Roof Roof

Welded the roof on today, and that was the last panel to put on, so I have a complete shell now! First the drip rails were aligned and welded. Cheers Rex for helping me lift the roof on and off a few times! I wiped the copper weld through primer off after and primed and painted the welds.

Roof panel ready for final fitment.

Lots of plug welds later...   It's on for good. I'll be finishing the welds on the drip rail section when the shell is back on the rotisserie, makes for easier, flatter, better welds when you can get gravity helping.

Did a rough zip-tie fit up of the front end panels. Those race weight fiberglass parts are very light, but are super rough and flexible, going to take some work to make them fit nice and be more rigid. I have some plans for the bracing that should keep the fenders very light.

Guttered

Lots of little jobs the last couple of days, in between fitting the quarters and the roof. The part above is one of the trunk gutters and they were a nice easy job, with a good fit right outa the box, easy access, and horizontal plug welds. A real pleasure compared to some of the shit I've had to do lately!

Welded in. And I didn't even have to wedge myself into the boot to do it, unlike some other recent panels and bits. In this photo you can see I've started planning how the boot mounted stuff will fit, like the battery box and the pelican tool case.

Welds ground and just a light coat of primer for now.

The roof being prepped for it's imminent final fitment. I've coated the inside with Raptor Liner, and scuffed back the edges and epoxy primed as there was a little rust setting in where the E-coat had been scratched.

Here's the drip rails from one side. These go between the roof and roof structure, along the sides of the car. Lots and lots of plug welds, just like everything else! A badass spot welder like the factory used would be handy...

Do two quarters make half a car?

One last look at the quarter-less car...    Today I finally welded and glued the quarter panels on. I should have taken note of how many times they have come off and on over the last few weeks. It was a lot.

I made a flat lip around the wheel housing for the quarters to be bonded too. This allows me to avoid welding and also to easily roll the lip up for increased tire clearance. I sprayed Raptor Liner, a hardcore 2K urethane truck bed liner that also looks really nice, on all the surfaces I won't be able to get to later.

The quarter panels got drilled full of holes for plug welds, and also sprayed with Raptor Liner on the inside. I used copper weld through primer on all the weld surfaces.

 3M panel bond adhesive.

Fitted, clamped, and welded. Finally. Now onto the roof.

Door Repairs

The bottom corners of both doors needed some repairs. They had average old rust repairs, and rusty frames underneath.

I cut the rusty stuff out, and patched up the frame...

Then made some patches to fit.

Welded them in and ground the weld.

Then I folded the edges over and welded them. A quick coat of primer and the doors are good for now.

With those repairs done, and the quarter lights shaved, I can now do the final fit up of the quarters!

Panel beating

Time to fill the side marker light holes on the rear quarters, before they get welded to the car.

 First up I cut the stamped section out and then cut a nice patch to fit the hole.

I was pretty happy with this patch, it fit perfectly and matched the compound curves of the panel exactly. I knew it would warp from welding but it was fun to try and get it fitting perfectly.

I tacked it in with a MIG welder.

The MIG tacks were ground flat then I very slowly and carefully TIG'ed it in fully. It still warped all over the place. As this sort of thing tends to do... 

That's when you start panel beating! I was extremely lucky to get a master class in panel work by Rex, a shit hot metal man and all around good cunt from Junior's. He massaged the patch on one of the quarters, so I could try with the other. This is the other, I got it 90% there and he finished it. It was pretty impressive to see how a warped panel could be smoothed using simple tools into a clean shape with nice and even compound curves.

Here is the finished panel with only a light coat of etch primer on it. Pretty sweet. Proper hammer and file, 'metal finished', panel work. No filler needed here!

The tools. That 'slap stick' (the metal bar second from the right, like a bent file) was a revelation! Dolly low spots with it and they come right up. I'm sure learning some good stuff at Juniors.

Still nice to see the shape of the car again, these cuda's sure are good lookin.

'Cuda at Junior's

I was feeling a bit out of my depth fitting all the new panels and trying to work out where to start and what to start with. Nothing fits perfect and pretty much everything will need tweaking to get the best result. Fortunately Junior and his rad team at Junior's Kustoms Rides have very generously allowed me to clutter up a corner of their amazing workshop with my old cuda and let me work on it there. There's some talented folks around, and I hope to be able to pick their brains and achieve a much better result than muddling along on my own in a cramped garage. Plus it's pretty inspiring to be able to check out the seriously badass builds there. Huge thanks to Mark and the crew!

Test fits

Everything seems to roughly fit pretty well, but holy shit it's going to be lot of work to get everything straight and even!

Hinge rebuild

Rebuilt the hinges in preparation of hanging the doors as part of the first test fit of all the new body panels. Dismantled, sandblasted, drilled out for new bushings and pins, and then painted before reassembly.

iron oxide exorcism

I've patched up the rusty bits that the sandblasting exposed. The upper door hinge/A-pillar sections on both sides needed to be repaired, there was quite a bit of rust between the layers of steel. Here's an image showing the repair of one side. There were a couple other little sections to repair on the body too, but that's pretty much it! Rust be gone.

Painting Timelapse

Here's a little timelapse video I shot while painting the car yesterday. I put 4 coats of paint on (only one coat shown in the video, the first black top coat going over the grey DP40 primer sealer), and it took all day! Huge thanks to Dave at Classic Panel and Paint in Newlands for allowing me to use his booth.

Seam sealed

Urethane seam sealed the various seams, welds, and repairs, inside and out. Not a very fun job! But vital for long term rust prevention.

I made a little hose extension for my caulking gun so I could seal the inner seam where the cowl meets the firewall. Worked beautifully and I got a great seal along the whole length of this tricky area.

Sandblasting and painting and sanding and sealing

Here's the car as it looked yesterday morning, strapped to a truck, on it's way to the sandblasters.
The weather wasn't looking good, despite the forecast being the opposite.

Getting the fresh coat of primer I put on blasted off to silvery metal that paint will stick to like nothing else. I think the blasters appreciated the rotisserie.

The blasting ate through a few places where invisible rust had been eating away in layered sections. So looks like a few more little rust repairs to do, just when you thought you had got em all!

As the weather was looking shit, I painted a thorough coat of epoxy urethane primer on the shell at the blasters. Cheers to Matt and his rad team at Steam and Sand for use of the space and letting me close up after hours when I had eventually finished!

This morning it was trucked to Classic Panel and Paint in Newlands so I could use Dave's booth to paint it (cheers Dave!), but sanding the shell took half the day (you have to sand the primer if it sits for longer than 8 hours without being overcoated). That sucked. And seam sealing all the joins and lap welds isn't much fun either...

Some of the paint needed to paint a car...   You need a fair bit more than this too. Don't ask how much this shit costs!

Stripped fish

Just got the shell back from the dip strippers, and it's nice and clean. The stripping process also removed all the panel bond that had been used to fix the cowl on the firewall after some rust repairs, so I could stitch weld it on to match the rest of the car, which I'm quite happy about. 100% stitch welded shell now!

So nice to see the shell without all the patchy old paint, primer, surface rust, etc.. Next step is to seal the internal cavities and spray a coat of primer on the whole thing. Something for the sand blasters to blast off. Sand blasting as well!? Overkill? Yes, but I have my reasons!

The doors and deck lid were also dipped. They got deoxydine treated and sprayed with two coats of epoxy urethane primer, and two coats of DP40 primer sealer. The internal cavities were also sprayed with a rust proofing paint that creeps into all crevices, same as the shell will get. Everything will also get cavity waxed when it's finished getting painted too. I hate rust.