The other thing I did tonight was to finalize the side louvers. I'm using the ********** ones and they will be painted body color. I want them to be removeable, but didn't like the idea of Velcro (concerned about the longevity of the adhesive). Instead, I went the route of a couple of #6 button head (allen) screws top and bottom on each - very similar to how they were mounted on the original cars. I drilled the aluminum angle mounts on the side that will bond to the body with HSRF and trimmed and drilled the other side to fit on the louvers. I also scuffed the side that faces to the body with some 36 grit paper to give the HSRF something to bite into. I'll cover those with some fiberglass strips, too, just to give it some added security (as I will with the side mounts).

I previously finished the openings for the louvers and marked the position of each "vane" so that I would have a reference point when fitting the brackets. After some adjustment, I found a positioning that I like, so I tightened everything down to hold the brackets in place. I used a couple of yard sticks to make braces to hold the louvers in place while the HSRF sets-up - they work by pulling the louvers against the inside of the body using a longer strip of wood on the outside that sits on the outer body; both parts are connected by a 3 1/2" bolt and wing-nut. I don't remember who on the site to give credit to, but this isn't my idea... sorry for forgetting the name of the originator!

Here are some pics of the louvers - I'll be bonding them in sometime over the next few days and will post pics of the final product.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130618_220244_zpsa8f2c8fa.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130618_220244_zpsa8f2c8fa.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130618_220328_zps6d338393.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130618_220328_zps6d338393.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130618_220516_zps4624e834.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130618_220516_zps4624e834.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130618_220443_zps1c66d5d9.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130618_220443_zps1c66d5d9.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Made a decision on my front body mounts. I previously covered the holes that FFR drilled in the body and was planning to bond in some perforated base studs, then slot the mounting points on the chassis. Instead, I decided to go with something that looks a bit more original as the S/C cars had either two or three rivets / button head screws through each side of the front air duct openings.

Here's a pic of one of the original cars:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/AirDuctExample_zpsd29c2216.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/AirDuctExample_zpsd29c2216.jpg.html)

So, after some measuring, marking, and ruminating, here's what I did to my body:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/AirDuct1_zpsc98c43c1.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/AirDuct1_zpsc98c43c1.jpg.html)

The rivets are just there to accentuate the holes for the photo. I'm going to use #10 or #12 button head screws (allen) that look like rivets. Those will do double duty by holding the body to the front mounting point of the chassis while at the same time holding the air duct funnels in place (those will feed the footwell vents).

I also spent some time today fitting the screens and the funnels by shaping them with a Dremel to match the contour of the inner body.

[Gumball]

I also tackled the bonding of the brackets for the side vents today. I used HSRF to secure these brackets. As detailed above, I previously fitted the louvers (**********) and the brackets to the body after contouring the openings (shaping them to match the louvers and rounding them over) and prepped the mounting brackets by drilling them and scuffing the back to encourage adhesion. After giving them a very thorough coating of HSRF, I clamped them in place using the home made clamp (pieces of yard sticks and a bolt). Here is the finished product.

The piece of wood on the back side pulls the louver and the brackets against the body as a result of the force on the outside of the body - note the slight bend in the outer piece of wood.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Installed1_zpsa95a250c.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Installed1_zpsa95a250c.jpg.html)

Here are a couple other photos of the installed louvers:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Installed3_zps1fc41786.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Installed3_zps1fc41786.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Installed4_zps160c5595.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Installed4_zps160c5595.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Epic fail today!!! I found that one of the aluminum body side mount panels I bonded to the body had pulled loose just slightly at one end. Concerned about that, I applied a bit of lifting pressure by one hand and the whole panel just popped off. I'm guessing that the HSRF doesn't so much act as a bonding agent, but rather works as a mechanical bond when the part is encapsulated. The side mount panels were most definitely not encapsulated and were only in contact with the HSRF from behind - obviously not enough. I'm going to grind down the HSRF and then re-install the side panels (both are now off the car) using vinyl ester epoxy resin and fiberglass mat both behind and on top of the panel. Stay tuned for the do-over.

Here's where the passenger side panel was located:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Fail_BodySideMount_zps5e23d6d0.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Fail_BodySideMount_zps5e23d6d0.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Worked on grinding down the HSRF that was left over from the removed side mounts, as well as scuffing the aluminum mounts quite a bit in preparation for re-installation using fiberglass mat and resin. This time, I'm going to drill the body and the side mounts and use clecos to hold pressure on them and to allow the 'glass to cure. Look for an update on that this weekend.

I removed the louvers after letting them sit overnight with the yard stick tensioners in place and the brackets look great. I'll smooth the HSRF on these brackets a bit, then cover them with 'glass, too, just to give these a smoother appearance since they're somewhat visible with the hood open:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/LouverBrackets_zpsfe0a221b.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/LouverBrackets_zpsfe0a221b.jpg.html)

I also opened-up the patches over the roll hoop holes just enough to get a read on the positioning of the new and smaller holes (for the Mk4 hoop I have). I'll finish these when the body is back on the chassis. I'm going to have to thin the patch area out somewhat, as I'm using Jack Wojack's trick of McMaster-Carr rubber grommets for a more original look. The grommets are for much thinner material (my patches came out pretty thick) so I just need to do a bit of Dremel work and they'll fit perfectly.

These patches were done by layering three small circles of 'glass mat into the holes from behind (with aluminum tape over the outside), then covering those with three large circles of mat that extended about 1 1/2" out from the actual hole. Made for a wonderful patch and was good practice for the rest of the 'glass work I've been doing.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RollHoopHole1_zps8f5db578.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RollHoopHole1_zps8f5db578.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Just talked with my friend who is going to do the paint. He has done a few FFRs at his shop, which focuses on restorations. He also does fill-in work on regular cars, so he's up-to-date on the latest in adhesives. He said that the HSRF is a good material for general bonding and for doing things like the perforated base studs where the item is fully covered by the filler. For contact bonding, though, he prefers SpeedGrip products (1 min / 5 min / 15 min) by Norton. I ordered some of the 5 and 15 minute versions and will experiment with that on the body side mounts and on the stud plate for my trunk prop rod.

This is really turning into quite a learning experience and, surprisingly, one of the most rewarding parts of my build as far as I'm concerned!

[Gumball]

The body is back on... again... for re-fitment of the hidden side mounts and to check the things I did to the chassis recently (some adjustment to the side mount holes and the front mount brackets). With the two bonded in studs on each side, the long hidden mounts are almost not needed, but they will give an added measure of solidity and adjustability to the sides.

The front of the body seems to be falling where I want it to be after I tweaked the front mounting points on the chassis. I'm trying to make sure that I have the body centered over the suspension and the wheels, as one issue I've noticed with many FFRs is a tendency for the passenger side front wheel to be a bit more exposed than the driver's side. It was very close before, but still about 1/8" over too far to the driver's side to my eye. Now, I have an equal measurement from the top of the shock mount to the wheel lip on both sides. I also checked to make sure that everything worked with the cold air duct funnels and screens in place, so I think the front end is almost done. Tomorrow, I'll get the splash guards in place on all four corners, install the wheels, and get it on the ground to check what I hope is the final alignment.

Driver side cold air duct funnel (from Cobra Earl) - not really noticeable in the photo, but it has a solid flush fit all around due to some trimming with a Dremel:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/ColdAirDuctFunnel_zps4d2db1fa.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/ColdAirDuctFunnel_zps4d2db1fa.jpg.html)

Here's an example of the shaping I did to make these fit tight to the body:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/AirDuctTrimming_zps44caa78e.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/AirDuctTrimming_zps44caa78e.jpg.html)


I also put the doors back on and made a few more minor adjustments to the hinges. I'm pretty happy with how these turned out... here are a couple of pics without any trimming or filler having been done yet on the doors or body. My advice to anyone doing this on their own is to be patient when adjusting the doors, hood, and trunk and just keep at it until you're just making very small adjustments. Mark everything and leave yourself notes if you walk away from it for more than a few minutes and don't be afraid to hang it up and work on something else for a while. Time spent here to get the alignment right is very well spent as these things are very noticeable on the finished product.

Driver's side:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/DoorAlignment1_zpse309361d.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/DoorAlignment1_zpse309361d.jpg.html)

Passenger side:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/DoorAlignment2_zpsf74debc4.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/DoorAlignment2_zpsf74debc4.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Doing some final body fitting so that I can start gapping the doors, hood, and trunk. As part of this, I've been trying to get the front wheel well lips to evenly align over the tires. I'm happy to report that after my latest efforts of slightly bending the front outriggers (front body mount tabs), it looks like I've hit my goal.

Pass Front:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/PassengerFrontOverhang_zps9acb5753.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/PassengerFrontOverhang_zps9acb5753.jpg.html)

Driver Front:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/DriverFrontOverhang_zpsdac36641.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/DriverFrontOverhang_zpsdac36641.jpg.html)

I also re-set the hidden side mount brackets - the 18" long aluminum panels - in preparation of bonding them back onto the body. This time, I'm going to use the SpeedGrip epoxy (a Norton product) that was recommended by my bodyshop friend. To ensure that I'm able to position these exactly where I want them and to get a solid mechanical clamping force the entire length during the cure period, I drilled three 1/8" holes in the body and through the side mount panels. I waited to drill the holes until I was happy with how the panels were fitting against both the bottom of the 2x2" frame rail and the inside of the body. I then taped everything into place and drilled the three holes. Now, I can replicate the exact location for the side mounts when the body is off the chassis and on my inverted buck for easy bonding. The three holes will be filled after the fact and are located behind the side pipe, so should be completely invisible once I'm done.

This shot shows the three clecos holding the side mount in place and also the final location of the body and door - this is without any gapping or filler on the door... I'm very happy with this fit!!!

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/PassengerDoorFitting_zps9bdd02cb.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/PassengerDoorFitting_zps9bdd02cb.jpg.html)

Another project for today was getting the Mk4 rollhoop to fit. Previously, I 'glassed over the very large holes that FFR cut in the body for the old 2" Mk3 hoop. I then used notes I'd taken of the positioning of the smaller body and transferred the dimensions to the patches with some templates I made. Those were enough to insert a long 1 1/2" o.d. aluminum tube down through the now much smaller holes and into the chassis mounts. That enabled me to then mark and open those holes just slightly so that the roll hoop would fit. I still need to do a bit of clearance work on my patches to get the grommets to fit, but this is another small success.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RollHoopFitting_1_zpsf167eb83.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RollHoopFitting_1_zpsf167eb83.jpg.html)


Finally, I tackled something that was bothering me. The old-style FFR soft top that I'm using requires a 1/2" hole in the top of each rear quarter just behind the doors, but there is nothing under there to provide support to the ferrule. I'm going to add just a bit of reinforcement to the fiberglass with a couple extra layers of mat next time the body is upside down, but I also wanted a good solid mechanical fit. By adding the stud to the lower edge of the body, I was able to get a bit of rigidity at the top of the body where that ferrule goes... go figure - pushing on the body one place shows a weak spot somewhere else - hence the decision to add the studs to that part of the lower mount. But, I still wasn't convinced that there was enough support laterally to ensure that the paint doesn't crack around the ferrule. So, using a similar design to what I came up with for the side curtain ferrules in the doors, I added a small section of tubing from below that captures the ferrule and the body. I added rigidity to it by welding on a small tab that extends down to the aluminum panel under that part of the body right where it rivets to the top 3/4" chassis tube. The tab will be riveted to that aluminum panel and the proximity to the chassis tube will give it all the stability it needs to support the soft top bow assembly.

Here is a pic of one side. My plan is to install the rear bulkhead and side panels, along with these reinforcements, before the final body installation. Then, once the body is on for the final time, I'll be able to insert the soft top bow ferrules from the top with some epoxy, JB Weld, or just some seam sealer (for a more removeable installation) to hold everything tight.

In this pic, the driver side reinforcement tube isn't quite all the way up to the body and you can see a bit of the ferrule between the body and the reinforcement tube. In finished form, it will be pushed tight up against the body (once I add a little more fiberglass to the area to ensure it's strong):

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SoftTopFerrule1_zps269fffe6.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SoftTopFerrule1_zps269fffe6.jpg.html)

And here are just a couple of pics of the body after what I'm calling the final positioning. From here on out, I should be able to get it back to this position via the various mounts anytime I put it back on. I also adjusted the ride height again - although it'll need it one more time when I have the entire car assembled due to the increased weight and eventual spring sag. I just like these pics as they give me inspiration to keep pushing.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FinalBodyFitting3_zpsa0ca1a3e.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FinalBodyFitting3_zpsa0ca1a3e.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FinalBodyFitting_zps75918145.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FinalBodyFitting_zps75918145.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

I made a reference above to the tubes I used for securing the side curtain ferrules in the doors. The original cars actually had the ferrules set into tubes that were tack welded to the door frame for added support. On an FFR, the old-style soft top used the original style side curtains, which are an aluminum frame with a sliding plexiglass window. I really like the old-school look of those, but one of the issues with the ferrules and the shape of the FFR door is that the ferrules aren't long enough to extend all the way through the outer and inner skins - which would mean they would potentially drain water down into the door (which in my case will be filled with low expansion foam - potentially causing mold and rot issues). So, in keeping with my other attempts to make the car look a bit more original, I came up with a way to add the drain/support tubes to my car. The tubes are 1/2" i.d. - 5/8" o.d. tubing. The outside skin holes are 1/2" and the ones in the inner skins are 5/8", meaning that when the drain/support tubes are inserted in from the bottom (inside the cockpit), they can't come up through the outer holes. The ferrules then slip down inside the drain/support tubes. The plan is to install the drain/support tubes before foaming the inside of the doors so that the foam holds them in place - I'll also use some filler or caulk of some sort to smooth and fill the gap between the tube and the inner door skin. Then, once paint is done, I can insert the chrome ferrules from the outside and secure them in the tubes using epoxy, JB Weld, or (if I want them to remain somewhat removeable) seam sealer. These tubes also give me someplace to mount the leather door pull strap that hangs from the door release lever to the middle tube.

Here are a few pics of this body mod:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/DoorFerruleDrainTubes4_zps6193694f.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/DoorFerruleDrainTubes4_zps6193694f.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/DoorFerruleDrainTubes5_zps305d32b4.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/DoorFerruleDrainTubes5_zps305d32b4.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/InnerDoorMockUp_zpsb4c6defe.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/InnerDoorMockUp_zpsb4c6defe.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/DriverDoorwithSideCurtainOpen_zps64b2f8b6.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/DriverDoorwithSideCurtainOpen_zps64b2f8b6.jpg.html )

[Gumball]

After final fitment of the body over the last few days, it finally went back on the inverted buck for finishing of the inside. So far, my plan has been to roll the wheel well lips, then smooth the first few inches up from the bottom of the body around the perimeter, the insides of the flares, and the area inside the radiator opening. I was also thinking of doing some light cosmetic work around the spots that are visible when the hood, doors, and trunk lid are opened before giving the entire inside a coating of silver/grey paint. The final step underneath would be some padding bonded above the tires to protect from rock damage to the paint from the inside-out (no paint or filler under the padding - just leaving that in raw fiberglass so the adhesive has something to bite into).

