[roger1]

Originally Posted by dataway

Any trouble getting the OEM dipstick tube in there?

No issues at all.

[AG]

What is the "hybrid" alternator?

[roger1]

Originally Posted by AG

What is the "hybrid" alternator?

It sounded really good to me and when I called and talked to the owner, he made it sound even better.

https://store.alternatorparts.com/ac130-hd105-hybrid-105-amp-alternator.aspx

[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.

[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.

[vertigto]

The gaps are looking splendid...great job as usual!

[keith k]

Agreed - very nice job lining things up.
I love it when a car looks like it was machined from a single block and all the closure panel margins just laser cut into it.

[Greg Reid]

It doesn't get much better than that. Wish I had taken a little more time with my front sheet metal.

Sent from my moto g stylus (2021) using Tapatalk

[roger1]

Originally Posted by vertigto

The gaps are looking splendid...great job as usual!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by keith k

Agreed - very nice job lining things up.
I love it when a car looks like it was machined from a single block and all the closure panel margins just laser cut into it.

Thank you. That's the look I am shooting for.

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

It doesn't get much better than that. Wish I had taken a little more time with my front sheet metal.

It's a great fit for not having made any modifications with welding and filling yet. I didn't expect I would be able to get it this close. Shows that I really did get a great car that hasn't been hit in the front. Still some work to do but doesn't seem daunting anymore.

This part of the process does take an inordinate amount of time. But time is something I have plenty of luckily.

[will slow gto]

Those are excellent gaps. I’d hesitate to add any metal to the doors or fenders. You’re still going to put several coats of primer and color which will shrink the apparent gaps even further. Plus you’ll have a darker color which seems to make the gaps less noticeable than lighter colors, IMHO.

[68ragtop]

A piece of masking tape rolled around the edges will be close to what you will have left once painted. Not much difference, but its worth noting. Did you fit your fenders to the bumper, gapped the hood edge & got lucky with the doors, or did you tweak the doors a bit? I started my gaps in the front and worked to the fronts of the doors. then twisted the doors to fit the quarters. backwards from how the factory did it, but it doesn't take much & every door is different I have found. My rockers also curved in slightly at the front, so I had to pull them out a fuzz. Maybe the last 5" as I recall. whenever I see cars with perfect rocker, door & fender fitment I usually wonder if they did the same thing, or they just got lucky. Never fit great from the factory, but with enough patience and willingness to modify the sheet metal here & there, they can get pretty darn close.

[Sidponcho]

Originally Posted by 68ragtop

A piece of masking tape rolled around the edges will be close to what you will have left once painted. Not much difference, but its worth noting. Did you fit your fenders to the bumper, gapped the hood edge & got lucky with the doors, or did you tweak the doors a bit? I started my gaps in the front and worked to the fronts of the doors. then twisted the doors to fit the quarters. backwards from how the factory did it, but it doesn't take much & every door is different I have found. My rockers also curved in slightly at the front, so I had to pull them out a fuzz. Maybe the last 5" as I recall. whenever I see cars with perfect rocker, door & fender fitment I usually wonder if they did the same thing, or they just got lucky. Never fit great from the factory, but with enough patience and willingness to modify the sheet metal here & there, they can get pretty darn close.

I will definitely be needing someone to do this for me on my 68 because I will get so frustrated and use words that aren't fit for children's ears

[68ragtop]

Originally Posted by Sidponcho

I will definitely be needing someone to do this for me on my 68 because I will get so frustrated and use words that aren't fit for children's ears

I can't even begin to count the hours I have spent on fitting and modify the sheet metal for better fitment. lots of small cuts and changes you would never notice. just have to do them in the right places. I know there are some that will look at the panel fitment & say the cars should never fit that good & never did from the factory. I completely agree, But I decided 10 years ago I wanted to improve that for personal preference. just something about the reflections continuing on to the next panel & even gaps makes a big difference in the appearance. As long as you are ok with deviating from stock a bit. I have zero regrets doing that on my 68

[roger1]

Originally Posted by will slow gto

Those are excellent gaps. I’d hesitate to add any metal to the doors or fenders. You’re still going to put several coats of primer and color which will shrink the apparent gaps even further. Plus you’ll have a darker color which seems to make the gaps less noticeable than lighter colors, IMHO.

