[roger1]

Originally Posted by ZeGermanHam

I just came across this thread last night and have since read through all 19 pages. What a fun read! Very good and informative work.

Thanks! Glad you are enjoying and looking forward to having you join along.

It's been 10 days since I posted an update but have been working on fitting everything from the doors forward almost every day since then. I am happy with the progress and how things are fitting but still have a lot to do.

I started with the doors and everything keys off of those starting back to front. First thing was getting the rear edge and bottom gaps correct and got that done fairly fast. Then came the fenders and hood which pretty much have to be done at the same time. This took a lot of time but I did get a pretty good result.

Today I did a first stab fit of the nose and I was surprised how well it fits at this point. And, I did not have to do any alterations in any of the frame bracket slots. (The ones I had to repair because they had been torched out by someone.)

Here's photos of it all as of now:













There are places I will need to build up with flexible epoxy on the nose and a few places I will need to sand it down for a perfect fit as is always the case. Not a whole lot though. Better than I expected. And btw, I do intend to have the nose and fenders meet flush.

I have the fender to hood gap on both sides perfect but will need a little work with primer and a bit of skim coat for blocking level.
I'm pretty happy with the new hood hinges I got from Ames. They seem high quality and stout and the spring tension is just right.
I did have the common issue where the d/s wiper hits the rear edge of the hood and this had been rubbing when I bought the car too. I took care of that by changing the rear edge contour. It didn't take a lot to give me 1/4" of clearance there and it didn't change the looks from the top at all.

Here's photos of the p/s door gaps:





I will need to do a little welding to close the door to fender gap up just little from the mid section of the door up. Lower part is good.

I don't think the driver side door to fender gap will need any welding. It's looking really good but I have to do more level adjusting down in the area of the fender patch panel. It's sucked in a little so I will have to make a relief cut in the bracing to be able to get it right. No big deal but I'll have to take the fender back off to do.