Now that I'm about at the point where I need to start applying filler, I'm wondering what everyone thinks about just using a few coats of slick sand or feather fill for the inside work? Would either of those be sufficient to just cover some of the "grain" of the fiberglass and give a reasonable smooth-to-the-touch feeling and appearance?

[Gumball]

After looking at some others' finished louvers (Competition Cobra, SCFFR, etc...), as well as pics I have of original cars, I decided a change is in order. I pulled off the brackets that were held in place by HSRF (took some doing and pretty much ruined the aluminum angles) so that I could do a bit more work in that area. I'm going to grind the lip completely off and round-over the thin edge of the body to better replicate the look of the original aluminum skin.

I'll also make new brackets that are a bit smaller, slotted for adjustment where the louvers bolt on, and use the structural adhesive that my painter recommended (based on Competition Cobra's comments about using the right stuff for the job).

Pics to come!

[Gumball]

Yeah - first day of Rage (gold that is)!!!

Today's project was to roll the wheel well lips. I started with a 90* 3/8" lip with nothing behind it and ended up with this:

Rage as applied

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledWheelWellLips3_zps24e39793.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledWheelWellLips3_zps24e39793.jpg.html)

Sanding, and sanding, and sanding... (with apologies to Scott for stealing his line)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledWheelWellLips2_zps0bcc5bb0.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledWheelWellLips2_zps0bcc5bb0.jpg.html)

Nearly finished - just needs a bit more Rage to fill a few voids and low spots.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledWheelWellLips1_zps628c96e1.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledWheelWellLips1_zps628c96e1.jpg.html)

The first gob of Rage that I mixed up was way too hot and kicked in about 2 minutes. I could feel it pulling on the spreader almost right away, so I just scraped it off and tossed that batch. I then experimented with mixing, starting really light with the hardener and adding just a bit more until it was a nice uniform pale green. That gave me 5 minutes or so of working time... more than enough to do each entire wheel well with one batch.

For sanding, I started by just knocking down the flashing and large boogers (no other way to describe them, really) with my angle grinder (40 grit - 3" disc) and then moved to some 80 grit by hand. I then used a piece of a wooden yard stick that I use as a tight-area sanding block and held it in a way that only the first 1/2" or so could work on the material. This gave me a bit of a groove in the filler while at the same time making the lip very flat and uniform, I finished that up with more hand sanding with fingertips to sort of trowel out the backfill.

After filling the low spots and voids tomorrow, I'll do a final finish sand with finer paper on a soft round block to ensure that everything is flat (or really concave).

[SCFFR]

Chris,

Great body work post!
I did the same with the wheel wells and hood and trunk openings. I had the painted spray about a 2" strip inside the body at these points so I wouldn't have to bring the bedliner out to the opening edges.
I had worked the inside of the nose with Rage and did some priming and sanding and asked the painter to spray. He did but it didn't turn out that great so ended up coating it with bedliner. Basically, if you want it to look as good as the outside, you will have to fill, prime and sand the inside of the nose as though it was an outside surface, i.e., perfect preparation. In hindsight, worked out fine with the bedliner. With the radiator side panels installed, you really don't see inside the nose. If you also use the top radiator shroud like I got from Mark Reynolds, you really don't see anything.
I installed my louvers (**********) pretty much the same as you. I marked the brackets and "glued" them in place with a little bit of Rage. When that had dried, glassed them in with a layer of 1.5 oz mat and covered with a single layer of 10 oz cloth. Gave it a smoother finish. For the inside of the body where the louvers mount, I did completely finished the glass and had it painted body color since this area of the body is visible when you open the hood.

Great workshop!

Ron

[Gumball]

Finished off the initial work on the rolled wheel lips with a second (skim) coat of Rage, followed by sanding with adhesive paper on a 1" DuraBlock round pad. I cut 2 3/4" off the long block, which is the width of the adhesive sandpaper, so it worked perfect and was small enough to follow the contour of the wheel opening shape while getting full contact with the paper. This filled in some pinholes and voids in the first coat, while giving a nice uniform roll to each lip. These areas will be coated with slick sand when doing the rest of the body, so they'll be finish sanded later. But, for just a few hours of work, I'm very pleased with the results and it was good experience working with Rage for the first time in a spot that's not visible!

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledWheelWellLips4_zps5230008d.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledWheelWellLips4_zps5230008d.jpg.html)

I also did the initial grinding around the tail lamp pads - I'm changing these from the two round lamps to the rectangular, so I wanted to make the contour match the lamps. I made the templates out of some steel plate and started by cutting down the obvious parts of the FFR lamp pads with an angle grinder (3" - 40 grit). This knocked down the sharp edge and I'll further contour this area using Rage. More to come on this one, for sure.

Before:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130615_172648_zps26c42c05.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130615_172648_zps26c42c05.jpg.html)

After:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RecontouringPads4_zps9840c117.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RecontouringPads4_zps9840c117.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Just a couple of small things last night while still working on the inverted body. I added another 1/4" + of fiberglass mat under the area where the soft top bow ferrules mount through the body. This reinforcement, together with the tubes and brackets mentioned in this post http://www.ffcars.com/forums/17-factory-five-roadsters/338882-soft-top-bows-support-without-body.html , should give me a pretty strong foundation for the top and hopefully avoid any cracking of the paint or fiberglass in that area from stress.

I also worked a little more on the louver openings. This is another "rework" task as I'd already bonded the mounting brackets for the ********** louvers in place last week. But, I was not entirely happy with the thickness of the opening, so I removed the brackets (much harder than the failed side mounts as these brackets were completely covered with HSRF), ground off all the HSRF (quite a chore - that stuff is really hard), and shaved down the lips until they are almost gone. These still need a little more hand sanding with a small block and rounding over to make them appear like the original cars, which just had the outer skin bent back 180* on itself, but they're much better looking already. Once I'm happy with the shaping of the edge and the overall shape of the openings, I'll bond the replacement brackets I made (the first set was destroyed during removal) using SpeedGrip, which is a structural adhesive made for bodywork. The 15 minute set version is designed to work with fiberglass to metal, so should do the trick very nicely.

Pics from last night:

The light area in the center of the reinforcement is the 1/2" hole that is drilled through the body. I'll have to open that back up once I turn the body back over. Note that in order to get the ferrules to be perpendicular to the ground, the body is thinned on the trailing edge of the hole, leaving it very thin there. To fix that, I added four or five layers of mat to that side of the hole first, then covered everything with another four or five layers. The result is a reinforced area that no longer has the body contour inside, but instead will give me a nice flat surface that is parallel to the ground - to which I'll match the metal tube that comes off the frame as an underneath back-up to the body/ferrule (see the post link above for details on that).

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/ReinforcementforSoftTopFerrule_zps9c649d82.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/ReinforcementforSoftTopFerrule_zps9c649d82.jpg.htm l)

Here are a couple shots of the side louver openings - the one that shows the inside is a bit misleading due to the angle it was taken. The remaining lip is only 1/16" or so, but the dark area makes it look much larger. This remaining lip will be knocked down by hand as I do the final fitting of the louvers.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130701_2107181_zps22656cc6.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130701_2107181_zps22656cc6.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130701_2107101_zps0757edb9.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130701_2107101_zps0757edb9.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Did a little more work on the side louver fitting tonight, including opening up the FFR-cut holes a bit more. After sanding down the lip on the inside of these holes, I also decided to do just a bit more trimming to make sure that the front and rear diagonal sides were parallel to the ********** louvers. I'll post pics of these when I get the louvers re-fitted.

I also tackled the issue of how to include something that looks like the original cars' dash cowl with the stub of a support tube showing below the rolled edge and disappearing behind the top center of the dash.

Here's a shot of how Kirkham does this... it's an actual tube that goes from the top dash hoop to the support structure under the dash and ties into the dash support tubes that run down to the main frame rails.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130504_135252_zps9d1a810f.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130504_135252_zps9d1a810f.jpg.html)

To mimic that, I cut a 3/4" piece of 1/2" tube at an angle and notched it so that it slips over the fiberglass 90* lip. My plan is to bury this in the fiberglass and filler that I'll use to make the rolled edge on the cowl.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledCowlTube_zps03b857e3.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledCowlTube_zps03b857e3.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Since we were planning on going to a BBQ today, I didn't have much time for bodywork. I did manage to get something done, though... more like started.

I decided to try something just a little different for rolled cockpit edges (those of you with Mk4 will probably just want to skip past this part... lol). Instead of using all filler to build-up the cockpit edges on the rear cowl and over the dash, I decided to instead build up both of those areas with fiberglass, first. I started by making a drip rail of sorts out of the same heavy duty aluminum tape I used to back up the holes before patching. Then, I started layering on the fiberglass. I used 1" woven strips that I cut into various lengths ranging from 3" to 9"... and many of those were cut in half to make them 1/2" strips. I tried to use a bit less resin on these compared to the other stuff I've slathered on recently, to keep the strips from sliding down and to cut down on drips. It was in the mid 80s today, though, the hottest it's been while I've done fiberglass, so I had to experiment with the amount of MEK as the first batch kicked way too fast and I only was able to get four or five strips set before it wouldn't spread.

Here's what I started with... notice the "fence" I built previously with a couple layers of 1" woven cloth behind the actual body lip as FFR cut the lips down way too much. By sticking to this lip (no pun intended), I'll be able to have a consistent 3/4" roll.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledCowl2_zps942f711e.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledCowl2_zps942f711e.jpg.html)

And here is the rear lip after five layers of fiberglass. I'm going to have to do quite a few more layers to get to my intended 3/8" thickness. But, when I do, I'll be able to shape it with an angle grinder to form a perfect base for a bit of HSRF or Rage which will finish it off nicely.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledCowl1_zps2002569b.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledCowl1_zps2002569b.jpg.html)

More fiberglassing to come tomorrow as it's a day off from the daily grind and I plan on spending it all at the hangar working.

I also bought a can of Slick Sand and will be trying to spray the inside of the body over the weekend, so watch this space for updates on that part of the project!

[Gumball]

Finished adding fiberglass to build up the rolled cowls, including 'glassing in the faux dash tube at the top center of the front.

It was pretty messy work and I went through a bunch of resin as I had to work in small batches. Each few ounces of resin would do a couple layers of cloth - basically making two passes across the cowl. I did eight or ten layers of 1" woven strips, then topped that off with another four or five layers of 1/2" woven strips. I used varying lengths, too, so that there is an uneven overlap of each layer, ensuring that there wouldn't be any seams that pass all the way through the full build-up.

As was asked, I also took all the gelcoat off, too (well, almost all... there were some thin traces), so that I wouldn't have any adhesion issues down the road. My plan is to give this a rough rolled shape, drill some holes all the way through this build-up, then add a few skim coats of filler (Rage or HSRF - any suggestions?) to smooth everything off.

It was pretty hot and a little humid today, so I had to experiment to get the resin to MEK ratio right, so that I'd have sufficient work time, but good kick once it started to harden. I'll make sure to post more pics as I get this further along.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledCowlTube2_zps05d04526.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledCowlTube2_zps05d04526.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledCowlTube3_zps2ffe2bea.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledCowlTube3_zps2ffe2bea.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledCowlTube4_zps5a18458f.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledCowlTube4_zps5a18458f.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledCowl9_zps25257806.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledCowl9_zps25257806.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Busy day at the hangar... too bad it was wicked humid most of the day - not the best weather for grinding fiberglass!

Since the body is still inverted, I trimmed and shaped the underside of the rolled cockpit edge. This is still just the raw fiberglass base that will get a final skimcoat (or few) of HSRF or Rage when the body is right-side up in a few days, but it was way easier to do the underside of the edge now than if I'd waited. I did a little preliminary shaping of the 'glass around the stub tube that I bonded into the rolled edge to simulate the cowl support tube found on the original cars, but this will need quite a bit of detail work in the coming weeks.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledCowl10_zps219db462.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledCowl10_zps219db462.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledCowl11_zps18d2f526.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledCowl11_zps18d2f526.jpg.html)

I also finished the thinning of the fiberglass patches that I used to make the roll hoop holes smaller. Since this is a Mk3, FFR cut the holes large for the 2" roll hoop. But, I switched to a Mk4 hoop, so I had to make the holes smaller. To do that, I just glassed over all three holes, then re-cut them where I needed and slowly opened them up to just the right size. Since I want to use rubber grommets (McMaster-Carr) to seal the openings when the bar is installed, I had to thin the fiberglass a bit as the grommets are made for metal, not 3/16" fiberglass.

This pic is from inside the trunk area looking up:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RollHoopholeThinned2_zps5a8e4331.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RollHoopholeThinned2_zps5a8e4331.jpg.html)

I also tackled the inner body pads to protect the paint from stars due to rock strikes... more to come later on those.

[Gumball]

To protect against paint damage on the outside of the body from rocks being thrown against the inside ("stars"), I decided to make some pads for each of the wheel wells. These only cover the areas where the body would take an obvious direct hit, though. For the other spots where a glancing blow can occur (which is less likely to result in damage through the body), I'm going to use truck bed liner. The rest of the inner body areas will be painted silver with a brush to simulate the finish of unprep'd aluminum.

ERA uses core-mat fiberglass, which is a quilted mat. Others use different forms of foam or rubber materials. I wanted something made of closed-cell foam for this, so that water wouldn't be absorbed and cause problems with the adhesive. In talking with the upholsterer who is doing my seats, he suggested that I look at yoga mats. He also said that he can give me some very serious adhesive that I'll have to apply with a HVLP gun - supposedly, it will stand up to all sorts of heat and weather.

I stopped at a few stores this week looking for the right material, and came across this at Wal-Mart. It was a super, heavy duty, extra-special version of their yoga mats, but the best part is that it is black... every other mat I looked at was some version of bright color. As a bonus, this material has a great herringbone texture on one side, which will be perfect for giving the adhesive something to bite into. It is something like 26" wide by 71" long and 6mm thick - more than enough to do all four wheels (cost was around fifty bucks, too).

Before cutting, make sure you trace out the areas on the inner body where the splash guards and other aluminum panels (or other things) are near or in contact with the body to avoid interference.

Here are a few pics - up close of the mat, one of the front panels in place, and all four:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/WheelWellPads1_zps82ab4a1a.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/WheelWellPads1_zps82ab4a1a.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/WheelWellPads2_zps817a4d8e.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/WheelWellPads2_zps817a4d8e.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/WheelWellPads3_zps0d3e2edc.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/WheelWellPads3_zps0d3e2edc.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

I was hoping to spray the Slick Sand on the inside of the body this weekend, but it was way too humid. Instead, I did a bunch of fiberglass and filler work. Even with the heat and humidity, I was able to vary my mixes to allow just enough working time on both.

I started with filling in the top of the hood scoop opening patch (closes off about the first 8" of my scoop hole). The patching process is above, but that was just a single layer of previously laid-up 'glass. Today I added five additional layers of mat on top of that in the area that is on the outside of the hood (but under the scoop). I also used HSRF to fill the gap around the opening where the inner and outer panels of the hood don't meet (and where they don't have enough adhesive to seal the gap completely).

