Sitting in the Sun

Mid Seventies today in Huntington Beach, and Mutt's body is outside getting some sunshine to help the primer dry.

In Primer

Today, Mutt went into primer. The entire car - minus the hood is all grey primer. This is the first time the body has been all one color in over a decade. It's the BGA look - hood still in gelcoat, like BIGMOUS was for years. Actually, it will be primed as soon as the bottom is clearanced for the power brake booster. 

Last week there were a number of final body adjustments. Since the body is basically glued together, and there's no shims to adjust, when things don't fit, the panels must be modified. Here, some glass is built up on the nose to blend better into the hood, and close the hood to nose gap in the front. 

After bringing the body back in alignment and glazing the work, the body was ready for primer.

The guys also glued in the radiator baffle earlier this month.

 Jason and Ron shooting the primer. The color will go on in the paint booth.

Passenger side sitting in primer.

 Nose in primer. First time the lower valence has seen any paint.

Rear of the car all primed.

 And the driver's side.

Gifts from Others

In preparing the body, there's been past presents that have significantly contributed to the effort and cost of the work. One of these areas was the absolutely horrific soda blasting job, which caused thousands of dollars of panel replacement and extra work. A second was over a hundred holes drilled into the convertible top lid and lip on the body, probably for a tonneau cover. Most of these were filled with Vette Bond.

Glazing putty over the entire deck lid

The cover with the first coat of primer.

Vette Bond filling the corresponding holes in the drip rail on the convertible top compartment.

Gas tank cover cleaned up and in primer.

The hardtop was one of the few positive areas on the body. No real repair was needed on the hardtop.

The hardtop being block sanded.

The hardtop primed and blocked at 150. A couple low spots on the front still.

Bonding and Blending Rear Fenders

Right before the New Year, the shop bonded the rear fenders to the body. Here's the right fender bonded to the car and some Vette Bond blending in the seam. 

Same on the left fender. The jog around the gas door can be seen here.

Passenger fender nearly finished, with glazing putty over the fender.

Same on the driver's fender, at the glazing putty stage. 

Shot of the rear of the car with the fenders glazed.

Looking at the right top of the passenger fender, with trunk lid and deck lid in place.

Same shot of the driver's side of the car.

Rear Fenders & body clean-up

Over the past couple month, as I've been settling in the new house and setting up the garage, Chris and Ron have been cranking along on the body. Prior to Christmas, Ron was finishing up fitting the left rear fender. Here's Ron zipping off the old left rear fender.

In fitting the new rear fenders, Ron did not want to disturb the gas door, so fitted the new fender around the the gas door.

Here's the fender with the midyear bonding strip in place, and the old fender nearly fitted up for the new flared fender.

While Ron was working this, Chris was working the front end of the car. Passenger side needed quite a bit of vette bond and glaze to clean things up, along with a bit of fiberglass work.

More glaze cleaning up the passenger front fender.

Lower fender caught a cone below the cove at one point autocrossing.

Here's the cove repaired and awaiting the vette bond to be sanded out.

The shop is taking time to make sure all the bolt-on parts such as headlight buckets align well with the fiberglass. Here Vette bond is being used to build up the headlight ring to get a nice transition across the seam.

The media blaster blew some holes in the driver's door jamb that needed to be repaired.

Here's the jamb after clean-up.