Progress Pictures, 1954 Vette

Whoo-hoo! That's nice. I mean, really nice.
I had similar body panel fit problems on my '58, back in 1972. I chalked it up to "factory fit and finish."
Nice, nice, nice, nice, nice!

 

NCRS= No Components Remain Stock!

 

My shop specialized in early Vettes, primarily '56-'57, in the late '80s. It also shut me down when the market collapsed!

I think improving the fit and finish is not a bad decision. Most of my customers had us do exactly the same thing. We set most of the gaps at 3/16ths, but the original gaps were 0-3/8ths!!! You could block panel-to-panel on ours, and all had sanded and buffed lacquer, since that is what the customers all wanted! We also had to put a skin of mat on some, since the gl*** was so deteriorated.

Underneath the bodywork and paint, they got into the NCRS detailing....overspray on the floors, etc., etc., but hey ALL wanted the outside over-restored. I think it will pay off for you.

 

Karpo, that looks awesome! The attention to detail really shows with the black paint.

 

DAMN!!! Your making me regret selling my 54! Loved it, bad gaps and all. Oh well, cant keep them all. 6 cylinder Vette's. The only real Corvette!

 

perfectionist looks good.

 

Well the car sat in the sun all day yesterday while I was taking taking care of mulch and a new flower bed duties. Today I got working on the headlight buckets and the fitment in the front fenders. It is here, where I must pause, and welcome everyone to my world, where Murphy's law reigns supreme.

I was marking the high spots on the body, would remove the headlight bucket, block down the high areas, reinstall the bucket, repeat. I think the headlight bucket was in and out about thirty times today, and just when you feel it's where it can't get much better, you notice a crack. Then, the snowball continues downhill, gaining speed as it goes.










This appears to be the bonding adhesive used to hold the headlight recess into the front panel. Looks like someone got carried away cutting out the f/g and used the bonding adhesive to fill in the gaps when this front end had been replaced. I think we'll wind up tapering the headlight area (reverse vee?) and laying in some ****ter mat to build out the opening again. The drivers side faired much better in that no cracks showed up, but with the gaps present, will likely need a similar repair to build out the opening.



One step forward, three steps back...........

 

The drivers side only had slight gaps, so the area surrounding the headlight was sanded off in a tapered fashion, to give more surface area for the filler to adhere to and hopefully not have any appearance of the cracking issues of the other side.


Before:




opening perimeter tapered and Margl*** applied:




Sanded, and light bucket fitted:




The p***enger side needed some fibergl*** to build back up the opening. The old bonding agent was sanded away to reveal the fibergl*** of the front clip, and a metal sleeve formed to support the fresh fibergl*** to be installed. (masking tape to prevent any wrist slashing)









Some of the excess was trimmed away, and a couple air pockets were found in the process. Margl*** was used to fill the voids, and here we'll let it sit overnight before continuing with headlight bucket fitment.

 

nice man i love posts like this reminds me of my pontiacs thread!!!
keep it up!

 

Thanks Flop, I think I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

Here's the initial rough in:




After about two hours of meticulous hand sanding (don't want to take off too much!), test fitting, marking high spots, and repeating, here's a real nice fit.






Tomorrow I'll continue to progressively sand around the trim ring to allow for paint thickness. Hopefully this thing can be sprayed again this weekend with another dose of high build primer.


Well after all the fitment from the first go round (before the cracks appeared), combined with all the fitment today, our sheet metal screw is starting to get a little sloppy in the hole.





Nothing that can't be fixed with a 10-32 riv-nut. I used an aluminum one as it would set easier and thus be less likely to crack more stuff open.

 

When I was in high school around 1989, I used to drive past a '54 Vette on a ****py little car lot every day. Had $14,000 on the windshield and looked pretty bad but complete. I wanted that thing bad, but 14k might as well have been 1million for me then.

 

Is there anyone making repop bodies (kit cars). I have had an idea to do a bubble topped version in my head for a long time. The 58 is my favorite but this style comes close..

 

Ken, Plowboy asked about Lone Star Cl***ics, they make em.

This is a killer thread, thanks for showing your processes! CARVE A CAR!

That Black one gives me wood as well.

 

Worked in a corvette specialty shop when I was a kid.Learned that I didn't like fibergl***.Good to you for taking on this task.I love the old corvettes and am hoping a blue flame special will find it's way into this one.

 

nice lookin car, lots of time and labor into that project

 

very cl***y!.

 

This is probably the best tutorial I've ever seen on fibergl*** body repair... Thank you!

 

Thanks for the comments, guys. Well after the ordeal in the front with the headlights, it stands to reason we need to look in the rear also. Checked the tail lights to the body, and it was hardly a pretty sight either. Perhaps this is where the round peg / square hole technology started.







After tracing around the tail light, some more sanding here and there and it was starting to take shape.





.....and repeated for the other side. Boy, that was relatively painless compared to the headlight buckets. And with that, it's getting down to the short strokes and we should be able to mask it off tomorrow evening for a couple coats of Evercoat Slick Sand.

 

All I can say is - Wow!

(and thanks for the tutorial)

Al in CT

 

I had a buddy who bought a 62,and he thought he was the ****! That car really humbled him! After I saw what he had to do to make it straight,I know why it costs so much to restore one. Took him two years,but when he was done it was super nice...

 

great work. this brings back lots of bad memory s of doing my 64 and later bending the ch***is from too much power and having the door gaps look like ****

 

Thanks for the comments guys, I'll just be glad to catch up on some sleep!

Finished masking off the car this evening about 10 pm.







And while I'm still up, may as well mix up some Slick Sand. Then a guide coat, and time for some shut-eye.

 

Sah-weet!!!

That's some amazing work there, but I doubt if that little bit of masking tape will prevent any wrist slashing if something else goes wrong!

 

Nice. In the last pic it looks like its made of marble stone .

 

One of my fav Vette's. I hope someday to have one too! Killer car!

 

And I thought metal work was hard! Great thread.

 

Looks good from here!

 

I guess we're about due for another update.



Just when you get the car all blocked out, ready for a couple coats of epoxy primer to seal all the fibergl*** in real good, the owner gets a catolog in the mail that has picture of a 54 Vette with the side stainless trim shaved. Kinda like this one done by Richey's Auto in Washington state:



He stopped by, we talked, and now we have some shaving to do. I guess if my repairs of the body fitment haven't sent the purists off the deep end, this is sure to do the trick. First order of business is to add some mat on the back side of the fender to add strength. This superwhamadyne stuff here ought to do the trick...





The brown stripe down the middle is the bonding agent used to help join the body panels together. A section of mat was also laid in behind the kick panel area. After the mat has set up, a cutoff wheel in the 4-1/2 grinder makes short work of the outside panel flanges.





Point of no return:



All vee-d out, ready for some fibergl*** tomorrow.

 

I'd have to disagree with that one, I dig the side trim...

 

yep makes it look like a kit car, not a custom. ah well its his car, and the work you have done is exemplary!