Bad perspective on this pic... the opening is actually symmetrical (just needs finish sanding with a flat paddle to knock down the edges before I do a final skim coat and round them over):

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopOpening7713_zps12447edc.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopOpening7713_zps12447edc.jpg.html)

Inside of the hood showing where I added the HSRF - the opening is now uniform and the inner and outer skins don't have a gap:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopOpening27713_zps429b74db.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopOpening27713_zps429b74db.jpg.html)

Here's an up-close shot of how thick my hood extension piece is now that it has six layers of 'glass:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopOpeningThicknessofPatch_zpsc8a2f6e0.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopOpeningThicknessofPatch_zpsc8a2f6e0.jpg.h tml)

I also spent some time playing with the Gess trunklid I'm using. This thread begins with pics of a Mk4 lid, but since I had the Gess lid, too, I decided to sell the Mk4 version and go with this one. Karl laid it up like FFR - with an inner and outer skin, then bonded those together. On this one (one of his first), the edges weren't filled, so that was something I had to tackle using HSFR. This is just the first coat... I'll add a skim coat of Rage and then make it a uniform thickness all the way around. Once I do the gaps, I'll round the edges over like the other moveable panels.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/TrunkLidFillingEdgeSanded_zps69041c55.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/TrunkLidFillingEdgeSanded_zps69041c55.jpg.html)

I have a few forced days off from bodywork, but will be back at it later in the week!

[Gumball]

Back at it after a crazy week at work - lots of off-site conferences and evening events, so too busy to do anything on the FFR. But, that gave some of my recent work a chance to cure a bit more in the heat and humidity, so all is good.

My latest task was to re-bond the hidden body side mount brackets to the body. As detailed in earlier posts, my initial attempt using HSRF for this job was illfated. Thanks to Competition Cobra and the advice of my painter, those brackets aren't going anywhere. This time I used a product called SpeedGrip (made by Norton). It's a two-part structural adhesive that bodyshops use to install new panels as new cars have such thin sheetmetal, welding isn't really an option anymore. This stuff comes in 5, 10, and 15 minute set versions - the 15 minute mix is the one that's designated for fiberglass/plastic to metal, so it seemed like the natural for this job. It's not cheap at around $40 per container and it does require application with a proprietary two-plunger gun that is available for around $50 (I bought mine on Amazon).

I started by repositioning the hidden mount brackets when the body was on the chassis most recently, then taping everything in place and drilling three 1/8" holes per side and using clecos to clamp the hidden mount brackets tightly to the body. I also used the HSRF as a way of getting more contact between the hidden mount brackets and the side of the body - that HSRF stuff is great at sticking to the fiberglass, but no good as a glue to hold things like these brackets in place. After a good cleaning of everything with Prepsol and scuffing the metal and the HSRF surfaces, I applied the SpeedGrip and clamped the parts together using the clecos. I left the excess that oozed out through the holes in the hidden mount brackets so that it could act as additional security in holding the parts in place - not a problem since this area of the body is completely hidden from view when the car is done. I also ran a generous bead of SpeedGrip along the bottom of the body where it meets the aluminum bracket and then smoothed that down into the joint with my finger - making sure to wear rubber gloves as this stuff is really sticky! I left everything cleco'd in place for about 20 minutes (which is the "work time") of the product and began a process that continued for the next couple hours of pulling and reinserting each of the clecos. This allowed the parts to remain clamped for a couple hours, after which I was easily able to remove the clecos - I was afraid that if I didn't do this, I'd never be able to get them out as they were covered with the SpeedGrip.

I checked on the progress this morning and everything was great - I'm deeming this a success and will use the same stuff (although much less and without the holes in the brackets) to hold my louvers in place.

Here are some pics - the first are of the brackets and the last three are of the gun:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130712_0752241_zps9029ffce.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130712_0752241_zps9029ffce.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130712_0753071_zps13b50695.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130712_0753071_zps13b50695.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130712_0753581_zps293900bd.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130712_0753581_zps293900bd.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130712_0754121_zpse01fd849.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130712_0754121_zpse01fd849.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130712_0754201_zps1a9821f4.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130712_0754201_zps1a9821f4.jpg.html)

[Davidbr_48]

Are you planning an under-car exhaust like John's car?

[Gumball]

Are you planning an under-car exhaust like John's car?

No... more of what I'm calling a "Gentleman's S/C." It'll have sidepipes, hoodscoop, and roll hoop, but also bumpers and no stripes.

[Gumball]

Huge progress tonight! After some very hot and humid weather, we had a slight break and the air was much drier, but still in the low 80s. I've been waiting about a week, though, for a window to spray the Slick Sand on the inside of the body and today was my day. After another thorough dusting with compressed air and Prepsol wipe-down yesterday, I tried my hand at spraying the Slick Sand after work today. I've never used a compressed air spray gun, so I figured working with this stuff and doing it on the inside of the body would be good practice.

I'm using a 2.3 tip HVLP gun that I bought from a local autobody tool supply house. I added a drier/filter to my air line and an add-on canister drier on the gun. My compressor is a 20 gallon Craftsman that I've had for nearly twenty years. I set the gun at 40 psi and was ready to go. I stopped by the local hardware store on my way to the hangar tonight with my gallon of Slick Sand so they could shake it really well for me - others have mentioned that there is quite a bit of settling of the media with this product and the lid said to "agitate before use" - seemed a bit British to me. I also made sure that I had plenty of acetone and thinner for cleaning and lots of rags. Make sure to have the appropriate protective gear, too, as this stuff is nasty! I also bought a pour spout at the hardware store that is used for regular house paint and it made it really easy to dispense the Slick Sand into a mixing cup with volume markings.

Since the actual volume of Slick Sand is 128 oz and it came with four small bottles of catalyst, I figured that I could mix eight batches of 16 oz each using one half of each of the bottles of catalyst for each - perfect for the cup on my new gun, too. I did a little practice spraying with the gun with a couple ounces of acetone - also worked to clean out any manufacturing residue from the gun - and was ready to go with my first batch.

I was very surprised at how well this stuff flows, covers, and sprays. One of the hardest parts is that you can't really see the spray coming out when you're working against a background of the first coat, so just watch for the shine and sags. I actually applied it pretty heavy in some spots and didn't really have much in the way of runs or sags. Keeping the gun 6" - 8" away and moving slowly, I applied an even coat in slightly overlapping passes and found that it worked great to fill the texture of the fiberglass (weave and mat), as well as the pinholes - there are tons of those on the inner body!

After three coats, I called it a night. My plan for tomorrow is to give it a light sanding (especially the wheel well lips and the few areas that are actually visible when the body is mounted) and then another coat or two. Looks like one gallon of Slick Sand will do about five to six coats on the inner body - the first couple of coats really soaked in as the inner fiberglass has lots of texture and was "thirsty" due to the fact that I opened it up by grinding away all of the shine that was on it as-delivered.

I also ordered two quarts of Eastwood's "Aluma Blast" paint that I'll apply with a brush to get that mill-fresh finish that I'm hoping for. The final steps will be to add some bed liner to the areas that will see lots of rocks and road debris, as well as gluing in the closed-cell foam pads above each tire (the pads will not go in until final paint is done).

For those of you who've never sprayed anything before, don't hesitate to give this a try. For a modest outlay for supplies - the gun was $50 - I've been able to do stuff on this body that would have probably cost a few thousand dollars at a body shop in hourly charges alone. On top of that, it was easy and is actually very rewarding and fun - especially when you take big leaps forward in appearance as I did today.

Pics from my first time ever spraying!

My big gray hot tub or boat (yea, people ask if that's what it is) - not gonna hold water, though:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SlickSandInterior4_zps59abbcc8.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SlickSandInterior4_zps59abbcc8.jpg.html)

Passenger side inner fender at louver - flipped to show how it will look when peering in through the hood opening:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SlickSandInterior6_zpsa676415d.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SlickSandInterior6_zpsa676415d.jpg.html)

Trunk underside and driver's side inner rear quarter:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SlickSandInterior5_zps3ee6493a.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SlickSandInterior5_zps3ee6493a.jpg.html)

Passenger side front inner below headlamp:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SlickSandInterior2_zps359a6dfe.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SlickSandInterior2_zps359a6dfe.jpg.html)

Inside the radiator opening:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SlickSandInterior7_zps4206b7b8.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SlickSandInterior7_zps4206b7b8.jpg.html)

Passenger side rear wheel well lip:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SlickSandInterior10_zpsda2938a4.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SlickSandInterior10_zpsda2938a4.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Well, the Slick Sand lived up to its name today - it is very easy to sand. I knocked down the entire inside of the body this morning, paying special attention to the areas that are going to be visible when the body is mounted, and sprayed on a couple more coats. The only areas I'm not completely satisfied with are the bottom corners of the wheel wells where the flares meet the body - just a few low spots and grooves that I still need to take care of with a skim coat of Rage Gold when the body is back right-side up so I can see what will be visible on the end product.

I've also decided that I'm going to leave this coating of Slick Sand untouched for now and flip the body over so that I can work on the exterior. My plan is to get the majority of the exterior things taken care of (except for the fitment of the moveable panels - gapping and leveling) and then, before putting the body on the chassis for the final bodywork, flip it upside-down one more time to do the final sanding and apply the silver paint and the bed liner. I bought one of the Duplicolor bed liner kits and will use that to supplement the closed-cell foam pads that will line the top of each wheel well. I'll also use the bed liner on the splash guards and "F" panels.

Just a few pics of how the Slick Sand worked to cover the fiberglass texture. I used a full gallon on the inside of the body and I think it was money well spent. Considerably less time than spot-filling the inner body with Rage and much better coverage than I would have had with regular filler.

Louver area:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SlickSandInteriorRound2LouverArea_zps6aefeb5f.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SlickSandInteriorRound2LouverArea_zps6aefeb5f.jpg. html)

Rear panel - below trunk opening:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SlickSandInteriorRound2TrunkDropOff_zps2f1d6ef2.jp g (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SlickSandInteriorRound2TrunkDropOff_zps2f1d6ef2.jp g.html)

Rear wheel well lip:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SlickSandInteriorRound2WheelLip_zpsdce7af39.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SlickSandInteriorRound2WheelLip_zpsdce7af39.jpg.ht ml)

[Gumball]

Woo hoo - vacation time!!! I'm off all week and will be spending every hot, humid moment of it at the hangar doing bodywork. The body is back on the regular buck... right-side up for now, so it's time to make some noticeable progress on the outer skin.

One of the first things I did today was finish rounding all of the edges. I figured it would be better to wait until it's flipped back over to do these, as they're the edges that are visible and touchable when the car is done. The louver holes will need a bit of skimcoat along the edges to take care of some airbubbles that I opened-up, so pics of those will follow. I also smoothed out the openings for the radiator and oil cooler after making sure the lips were uniform all the way across. I know FFR makes a big deal out of the robot trimming, but it's better to just assume that the holes FFR does are just roughed in and that you'll have to finish them off a bit - nothing major... I was able to do it with just a little patience and a piece of 80 grit paper on a paint stick.

I also opened-up the holes for the soft top ferrules after 'glassing over them from the underside with about 1/4" - 3/8" of mat. This, combined with the tubes that sit under these openings and are attached to the chassis, will make sure that the soft top ferrules are strong and don't do any flexing, which can lead to paint cracks.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SoftTopFerruleHoleReinforcement_OpenHole_zps92f7b6 cf.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SoftTopFerruleHoleReinforcement_OpenHole_zps92f7b6 cf.jpg.html)

I was able to get a better look at some of what are the lower parts of the body, but which were harder to see and work on when the body was upside-down. Each of the front/rear flare areas on all four wheel well openings will need just a bit more skimcoat and sanding to smooth out some low spots. I also think I need to do a bit more contouring on the rolled edges - at least on the outside to get just a little more rounded profile.

Trailing edge of one of the front wheel well flares:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/WheelFlare2_zps32972b4b.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/WheelFlare2_zps32972b4b.jpg.html)

Trailing edge of one of the rear wheel well flares:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/WheelFlare1_zpsa359b134.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/WheelFlare1_zpsa359b134.jpg.html)

And, I did a bit of rough grinding and shaping of my rolled cowl edges. See above for details on the fun of layering strip after strip of 1" woven fiberglass tape along the edges to build-up a layer that was 1/4" - 3/8" thick as the basis for the rolled edge (Mk4 guys can just chuckle a bit here). But, after a little time with an angle grinder with 80 grit, followed by the Dremel with a 1/2" barrel sander, these came out looking pretty good. I'm going to use the piece of split-PVC-for-a-trowel method to layer on a little Rage Gold to finish these off, so watch this space for updates on this way of achieving the rolled cowl look on Mk3 and earlier cars!

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledCowlRear2_zpsd0e0d343.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledCowlRear2_zpsd0e0d343.jpg.html)

This shot shows both the rough rolled edge and the 'glassed-in dash support tube (which is purely cosmetic and meant to replicate the look of the little stub tube running from the cowl to the under-dash structure on the original cars):

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/CowlTubeGlassedIn2_zps1cba0dc7.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/CowlTubeGlassedIn2_zps1cba0dc7.jpg.html)

And finally, here are a few additional shots of the effect of a gallon of Slick Sand on the inside of the body:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HiddenSideMountNearFinished_zps83fb95ea.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HiddenSideMountNearFinished_zps83fb95ea.jpg.html)

This one is the trunk drop-off area - the bumper/body mount holes are evident:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/TrunkDropOffFilled_zpsd1484950.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/TrunkDropOffFilled_zpsd1484950.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Well, another triumph of gaining a new skill through building an FFR. Before I started the bodywork phase, I was very nervous about mixing fiberglass resin, HSRF, and Rage. Now, I'm comfortable enough to mix the Rage even on wickedly hot and humid days like yesterday and today. I had a couple batches kick a little too quick, but I was watching out for the characteristic "pull" on the applicator and kept an eye on the texture as it spread. Once it lost the creamy smoothness, I stopped using a batch and mixed up another. The key for doing this in warmer weather is to work in small batches.

Earlier, I outlined how I built-up the cowl edges with quite a bit of fiberglass strips. Yesterday and today I was able to apply what amounted to a 1/8" or so skim coat to the front and rear cowl lips and sand it down to a very pleasing rolled edge. To get the Rage Gold to spread out in a consistent shape... and do it along the entire length of the edge... proved a bit of a challenge. But, using tips from others who have done this before me, I was able to make use of the PVC trowel method with great success. I also used a short piece of PVC as a standing form.

