It's been a while since I updated, shortly after my previous post, my girlfriend fell and broke her knee cap and severely twisted her ankle on her other leg. As we all say, life gets in the way of our restoration projects.
The mock up for the hidden headlights did go very smoothly. First the vacuum actuators would open the door but not close the doors. On removing the dust shield, this is what I found. Turned the seal around and found the actuator worked fine.
Next the driver side spring did not hold the door open or closed. Turned out the bottom of the bumper was bend so that the distance was 7/16" shorter than it should have been. On close inspection I could see that the edge the actuator bolts to was bent. The bend didn't cause any other problems or than shorting the distance of the spring. I spent a couple of hours fooling with this, finally using my hydraulic jack to bend the edge back where it should have been.
I'm glad I tested the operation. It would have been bad to find this out after repainting the bumper. This brake bleeding tool is a good way to bench test and check for leaks.
I put the bumper back in place for a final inspection. I know the grill and headlight doors are for a 69. The 68 parts only became available recently, long after I had already purchased 69 parts
It would have been preferable to drill holes for chrome before painting the valence, but at the time the only available chrome was selling for around $400. I just wasn't willing to pay that much for two small pieces of chrome. After painting the car I found cheaper chrome on Ebay. After much careful measuring and drilling I have the valence panel drilled and ready for the chrome. The chrome I bought is a PY part.
My next goal is to repaint the hood and bumper. There were some runs and too much trash in the hood and I have some bad runs in the bumper. Hopefully I can get this done in the next few weeks.