Carlos840

That's the first thing that came to my mind to...
Glad I'm not alone!

Denpo

Hi everyone, I had a very busy week but finally I could log some hours on the project today.

I installed the headlight. God those things are PITA to install and adjust.

Driver:





Passenger:





Still not pleased by the alignment, but this is a two persons job, and my helping hand du jour could stay any long.
Not a problem, this was not my actual goal, I wanted to try a headlight mod :








I implemented the design proposed by BBShark(VM).
It don't open enough, and the open state is not really stable anymore, you can close the door with little pressure on the headlight flap. Still a good start, to be continued.


Also as you can see I'm done with the bumper assembly. Here again a PITA, lots of parts to interconnect, bolts everywhere.



While I was a it I reinstalled the horns.






I'm still looking to get a set of spoiler, but in the meanwhile the stock spoiler is better on the car that on a shelve. Anyhow, it's more about checking if I have all the brackets and the bolts than doing a final assembly.

Thank to Roco71(CF) I could finish my passenger door.




And as I said before, the radiator is back in place, with coolant.


The more I see my radiator, the more I think it's ridiculously tiny. Next time I hit the scrapyard I'll look for some twin fan setup.

rogman16

Looking good Denpo!!! I know what you mean about the headlights, severe PITA!!! You're making some good progress, keep it up!!!

Rogman

briankeery

Awesome work in that tiny space my friend.

Denpo

Thanks guys.
I've been carried away for a while and it feels so good to see significant progress happening.
You know what I mean Rogman right? I hope you go can go back to hell (on earth) as soon as you can to finish yours.

Speaking on space, as soon as my shelves are empty of corvette part, I'm gonna take them down to make one rather spacious bodywork booth.

Denpo

To the list of things done, I can add my door upper curve fitting.
After ungluing the fiberglass, banging the suporting metal frame and gluing it again, I now have pretty decently matching body curves









Then I started the body seams.
First I chiseled out the original glue down to the underlying bonding strip






Here you can see I cut the bonding strip at the back of the front clip. At the time I found it was easier for adjusting the front clip with the doors.




Then I ground a slope along both side of the fiberglass.
With a mix of epoxy and fiberglass powder I then filled the gap formed by the glue. So I got a continuous V shaped groove.
Sorry no pic of that, will take one when I do the next seams.

Then glassing.
If I'd say I got it right the first time I'd be lying big time.
Took me 4 attempts go get it right. Each time I had to remove everything and start from scratch.
My biggest mistake, and it's a newbie one, was not to break the fiber before laying it.
Basically I was trying to make piece of fiberglass rigid as cardboard to stick to in a concave shape. Did not fly.
It was ok doing this way when the surface are flat and/or can be kept under compression while curing, like all the repairs had to do so far.
I had to get back to fellow restorers thread to understand that.
So with every patch of fiberglass mat gently pulled in every direction until it get soft as cloth, I could finally math by fiberglass to follow the shape.








Bubble is the other big deal breaker, and I found it's important to keep checking the setup while it cures, chasing bubble with a spotlight and a razor blade, making sure every inch of mat is fully soaked in resin.


The painter tape trick, I learned from Jeremy's thread, is a must. Without them I'm sure I couldn't get back to the original shape.
Took me 5 layers to match the body panel thickness. I don't know how thick is my mat, I took the regular-medium-usual local fiberglass supplier sells.

Here the sanded result :














I'm gonna probably sound cocky here, but I'm damn proud of the result.
A handfull of surface bubble (I couldn't monitor the last layer as I wanted), it feels solid, and the seems are barely noticeable.


Last pic is a crack in my donor front clip I discovered some time ago. Cracked fiberglass backed by a generous layer of bondo.
I ground into every cracks and removed all the bad fiberglass

rogman16

Denpo--

You should be proud, that seam looks great... And as you found out, you'll continue to refine and get better on each seam you do... By the time I got to my last seam, I was able to finish it in about a fourth of the time and with better results...

Looking good!!!!

Rogman

brent319

Looks like you got a ton done. Looks great.

Denpo

Thanks fellow restorers.
If I count the mistakes out, I'd say I've put 10h in this, spread along the 3 lastest weeks. I didn't have Xmass vacations or much free time recently.
Turn out I'm gonna have a lot of free time in the coming weeks, and will probably be glassin' full time in the coming days.

Denpo

Here diagram that show what I did on the seams.

Initial state : fiberglass and the pink factory glue





Remove the seams




Grind the border




Form the groove with epoxy+fiberglass powder




Glassing, several layers




Then sanding

Denpo

Front fender seam, passenger side, done :




I started actual repairs, like this big scratch:





This parts was filled with bondo, ground it out, replace with fiberglass :




This one was cracked





Now it's hole filling time !

















Rear fender is ready for glassing




I'm moving really fast, and Sovan will come help me this week's evenings.
I expect the bulk of the bodywork to be done this week.

C3 4ME

Looks like you're making some great progress. Keep it up!!!!!

Denpo

Thanks man, I will, don't worry.
I have been retrained from working on it for months.
Now I'm on fire, full time glassin'

Denpo

(Almost all) fender holes glassed








The fender crack repair is on its way, still need some work to get the wheel arch right.




The rear fenders will get sanded tomorrow







Next in line to be glassed off : T-top carrier, antenna and mirrors holes.

brent319

Lookin' good. I have a full week of glassin' on mine ahead of me too. I am getting used to itchin' at night.
Keep up the good work.

Denpo

Itching? Way too tired to think about that.

One of my finger feels weird when I try to close it and I have a painfull blister in a palm, but that won't stop me.

Thanks and have fun with your glassing week too.

gkz

A friend gave me a couple of invaluable tips:

1. Rub down with baby powder before glassing.

2. If you do happen to get a splinter, remove it with duct tape.

Made work much easier...

Denpo

Thanks for the tips.

I wear have a full face 3M mask, an old hoodie and disposable gloves, so I don't get that much in contact with the nasty.

Denpo

Repair of the corner of the door :




Rear seams done :








Taking care of rear deck holes :












Redoing the mirror area:







Now some experimentation :




I'm gonna try to recut a sharper fender line, that's gonna be tedious.

rogman16

Looking good Denpo, you are really moving along... Anxious to see how the new fender line comes out!!!

Rogman