Here is the spreader I made out of 1" PVC pipe. I used this to trowel out a generous layer of Rage Gold along the length of each cowl edge.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130715_100040_zps70c96b00.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130715_100040_zps70c96b00.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130715_100117_zps404d0c61.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130715_100117_zps404d0c61.jpg.html)

There was quite a bit of waste as a bunch of the Rage dripped to the floor when I first put it on, but I took so much of the excess off and the amount that remained was thin enough not to sag. Here's what it looked like after the first application:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130715_120443_zps973a7f4f.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130715_120443_zps973a7f4f.jpg.html)

I did some rough shaping with a "cheese grater" tool and then sanded the rolled edge using my PVC form (also 1", but only 2 3/4" long... perfect for adhesive sand paper):

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SandingForm_zps88ac9295.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SandingForm_zps88ac9295.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130715_150055_zps3a914c12.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130715_150055_zps3a914c12.jpg.html)

This showed the low spots really quickly (note the darker green lines in the photos above), so I did a few more full applications, followed by spot filling and more sanding. In the end, this is what the rolled edges look like. They're 95% of the way there and will be finished when I do the block sanding of the body.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130716_133535_zpse90bdbea.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130716_133535_zpse90bdbea.jpg.html)

And in this pic of the front rolled edge, you can also see the stub tube that I 'glassed in to mimic the upper dash support tube (just above and to the right of the brown spot on the particle board):

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130716_145537_zps59f2e8cb.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130716_145537_zps59f2e8cb.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Along with the rolled edges and the filling of a bunch of tiny voids (air bubbles) that I opened up along edges when rounding them over - no choice... just sanded through the gel coat, I also worked on the doors. I started by just holding the doors in place against the body to check how in the world I'm going to handle the transitions at the front and rear of the door against the cowls. I'll definitely be using the Kirkham as a template for this... glad that thing is still around. I decided that I needed just a bit more material on the doors to make a decent rolled edge, so I used the same PVC trowel and healthy bead of Rage on top of the seam where FFR glues the inner and outer door skins together. I did some rough shaping (again with the cheese grater while everything was in that semi-soft stage) and will do more sanding tomorrow. I'll probably have to take a good amount of this off the doors, as elbow room is at a premium... at least on the driver's side at the steering wheel.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/DoorsRolledEdge_zpsde25c1ee.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/DoorsRolledEdge_zpsde25c1ee.jpg.html)

The other thing I did on the doors was to fill them with low expansion foam - telltale yellow dots on the inner door skins above. I used the "Great Stuff" version, but the blue can that is designed for windows and doors. This truly is great stuff. I tested it first by spraying a bunch on a scrap of cardboard and watching how it expanded. It expands pretty quickly, then skins over. Once it sets up, it remains very flexible and soft - very different from the traditional red can. Note the yellow spots on the doors in the area where the door panels will lay (hiding the holes). I made quite a few 3/8" holes so that I could put just a small amount of foam in each - hopefully minimizing the chance for bowing the door skins outward. This is a very cool touch for anyone looking for a bit more solid sound when closing the doors and one can (about $6) did both doors with some to spare.

My plan for the hole near the door latch area is to add a piece of black rubber sheet (like gasket material) to that hole just as a way of finishing it off once everything is painted. I'll add a bit of adhesive to the back of the rubber to hold it in place. The way my door latches are aligned, the striker pin extends slightly into this hole, so covering it completely is not an option - instead, the rubber will give it a finished look, while remaining flexible and not interfering with door operation.

[Gumball]

Ahhh, seams. Well, more like mold parting lines. I've heard that one of the advancements on the Mk4 is that the parting lines are a bit better without the need to carve them out and remove gelcoat, which if left in place could print through the paint, or worse, cause cracking/crazing of the clear coat. So, I expected to find some issues - but I was holding out hope that the rumors of the later Mk3 bodies being pretty good. Happily, the seams on my car were, overall, not too bad. Quite a while ago, I just knocked down some of the "flashing" and thought that they'd be pretty good. I actually thought I could just leave them as is, scuff the gelcoat up a bit, and lay some filler over the top. Well, today I dug into the parting lines... literally. I remember Jeff Kleiner's experience with a recent Mk4 build in which he mentioned finding a glob of uncured gelcoat on a body that was months old. I've got that beat! I found four... count 'em... four deep pockets of gooey gelcoat on a body that was laid-up by FFR back in the summer of 2009 - that's one pocket for each year of the body's life!

I started my journey of cleaning out the parting lines by taking an awl to a couple of low spots that seemed soft... those turned out to be the four trouble areas. Once I worked those down to clean fiberglass, I moved on to the rest of the lines just to make sure that everything else was okay. Here's a pic of the worst one of the four trouble spots, which as luck would have it is right on the front driver's fender area. The dark black spots and flecks are the uncured gelcoat. Interestingly enough, a couple of the pockets of gelcoat were just that - pockets sandwiched between layers of fiberglass - but exposed at the parting line area. I just had to keep digging with the awl and the angle grinder until I reached clear 'glass:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/GooeyGelCoat_zpsf6e24bcd.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/GooeyGelCoat_zpsf6e24bcd.jpg.html)

And here's a shot of just how much material I had to remove to clean this one out... a bit worrisome as I was working it out, but the nice thing about fiberglass is the ability to work it back to good shape:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Seams5_zps87998384.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Seams5_zps87998384.jpg.html)

And just to scare some of those who are considering doing their own body work, here's another perspective of the same area - YIKES, now that's a divot:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Seams4_zps349ec960.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Seams4_zps349ec960.jpg.html)

That was the worst of the four pockets, and the rest of the parting lines looked like this:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130717_182938_zps0911077e.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130717_182938_zps0911077e.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Seams1_zpse4b3949f.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Seams1_zpse4b3949f.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Seams3_zps3e2adc25.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Seams3_zps3e2adc25.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130717_182909_zps4876f212.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130717_182909_zps4876f212.jpg.html)

Overall, I'm not too surprised with what I found - but it did teach me not to shortcut things that I've learned about on the forums. I knew all about the gelcoat issue but, had I not found the soft spots, I may have very well just given them a cursory sanding and moved on... only to likely have issues with the paint at some point down to the road.

[Gumball]

Another project today was to work on reshaping the tail lamp pads to better match the rectangular Lucas lamps instead of the round FFR supplied ones. Using the metal templates I made to match the footprint of the rectangular lamps, I previously did some rough work using an angle grinder. To prepare for a little filler tomorrow in this area, I did a bit more subtle shaping using 80 grit on a DuraBlock pad. Here are a few shots of the results. I think with just a little bit of skim coat work with Rage Gold, these will look pretty good.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/TailLampPads2_zps3d9515fd.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/TailLampPads2_zps3d9515fd.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/TailLampPads3_zpsa778b177.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/TailLampPads3_zpsa778b177.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/TailLampPads1_zps7ea21313.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/TailLampPads1_zps7ea21313.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Received a package from Eastwood today - the paint that I'm going to use on the inside of the body. The plan is to brush this on using a sort of "dry brush" style like faux finishes done on furniture to give the look of mill-finished aluminum... sort of a series of lines from the brush bristles.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/AluminumPaint_zpsb7f4cc82.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/AluminumPaint_zpsb7f4cc82.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Dang... it's hot and humid around here - whew!!! Six days straight at the hangar with just a short break yesterday to cool off while running some errands. What I have to show for all this work (lots of sweat... not too much in the way of blood - good thing - or tears) is a list of planned body mods that is getting checked off, but not as fast as I'd hoped. I guess that with bodywork, that's not a bad thing, as it seems wise to let everything have time to cure, set, shrink, etc...

So, today I worked on the tail lamp pads and the rolled edges on the doors. As I've mentioned and posted already, I wanted to contour the pads so that they more closely resemble the original cars. I'm using the Kirkham I have laying around as a template and, after a bit of grinding, I filled the low areas with some Rage Gold and have this -

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/NearingCompletion1_zpsde46e6b5.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/NearingCompletion1_zpsde46e6b5.jpg.html)

Just a little more sanding and the pads and the surrounding area will be very - sorry - but the only word I can use is voluptuous!

The rolled edges on the doors are coming along nicely... just taking it easy and building up the area and sanding it down - trying to get a nice uniform edge. These need lots more work, but I've decided that I can't rush it.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Doors1_zpsd016a75c.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Doors1_zpsd016a75c.jpg.html)

Next up is the seams. I have some more HSRF on order and the plan is to use some flocking and vinyl ester resin to build up the voids, then cover those areas with HSRF. The final coat will be a skim of Rage Gold to get the contour back on the tops of the fenders.

I also talked with the painter today and we decided that instead of me putting on the first couple coats of Slick Sand (or Feather Fill) on the outside, I'm going to deliver the body and moveable panels to him with all of my patches and mods and let him do the final flattening. I will do the fitting of the moveable panels to the body with everything on the chassis (fitting, leveling, etc...), but then I'll pull it all off and put it on the buck for his final work. This way, he can ensure that my amateur bodywork is feathered properly and as flat as can be before doing the final sealing of everything.

Taking a day off to do some other fun stuff, then back at it when (hopefully) the weather breaks with a cold front. I don't want to do the fiberglass patching on the parting lines (seams) when it's this hot!

[Gumball]

Took a break from bodywork and spent the day at the vintage races at Road America (the race formerly known as the BRIC). Awesome time with some very cool cars - one sighting of what may have been an original 2000-series CSX in the paddock (or a really nicely done Kirkham slabside - it was aluminum, but nothing was open and I couldn't see any identifying marks on the exposed parts like the door hinges, etc... Surprisingly, the two Cobras running today were not original CSX cars... one was a Superformance and the other was one of the mid-'80s Autokraft AC replicas. All in all a great day at the races, filled with noise, dust, the smell of race fuel exhaust and hot brakes, as well as great Road America food like "eggers" for breakfast and bratwurst for lunch. But, I just went up for the day, then headed home a little early to stop at my local Grainger and pick-up some more HSRF so I can get more work done on the FFR this weekend as it's supposed to cool off tonight, so it should be good weather for working on seams.

One thing I did do tonight when I stopped by the hangar to drop off the HSRF was to hold a picture of the dash of an original car up to my rolled front cowl with the mock dash support tube for comparison - what do you think?

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/ComparisonofStubTubewithPhotoofOriginalCSX_zps1391 7441.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/ComparisonofStubTubewithPhotoofOriginalCSX_zps1391 7441.jpg.html)

I'll notch my dash with a semi-circle and wrap the leather into it, then the faux tube will just rest in the opening... looking like it's disappearing behind the dash.

[Gumball]

Today was visitors day at the hangar, so not much work was done. Sort of my own fault, as I've been inviting friends and neighbors by to check out my progress, but today I had six separate groups of visitors show up one after the other. I did get some work done early, and then I stuck around late and sanded for a while.

Here's today's progress pics of my work on the seams. Following input from a bunch of people, including "Da Bat," I'm using just Rage Gold and putting it on in thin layers. I spread the first layer this morning, and then finally got around to sanding that one down late in the day. I'm going to let it sit overnight and then add the second layer, this time feathering it out a little more, tomorrow evening. The first thin coating actually filled most of the "v" channel I made when grinding out the gelcoat flashing, but there are a few low spots still, including the four trouble areas mentioned above.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FirstCoat11_zpse8337f62.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FirstCoat11_zpse8337f62.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FirstCoat1_zps8a627d61.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FirstCoat1_zps8a627d61.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FirstCoat9_zps19d19759.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FirstCoat9_zps19d19759.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FirstCoat7_zps00994282.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FirstCoat7_zps00994282.jpg.html)

I also put a little time in on the rolled door edges, but these need just a little more work. As others have mentioned, the transition areas at the front and rear of the door are going to be a bit of a challenge, but for now I'm leaving them unsanded and will do some shaping when everything is mounted on the chassis. Here's a sneak-preview of the rolled edges, though:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/DoortoFrontCowl_zps24d01469.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/DoortoFrontCowl_zps24d01469.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

This doesn't include the price for some of the tools I've had to buy - spreaders, sanding blocks, HVLP gun, respirator, epoxy mixing gun, etc., but for those who've asked, so far my expendable materials usage is:

One box (40 yrd roll) of 80 grit adhesive sandpaper ($31)
One gallon of Rage Gold ($57)
One quart HSRF ($72 - ouch!)
One gallon of Slick Sand ($86)
One gallon of vinylester resin ($82)
One roll of 1" fiberglass woven "tape" ($15)
A small amount of a 40 yrd roll of 120 grit adhesive sandpaper (also $31, like the 80 grit)
One tube of SpeedGrip adhesive ($40)
Lots of mixing containers from Home Depot and/or Lowes ($1 each)
Lots of paint stir sticks from Home Depot and/or Lowes - the HD ones are better quality wood (Free if you ask the people at the paint counter nicely)
One pair of old-man bifocal safety glasses from McMaster-Carr ($13 - be careful how close you hold the HVLP gun to the rag when spraying during cleaning... it'll spray back in your face)
One box of rubber gloves - powder free / examination grade?!?! ($11)
Soap, washer, and dryer charges at local laundromat - the wife won't wash anything with fiberglass dust on it at home... something about getting itchy undies ($20 or so - but you meet the nicest people... who probably have itchy undies from using the machines after you wash your shop clothes)

I'm guessing that so far I'm into the whole process for around $600, which includes an estimated $150 or so in tools and such. I have to buy another gallon of Rage Gold soon, and I'll need at least another gallon or two of Slick Sand for the exterior. When all is said and done, I'm expecting that I'll have around $800 or so in material costs to get the body 80% of the way to paint - including all of the mods that I'm doing.

[Gumball]

Sigh... back to the day job today - no more getting up and heading to the hangar each morning. So, I'm relegated once again to my goal of at least doing one thing each day, while leaving the big jobs for the weekends. Tonight's project was the second layer of Rage Gold on the seams. This layer went on a little thicker and wider than the first and will form the base for what I'm hoping with be the final layer. Tomorrow is going to be a sanding night - yay!

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SecondCoat5_zps9ac2bdec.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SecondCoat5_zps9ac2bdec.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SEcondCoat4_zps69644e0f.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SEcondCoat4_zps69644e0f.jpg.html)

Here's the front driver's side fender... the one that had the pretty good size pocket of gelcoat and the resulting divot on the top:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SecondCoat3_zpsce1e2e7b.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SecondCoat3_zpsce1e2e7b.jpg.html)

This application was done using just a 4" wide spreader - the next layer will be done with the hacksaw blade to get a good even spread that I hope will help me feather the patches out wide enough to get a nice radius back on the top of each panel while avoiding chances for printing.

[Gumball]

Finally - a bit of really nice weather - cool, clear, and not humid... just perfect for sanding! Didn't have too much time, though, so I only made it through the rear fender seams - I'll work on the fronts in the next day or so. This is the second coat of filler and I went a little heavier and spread it out a little further. This gives me a pretty good base for a smooth, feathered transition from the body to the filler. These are a little lumpy still, but the next layer will be spread out using the hacksaw blade method and will hopefully give me a good final shape.

No real ground-breaking comments tonight; just lots of sanding with the DuraBlocks (I bought a 7 block kit from Eastwood), a pool noodle, and the K-block (KB16) which is very flexible and great for restoring the final radius. I'm using Mirka sandpaper - never used this sort of paper. It's adhesive and of a standard width (2 3/4"). The adhesive is really tacky and sticks to even dusty sanding blocks very well. I'm staying with 80 grit for now as it cuts really nice and, surprisingly, the Rage Gold doesn't load it up at all.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SecondCoatSanding5_zpse9224b63.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SecondCoatSanding5_zpse9224b63.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SecondCoatSanding4_zpscf91bada.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SecondCoatSanding4_zpscf91bada.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SecondCoatSanding1_zps87f7c970.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SecondCoatSanding1_zps87f7c970.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Back at it today, finally, working on the seams and the rolled door edges. I'm in the process of sanding a third application of Rage Gold on the seams. The painter stopped by on Thursday to drop off some things (some old parts off my wife's '67 Camaro) and check out the progress on the FFR. He had a few tips and suggestions about applying the filler (like always going lengthwise on the car, rather than across and trying to avoid starting and stopping when spreading... instead doing a single smooth swipe with the spreader). The good news is that he didn't throw up his hands (or just throw up) and say there's no way he'd ever paint over my hack-job bodywork. He actually said it's looking good!

