Just Got Carried Away with the Family Project

[CMYZGO]

Awesome project and awesome thread. I can't wait to see the final product.

[BlackBirdDaddy]

Well, played around with several things today but did not complete anything.

I had a convertible Grand Sport Vette for a couple of weeks and I fell in love with that ride! The fog lamps look especially sexy and I want to replace my DRL/turn lamps with that unit. I will need to modify the bulb opening to the appropriate size of my bulb and socket.




The unit is quite large so I needed to do some modification to the fascia.




This is a crappy picture of the modified fascia and the unit taped in place. They actually look pretty good. I will now have to fab up some brackets to hold the whole mess in place.

[ryanwarby01]

Great idea, that will look awesome...like the rest of the car

[nascarnate326]

Any progress on this ???

[JSTALT1]

like the idea, great work on that and the whole car

[BlackBirdDaddy]

Any progress on this ???

Yea Nathan, I have been working on nickel/dime things for the past several weeks. Got caught up in family stuff before school starts again ie: Cedar Point, volleyball tournaments, up north and whatever Sooo, progress has been limited.
But, seeing that you have asked, here are a few things that I have been working on.


Rear filler panel: shaved the hatch lock and ready for paint. Now need to fab a cable release for the hatch seeing that the battery is mounted in the rear and will need hatch access if battery dies.




Finally finished the hood modifications and is at the painters getting a coat of polyester filler primer prior to final sand and paint.






We made a snap in close-out panel in case the weatherman is wrong! (Honeycomb mesh will be installed where the close out panel resides in picture)






Fuel rail covers: the left side needed to be shortened to clear the power steering pump by about 5/8". Cut, bonded and glassed' to new size. Time for clean-up, poly prime and paint scheme.

[Gregs_gsxr]

nice work!

[01badbird]

Looks sweet and can understand all the details and work that your putting into car and imagine like you "can't wait to see finished", keep up the fine work!!!!

[98blackbeauty]

Well whats happening! have not seen a recent progress report, I alway like these because of the clever and quality of work!

[BlackBirdDaddy]

Thanx Greg, Rick and Larry! Yea, a lot of distractions are keeping me from the project lately.

This past weekend I got a pretty good hit on it at least time wise. Even though the parts needed to sanded and rubbed, we needed to install the doors, fenders and front fascia in order to make sure the hood fits. I figured we could install them quick and then take them off again for the sand and rub. Well installing the doors and fenders turned out to be a 5 hour project on Saturday and the front fascia and hood another 4 hours on Sunday! Sooooo, I am not taking these damn things off again!
I forgot how bad the door gaps were and are on f-bodies. I couldn't bear to keep 8-10mm gap on the doors/quarters/fenders. So, starting at the doors, we gapped them to the quarters first trying to keep a 3-4mm gap.




Then, we installed the fenders (after opening some bolt holes) and gapped to the doors trying to keep a 3-4mm gap. For the most part it looks decent except for 2-3inches of the upper fender where it widens out to 5-6mm. I should have added to the damn door before it was painted! Also, now thinking about it, I would have "shaved" the handles and lock cylinder.




Now, time for the front fascia. A few holes had to be elongated in order to make up the difference of moving the doors and fenders rearward. That took more time and beer than I wanted. We got the hood back from being poly primed and was ready to bolted in place. It bolted in rather easy but all gaps as usual, looked like like a pile of crap. The gaps and surface to the fenders were so bad I had to add quite a bit of material and will also need to add resin and cloth the edges to keep from breaking.






I should be done gapping the hood tomorrow and then need surface the poly prime and work the underside one more time prior to giving it back to the painter dude.

[Gregs_gsxr]

looking great! any idea what his turn around time on spraying the hood I cant wait to see it complete

[Lucky SOB]

Awesome attention to detail, the final product will really be rewarding! Those heat extractors look pretty wicked too when the hood is open, nice idea

[BlackBirdDaddy]

looking great! any idea what his turn around time on spraying the hood I cant wait to see it complete

Unfortunately NO! It is hard to create a timing chart whenever a painter is part of the equation.

Awesome attention to detail, the final product will really be rewarding! Those heat extractors look pretty wicked too when the hood is open, nice idea

Thanks Fred, I can't wait to get it done, but seeing that the driving season is ending soon, we seem to be coming up with more hairbrain ideas!

[98blackbeauty]

I swear every time you jack or lift these fbodies the gaps change! I like the attention to detail you are doing matching and getting gaps uniform. Whatta great job!

[OVRKILL]

terrible build thread....too much successful progress....too many relevant posts.....
3-4mm gaps....lmao, spoken like someone in "the industry". any feas studies to support?









have to admit, looks pretty damn good Jim. you're killin me......