My target for all the gaps is from 5/32" to 3/16". I won't let primer coats build up enough to allow them to get closer than 5/32". I can sand the primer off all the way back to metal before my final coat of primer if I need to. My final coat will be epoxy primer. I made the hood to fender gaps 3/16" and won't let those get closer. I installed the 4 rubber wedges that go on the sides of the fender during this process and found that it's better to keep the gap at 3/16" to allow those to fit and not push the hood up.

I'll show better photos of the one area where I will build up metal to close the gap. It's needed between where I have place the shims all the way to the top. You can see it's pretty wide in that top section. It's just right from the shims down to the bottom.



This is the only place that is more than 3/16". I put shims in the widest place and it measures 9/32"



I'll also weld a bit on the top edge portion of the door to even up the arc around the end of the fender.

Originally Posted by 68ragtop

.... Did you fit your fenders to the bumper, gapped the hood edge & got lucky with the doors, or did you tweak the doors a bit? I started my gaps in the front and worked to the fronts of the doors. then twisted the doors to fit the quarters. backwards from how the factory did it...

No, I did it the exact opposite of you. I started with lining up the rear door edge and bottom gaps. Matching the style creases on the rear edge to the quarter determined the bottom gap and then just made sure it was straight and level with the rocker all the way to the front by adjusting the door hinges..





After that, I considered the door permanently in place. (This won't change when I R&R the doors for painting since I'm just going to pull the pins. The hinges will stay in place.)
Then I aligned the fenders to the doors, hood to fenders and nose to fenders all at the same time. Moving any one affects the rest. I am happy there there turned out to be only one place I had to weld to add metal. This is much less than I expected.

As I said in my previous update, I needed to take the d/s fender off and correct the curve to the bottom part in the area where I installed the patch panel. Actually I had to R&R it twice. The first time to make a couple of relief cuts in the support bracket then reinstall and bend it a little to fit and then the second time to weld up the relieve cuts.
As I thought, it did come out perfect and the gap is good top to bottom and level to the door good as well:





When the hood stays on, and you're removing a fender, the hood hinge has come completely off. I drilled some 1/8" guide holes to help me get the fender back in the same spot. 2 through the lower part of the hinge near the 2 bolts to the fender and one in the fender bracket to cowl.





I made that hood prop bar a couple of projects back and it comes in handy. It's a piece of aluminum tubing with rubber walking cane tips on both ends.

[Andretti]

Originally Posted by roger1

I made that hood prop bar a couple of projects back and it comes in handy. It's a piece of aluminum tubing with rubber walking cane tips on both ends.

Keep working at this pace and soon you'll be using that "Walking Cane prop bar".

[roger1]

I've been working on the door to fender gaps more and level matching as best as I can get at this point. I also mocked up both the GTO fender emblems as well as holding up the rocker moldings in place. Doing that showed me I needed to work both fenders a little more in the area where the patch panels were welded in. I used the shrinking disc some on both sides. On the passenger side fender, I had to twist the inside fender brace a little in order to get the rocker molding to sit flat. I also had to re-drill the holes on that fender for the emblem. They got welded up when I fixed the dent and the previous repair job there.

Here's the area where I welded to close the gap and correct the door to fender edge arc:



And after:





Welding shrinkage did cause the edge of the door to suck in a little which is normal. I used my slide hammer with this end on it to hook behind and pull back out.



Here's the rear door edge now after a little more adjustment on the level.
I make sure the door edge isn't any lower than the quarter panel as I don't want a very high build of primer at the edge. OK to have the quarter a bit lower though since it's not a problem to have a primer build up some there.



On the driver side, I did weld a very small amount to make the top of door edge match the fender arc perfectly.







I'm seeing a nice look down the sides of the car now even before primer:



I'm now happy with all the gaps and levels of the hood, fenders and doors and I'm calling them ready for primer. So now on to the nose and trunk lid next. I'm still waiting on the delivery of the 3M flexible filler for the nose so I'll start on fitting the trunk lid tomorrow.

[Brewster]

Looking good and neat tips of the trade. Thanks for sharing.

[OCMDGTO]

Two GREAT colors there, can't go wrong either way!

[vertigto]

You do some amazing work Roger...great attention to detail. As mentioned, it will have better than factory tolerances.

[keith k]

Nice. Love to see the attention to detail!