Here's a before and after of the driver's front fender where the largest pocket of gelcoat had to be ground out:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Seams4_zps349ec960.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Seams4_zps349ec960.jpg.html)

And here's the after shot with three thin layers of Rage Gold - just one very little low spot left to fill, which will be done as part of the final shaping layer that is going on tomorrow:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/ThirdCoat1_zps7b377364.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/ThirdCoat1_zps7b377364.jpg.html)

I also experimented with the pool noodle method of sanding in the complex curve areas of the body, like between the headlamps and the radiator opening, as well as next to the trunk opening. I picked-up a noodle at Wal-Mart for a couple bucks, then cut it into various lengths. This worked way better than the 1" DuraBlock for these areas and the adhesive sandpaper stuck to it perfectly.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/PoolNoodle_zps75c1af0f.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/PoolNoodle_zps75c1af0f.jpg.html)

Finally, here are some random shots of the body in its current state:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/ThirdCoat3_zpsb90370b5.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/ThirdCoat3_zpsb90370b5.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/ThirdCoat5_zps280676d4.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/ThirdCoat5_zps280676d4.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/ThumbsUp_zps628dce4b.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/ThumbsUp_zps628dce4b.jpg.html)

Tomorrow - more Rage Gold and sanding!

[skullandbones]

The top of the fender looks great! I still only have one coat of filler and primed. I wanted to drive so badly, I couldn't wait. Looks like I will be breaking out the extra pool noodle I got for the curve shaper. Thanks and good luck on the rest of the body work, WEK.

[Gumball]

Another day of working on seams. I did a little more sanding of the last layer, touched-up a few low spots separately, then slathered on what I'm hoping is the final shaping layer (fourth application). I didn't use the hacksaw blade method, though, but rather cupped the spreader in my hand as the painter showed me. Although I haven't sanded this application yet, it looks like it may do the job.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FourthCoat1_zps504defa2.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FourthCoat1_zps504defa2.jpg.html)

I also gave the hood and scoop a little attention, if for no reason than I missed the itchy feeling after a day of grinding fiberglass. I had to level a high area on the hood opening patch, make the seam area between the patch and the hood's outer skin a bit concave to hopefully hide the transition, and then skimcoat the entire area with Rage Gold. Not sanded yet, either, as it was very cool today (filler kicking much slower, making both of these spreads nice) and I did this late in the afternoon. I'll let this sit overnight and do some sanding tomorrow. This is just the first of two or three applications on this area to get the shape right (even though it's under the scoop) and ensure that the feathered edge is far enough out past the seam in an effort to avoid any printing through.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopOpeningLeveling1_zps608beaca.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopOpeningLeveling1_zps608beaca.jpg.html)

Finally, I sanded the modified scoop to get rid of the 'glass patch weave and to take the shine off the patches and the inside of the scoop. I did a little shaping of the opening, too, but that will be finished when I do the inside skimcoat with Rage. For now, I just added a little HSFR to hide the holes from the metal tabs I used to hold the upper and lower parts together while doing the fiberglass patch. To make sure these don't print through the filler and paint, I made the area around the holes concave out to about the size of a nickel - this for a 1/8" hole - on both the inside and outside. I added a bit of HSRF along the length of the patch, too, where the two parts came together as there was a bit of a groove. I'll finish all this off with some Rage Gold once I get the HSRF ground down.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopReshapingHSFR1_zps463f95ca.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopReshapingHSFR1_zps463f95ca.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Just a short time to work tonight, so I sanded down the HSRF repairs on the modified hoodscoop and shaped the opening. I didn't have time to work on the seams, but hopefully I'll get to those in the next day or so. I also have some finishing work to do on the hood and trunk lid, but once all these things are done, it's back on the chassis for the body.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopSandedHSRF3_zps27ad8c4a.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopSandedHSRF3_zps27ad8c4a.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopSandedHSRF1_zps9cb52d64.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopSandedHSRF1_zps9cb52d64.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopSandedHSRF2_zpsd7c42cf3.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopSandedHSRF2_zpsd7c42cf3.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

I took some more time off from seams to do something about the Breeze hidden trunk hinge stud-plates that are bonded to my Gess trunklid. As mentioned way early in this thread, I decided to use the trunk lid that Karl Gess made a few years ago instead of a Mk4 version. This lid has a completely smooth inner skin, with no raised stiffening rib to cut away for the stud-plates. I previously bonded the plates on using HSRF (before I was clued in on the SpeedGrip stuff) and I need to do something to integrate the installation and make them both durable and good looking. So, I decided to encase the plates in more HSFR.

I used some adhesive foam weatherstrip to make a box around each plate, then filled them with HSRF. Just as it started to kick, I trimmed the excess and simply pulled the foam away - no mess and no stick. I'll work on grinding this stuff down a bit before adding beveled edges with Rage that will give the appearance of raised mounting pads that are molded into the inner skin.

Pics so far:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130730_1751141_zps7de2ec52.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130730_1751141_zps7de2ec52.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130730_1751251_zpsd92c0e52.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130730_1751251_zpsd92c0e52.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130730_1806232_zps47e49da6.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130730_1806232_zps47e49da6.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130730_1806401_zpse1c10ce6.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130730_1806401_zpse1c10ce6.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

A little more sanding today... I think I'm about done with the seams on the front... just have to sand the rear seams tomorrow and maybe tweak the "peak" on he passenger side front a little by taking off just a small amount of filler to get the right contour.

One thing I can say for sure is that when doing seams, make sure you have plenty of various sanding pads on hand. So far, I've found the KB long block, the thin rectangular DuraBlock, and the pool noodle to be the most used, but I've employed quite a few others during the process so far. The more alternatives you have, the more likely it is that you'll get a nice finish with less re-work.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FourthCoat3_zps286ddf8e.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FourthCoat3_zps286ddf8e.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FourthCoat2_zps55525bd6.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FourthCoat2_zps55525bd6.jpg.html)

Driver's front fender - calling this one done... and it's the one that had the large pocket of gelcoat:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FourthCoat4_zps025c5d16.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FourthCoat4_zps025c5d16.jpg.html)

Passenger front fender - possibly just the way I took the picture, as it sure felt pretty good, but this one seems to have a bit more of a "peak" to it and may need just a little more work with the long KB block:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/FourthCoat5_zps3242c1f5.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/FourthCoat5_zps3242c1f5.jpg.html)

Once I'm happy with the seams, I'm going to finish the hood scoop, scoop opening, and the trunk lid inner area, then wrap the chassis in plastic sheeting and get the body back on so I can gap and level the moveable panels with regard to the main body. After that, it'll be time for some Slick Sand and... yay... block sanding.

[JL1958]

I have enjoyed reading this and learning the amount of detail you have done to get the car just right.
Very impressive.

[Gumball]

Yet another update in the ongoing saga of my bodywork experience. What an incredible adventure it's been so far and yesterday I reached a milestone - the seams are done!

Grinding, filling, and sanding the seams was the most time consuming part so far for me. Like a lot of this build, I probably went a little overboard on this part, but I wanted to make sure I did a good job. Even if I have issues with printing or cracking down the road, at least I'll be able to say that I didn't cut corners and that I did the best I could with my limited (really non-existent) experience. I have to admit, though, that it felt really good to stand back and admire the curves on the car when I finished sanding last night... I couldn't find an angle of the body that I didn't like. I also noticed that my feel for bodywork - and I mean this literally - has really come far since I started this. I've heard from many experienced professionals that you do bodywork more with the feel of your hands than with your eyes and I finally understand. I'm now spending as much or more time when sanding just closing my eyes and running my entire hand along the area I'm sanding. It's amazing what you can "see" when you're not really looking! I'm sure it's not perfect, but I'm just hoping to get it close to that so that the painter - the real pro - can put the final touches on it just before shooting the color and clear.

Here are a few pics of the rear seams - which I worked on yesterday. You can see in the first two that I followed the painter's advice and did one continuous pull on the applicator down the length of the panels (at least where the fuel filler hole didn't get in the way).

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/DriverRearQuarterSeams_zps4d678fd1.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/DriverRearQuarterSeams_zps4d678fd1.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/PassRearQuarterSeams_zpsb4292c17.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/PassRearQuarterSeams_zpsb4292c17.jpg.html)

This photo shows the top of the driver's side quarter looking back from the door opening - visually it looks good, but more important it feels good to the hand and the contour gauge doesn't show any flat spots, either.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RearDriverQuarterTop_zpsea0305bb.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RearDriverQuarterTop_zpsea0305bb.jpg.html)

I'm getting really close to putting the body back on the chassis for gapping and leveling the moveable panels, but I want to get the door openings at the rolled cowl edges roughed-in first. I'm also working on finishing the hood scoop opening, the trunk lid mounting pads and edges, as well as the rolled edges on the doors. Once all of those things are done, everything will go back on the chassis.

Speaking of the chassis, when I got to the hangar yesterday, it was still a little early and the ramp area outside my hangar where I like to work on sanding was in the blazing sun. So, after doing a few things inside, I decided to roll the go-kart out for a little fun. I ended up driving it around for nearly a half hour, doing 1 - 3 gear runs up and down the taxiway, and learning a few things about driving one of these cars. First, it's loud. I noticed that I'm blowing out some of the packing in the sidepipes and that has translated into a noticeable increase in sound level. I'm guessing that putting the body on will re-direct some of the sound, though. But, given my experience yesterday, I agree with others that ear protection will be recommended for long rides and for passengers - I'll make sure I keep a supply of yellow foam earplugs in the glove box, just so I can offer them anytime I give someone a ride. Second is that the carburetor is very well tuned and responsive - maybe a tad too responsive with the mechanical throttle linkage... I think I'm going to re-adjust that so that I have a little more travel on the pedal since my linkage gives me the flexibility to adjust the ratio between pedal movement and throttle butterfly opening. What I found was that when I hit an undulation in the pavement at low speed, my foot would push an imperceptable amount on the throttle, causing just a slight hop of acceleration, which would be followed by a few more of those... each worse than the last and in a span of just a second or two, but enough to realize that this thing needs to be treated with serious respect! Anyway, what a blast to drive it around... and what a motivator to keep working on the body so that I can get on the road!

Here are a couple of shots of the roughed-in rolled cowl to door opening transition... more to come on this, for sure.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledCowlDoorOpeningFront_zpsfd84487c.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledCowlDoorOpeningFront_zpsfd84487c.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/RolledCowlDoorOpeningRear_zps13be9af2.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/RolledCowlDoorOpeningRear_zps13be9af2.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

I'm finally back after some time off from bodywork due to a very hectic late-summer family and work schedule. Not too much visible progress lately, but I've been working on little things on the main body and now I'm calling that part done and ready to go back on the chassis. The doors are ready to be mounted, too, for gapping and leveling with the adjacent parts of the body. I just have a few things to finish on the hood, trunk lid, and scoop, as well as a few things on the chassis (including wrapping it in plastic to cut down on the mess I'm about to make) before putting it all together for the last stages of the bodywork that I'm doing.

Here are some pics of things I've been working on, though.

Hood scoop cut-out modified to match the turkey pan. Check out earlier posts for the process of cutting off the scoop and patching the front 8" of the hole:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopOpeningFinalFiller_zpsc1cdf13b.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopOpeningFinalFiller_zpsc1cdf13b.jpg.html)

Here's how I decided to handle the trunk lid stud plates. Since this is a Mk3, I had the trunk with the "beak" or "stinger" as it was often called - that pointy license plate mounting area. I'm using a custom lid that was made by Karl Gess here in Illinois back before FFR was making the Mk4. This lid looks quite a bit like the Mk4 trunk, but has a bit more room between the license plate mounting location and the latch handle. Unfortunately, what it doesn't have is a clear mounting point or reinforcement area for the Breeze hidden trunk hinges. I used HSRF (before I learned about SpeedGrip structural adhesive) to bond the stud plates to the lid, then as covered above, made forms to allow me to completely encase the plates in the HSRF. Now, I've shaped the HSFR and added some Rage Gold to form what look like raised mounting pads. The final step on the trunk lid is to fill the perimeter where the inner and outer skins come together as the inner skin was a bit smaller than the outer, making the outside 1/2" or so only one layer thick.

The pads before shaping:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130730_1806401_zpse1c10ce6.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130730_1806401_zpse1c10ce6.jpg.html)

Layering on the Rage:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HingePads2_zpsd5eab279.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HingePads2_zpsd5eab279.jpg.html)

Not quite finished - needs some final sanding, Slick Sand, etc..., but looking good:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HingePads3_zpsd5da0e2f.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HingePads3_zpsd5da0e2f.jpg.html)

[MPTech]

Chris,
Really enjoying this thread, thanks for sharing your experiences and knowledge.
I have similar rectangular lights and was wondering, when you knock the edges off to contour to the rectangular shape, do you need to re-inforce the backside? Didn't know if it thinned out the the body too much taking off the original pad corners from the round lights.
Looks GREAT, keep up the good work and post frequently!






Another project today was to work on reshaping the tail lamp pads to better match the rectangular Lucas lamps instead of the round FFR supplied ones. Using the metal templates I made to match the footprint of the rectangular lamps, I previously did some rough work using an angle grinder. To prepare for a little filler tomorrow in this area, I did a bit more subtle shaping using 80 grit on a DuraBlock pad. Here are a few shots of the results. I think with just a little bit of skim coat work with Rage Gold, these will look pretty good.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/TailLampPads2_zps3d9515fd.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/TailLampPads2_zps3d9515fd.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/TailLampPads3_zpsa778b177.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/TailLampPads3_zpsa778b177.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/TailLampPads1_zps7ea21313.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/TailLampPads1_zps7ea21313.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Chris,
Really enjoying this thread, thanks for sharing your experiences and knowledge.
I have similar rectangular lights and was wondering, when you knock the edges off to contour to the rectangular shape, do you need to re-inforce the backside? Didn't know if it thinned out the the body too much taking off the original pad corners from the round lights.
Looks GREAT, keep up the good work and post frequently!

I did back-up the tail light area as part of patching over the holes that FFR cut. My body came with two circular holes in each pad for the round tail lamps and, wouldn't you know it, those were right where the mounting studs for the rectangular lamps needed to go. I cut some 6" circles of fiberglass cloth, then cut those in half to patch the top and bottom - see post #18 for details. I built that up about 3/16" - 1/4" thick on the inside, so that I wouldn't have issues with thinning the body when I did the resculpting, so it sort of killed two birds with one stone.

[Gumball]

Got a bunch of work done this weekend and I'm actually calling the first stage of my bodywork adventure concluded - here's how the body, doors, hood, trunk lid, and scoop spent most of the day.

