chaser012001
66 408w, TKO600 coupe...in progress
Thanks guys. I sincerely appreciate it! I'm busting ass to try and get it to paint. I am not a terribly big fan of body work and am forcing myself to power through and get it done.
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Chasers 66 408 Restomod / ProTouring Coupe
- Thread starter chaser012001
- Start date
chaser012001
66 408w, TKO600 coupe...in progress
The quarters were a reskin by a previous owner and, when they installed them, they seemed to have set them in a little to far at the pillar. So I broke the welds free so I could adjust it. I was having a tough time getting leverage from the back side so I broke out the stud welder. I set some studs and pulled the quarter to where the contours matched. Once I was happy with the contours I welded it down. I still need to epoxy it and then filler the seam.
I also aligned both doors...most annoying exercise EVER!!
Then it was time to address the lower cowl. The passenger side was pretty easy as it wasnt super chewed up. I cut and spliced a section out of the hat and a small area in front of the hat. The drivers side was not as easy since I tried to repair it via the tin can method...it was a pretty sad attempt. Turns out...I'm the previous owner on this one.
I ended up cutting out the whole thing and putting a new top hat patch panel...which I screwed up the cut on. So I ended up having to use strips of metal cut to fit the gaps. It was a pretty miserable experience that all could have been avoided if I'd taken my time a little better. Seriously...it took a job that should have been a couple hours worth of patching into an entire day. Oh well...it's done now. I verified the welds do not leak but for safe measure i added fiberglass reinforced filler for an added seal followed by epoxy primer.
I'm going to be sealing the vents on the upper cowl as well which should help preserve the lower cowl.
Now, for those out there that are going to freak out about that last statement...fear not! I'll be using an aftermarket climate control system like classic auto air or the like. I'm also debating cutting intake holes in the upper cowl under the fenders.
I have the upper cowl mostly welded back down. I have some smoothing and touchups as well as a few things that I need to fix from the previous hackjob.
I never thought I'd say this but...i'm actually kind of looking to smoothing and blocking panels...
I also aligned both doors...most annoying exercise EVER!!
Then it was time to address the lower cowl. The passenger side was pretty easy as it wasnt super chewed up. I cut and spliced a section out of the hat and a small area in front of the hat. The drivers side was not as easy since I tried to repair it via the tin can method...it was a pretty sad attempt. Turns out...I'm the previous owner on this one.
I ended up cutting out the whole thing and putting a new top hat patch panel...which I screwed up the cut on. So I ended up having to use strips of metal cut to fit the gaps. It was a pretty miserable experience that all could have been avoided if I'd taken my time a little better. Seriously...it took a job that should have been a couple hours worth of patching into an entire day. Oh well...it's done now. I verified the welds do not leak but for safe measure i added fiberglass reinforced filler for an added seal followed by epoxy primer.
I'm going to be sealing the vents on the upper cowl as well which should help preserve the lower cowl.
Now, for those out there that are going to freak out about that last statement...fear not! I'll be using an aftermarket climate control system like classic auto air or the like. I'm also debating cutting intake holes in the upper cowl under the fenders.
I have the upper cowl mostly welded back down. I have some smoothing and touchups as well as a few things that I need to fix from the previous hackjob.
I never thought I'd say this but...i'm actually kind of looking to smoothing and blocking panels...
chaser012001
66 408w, TKO600 coupe...in progress
I cut a template out of cardboard that will fit in the recesses that are over the vent openings. Each section is the same size which is nice. So I'm going to cut out 6 'covers' out of sheet steel and weld them in.
I'll post as I go!
I'll post as I go!
chaser012001
66 408w, TKO600 coupe...in progress
So fixing the cowl took way longer than I had expected...but it's done. I finished a few small welds on the cowl today.
During the week, I worked on sealing up the cowl vents. I did have to take a few days off to have a piece of metal removed from my eye. The damn thing went right around my glasses...anywho.
I created a template out of cardboard and then drew 6 plates on a piece of sheet steel. I then cut them out with the plasma cutter...intentionally leaving them big so I could grind them down to the appropriate size cause I dont trust myself to get it right on the first try :-D
Then welded them down. I spaced my welding sessions out to keep the heat down on the metal to prevent warping:
What you dont see there is that I ground the welds down so each piece is damn near flush on the cowl. Some epoxy followed by filler and that project will be done.
