All the panels came back from being stripped. Total cost $360.
After a few minor welding repairs mainly on the rear fenders and with several coats of paint on the underside, the car now has the left side panels fitted and this right rear fender was fitted today. 03/10/2000.
At this point I felt as if the project had started to come together, only to find that the doors and fenders needed many additional hours to get right. The biggest problem was the bending , "without kniking" of the rear fenders. "They came off the car, why don;'t they go back on?" The only panel not stripped was the NOS Left Fender.
After fighting with the fit of almost every panel I made the decision to remove the NOS Left Fender and repair the original as this fitted far better.
The photo shows how bad the original fender was. 04/29/2000
I was tempted to purchase a repair panel but based on what I'd seen so far I decided to make my own. This wasn't too bad, it fitted quite well mainly because I was able to use the edge of the fender for most of the way down.
"Tip" NOS (New Old Stock) panels don't always fit too well!
07/09/2000 This photo shows the assembled front end. What it doesn't show is the amount of time it took to align, repair and paint the underside of the panels. The bottom section of front apron was replaced sometime ago.
I found that I had to remove this section and refit it so the grille opening could be made large enough to accept the new grille.
All panels are bolted on with stainless steel bolts. I also repainted the engine compartment with high gloss polyurethane enamel.
10/23/2000 Well it's been a few months since my last update, it took a while to remember how to get into this page! It's actually starting to look like a car.
I didn't have to use too much filler to get to this stage but I used plenty of high build primer and spot putty as many of the panels had small dents and I'm told if I had had the panels sandblasted I would have had a huge problem to deal with.
The Left front fender came out better than I expected. After repainting the engine compartment with high gloss polyurethane enamel I decided to repaint the inside of the car. As you can see it's all done now with the exception of the outside panels. These will need another couple of coats of high build primer followed by a sealer, which I will tint with the green topcoat.
Stage 2. Body Tub & Stage 3. Repairing the Body Tub.
Stage 4. Fitting the Tub to the Frame.
Stage 5. Changing the Steering System.
Stage 7. Painting and fitting Trim UNDER CONSTRUCTION 04/18/01
Stage 8. Parts List