The next step will be to get the body and moveable panels on the chassis for gapping and leveling, then a few coats of Slick Sand and some blocking before it all comes off again and goes to the painter on the buck.

For now, I'm going over my list to see if I forgot anything before getting it back on the chassis. Should have it on there by next weekend, so some good updates coming.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/BakingDay2_zps845435f7.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/BakingDay2_zps845435f7.jpg.html)

Here are a couple of detail shots:

Hoodscoop profile - I really like how Competition Cobra's mod came out...

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopFinishedProfile_zps9fc91d59.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopFinishedProfile_zps9fc91d59.jpg.html)

Inside of the hood with the scoop in place...

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/HoodScoopOpeningInside_zps216bb270.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/HoodScoopOpeningInside_zps216bb270.jpg.html)

It's starting to look like a car... one with a bit of a complexion problem, but a car nonetheless...

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/BodyFirstStageDone_zpseec3d2e1.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/BodyFirstStageDone_zpseec3d2e1.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

I've been away from this post for a while, but not because I wasn't working on my car... just not doing much in the way of bodywork lately. I decided a month or so ago that I wasn't going to be able to finish the bodywork and get it painted/assembled in time for inspection this fall, so I decided to let the bodywork sit a while while doing some additional things on the chassis. Part of this effort was to get ready for one last body-on-chassis fitting so that I can gap the moveable panels and do the last little filler work, before sending the body and panels out for paint.

I finally finished those chassis tweaks over the weekend, leaving just wiring and interior. The body is going on this week, so here's how things look for now:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/ChassisCovered_zpsbad6d778.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/ChassisCovered_zpsbad6d778.jpg.html)

I'm going to have to make a few slits in the plastic sheeting to mount the body, but this should hopefully cut down somewhat on the dust and mess that I'll have in the nooks and crannys of the chassis.

More to come...

[Gumball]

Got the body back on the chassis last night. I had to cut the plastic wrap in a few places to install things like the splash guards (front and rear) and get access to the various hinges and latch points. In these pics, the doors, hood, and trunk are just set in place - nothing is adjusted or tightened down. It looks like everything is going to fall where it needs to when it gets bolted tight and adjusted. It also looks like I have less work to do to get the ends of the doors to match the front and rear cowls where I've rolled them. Next step is to get all the body mount bolts snugged down and a few other things installed, like the windshield, rollbar and bumpers. I'm also going to fit the soft top and tonneau so I can finally get those things punched and I can get Dale's cool "lift-the-dot" tool back to him (sorry again for the delay, Dale!), then I'll do the panel gapping and the last of the bodywork (including filling pinholes - yay!!!).

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130925_2016541_zps7264fbd0.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130925_2016541_zps7264fbd0.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130925_2017271_zps332b3930.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130925_2017271_zps332b3930.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Lots of progress lately. After getting the body mounted (for like the sixth time or something), I added the moveable panels and adjusted everything. A word of caution to anyone thinking of wrapping their chassis in plastic before putting the body on... remember that you're going to need access to the mounting points for the doors, hood, trunk lid, windshield, body mounts and... most difficult of all, the splash guards. After cutting a bunch of access holes through the plastic, I was able to get everything in place and the body is now exactly where it will be once it's painted.

Here are pics of the doors, hood, and trunk lid after a few hours of work adjusting everything. Like others have said in their bodywork threads, it takes lots of patience and ultimately is a compromise. I went with what I thought was the most liveable alignment of the doors (they were the hardest) and as you'll see below, that left a bit more of a gap at the top leading edges than I would have preferred. Fortunately, we can work with that. None of these have been gapped yet in relation to the body, so you can see that FFR did a bit of overzealous trimming on the tops of the doors.

In the last two pics, the doors have been fully adjusted, the hidden lower mounts that I bonded into the rockers are set, and the latches and strikers are in place and holding the doors shut. It doesn't look like I'll have to do too much filling on these to get the doors level with the body... I'm expecting that I'll mostly be doing the gapping and adding a radius to the edges. I do have to add a bit of filler at the top front of the doors to get the panel levels good between the door tops and the front cowl, though.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131002_084608695_zpsf6177eb5.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131002_084608695_zpsf6177eb5.jpg.html)

This is the Gess trunk lid:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131002_084648218_zps3a216f26.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131002_084648218_zps3a216f26.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131002_084657731_zpsd97bc7c4.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131002_084657731_zpsd97bc7c4.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131002_084625318_zps00e40b5d.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131002_084625318_zps00e40b5d.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Once the doors were adjusted, I had to decide whether I could live the the large-ish gaps that FFR gave me by their efforts at trimming the doors. After getting the passenger door to where I liked all aspects of the fit except the top front at the cowl, I was left with a nearly 3/8" gap along the top front of the door as well as just over 1/4" at the top rear. The driver's side was a bit better, but still on the plus-side of 1/4" at the top front of that door. I decided that given how nice everything else fell into place, I'd just add a bit of fiberglass to those areas. I went back to the heavy duty aluminium tape method and made forms for the fiberglass by sticking the tape to the door from the backside and then using a wooden paint stir stick to make a 90 degree channel. For the fiberglass / resin mix, I used something called "milled fiberglass flocking" from Aircraft Spruce. It sells for around four bucks for a 1lb bag, which is around ten times more than I needed. I mixed the vinyl ester resin and added the flox, which is like a powder - being super careful to make sure I was fully covered, including gloves, and wearing a respirator as this is nasty stuff in the powder form - and then mixed up a heavy paste that filled the form and didn't sag. This will be trimmed down with an angle grinder or a dremel to a uniform 3/16" gap all around the doors.

Some close-ups of the "forms"

Top rear of passenger door:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131005_185341704_zps4f50a675.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131005_185341704_zps4f50a675.jpg.html)

Side view of the same one

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131005_185337367_zps244310a0.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131005_185337367_zps244310a0.jpg.html)

Leading edge of the passenger door after filling the "form"

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131006_165509087_zps4b6f748b.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131006_165509087_zps4b6f748b.jpg.html)

I'll post some more pics of this process once everything is trimmed down and the doors are gapped. But, overall I'm very happy with this process. In fact, I'm going to use this to add a bit to the sharp corner of both doors at the top front so that the doors match the rolled edge I added to the cockpit cowl. The flox is very easy to work with and also comes in cotton if you're really concerned about working with the powdered fiberglass. Just make sure to mix it well and not too thin if you're applying it to vertical surfaces.

[Gumball]

Just a couple of final pictures from the past week or so of work. These show the old-style FFR soft top bow in place. Before installing it, I reinstalled the under-body braces that I made and wrote about in an earlier post above. I had those powdercoated as they'll be slightly visible under the edge of the rear cowl, so they now match the frame. In these pics, those supports are just held in by clecos and then the ferrules are just slipped through the body... no bonding was applied. However, the installation is super rigid and I'm sure there will be no problems with the top flexing and causing cracks in the fiberglass or paint around those ferrules.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131005_1831376272_zps617dfb75.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131005_1831376272_zps617dfb75.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131005_183121960_zps8157bd45.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131005_183121960_zps8157bd45.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Very good weekend - lots of rain on Saturday, so I was able to lock myself in the hangar and work on panel gapping. There are quite a few ideas on this forum about how to get the panel gaps even and there are more opinions if you talk to people who do bodywork for a living. Being the hack that I am, I tried to take a simple approach and use the "paint stir stick method."

Here's a reminder of how my doors looked once completely adjusted. This is the driver's door, but the passenger door was nearly identical. Both had been overzealously trimmed by FFR and the gap at the front cowl and the leading edge of the door neared 3/8". I decided to make a mold out of foil tape and used some milled fiberglass and resin to add to the door edges (see detail above). This closed the gap completely and allowed me to make the gap as small or large as I wanted without compromise.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131006_165527607_zps17dd75b4.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131006_165527607_zps17dd75b4.jpg.html)

To do the gapping, I used a sanding block and two paint stir sticks. One of the sticks was noticeably thinner than the other, so that was the initial stick I used. I bought some 40 grit adhesive paper (lengths that were 2 3/4" wide) and cut a bunch into 1" x 2 3/4" strips to use on the end of the stir sticks. Using the sanding block, I opened the gaps just enough to fit the tip of the thin stir stick into it so that I could begin working it. Of course, the initial gap that resulted from the sanding block wasn't too uniform, but that quickly changed with the use of the thinner stick. Then once the gap was opened sufficiently, I switched to the thicker stick (I've found that Home Depot stir sticks are high quality - uniform in thickness and very strong). Using the thicker stick, I was able to open the gap to a very uniform 3/16". With the adhesive sandpaper only on one side of the stick, the bare wood side simply rides against the body, using the body as the guide and doing absolutely no damage to the body. An additional benefit to doing the gaps this way is that the bevel on the door edge perfectly matches that of the opening.

In this picture, the stir stick is just placed in the gap for illustration purposes... but you can see the dust on the corners of the stick showing how I was working just the corners down into the gap - that ensured that the width of the stick wouldn't open the corners of the door any more than along the straight runs.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/2sandinggapdriver_zps53e24b21.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/2sandinggapdriver_zps53e24b21.jpg.html)

Here is the finished driver's door, ready for just a little skim coating along the leading edge and the bottom (typical of a Mk3) but otherwise all gapped.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/1finisheddriverdoorgaps_zpse985eae7.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/1finisheddriverdoorgaps_zpse985eae7.jpg.html)

For those who wondered why I bothered to cover the entire chassis in a couple layers of thin bodyshop plastic sheeting before putting the body on, here's a good enough reason - the hood gapping is making an absolute mess that I would't want filtering down into the engine bay.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/2sandinggaphood_zps6cd3e2df.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/2sandinggaphood_zps6cd3e2df.jpg.html)

Pic of the hood gap getting close - this is about 1/8" with the thin stick - still have to open it up a bit more using the thick one and finish getting it completely uniform all the way around.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/5sandinggaphood_zps92bddb82.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/5sandinggaphood_zps92bddb82.jpg.html)

I struggled quite a bit on how to measure and mark the panels for trimming off the car. One of the things that caused me concern was how to get a good measurement off the rounded edge of the body openings. Doing it this way with the panels on the car ensures a very even gap all the way around the panel and allows for constant checking of the work. This is especially important where the hood and trunk lid break over the crown of the body as that appears to be a rub area on some cars. A couple areas are tight from an access perspective, though, so instead of the sanding block I had to use the thicker stick to get the initial gap opened up - front of all four panels where they are closest to the body. Also, this is not the fastest method - it's obviously much faster to mark the panels with tape, remove them, and go at them with a grinder. In the end, I settled for the slower, but more accurate method and I'm very pleased with the results.

[skullandbones]

Hi Chris,

I remember seeing the stick method used by an experienced body man where I got my first real job at 14. He would use it like you are on tight spots and for the initial shaping when rebuilding a wrecked area. I appreciate this thread as I have taken a break from the body work during the summer. It's cool enough now to get back to it. I like your slow approach. I will do the same and be very careful as I go. One note: I saw a fellow with a gapping tool that he made. It looked like it would be very helpful for quick checks. Are you using something like that? Thanks a lot, WEK.

[Gumball]

I'm using a digital caliper for the final checks, but everything so far has been within .005, certainly not visible to the eye. But, I did correct those by going over the narrow areas a bit more with the stick.

[Gumball]

... and I just keep on sanding. I worked on gapping the rest of the panels this weekend and was just about finished when I had to call it a night tonight. I'll finish the trunk lid in the next day or so and post some more pics. The panel gapping is going great and I really like the "take a little off at a time" method that I'm using. I've been alternating between a 6" durablock and the two different paint sticks with adhesive 40 grit and the edges are turning out really nice.

I saved the trunk lid for last. As I wrote earlier in this thread, I decided to use the Gess trunk lid after all. This is a lid that Karl Gess made using a mold from a FFR trunklid that he modified for someone to eliminate the old "beak" that the earlier cars used to have. I did have to do a bit of adjusting of the hinges and of the rear body using the body mount (bumper) bolts and the trunk latch pin, but after a little more tweaking, it fit really nice.

As soon as I finish the trunk lid, I can move on to doing some skim coating on the doors and trunk lid. That's about all that's left before I cry uncle and turn it over to the painter for the last steps of final blocking, sealing, and paint.

[Gumball]

Time for a new installment in what is becoming my never-ending bodywork adventure! The doors, hood, and trunk lid are all finally adjusted and gapped - I opened the gaps up to a little under 1/4" on the advice of quite a few people as the gaps will get filled back in slightly with Slick Sand, sealer, color, and clear. Not much, I know, but those materials will add a bit back to the body and I don't want the gaps to be too tight on a dark color car due to heat induced expansion.

Pics to come of the final gaps - they were on a phone that broke, so I can't get them downloaded tonight.

I do have a few pics to share, though. This week, I removed a few inches of the rounded door edge to expose the fiberglass so that I could add a little material to the front top corners of the doors in an attempt to get them to line up better with the rolled cowl. The rolled cowls added about 3/4" to the front and rear, but the doors fell far short of that and needed some work.

Here's the before - driver's side:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130926_201103_zps0adf1199.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130926_201103_zps0adf1199.jpg.html)

I could have just built the corner up with more filler, but I thought it would be better go give it a base of fiberglass. I used foil tape to make a mold after clearing away the gel coat, then mixed a batch of resin with milled fiberglass (basically powdered stuff) until it was a paste. It ended up being a pretty big gob of 'glass on each corner.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131031_201104_zps658f8678.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131031_201104_zps658f8678.jpg.html)

Once the new extensions had a couple days to set up, I just went at them with a Dremel (1/2" barrel sanding head) and ground away everything that didn't need to be there. Here's the driver's side after grinding.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131101_194154_zpsd1ea8812.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131101_194154_zpsd1ea8812.jpg.html)

Another view of the ground-down driver's door extension:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131101_1942012_zpsf4ac5966.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131101_1942012_zpsf4ac5966.jpg.html)

And here it is after a thin layer of filler - still needs some work to get the radius right... more filler to the rescue tomorrow:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131101_201629_zpse81ac6c4.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131101_201629_zpse81ac6c4.jpg.html)

Here's a pic of the passenger door - a bit better on the radius the first time out:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131101_201648_zpsac72362e.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131101_201648_zpsac72362e.jpg.html)

I'll need to work these a bit to make the transition from the cowl to the door look right, but I like this much better than the initial try. The nice thing about filler and fiberglass is that once you've built it up, it's easy to grind away and start over if you're not happy.

[Gumball]

Pics of the finished gaps. In addition to the two paint sticks I mentioned in the earlier posts regarding gaps, I opened these up a bit further... just shy of 1/4"... using a piece of a wooden yard stick.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131102_0958271_zpsa83014c5.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131102_0958271_zpsa83014c5.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131102_0958051_zps84b29e0e.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131102_0958051_zps84b29e0e.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131102_0957551_zps453355c6.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131102_0957551_zps453355c6.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131102_0957391_zps934594b6.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131102_0957391_zps934594b6.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131102_0957171_zpse4f9aa10.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131102_0957171_zpse4f9aa10.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131102_0957061_zps7982877a.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131102_0957061_zps7982877a.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Hood_zpsbc818a49.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Hood_zpsbc818a49.jpg.html)

[carlewms]

Your craftsmanship and patience is absolutely superb. I have not gotten to the body work stage but I plan to emulate much of what you've done here.

