Jeff's '70 2 Door

[Heinrich]

so much awesomeness.

[slowerthantime]

I've made some progress on fitting the back of the car together. This is all new to me, so I'm having fun figuring it out.

The tail light panel was a bit straight at the bottom which was fixed with a few relief cuts along the flange.

Tail light panel before


and after


The door gaps are close. I don't have much room left to move the panel so I will make the remaining adjustments with the door.

Drivers side. The bottom corner of the door is bent out, makes the bottom gap look bad from this angle.


Passenger side


The tail light panel is a tougher fit for both height and width. The side gaps are still a bit big but I'm working on getting them closer. The gap between the trunk lid and the top of the panel is still too big, more on the passenger side. The best option seems to be to re-curve the bottom flange to give a bit more height to the panel. This might throw off the lines around the tail lights but I'm sure it can be made to work.

Drivers side


Passenger side


Getting a good fit between the wheel house and the wheel arch might be too tough to do neatly. I'm starting to think it might be easier to cut the edge off the wheel house and do a mini tub.

[yenpit]

Nice project! So did you actually use the Wolfe Steel rear 1/4 panel on the passenger side? I bought a pair of their rear LOWER patch panels a couple years back, and they were HORRIBLE...........I sold them off for whatever I could get, ordered up the Australian patch panels, so much nicer fit!!

TJ

[slowerthantime]

Hey TJ, I didn't use the Wolfe Steel ones either. I bought all GT Muscle Car parts, mostly from Dave at Futofab.
Wolfe Steel were really good about it. I showed them pics of the fit and they sent me a full refund and left me with the parts. So, I have Wolfe Steel replacement panels available to the first person who offers me a cold beer for them.

[RMS]

well.... bring them with you and leave your wallet in the truck

[slowerthantime]

That works.

[RMS]

oh man..... that means I got everything to do that next project..... all out of excuses now. lol

[slowerthantime]

It's been a good week on the Datto. I finished fitting and prepping all of the pieces for the rear body work and have them about 90% welded in. It was a ton of work to get the panels aligned and fitted but so far I'm happy with the results.

Fitted, punched/ drilled and ready to install.


The body lines are close and should get better with finishing and final adjustments.




Getting the lines between the quarter and the tail light panel to line up took some head scratching and reworking. This one is getting there.


The inner wheel arches are a work in progress. Sorry forgot pics. The top of the arch mates to the wheel house nicely. The bottom of the arches are a different story, the wheel house will need to be cut and patched to fit. I have built a rotisserie, hopefully it works ok. Now that the back end is tied in I should be able to flip the car over and do the work standing.

The rotisserie will bolt in to the bumper mounts.


Heading to Seattle on Friday with a quick visit with RMS for a parts swap. Hopefully the weather stays clear for the drive.

[RMS]

pulled a few examples for a quick exchange. whats your eta ?

[slowerthantime]

Hopefully around 1pm. Send me your number and I will text if I get delayed.

[slowerthantime]

Making some progress but it feels slower as I am mostly cleaning up welds. I did finally get to repair the rear passenger side rear pillar. The vent hole had been shaved with a metal plate welded inside and filled. The original hole was wrecked.

[Byron510]

That’s very cool that you replaced this hole. I remember seeing this car for sale, and noticing the vent missing. It made the roof look taller, it was odd as I’m just so used to the vent being there.
Do you have the vents needed? And the square plastic snaps for the screws can be found at Lordco in those little free standing bodywork clip and fastener rotating stands that each store seems to have in some corner of the showroom.

I too have all these GT panels, purchased for a ‘just in case’ senario. It’s been interesting watching you document the fit. There was a fella in Australia that also documented the whole 1/4 panel and rear panel replacement- it’s seems a task not for the faint of heart. But it’s funny, among my moderate collection of OEM panels, I have a complete trunk floor. A Feeny and we’re just looking at it the other day. I could imagine the task of installing such a central piece to a car if all outer panels were not there!

Your certainly keeping us entertained, while most of us live vicariously through your venture and adventure. Keep me coming, it’s quite enjoyable - thank you. And if you can make it to the coast for 510 Day at my place...

Byron

[slowerthantime]

Thanks for the encouragement Byron. I love the side vents and, yes, I have a couple of sets to work with. Will drop in to Lordco for the fasteners.

I think the full rear end replacement looks more daunting than it really is. It looks like a big job in part because it all needs to be fitted/ installed at once. After lots of thinking about the alternatives, I felt that it would be much more challenging for someone with my lack of skill and experience to get a good result by attempting to fabricate and install patches. With the repop panels, all I had to deal with was attaching complete panels around the edges, no messing with mid panel seams, body lines etc. It was a lot of work to prep the car and panels, massage them to fit but in the end it will be a much better final result than if I had attempted to patch on this scale.

Of all the parts I installed, the only thing I would do differently would be to skip the replacement wheel house.

I had a visit with RMS last week (thanks for the goodies Robyn) and had a chance to look at the stock fitment v's what I have. There are obvious differences around the trunk lid and tail lights but I 'm sure that they will be difficult to see from a galloping horse. I am tempted to reload on the quarters next time they are available for my own "just in case".

Replacing the trunk floor would certainly have been fairly simple from where I was. With the quarters on you would at least need to remove the rear valance, or the tail light panel as the floor panel is wedged between them. If the the entire trunk floor needed to be replaced then one or both of these would probably be shot too. The rear edge of the trunk floor was a very important reference in relocating everything.

I will certainly make it down to your place. Likewise, feel free to swing by my pace next time you are cruising the Okanagan. BBQ is hot, beer is cold.

[Tedman]

I second the kudos for restoring the c-pillar vents. Shaving those is an abomination to 510-dom. Not only do I think they look better with the vents, the functionality is actually pretty remarkable. I've survived many hundreds of miles cruising I-5 to Shasta and back in the heat of a central valley CA July with nothing but the flow through ventilation, windows up and dash vents open. The key is to be able to cruise windows up, otherwise the wind buffeting will eventually kick your ass.

[harryagain]

Hi Jeff,

Your car is coming along nicely... having been through all issues can I suggest a few things

- get your door seals now and TAPE them onto the door whilst get your body lines right. So all major adjustments can be done now prior to paint
- check the main body line of the quarter to the door. The reproduction panels tend to be deeper and on a different angle. No easy solution and I’ve notice some people don’t worry about it. I re-corked my door lines to suit the reproduction guards and quarters. Depends on the individual I guess.
- lastly your right hand quarter to you boot lid gap. The quarter needs to roll over to the boot lid more. Try corking with a large long blade chisel to get the top edge to roll in closer to the boot lid. Also before final welding fit up a boot lid seal as well to double check the fit.