I love the way the car currently looks from the front. Might have to leave it like this...

Fender work

I've been working on the fiberglass fenders, trying to get them to fit nice and even. Turns out it's quite a bit of work! They were just bare skins without any bracing and were really flexy, so I've fabricated some alloy mounts for the front which will also serve as the base for whatever head light setup I end up using.

I cut the rear braces out of my old junk fenders, sand blasted them, drilled and cut them down for a bit of weight savings, and painted them.

With the help of rad weta workmate Joaquin we glassed the braces into the fenders. This was my first time working with fiberglass, and it turned out great. The fenders are nice and rigid now, and I can at last begin to bolt them on to the car properly. It's still gonna be lots of work to get them finished though, getting them to match the door edge, hood edge, valence, header panel, the body lines down the side, and level from side to side has proved to be pretty damn tricky!

I cut the flange off the fiberglass fenders where they bolt to the inner fender as they didn't line up very well and would have needed a lot of work to get right. I replaced them with these alloy 90° pieces, which I drilled and trimmed to fit, and bonded and riveted them on. As far as weight savings go, one of the old stock fenders weighed 14.2kg, and one of these glassed fenders weighs 8.4kg.

The old fenders make nice garage decorations though, and a place to put some of the piles of stickers you get with new parts.

Lid Lightening

The deck lid on my car was far from perfect, so I thought I'd experiment with some lightening. I drilled the hinges...

And the underside of the deck lid.

Lots and lots of holes later...  plus I cut out the flat center sections.

Doesn't save a hell of a lot of weight, and this isn't a cut-weight-at-all-costs kind of build, but it looks cool right!

Trunk lock relocation

I relocated the trunk lock to clean up the tail panel. First the stamped key section got cut out...

and the hole filled in.

Then the key section got welded by the gas filler in the license alcove, where it will be hidden by the flip up license plate. I made a new tab to fit the lock shaft, and modified the latch rod to fit. Works great and looks clean.

Roll them lips

Used this sweet little tool to roll the rear wheel lips. This along with the outer wheel house tubs I made allow good clearance for fatty tires.

 Folded nice and tightly back on itself.

Full Metal Jacket

Dressing up the old fish bones.

First time seeing it with all its panels, spoilers (cardboard rear one), and wheels etc...   Looked pretty tough!

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.