Then I set out to start fitting the hood, fenders, and remainder front end pieces. I knew I was going to be in for a bit of a fight due to the reprop fenders. I lucked out pretty good on the passenger side as it was pretty close. I did have to massage the mating surfaces near the cowl to get it to line up. It was initially about 1/8" above the cowl line. I tweaked the underside lip to allow me to force it down a little. It fits REALY good now. I did have to warble out some holes but that's no big deal.
The fiberglass hood also fits surprisingly well although I feel like it has a slight warp in it towards the edges. When you have the hood lined up at the cowl, the center area creeps up above the line of the cowl. I'm not too terribly worried about it just yet and I have some time to figure out how I want to address that.
The drivers fender fits like poo...It initially had a bow right in the fenter of it when lined up to the hood. I was able to work that out and now it's pretty darn straight at that line. The gaps by the door are atrocious. Luckily I have plenty of 1/8" rod to close the gaps up. On the plus side...since these fenders are pretty thin sheet metal...it's pretty easy to get them worked into the appropriate shapes.
For example, I was easily able to shape the front contours of the fenders to meet up with the fiberglass apron. I expect minimal filler to make it perfect.
The passenger fender did require a little bit of gap filling...
Not quite done. I need to do some finish welding on this to seal it up.
Once I'm happy with gaps and any other metal work, I'm going to; take the fenders and stuff off again, re-epoxy in black...everything, re-assemble setting gaps, and begin blocking!
Also...here's the drivers side fender...ewe
During the week, I worked on sealing up the cowl vents. I did have to take a few days off to have a piece of metal removed from my eye. The damn thing went right around my glasses...anywho.
I created a template out of cardboard and then drew 6 plates on a piece of sheet steel. I then cut them out with the plasma cutter...intentionally leaving them big so I could grind them down to the appropriate size cause I dont trust myself to get it right on the first try :-D
Then welded them down. I spaced my welding sessions out to keep the heat down on the metal to prevent warping:
What you dont see there is that I ground the welds down so each piece is damn near flush on the cowl. Some epoxy followed by filler and that project will be done.
Then I set out to start fitting the hood, fenders, and remainder front end pieces. I knew I was going to be in for a bit of a fight due to the reprop fenders. I lucked out pretty good on the passenger side as it was pretty close. I did have to massage the mating surfaces near the cowl to get it to line up. It was initially about 1/8" above the cowl line. I tweaked the underside lip to allow me to force it down a little. It fits REALY good now. I did have to warble out some holes but that's no big deal.
The fiberglass hood also fits surprisingly well although I feel like it has a slight warp in it towards the edges. When you have the hood lined up at the cowl, the center area creeps up above the line of the cowl. I'm not too terribly worried about it just yet and I have some time to figure out how I want to address that.
The drivers fender fits like poo...It initially had a bow right in the fenter of it when lined up to the hood. I was able to work that out and now it's pretty darn straight at that line. The gaps by the door are atrocious. Luckily I have plenty of 1/8" rod to close the gaps up. On the plus side...since these fenders are pretty thin sheet metal...it's pretty easy to get them worked into the appropriate shapes.
For example, I was easily able to shape the front contours of the fenders to meet up with the fiberglass apron. I expect minimal filler to make it perfect.
The passenger fender did require a little bit of gap filling...
Not quite done. I need to do some finish welding on this to seal it up.
Once I'm happy with gaps and any other metal work, I'm going to; take the fenders and stuff off again, re-epoxy in black...everything, re-assemble setting gaps, and begin blocking!
Also...here's the drivers side fender...ewe
chaser012001
66 408w, TKO600 coupe...in progress
Thanks fellas. After reading a lot of horror stories about repop fenders and doors I was really apprehensive about using them but overall, I've been pretty happy with how they've fit. Everything requires a little fitting no matter what you get and, as far as I'm concerned, this hasnt been terrible.
chaser012001
66 408w, TKO600 coupe...in progress
Well...I think about 6 hours or so later and I have all but one gap sorted out. I have become one with the 1/8" steel rod...
