Well, after a bit of time off...lots of summer and family issues, I have been making some reasonable progress with hopes to get the car to the body shop maybe next week.
Here's the dash which is pretty much completed, with the exception of the foux exposed fuse terminal which will be added. Pics don't really do it justice as I hadn't cleaned up after working all day on the thing, and you can't really see the crinkle finish in the pictures.
Here are some pictures of the rear spoiler and side spoilers.....Kinda fun to make and fairly straight forward. The key was making both sides like the same and to get the arch in the rear spoiler looking smooth and right, as it's not flat which would have been much easier.
Body sags to the left a little....need to talk with Fran on how to correct...at least the spoiler is striaght.
Also needed to make up the front shroud thingy coming from the radiator nostril area. Tried making it close to original and it took me several tries and a lot of hours to get it down.
- I first took a flat sheet of metal and put a half inch 90 degree bend on each side of it. The nostril area isn't straight, so I compensated for that with one end down by the radiator being and inch or so narrower than up by the wind shield.
- I then started using a shrinker machine to get the appropriate bends to get the appropriate slope, etc down to the radiator.
- Then I took a relatively thin sheet and made a patter for the sides....This was relatively tricky and time consuming but ended up with a reasonable fit and look. Had to make sure to get both of the fins that stick up out of the hood to look the same.
- Then, from what I can tell by looking at many pictures of orginals, there's a thin strip of aluminum folded over and runs along the top edge of the fins - presumably to make them more ridged. So, I took about a 3/4ths inch wide strip of aluminum, put about a 120 degree bend in it with my brake and then used the clamp on my brake to squeeze it flat (I put a sheet in the crease so it didn't bend it all the way and crack the metal). Then I used my shrinker again and carefully followed the contour of the fins. Once they were good, pried the piece apart with a small screw driver (what a pain in the ass) down the length of the piece so I was able to slide it on the fins. Once on, I used the brake clamp again to squeeze the metal onto the fins and they are secured well.
- Then I made a top shroud from the radiator top to the front of the outlet on the hood....this really firmed up the unit too.
- There was a lot of other little things that went into it, along with some cursing, and many hours, but I think it turned out ok
A little more progress today. Fabbed a little with aluminum and then cut the filler cover accordingly to fit and then mounted. Kinda fun. Still a bit of finish work, but you get the idea.