Thanks, Carl

[Gumball]

Still working on those door-to-cowl gaps. The thickness of the doors isn't too hard to deal with at the rear, but quite a pain at the front cowl. Although I was happy with the shape I achieved with my process of rolling the cowls, I decided to add a bit of extra filler recently to reshape the ends so that they "thicken up" a bit near the transition to the doors.

Here are some "work-in-progress" pics:

Rear Cowl:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131108_2105551_zps1660bb27.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131108_2105551_zps1660bb27.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131108_1834591_zpsfb821cd2.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131108_1834591_zpsfb821cd2.jpg.html)

Front Cowl:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131108_2105421_zps12a24ef6.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131108_2105421_zps12a24ef6.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131108_2105471_zpsea9e4374.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131108_2105471_zpsea9e4374.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

... and here are the finished door-to-cowl transitions. Just a little clean-up work to do on the edges once I shoot the body in Slick Sand, but I'm pretty happy with how these turned out.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/1passfront_zpscb8ea70e.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/1passfront_zpscb8ea70e.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/1driverfront_zps6894bf71.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/1driverfront_zps6894bf71.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/1driverrear_zpscb3cfe2d.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/1driverrear_zpscb3cfe2d.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/1passrear_zps78e920a8.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/1passrear_zps78e920a8.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Well, nearing the last phases of bodywork. Last night I began working on the low spots between adjacent panels. Once I'm done with this step, the last thing to do will be to work the inside of the hood and trunk lid, then to spray the exterior with Slick Sand and do the blocking.

Given the snow we had yesterday, it looks like I'll leave those last two steps until after winter. For now, I'll finish the fitting of the moveable panels, put the windshield on for a final fit, and install the soft top and tonneau (so I can finally send the Lift-the-Dot punch back to Dale).

The doors, hood, and trunklid were adjusted to the best compromise I could get before I did the gaps. The last part of that fitment process is to make sure that all four of those moveable panels are level with the body.

Doors - Between the fiberglass I added to the edges, the hidden mounts on the body sides under the door openings that give infinite adjustment within the range, and the hours upon hours of time spent adjusting, I only have a couple of spots that needed filler. The doors will need a bit more work eventually to ensure that they are flat (i.e., block sanding, filler, and Slick Sand), but they look really nice almost all around the perimeter. I did have to add a bit of a skim coat to the front top of each where they meet the cowl, to the top rear of the passenger door, and the top of the rear cowl behind the driver's door, but it took very little filler to get the panels level.

Hood - After a bit of modification to the Breeze hidden hood hinges (I had to strip, heat, and bend them after I initially powdercoated them right out of the box), I was able to get the hood almost perfect. There was a bit of a droop to the front driver's side corner, though, but not really enough to do anything with - I skimmed it anyway.

Trunk - I ended up using the aftermarked lid made by Karl Gess a few years ago (pre Mk4 days) and, not surprisingly, there were a few minor fitment issues. But, once adjusted and with the latch in place, it was only off in three areas - two low spots on the lid and one high spot as shown by the filler on the driver's side body next to the lid.

Here are some photos of the first skim coat - I'll sand this down a bit and then spread another layer on and feather it out a bit more into the panels.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131111_2020101_zpsb73be65c.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131111_2020101_zpsb73be65c.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131111_2019551_zps1ca682e4.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131111_2019551_zps1ca682e4.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131111_2020051_zps8bbf3d13.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131111_2020051_zps8bbf3d13.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131111_2019421_zps949903ac.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131111_2019421_zps949903ac.jpg.html)

[bil1024]

Looking good! DOing some good work there Chris

[Gumball]

I'm pretty much done with the leveling of the moveable panels - as mentioned above just a few spots needed to be skimmed in order to bring them up to the level of the adjacent panel. I did just a bit more skimming and sanding today, then I installed the windshield. This is the first time that the full windshield has been on the car and I was very happy with the fit, except for the need to open the slots in the body just a bit more to ensure that there is no contact between the fiberglass and the windshield posts. The gasket along the bottom of the frame is making nice contact across the full width, so I think I'm good there. While it was on, I added the side curtains and the top bows, then the soft top so I could punch the holes for the "lift-the-dot" fasteners. Thanks to the punch that Dale loaned me, it was a trouble free process... well, that is after I mis-punched the nine rear passenger side holes on my tonneau (DOH!). I'm going to drop the perforated tonneau off at the upholsterer who covered my seats so he can add a new border to it - effectively covering the mis-punched holes so that I can re-do it, the right way this time.

I also did a check of the cowl to windshield bracket and found that I have to tweak the angle just a bit for it to mount flush. Overall, though, I think it will be a good addition and will work in concert with the ********** center post to give the windshield added rigidity when the top is in place.

I have just a little more sanding to do this weekend, then will pull the body off and let it sit for the winter. Here are a few more progress pics - I'll post some final ones tomorrow before letting this thread go dormant for a few months.

Here's the tonneau - not all the fasteners are in place, so there are a few wrinkles. I'll work those out as soon as it comes back from the upholsterer.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Tonneau2_zpsae09fc29.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Tonneau2_zpsae09fc29.jpg.html)

Extra holes are visible along the rear of the passenger side... this was the first time I've ever fitted anything like this, guess I see why this is sometimes best left to the pros. At least I learned from it and the top came out perfect.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Tonneau1_zps81e49db8.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Tonneau1_zps81e49db8.jpg.html)

Windshield and side curtains:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131116_1336051_zps1cdae4e1.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131116_1336051_zps1cdae4e1.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131116_1335351_zps0b45adc5.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131116_1335351_zps0b45adc5.jpg.html)

Windshield bracket to cowl - I'm going to bond a plate with two machine screws to the underside of the cowl and use a couple of acorn nuts to hold this in place.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131116_1455241_zps1d317bc0.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131116_1455241_zps1d317bc0.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Well alright... my timetable just got pushed up a bit!!!

My friend who's going to do the paint stopped by the other night to check it out and we decided that since he has a slot opening up soon, I'm going to deliver my car to him by Christmas. Uh-oh, though, that means I have to finish a bunch of stuff now that I was originally planning on doing in spring. Because of that, it's just been sitting for the past few weeks, so now I'm in a crunch to get the last few fitment issues resolved and do some final sanding/shaping of my body mods. It's not a huge list, but enough that I really need to focus as my time is at a premium now due to holidays and year-end things at work.

One thing we decided is that he's going to handle all the voids and pinholes as I'm not going to do any Feather Fill or Slick Sand before it goes to him. He said he prefers to get it with my bodywork out in the open (I hope that's not some sort of slam on my quality).

I can't believe that soon it'll be smooth, green, and shiny! I'll keep you guys posted as I get this stuff done and it goes off for paint.

[Gumball]

Yesterday (Saturday) was "filler day" and I was able to skim coat a bunch of areas that need just a little more finishing. I'm going to give them one more look today, but I think I can consider the doors, hood, and scoop as done as I'm ever going to get them. It's going to be a short day today because of visitors and Christmas decorating, but I'm hoping to get the trunk lid done, too. That will leave just a little more grinding, sanding, and maybe the odd swipe of filler on the body before putting it back on the chassis for what (I hope) will be the last pre-paint fitment.

[Gumball]

Just thought I'd post an "after" pic of the tonneau. The local upholsterer I'm using did a great job fixing my over-perforation issue by adding a border. While he was at it he also added a sleeve underneath along the passenger side of the zipper so that I can use a fiberglass pole for rigidity when the tonneau is zipped down the middle and the passenger side remains fastened in place for cool weather motoring.

He saved the day for all of $100.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131121_2102241_zps8a1afac2.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131121_2102241_zps8a1afac2.jpg.html)

Close-up of the border:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131121_1815581_zps79238049.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131121_1815581_zps79238049.jpg.html)

[cobrabite]

Chris, lookin' good! Here's some inspiration:

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=8526&d=1333088605

IMHO MKIII's look GREAT with MKIV trunks!

:)

Sorry to Hijack this thread - but can you tell me what rear axle/wheel/tire combo this roadster is using? It's EXACTLY what I'm trying to do with 15" wheels...:o
Thank you!!

[Gumball]

Cobrabite - you should probably PM David directly for info on that car so that he can provide you with the information.

[Gumball]

I'm not sure how I've found time lately to work on the body, but given the pressure of a date for it to be delivered to the painter, I've been chipping away at the last few fitment issues in between Christmas stuff and year-end work challenges.

After spending an inordinate amount of time working on getting the windshield right, I'm down to just the last couple of things before the body comes back off for the last time.

Here's a shot of the rubber "O" rings I'm using for the rollbar - these are just some 1 1/2" ID plain rubber parts from McMaster-Carr that I sliced in half to use for the rear leg of the hoop. This pic shows the first attempt - the cuts aren't quite aligned, but it was good practice. The round ones fit perfect on the front tube, so if I can get this right, I'll be able to do Jack Wojack's car proud - he was my inspiration for this period-touch.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131222_122822_zps3fa9f75c.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131222_122822_zps3fa9f75c.jpg.html)

I also did a bunch of final tweaking of the front bumper and made sure the rubber grommets for that fit properly, too.

This pic shows those grommets, as well as a bunch of the little details I've been working on lately, like the windshield, side pipes, radiator aluminum, but not the oil cooler installation - which is just about done, too.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131222_152006_zps6cc6f8bc.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131222_152006_zps6cc6f8bc.jpg.html)

One thing I didn't really like about the windshield provided by FFR (not counting their propensity for cracks), is the generic and modern DOT info - which I realize is required for compliance with licensing laws, but which detracts from the look of the car - at least IMHO. So, since I have a bunch of vintage race decals laying around, I added this Sebring one just for snicks. The mandatory info is still visible, in reverse, from the backside, but I have a "Triplex" decal that I'll place over top of that on the inside of the windshield once the car is licensed.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131222_164445_zps0a679279.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131222_164445_zps0a679279.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

Okay - yesterday was a big day... 7074 is now at the painter!!!

After a thrash for the past few weeks, I officially finished my portion of the bodywork on Friday night. I was able to swing a little work-from-home and PTO time last week and the forecast was for near 50 degrees on Saturday, so I pushed to get it ready. Sure enough, it was sunny and warm as we wrapped the car / buck in a tarp and strapped it down on my trailer for the trip of a couple miles to my friend's shop.

He's going to finish the bodywork by knocking down my seam repairs, then block it a few times before sealer and paint.

Here are a couple pics after we dropped it off - more to come, for sure! I was pretty nervous leaving it with someone - it hasn't been out of my sight for the past four years - but I know it's in good hands. It should be flat, green, and shiny soon.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131228_121813_zps6966d5b8.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131228_121813_zps6966d5b8.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20131228_121820_zps7076fbbf.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20131228_121820_zps7076fbbf.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

The painter texted me a couple pictures today and I just happened to be at the hangar... just a couple miles down the road. So, of course I ran right over and took a few pics of it in it's new coat of drab gray. What a difference to see it all one color and smooth.

The guys were joking with me that I have a job if I ever want one. At first, I thought they were just giving me crap and that my hack-job bodywork caused them a bunch of problems, but they said it was actually pretty good and that they only had to fill a few obvious low spots and then tackle a huge amount of pinholes.

A heartfelt thanks to everyone who posted their bodywork thread before me so that I could feel confident enough to tackle this, as well as all those who offered tips and criticism - I couldn't have made it as far on my own as I did without all of you.



Here are the pics from today - next up is a few coats of high-build and some block sanding. They said that two or three sessions of that ought to get it in pretty good shape.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140103_151336_zps8697bfca.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140103_151336_zps8697bfca.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140103_151839_zps80bad4f1.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140103_151839_zps80bad4f1.jpg.html)

In this pic, you can see how I flared the ends of the rolled front cowl to match-up with the doors - this was a pain, but I think the end result should flow really well once painted.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140103_151401_zps33d3aca5.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140103_151401_zps33d3aca5.jpg.html)

Here's a close-up of how my modified tail lamp pad and surrounding area came out. Looks like it needs just a little massaging during blocking to make the transitions nice and smooth, but overall I'm really happy with this.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140103_151351_zps0b9218c4.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140103_151351_zps0b9218c4.jpg.html)

[MPTech]

Very cool Chris!
Just priming it a solid color makes it look more finished.

Did he give you a timeline? Looks like they didn't have much work after you finished your magic. Like the tonneau too. :cool:
Keep us posted!

[Jester]

Great thread - fantastic work.

A great reference for my next build

Thanks for posting!

[carlewms]

Chris,

Thanks for your inspiration and leading the way on self performing the body work. Your thread will be at my side when I get to that stage this spring.

Carl

[Gumball]

My friend (and painter) called last night and asked if I wanted to drop by this morning and learn how to paint... on my car! The hood, trunk lid, and scoop are done, so he wanted to get paint on the inside of those panels and thought they'd be the perfect thing for me to lay on some color for the first time. After convincing me that I couldn't screw it up so bad that he couldn't fix it and after he showed me how much to overlap and how fast to go, he turned me loose with the gun and here are the results.

We started by doing a couple coats of a 2K sealer, then moved on to the color coats. He tinted the 2K a light gray to accentuate the pewter tone in the Ivy Green mix, too, which I think nailed the look I was going for. He's using PPG products and went with a waterborne color, which seems to yield great results in both consistency and "pop" of the iridescent nature of the very fine metallic in this original '65-'66 Mustang color. After four color coats, he did a few coats of clear.

I'm certainly no pro at this bodywork and paint stuff, but at least I can say that I had a hand in every part of the process now!

Hood in 2K:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140208_104409_zps492cb104.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140208_104409_zps492cb104.jpg.html)

Hood front corner without clear:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140208_120509_zps14e0d31f.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140208_120509_zps14e0d31f.jpg.html)

The bracket I made to mount the trunk lid original-style support bracket - bonded to inner skin:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140208_123620_zps65d5a1ae.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140208_123620_zps65d5a1ae.jpg.html)

Same corner as above, but with clear:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140208_131953_zps1954fd3e.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140208_131953_zps1954fd3e.jpg.html)

Thanks to John O for blazing the trail with this color. It's very close to the '01 Bullitt green that I used on my '65 Mustang a few years ago, but much more period correct looking and more to my liking as it has less blue and more gray in it.

[Gumball]

So I thought I'd try something different - I used Eastwood Aluma-blast paint to make the inside of the body look like metal. After prepping the inside of the body by sanding, Feather Fill, and more sanding, I used not quite a quart of the paint with a small coarse brush to get the effect of mill finish aluminum. I painted areas that will be visible (in some cases with a bit of neck craning) when the car is done: the entire trunk area, the nose inside the radiator, the area around the footboxes, in front of the door openings, the front cowl, and part of the wheel wells. The remaining areas will be covered with either truck bed liner, the rubber pads I made (top of the wheel wells) or the body color. All of the painted areas will get cleared, but we'll likely use a little flattener in the clear over the aluminum paint.

I did this with a very dry brush, which meant lots of thin coats, but I'm really happy with the effect.

