Getting ready to close her up.

[wfieldin]

Added photos to gallery

[pmfranke]

looks great,nice job !Take your time mounting the body ,dont use B and B mounting holes,center the body off of the tires,level the body side to side and move the* body* in and out at the front and rear of the doors to make the doors fit flush. Just a few things i wish somebody had told me before i mounted(glued and fiberglased) my body on to the frame. good luck. Peter.

[RobV]

Amen on the door issue. I spent many hours with fiberglass doing the same thing. If I wouldn't have used the B&B mounting, I could have avoided all that extra door work. Great advice, pmfranke.

[duke]

Thanks for the post on not using B&B's mounting holes. I lined up the body on the tires (it was almost 1" off) side to side. Needed to buy a new dash. I was going to order new doors but took your advise today and removed the screws the on the sides and moved the body to match the doors. Much better fit!
Thanks!!!!!!

[RobV]

When I asked B&B about the problems (after I had everything fiberglassed together by the way) they said they don't have those problems. I now know why. Fortunately, I was OK at the wheels. I have a friend near here who was building at the same stages as I was that was not so lucky. Sorry about needed a new dash, but, it could have been worse.

[pmfranke]

robv what did you do to fix the door problem? i just can't cut all the fiberglass out and redo it . any help would be great.

[RobV]

I had one side where the door was "inset" and one side where it was "outset." Imagine that. I used fiberglass to build up either the inside of the door or the outside of the door. Use epoxy resin. I also went inside the door skins and reinforced the bottom of the door where the two pieces come together to make sure that I didn't loose structural strength and had a competent joint. You will need to sand through the gel coat to allow bonding and blending of the any new fiberglass cloth with the existing door. The following pictures should help.

For the outside build up, I used mat to build the thickness and cloth for the last two layers.




I used regular masking tape to protect the body as I blended in the new materials;




Trim to fit and rough sand:




Several applications of body filler will create a new surface blended with the existing body.




If you've had to sand down the exterior and need to build up the inside, I just added glass to the inside:




The finished doors looked great:






Let me know if I can help some.

Rob

[ebiggs1]

I almost at the body stage, it's too cold here, so I would appreciate any pointers you fellows may have. I would much rather take advice from you guys than screw somethong up. So please..............................feel free.

[pmfranke]

thanks for the pics, thats exactly what i was going to do(mine is off the same way).but mine is 3/8" out is that too much to blend in the width of a door. Hey ,You could come to the western states cobra bash in reno/sparks and help me fix my doors on the way!!!! i live 30 min. from reno , come on it would be fun. THANKS , for the pics, wish i had your talent for body work.Peter.

[RobV]

Peter,

I appreciate your description of me as a having a "talent" in body work! I would classify it more as brute force. 3/8" is a lot. I assume you've tried to adjust the door by looking at sanding down the top edge where it abuts the dash?

We ought to try to put something together in Reno. My wife loves the Tahoe area.

Rob

[pmfranke]

get a whole contingent from the east coming to the bash ,yeh, yeh thats the ticket .then i wouldn't be the only b and b at the bash. Ebiggs before you mount the body get the shoulder belts mounted ,its way easer to drill the holes with the body off.