This is the new drivers side gap. This pic was actually taken Wednesday before I'd finished the bottom. I completed that yesterday
I also closed the gap on the bottom of the drivers door. I'm not quite done with that though. I still need to weld the inside portion of the door. The rear part of the drivers door also needs to be touched up still.
The passenger door just needed some added to the bottom. This side is just about done. I have to smooth out the inside welds and then I can re-epoxy the door.
I noticed after taking this picture that I had a couple errant weld blobs (before I got a TON of practice welding ;-) ) that I smoothed down. Overall...I'm real happy with it!
I did some light filler work on the roof and hood. Now that major corrections to the fenders, roof, and hood are done I figured it was time to start getting it under black epoxy. So that's how I ended the night. Both fenders, hood, and roof got their first round of epoxy. Second will be tomorrow.
With any luck, I should have the whole thing in its final stage of epoxy, spray build primer, and start blocking by the end of next weekend!!
This is the new drivers side gap. This pic was actually taken Wednesday before I'd finished the bottom. I completed that yesterday
I also closed the gap on the bottom of the drivers door. I'm not quite done with that though. I still need to weld the inside portion of the door. The rear part of the drivers door also needs to be touched up still.
The passenger door just needed some added to the bottom. This side is just about done. I have to smooth out the inside welds and then I can re-epoxy the door.
I noticed after taking this picture that I had a couple errant weld blobs (before I got a TON of practice welding ;-) ) that I smoothed down. Overall...I'm real happy with it!
I did some light filler work on the roof and hood. Now that major corrections to the fenders, roof, and hood are done I figured it was time to start getting it under black epoxy. So that's how I ended the night. Both fenders, hood, and roof got their first round of epoxy. Second will be tomorrow.
With any luck, I should have the whole thing in its final stage of epoxy, spray build primer, and start blocking by the end of next weekend!!
chaser012001
66 408w, TKO600 coupe...in progress
I'm in full on body work mode...Over the past couple of weeks I've block sanded the gray epoxy to identify any low spots and fix those. I found a couple spots on the roof and the quarters that I addressed and resprayed epoxy. The hood being fiberglass is wavy has hell. I've ordered some Evercoat Slick Sand to use on it to get it smoothed out. It's too wavy to try and resolve with SPI 2K in my opinion and I dont really want to fuss with skimming it.
Then I sprayed black epoxy to help catch sand through followed by a test spray with SPI 2k regular build since I've never used it before. It sprays really nice and sands even better. However I dont think I put it down thick enough as it didnt really fill terribly well and I was cutting through really fast. The other red flag was that a quart covered "3" coats on the roof, deck lid, and cowl. So I'm going to give it another run going a lot slower with a higher flow and see if that resolves my issues.
I have also discovered a couple minor fitment issues that i need to sort out with the passenger fender. I'm not really sure what happened between my test fit and this fit but the lower gap is WAY too tight. So I'm going to look at shimming up the front portion of the fender and see if that fixes that gap.
Pic of it in black epoxy:
The headers arrived from Accufab. They look like they should work but I havent fit them in the engine bay with the engine yet. I want to wait until I'm a little further along on blocking. I'm then thinking that I'll drop the engine in, mount up the headers, fit the transmission, and leave it. I'll be ordering the trans conversion early next week.
I have a whole new respect for body guys now. I'm so damn tired of sanding. I'm no stranger to tedious work but this is incredible...I think I'm getting "close" though. To my eyes and fingers the panels are really straight...the guide coat will show otherwise i'm sure...
Then I sprayed black epoxy to help catch sand through followed by a test spray with SPI 2k regular build since I've never used it before. It sprays really nice and sands even better. However I dont think I put it down thick enough as it didnt really fill terribly well and I was cutting through really fast. The other red flag was that a quart covered "3" coats on the roof, deck lid, and cowl. So I'm going to give it another run going a lot slower with a higher flow and see if that resolves my issues.
I have also discovered a couple minor fitment issues that i need to sort out with the passenger fender. I'm not really sure what happened between my test fit and this fit but the lower gap is WAY too tight. So I'm going to look at shimming up the front portion of the fender and see if that fixes that gap.
Pic of it in black epoxy:
The headers arrived from Accufab. They look like they should work but I havent fit them in the engine bay with the engine yet. I want to wait until I'm a little further along on blocking. I'm then thinking that I'll drop the engine in, mount up the headers, fit the transmission, and leave it. I'll be ordering the trans conversion early next week.