Close-up of the trunk / lower body area in the driver's rear corner:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140308_194827063_zpsfd1d1db5.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140308_194827063_zpsfd1d1db5.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

The aluminum body on an original car was held in place partly by a bunch of rivets ringing the cockpit - along the doors and the front/rear cowls. After rolling the cowls and the tops of my doors, I wanted to get the added effect of those rivets.

For the doors, I used "split" rivets that are designed for soft materials. The door skins are pretty thin, so I figured these would grab hold without cracking or deforming the fiberglass.

Here's the split rivet - they're from McMaster Carr:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140308_112928857_zpsce0e3bfb.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140308_112928857_zpsce0e3bfb.jpg.html)

Rivets in place along the door:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140308_112859778_zps66b4a25b.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140308_112859778_zps66b4a25b.jpg.html)

For the cowls, I used regular aluminum pop-rivets, but I removed the mandrels and ground them down so that they were only 3/16" long, then glued them in place. To do the grinding, I drilled a 1/8" piece of scrap stock, then inserted the rivets (minus mandrels) and put tape along the stock covering all the rivet heads and holding them all in place while I ran the back side over a grinder - cutting down all the rivets at once to the needed length. I then drilled holes in the lower edge of the rolled cowls, just a little deeper than 3/16". The rivets are held in place with a little Speedgrip body adhesive (two-part stuff that is really sticky). To get it all together, I used a toothpick in the rivet head to dip them in the goo and to place them in the hole. A little acetone took care of the excess goo.

Here's a cut-down rivet:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140308_140354483_zps40cacca1.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140308_140354483_zps40cacca1.jpg.html)

Holes drilled in the front cowl:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140308_140029249_HDR_zps9fff166e.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140308_140029249_HDR_zps9fff166e.jpg.html)

Rivets in place along the front cowl:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140308_153936577_zps3cc31f6c.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140308_153936577_zps3cc31f6c.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

I'm installing one of the original-style FFR soft tops, the type with the rigid side curtains with frames and sliding plexi windows. The side curtains are held in place by three posts along the bottom of the frame that slide down into ferrules in the door tops. But, the ferrules don't go all the way through the body - resulting in two problems. First, they would allow rain or wash water to drain through the ferrules and into the door. Second, there was no support to the bottom of the ferrule, causing them to be loose and unsupportive.

I found a way to take care of those issues, while at the same time giving the car a little more original appearance. Since the original cars had just a thin aluminum door skin on the outside, the inner frame of the door had small stub tubes welded in place to hold the side curtain ferrules. I replicated those tubes with small sections of chrome-moly scrap that I found laying around. Since it is sized so that the I.D. is the same as the O.D. of the ferrules, the holes on the outside of the door (for the ferrules) are smaller than the holes I drilled on the inside skin of the door for the tubes. This allows the tubes to be inserted up from the inside, then they bottom out against the inside of the outer door skin. The ferrules then slide down inside the tubes for a secure, wiggle-free fit. For final assembly, the ferrules will be inserted after paint with a little clear-seam sealer for a semi-permanent hold.

The only challenge was how to hold the tubes in place while the car is being painted. I ended up smearing a little Speedgrip body adhesive around on the inside of both the inner and outer skins, then pushing the tubes up into place. After sliding the ferrules in place, I then smeared a small amount of Speedgrip around the outside of the tubes where they protrude out of the inner door skin. A little acetone on my finger (wear gloves when you do this at home, kids), I was able to smooth the Speedgrip very nicely for a clean installation. To keep the ferrules from getting stuck, I turned them and pushed them in and out every couple of minutes while the Speedgrip took a set. After an hour or so, I pulled the ferrules out and cleaned them with acetone - ready for final installation after paint.

The final touch will be a pair of leather straps for the door latches that will connect to the center tube via a small button-head screw inserted from the back side - towards the door - so that the attachment point is not visible. The straps can be used as both door pulls and to open the door latch as the leather strap connects at the other end to the knob on the latch lever.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140308_130541419_zps363d831e.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140308_130541419_zps363d831e.jpg.html)

[rlampman]

Great original details Chris!

[carlewms]

Chris,

Simply superb!

I am not sure I will do the rivet thing but I definitely like the brushed aluminum look.

Carl

[Gumball]

Okay, I'll admit that this is not correct for a 427 car and it could be bad for the cowl if someone grabs it when I'm not watching, but I really like the look of the grab handles on the cowl. I've had this one laying around since back when I first bought my kit - way back in 2009 - and wasn't sure if I'd use it. I found this, which is a chromed aluminum piece that is a replica of the original 289 car handle, from a Cobra restoration place. After doing the cowl rivets, I decided that the rolled edge, which is 3/4" of solid fiber glass layers with a skim of filler, would be strong enough for it - so long as I remind all passengers it's not structural - sort of another way of saying it's for looks only!

Even though it's a fake handle on my fake Cobra, I think it adds a nice touch to the cockpit.

To make it fit the contour of the rolled edge, I used a Dremel to shape the back side of mounting pads, then cut a couple of gaskets from left over dash/seat leather.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140315_091325526_zpsf996afd2.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140315_091325526_zpsf996afd2.jpg.html)

To mount the handle, I drilled holes through the rolled cowl, then made a bracket for the back side out of 3/16" aluminum that I drilled and tapped for a couple of 10-32 screws. I ground the aluminum to make it fit the contour of the back of the cowl lip, and removed some excess material from the lower edge that was initially visible from the cockpit side. Although this spreads the load out across the cowl edge, too much pressure on the handle vertically would be bad for the cowl.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140315_091342829_zpsaf7e965f.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140315_091342829_zpsaf7e965f.jpg.html)

Before final installation, I'll use some shorter screws and likely grind them down so that they're flush with the bracket when tight - unlike these used for test fit, which extended out a bit too far and will likely contact the dash.

[skullandbones]

Looks like you are spacing your dash a little away from the cowl. I noticed what looks like another spacer toward the drivers side about the same thickness as your backing plate/mount for the grab bar. Is that correct? Thanks, WEK.

[Gumball]

Looks like you are spacing your dash a little away from the cowl. I noticed what looks like another spacer toward the drivers side about the same thickness as your backing plate/mount for the grab bar. Is that correct? Thanks, WEK.

That other thing that looks like a spacer is really a faux (I prefer that word to "fake" - just sounds so much more cosmopolitan) dash support tube. The original cars had tubes visible both below the dash (those angled ones that some of us put in between the bottom of the dash and the trans tunnel) and just a little nub at the top center.

Here's a pic of mine from above while I'm holding a photo I took of the dash in an original car -

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/ComparisonofStubTubewithPhotoofOriginalCSX_zps1391 7441.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/ComparisonofStubTubewithPhotoofOriginalCSX_zps1391 7441.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

I stopped by the shop today and they had my car in the booth getting ready for the final 2K sealer. The painter mentioned that he's going to use a black tint for the sealer so that it gives the deep green paint I selected a richer look - plus that will help hide rock chips.

Here are a few shots of it after the final sanding - I'll post more pics as soon as they get the sealer down.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140328_151239251_zps69163a3d.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140328_151239251_zps69163a3d.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140328_151307293_zpsb3e6f71c.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140328_151307293_zpsb3e6f71c.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140328_152008264_zpscc6d7c3a.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140328_152008264_zpscc6d7c3a.jpg.html)

Here's a shot of the rivets on the rolled front cowl - ought to look pretty cool once covered in color and clear -

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140328_151916851_zpsb5d9a304.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140328_151916851_zpsb5d9a304.jpg.html)

[Gumball]

It's been a long time coming - almost a year has passed since I started my "DIY" bodywork project. With no further delay, then, here it is the morning after paint was applied - it hasn't been sanded or buffed yet... I can't wait for that and to get it in the sun.

Color is '65 - '66 Ford Ivy Green. The color coat is PPG Envirobase - water-based paint. The 2K sealer under the paint is black, lending a bit of a dark hue to the color.

No stripes, satin black ceramic sidepipes, chrome rollhoop, bumpers with hoops front and rear, black interior (leather covered Kirkey lowbacks).

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140401_083245813_HDR_zps526e06ee.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140401_083245813_HDR_zps526e06ee.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140401_083236350_HDR_zps744b88a1.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140401_083236350_HDR_zps744b88a1.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140401_083100251_HDR_zps5114a89a.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140401_083100251_HDR_zps5114a89a.jpg.html)

A shot of the rolled cowl in front of the driver showing the fake rivets:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140401_083028821_HDR_zpsa3cc09d7.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140401_083028821_HDR_zpsa3cc09d7.jpg.html)

The passenger door showing the fake rivets along the upper edge and the support tubes for the side curtain ferrules:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140401_083154280_HDR_zpsdad9b7f9.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140401_083154280_HDR_zpsdad9b7f9.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140401_082854994_zpsa72ca991.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140401_082854994_zpsa72ca991.jpg.html)

Gess trunk lid - made by Karl Gess a few years ago before the Mk 4 came out:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140401_082835164_HDR_zps5def2b99.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140401_082835164_HDR_zps5def2b99.jpg.html)

[EJ III]

Man that is SWEET!!!!!!

[Gumball]

For those who don't want to sort through four pages of my ramblings, here is a summary (in no particular order) of the body mods on my Mk3.1 - three things that I dropped from the original plan are the Mk4 trunk lid, shaving the front turn signal perches, and adding holes and grommets in the lower rear pan for a bungee like that used on the original race cars to hold the trunk closed.

• Rivet-on hood scoop using button-head screws
• Modified scoop by removing ¾” pie-shaped slice from both sides to get the top curve to follow the lines of the hood when viewed from the side
• Rivets ringing the leading edge of the hood – actually very small button-head screws
• Hood opening under scoop modified to fit turkey pan – front 8” of hole covered
• Original style hood hinges (Breeze)
• Hidden trunk hinges (Breeze)
• Original style trunk lid support rod (**********)
• Trunk lid, modified without Mk1-3 peak (Gess Bros. lid by Karl Gess)
• Reshaped tail lamp pads to fit rectangular Lucas L542 lamps
• Soft top, side curtain (FFR old-style with three-pin mounting), and tonneau cover fixings – ‘Lift-the-dot” posts and door/body ferrules
• Rolled cowl front and rear with exposed rivet heads
• Rolled door tops with exposed rivets and support tubes for soft top / side curtain ferrules - foam filled doors (be careful not to overfill and cause distortion!)
• Rolled wheel well lips
• Hidden body mounts on sides
• Side louver openings – interior lips removed and body edge rounded to mimic original aluminum body at this location
• Side louvers painted body color (**********)
• Defrost vent covers painted body color
• Aluminum cover in trunk lid painted body color
• Original-style grab handle on passenger side cowl
• Smoothed and painted inside of body – mimics mill finish of aluminum panels (Eastwood Aluma-blast paint)
• Revised front body mounts at the air intake holes using button-head screws to mimic original rivets
• All edges smoothed and radiused
• Front cowl outer ends made thicker to match thickness of doors
• Door to cowl fit (front & rear) modified for smooth transition
• Hidden “Z” bracket mounting studs at top of trunk area to attach body to upper trunk crossmember

[Jeff Kleiner]

Looks great Chris!

A couple of questions; why the water based base coat and what clear went on top?

Can't wait to see it all assembled!

Jeff

[MPTech]

That paint looks terrific! Still looks wet!

Did you modify the front bumper holes with grommets? Cant' remember the mk3.1 setup.

[Gumball]

Jeff - my friend who did the paint uses PPG products and gave me the choice between solvent and water based color. He said the water based version is a bit more vibrant and is easier to color match down the road. The clear is the standard type two-part solvent based stuff that PPG uses in their Envirobase line.

Mark - Yes - I did reshape the front bumper mount holes to accommodate ********** grommets.

[Gumball]

I dropped by the shop again today to see how the cut and buff is going - what looks like lines in the paint is the reflection of the ceiling:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140403_171213794_HDR_zps05d9c6e3.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140403_171213794_HDR_zps05d9c6e3.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140403_171204164_zpse99b2a49.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140403_171204164_zpse99b2a49.jpg.html)

[chopthebass]

What a fantastic paint job!!

[Gumball]

Yeah - not bad for a couple of first timers. Before this, I'd never done any bodywork and the shop, KB Customs in Sugar Grove, IL had never painted a FFR. Neither of us can take full credit, though, since it was the forums that really made this possible by offering tips and support.

Thanks to all of you for sharing your ideas, comments, and experience so that we all can build better cars!

[Gumball]

Big day today - the body came home! This was the first time I saw it in the sunlight and I'm more than a little happy. More pics to come, but here's a teaser as we were getting ready to load it on the trailer for the mile-long trip to the hangar.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/PickupDay_zps5b90c976.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/PickupDay_zps5b90c976.jpg.html)

[skullandbones]

Hi Chris,

You actually got your hands dirty on this one. So you should be able to give us a breakdown on the steps the guys did for the cut and buffing process. What grade papers, polishing pads, polish, etc..... was used? I'm thinking they didn't have to do a whole lot since it turned out so well but the details would probably be good for us other DIYers. Help us out and me in particular!!!

Now I'm not going to be satisfied without a reflection like that! That's a hard act to follow. Between you and Gene with the black GTM, it's really setting the bar high. His reflects a lot like yours.

Thanks,

WEK.

[Gumball]

Just having fun with some "before-and-after" shots comparing how it looked when I called my bodywork done and after paint. The paint really looks different from the sunny side to the shade. It also really turns to black as it goes around the curves - I really recommend a dark seal coat if you're looking to get a cool effect on a darker color metallic paint.

I can't wait to see it at that golden-time of sunrise or sunset... but I'll hold off on that until it's finished!


http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/SecondCoatSanding1_zps87f7c970.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/SecondCoatSanding1_zps87f7c970.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140419_132157897_zpsa0d8154c.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140419_132157897_zpsa0d8154c.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130925_2017271_zps332b3930.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130925_2017271_zps332b3930.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140419_134222743_zps3f9f6bb2.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140419_134222743_zps3f9f6bb2.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20130925_2015021_zps1bb451ed.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20130925_2015021_zps1bb451ed.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140419_132205218_zpsd82c7a85.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140419_132205218_zpsd82c7a85.jpg.html)

And I just really like this shot:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/IMG_20140419_132222369_zpseb6865db.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/IMG_20140419_132222369_zpseb6865db.jpg.html)

[6t8dart]

Thanks for sharing, this is valuable info for first timers.

[Gumball]

Thanks - For those who took the time to read through this old thread, here's the (finally) finished car...

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Graduation/IMG_20150614_172533723_zpsv7h4jlgn.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Graduation/IMG_20150614_172533723_zpsv7h4jlgn.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Graduation/IMG_20150614_172553889_zpsshrcoy8g.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Graduation/IMG_20150614_172553889_zpsshrcoy8g.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Graduation/IMG_20150614_172732177_zpsydikizfi.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Graduation/IMG_20150614_172732177_zpsydikizfi.jpg.html)

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/Graduation/IMG_20150614_172813645_zps46wavvuq.jpg (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/CCRsAC/media/Graduation/IMG_20150614_172813645_zps46wavvuq.jpg.html)