TWINRAY

The top surround fits pretty good - the front fenders (especially the passenger side) is another story. They are about 3X thicker that the originals and will present a problem fitting flush against the door panels. In addition, they so so thick at the crease on the side (above the air vent fins), they don't really want to lay down correctly.

TWINRAY

I measured the right fender and it measures .25 at the crease with the lowest measurement .23". The left fender nowhere exceeds .20"'. OEM is at .10" or less. The right side needs screws and washers to meet the bonding strip from the top surround. It really is out of wack at the end by the door. Guess I should consider myself lucky that the left side matches up pretty good. The time I've spent on the right fender is a joke I've ground the right side down to .19" where it attaches to the dog leg bonding strip where it meets the door and the fit still sucks. The edge of the door will need polyester to get a flush fit with the fender. I'm afraid to make it any thinner since I think it will weaken it.

zwede

We used a PM fender from Corvette Image and from what I recall it was identical to factory. Maybe cut your losses and get a better one?

TWINRAY

That's where mine came from. They were bought in 2008 and I just got around to putting them in now. I guess you got lucky with yours. Crazy thing is that the driver side is thinner and fits fine abit it still is a bit too thick.

This is how I finally got the sob to line up with the top surround. Sure hope the epoxy is strong enough so it doesn't pop out after I take the screws out - or I be running this thing with screws and washers in it for the rest of my life



Here it is without the screws and washers

zwede

The warping is normal if it has been laying around. My rear deck was NOS and had been stacked in a pile for 30 years. The edges to the quarters were badly warped. Same solution as you: screws with fender washers. Give it some time before you do the seams, it will conform quite a bit. You could also add some more screws in case you see it bulging between them.

zwede

To straighten the deck we screwed a piece of wood to the tub, and then screwed the deck to the wood. It took weeks for it to straighten, tightening the screws a bit at a time. We then ground back the edges of the seam to where the screw holes disappeared and glassed it.

TWINRAY

Thanks for the info - my screws and washers will pull the fender to meet the surround on the side but it's way out where it meets the fender on the side. Crazy but the dogleg bond strip just about meets the fender as is - and, as I mentioned previously, the oem fender is paper thin and really flexible - totally unlike my replacement. I didn't want to do it but looks like I will have to adjust the door(s) to get things flush on the sides. Thanks again for your reply.

TWINRAY

I continue to plug away and will soon be ready to bond the front end. You’re aware that the fender does not lay flush with the door. With that in mind, I've posted a look at the original bond strips on the pieces of my original top surround. In the books I’ve read on Corvette front end assembly, it says to extend the bond strips to the end of the surround and to not make it too short. My original bond strips didn't go to the end of the surround but stopped short – they stop when they meet the vertical “dogleg” adjacent to the door. I now intend to grind the “new” bond strips that are now on my (new) top surround to duplicate what was on the original. That should make a big difference in my panel lineup. I think I will start out by not entirely eliminating them were they go over the dogleg but grind them very thin. Do you see any problem with this? I mean, the originals didn’t extend to the end so I think there shouldn’t be any problem to me doing this. In fact the new bond strips only go halfway across the dogleg vertical bond strips - and yet I've seen photos of the bond strip extending a couple of inches over the door.

The original bond strips - oem cut that stops before the vertical dogleg bond strip on the frame



The new bond strip installed on the new top surround
Right side


Left side


Thanks

zwede

If you want a tight door gap (and I'd think you do), the strip can't go all the way back anyway as it would hit the door when you open it.

What you have in the pictures looks fine, especially if you're going to glass the seams.

TWINRAY

10-4 about the strip. I appreciate your help. I bonded the top surround Saturday and plan to do the fenders Wednesday (due to the temp's here in NY). I had to do a fix to the tip on the drivers side but it's now taken care of. Any problem using the "Tigerhair" type of fiberglass for the seams instead of matt??

I took too much off in the trial fit. The gap was noticably less after the top surround was pushed down and bonded






Top bonded - fenders all prepped, just waiting for +60 degree temps.






Gaps are good and dealing with flush meeting with the door won't be too hard to take care of.




Getting to this point took a rdiculous amount of time but that's the way it is in the big city, I guess.