Progress on #782

[ZOERA-SC7XX]

Originally Posted by DanEC

I understand. But I did a full frame off restoration of an old, rode hard 427 Corvette years ago - so fiberglass bonding agent, bucking soft aluminum rivets, fixing loose bonding strips, replacing body panels, and resin and glass mat work are nothing new and just part of old cars. Besides, this is really easy with all nice, new, pre-fitted clean parts. No rusted fastners, no warped frames, no broken fiberglass, no multiple layers of paint over 30 years to strip. Piece of cake compared to that so far.

Thanks

Dan

No intention to dump on you for the great job you're doing, just commenting, for which this forum is designed.
Being only fifteen minutes from ERA, I've been in the fab shop on numerous occasions and have seen the guys doing this work (you should have seen how rough the pre-731 bodies were), and it's no picnic.

[DanEC]

No offense. Everyone has different perspectives and approaches to something like this.

[DanEC]

Progress has slowed down due to work in the last couple of months. But, I'm still plugging away at body work.

I got the wheel well openings roughed in fine. After that I've been working on matching up all the panels and smoothing out the match-mold lines. A lot of this is just rough fill to get things up flush and then I will have to skim coat over the top and a good portion of the panels for the final block sanding. The trunk lid area and upper front edge of the doors have taken the most work to get everything matching up. I don't think any of it is out of the ordinary however. I made up a couple of tools for finishing the rounded cockpit edges. The simple wood tool has worked best so far.

I started out using Rage Extreme - figuring most expensive had to be the best. However, I tried some Rage Gold on the cockpit edges and I think I'm going to switch over to it as it seems a little easier to work with and sand.

The motor is pretty much all squared away at Keith Craft but I have them holding off on assembly until I get further along. After frantic research into what to use for a dual quad intake for a Street car I found a nice 427 low riser manifold and I'm having it professionally re-skinned (refinished) at a resto shop. I've seen his work on the Corvette Forum site and they come out looking like brand new.

Well - back to sanding, and sanding some more.

[DanEC]

A couple more photos of bodywork and also one of the dash. I have it sitting in an exercise room - never get tired of looking at it.

[prp289]

Like the sanding tool you made, I will be starting the body wok on my car this weekend. Goodtimes....

Originally Posted by DanEC

Progress has slowed down due to work in the last couple of months. But, I'm still plugging away at body work.

I got the wheel well openings roughed in fine. After that I've been working on matching up all the panels and smoothing out the match-mold lines. A lot of this is just rough fill to get things up flush and then I will have to skim coat over the top and a good portion of the panels for the final block sanding. The trunk lid area and upper front edge of the doors have taken the most work to get everything matching up. I don't think any of it is out of the ordinary however. I made up a couple of tools for finishing the rounded cockpit edges. The simple wood tool has worked best so far.

I started out using Rage Extreme - figuring most expensive had to be the best. However, I tried some Rage Gold on the cockpit edges and I think I'm going to switch over to it as it seems a little easier to work with and sand.

The motor is pretty much all squared away at Keith Craft but I have them holding off on assembly until I get further along. After frantic research into what to use for a dual quad intake for a Street car I found a nice 427 low riser manifold and I'm having it professionally re-skinned (refinished) at a resto shop. I've seen his work on the Corvette Forum site and they come out looking like brand new.

Well - back to sanding, and sanding some more.

[DanEC]

Although I have a 4-post lift in my garage, today was the first day I've had the Cobra up on it so I thought I would clean it up underneath and take a few pictures. It also gives a good view of the undercar exhaust system. Too hot to do much else.





Photo of 2-1/2 inch tail pipes up and over axle. Can't really see it but there is about 1/4 inch clearance to the frame and about 3/8 inch to the tire. Tight but OK so far. They have muffler wrap and there is a hanger at the top that holds them firmly in place.



Muffler hanger I fabricated.



Interestingly the small oil drip down the block plate has seemed to dry up. However the toploader is dripping from about every place imagineable.



As Patrick recommended - drivetrain ground to frame.

[url=http://s125.photobucket.com/user/dclemans/media/ERA%20Cobra/IMG_2719_zps90c16607.jpg.html][/URL

As dyslexia would have it, I noticed today that I managed to mount the front coil over marked R on the left side and vice-a-versa. Guess I need to ask Bob if it really matters and need to be reversed.

[DanEC]

I found a low riser dual quad intake to clear my scoop-less hood. It had one small chip in a bolt seat and was pretty oxidized so I sent it to a place that repairs aluminum and cast iron and uses some sort of re-skinning process to re-finish them. Yeah - I know, it sounds like paint but it's some sort of plating process from what I can tell - not paint.

Back to block sanding.

[DanEC]

It was a long, hot summer and my body work on #782 fell off schedule as a result. Finally have everything pretty much flushed up, flattened where it needs to be flat, gapped, and filled where it needed filling. Looks like a lot of filler but I think I did a lot with filler that many rely on high build primer to do. I need to go back over it with 120 grit and glaze in a few pin holes and I can prime. There is some dim light at the end of the sanding tunnel.














Oh yes, I forgot - and Keith Craft is gather all the parts to start on the engine build - a 460 FE.