I have a whole new respect for body guys now. I'm so damn tired of sanding. I'm no stranger to tedious work but this is incredible...I think I'm getting "close" though. To my eyes and fingers the panels are really straight...the guide coat will show otherwise i'm sure...
You can never spend too much time block sanding. Looking back the list of things I did wrong or rushed on my is quite extensive. I can find areas where I missed a small low spot or something isn't flat all the way across, etc. I've even got a place where I failed to level and smooth out a patch of filler. No idea how I missed that one. Once I found these flaws I see them every single time I look at the car. I'll be testing my ability to repair, re-spray and blend in a few this winter. Ugh.
chaser012001
66 408w, TKO600 coupe...in progress
Thanks guys. I'm being super anal about the sanding. I've even kicked around possibly running the slick sand over the whole car since it builds up thicker and supposedly doesnt shrink. I'd then fine tune that with the SPI 2k (after another blast of epoxy). That way I could really get that sucker laser straight. Oddly, I'm looking forward to doing more blocking. It's got to be better than working filler. There's not a lot of filler on the car and about 4x that amount in the shop vac...
I will probably not be painting it myself though. The guy who did my Dads car says he'll take it over when I get it straightened down to 400grit although I'm probably going to take it down to 600. His eyes will find and fix all the stuff I missed.
Given how much I work on this thing, I'm estimating sending it to paint in 4-6 weeks barring any major modifications necessary to get the transmission to fit...
I will probably not be painting it myself though. The guy who did my Dads car says he'll take it over when I get it straightened down to 400grit although I'm probably going to take it down to 600. His eyes will find and fix all the stuff I missed.
Given how much I work on this thing, I'm estimating sending it to paint in 4-6 weeks barring any major modifications necessary to get the transmission to fit...
chaser012001
66 408w, TKO600 coupe...in progress
I REALLY like Rage. Stuff goes on so smoothly and sands great. Slick sand is essentially sprayable filler. It's a poly primer and needs the HVLP equivalent of a garden hose to spray without thinning. I decided to splurge on a dedicated primer gun (actually bought 2) for it since i didnt want to run the risk of bricking my favorite gun. I'll report back as I go along with it.
Shooting a tournament tomorrow so I wont get a chance to work on this until Sunday. Although the priorities:
* fix passenger gap
* spray slick sand on the hood and cowl (takes 2 hours before i can sand it according to the tech sheet)
* heavy spray 2k on the roof and front fenders...kind of as a comparison...and to learn how to spray the stuff
Also...i tried fitting the quarter extensions last night as I just got them back from the blaster. The passenger side is serviceable but the drivers side is WAY off...border line not fixable. I'm going to buy a new one and see if it helps. Otherwise I'm going to have to figure out how to get it to fit. The contours are crazy bad on that side. I'm planning on working the quarter extensions into the quarters to eliminate the gap line. I'm planning to use fiberglass enforced filler, smooth, Rage, smooth, profit.
Shooting a tournament tomorrow so I wont get a chance to work on this until Sunday. Although the priorities:
* fix passenger gap
* spray slick sand on the hood and cowl (takes 2 hours before i can sand it according to the tech sheet)
* heavy spray 2k on the roof and front fenders...kind of as a comparison...and to learn how to spray the stuff
Also...i tried fitting the quarter extensions last night as I just got them back from the blaster. The passenger side is serviceable but the drivers side is WAY off...border line not fixable. I'm going to buy a new one and see if it helps. Otherwise I'm going to have to figure out how to get it to fit. The contours are crazy bad on that side. I'm planning on working the quarter extensions into the quarters to eliminate the gap line. I'm planning to use fiberglass enforced filler, smooth, Rage, smooth, profit.
chaser012001
66 408w, TKO600 coupe...in progress
First...fuck you photobucket. I've never really liked you and now i hate you. With all due respect, douse yourself in gasoline and light yourself on fire you money hungry fucktards. Moving on to imgur
It's been awhile since I've posted and rightfully so...all i've been doing is sanding...and more sanding...i hate sanding. I hate it so much that I've decided to stop sanding and work on something else otherwise I'm in danger of ceasing work on the car for an indeterminate amount of time and that's not going to work for me.
This is the beast after a partial application of slick sand and SPI 2k.
I kind of wanted to see the differences in the builds so the back half of the car was sprayed in slick sand while the front half was sprayed in 2k regular build. The difference was pretty large. The back half sanded amazingly well and straightened up pretty quickly. The front half still needs a lot of work. So, eventually, I'll be spraying two coats of slick sand on the front half of the car as well and continue sanding...but not for awhile. I've been sanding on this thing for about thee weeks straight.
The slick sand btw is AMAZING! I love how it builds and it's easy to spray. Granted, my primer gun is nothing short of a garden hose with the 2.5mm tip on it.
Anyway, I want to redo some gaps and see if I can get them just a tad better before I do the next round of build primer...and i dont really want to do that either. I'm pretty sick of doing body work in general so I've decided to move on to something more fun. This weekend I'll be rolling the car out and cleaning my garage top to bottom since it's covered in body dust. I'm also going to be doing some re-organization cause i have to do some maintenance on a couple of tractors and dont have the room for it currently. Anyways...thats not entirely related.
Early next week I'll be putting in the order for the transmission. I'm then planning on spending the next month or so getting the engine, transmission, clutch, and pedals installed. I think after I'm done with that, if it's still hotter than blazes out (currently 101 w/ 80% humidity), I'm going to work on getting the dash refactored, painted, and finished followed by starting on wiring.
Once it cools down I'll look at sanding again...i'm not doing any more body work in the garage...
It's been awhile since I've posted and rightfully so...all i've been doing is sanding...and more sanding...i hate sanding. I hate it so much that I've decided to stop sanding and work on something else otherwise I'm in danger of ceasing work on the car for an indeterminate amount of time and that's not going to work for me.
This is the beast after a partial application of slick sand and SPI 2k.
I kind of wanted to see the differences in the builds so the back half of the car was sprayed in slick sand while the front half was sprayed in 2k regular build. The difference was pretty large. The back half sanded amazingly well and straightened up pretty quickly. The front half still needs a lot of work. So, eventually, I'll be spraying two coats of slick sand on the front half of the car as well and continue sanding...but not for awhile. I've been sanding on this thing for about thee weeks straight.
The slick sand btw is AMAZING! I love how it builds and it's easy to spray. Granted, my primer gun is nothing short of a garden hose with the 2.5mm tip on it.
Anyway, I want to redo some gaps and see if I can get them just a tad better before I do the next round of build primer...and i dont really want to do that either. I'm pretty sick of doing body work in general so I've decided to move on to something more fun. This weekend I'll be rolling the car out and cleaning my garage top to bottom since it's covered in body dust. I'm also going to be doing some re-organization cause i have to do some maintenance on a couple of tractors and dont have the room for it currently. Anyways...thats not entirely related.
Early next week I'll be putting in the order for the transmission. I'm then planning on spending the next month or so getting the engine, transmission, clutch, and pedals installed. I think after I'm done with that, if it's still hotter than blazes out (currently 101 w/ 80% humidity), I'm going to work on getting the dash refactored, painted, and finished followed by starting on wiring.
Once it cools down I'll look at sanding again...i'm not doing any more body work in the garage...
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I know you don't want to hear this but I wouldn't do anything else besides the bodywork (sanding) until that stage is complete. The dust gets EVERYWHERE and you would just be making more work for yourself in terms of cleaning everything up. Soldier on and get 'r done.
chaser012001
66 408w, TKO600 coupe...in progress
Noted but, in all reality...i'm probably not doing any more body work period. Probably going to happily write a check for that shit to be over.
Also wanted to add, it's so ridiculously easy to get the engine / trans out of these things that I could pull them both out when it comes time to start in again.
Also wanted to add, it's so ridiculously easy to get the engine / trans out of these things that I could pull them both out when it comes time to start in again.
LOL! I hear ya about pulling engines in our cars. I had to yank mine again recently and although not hard I am getting tired of it. But cleaning an engine or whatnot of filler dust is not fun in our out of the car. Short of breaking out a high pressure water hose it takes a lot of effort. Hell, to this day I still have very fine media from when the car was taken down to bare metal that falls out of nowhere on me when working on the car. its crazy