1024 Build Pics

[66rdster]

Hi herman,
Thanks. Actually my engine is a small block "418" dressed up to look like a big block. The small block fits great. There are a bunch of the guys running big blocks in their cars and there are no problems with the fit that I'm aware of. Hurricane uses a different foot box with the big block engine to increase the space in the engine compartment. Brad, Tom or one of the other guys running the big block could probably give you more specifics on the fit etc. Just post any questions about it in the general topics forum and I'm sure they'll chime in. My headers have been ceramic coated. I had them done by a local specialty coating company. Although not listed on the web site, I believe the guys at Hurricane will get them coated for you, if you would like then too. As for color, well, right now I'm leaning toward guardsman blue with white stripes.


Mike

[HM1006]

Build pics look great.

[66rdster]

After taking most of the summer off because the heat and other obligations, I'm finally able to get back to work on the car. The body is on and I've started the body work. I'm doing the heavy rough work now and when I take the body back off the frame I'll do the final sanding and touch up before primer.

I've taken a different approach to leveling the panels with the body. When you do your body work you will notice that the swinging panels have some areas that are not completely level with the body. For example the trunk corners can be a little low, the sides of the hood can be low, places on the doors, etc. Most guys will add some filler to these areas to bring them level with the body. This is fine and it doesn't require much filling.

What I did was cut the inner panel so I could raise the low area to the level of the body and reglass it in position. It was pretty simple to do, but does take some time. I don't recommend this method for everyone unless your picky or you don't mind the extra time this method takes. Most guys will be perfectly happy just filling the low areas.

[66rdster]

Heres a shot of one of the doors that I cut and pasted. I opened the gap until the panel was level with the body and reglassed it. I ended up doing this on all panels in various places.

[66rdster]

I raised the corners on the trunk lid slightly. I was able to get it pretty flush all the way around. This is before I started adding any bondo.

[66rdster]

Heres the trunk now that its nearly done. I still had to add a little filler but very little and its extremely thin. I don't know if it was just my trunk handle or all of them, but the dimple where the hole is to be drilled was slightly off center. I decided to center it for better looks. I had to bend the opposite end of the catch (from whats shown in the manual) inside the trunk once it was centered.

[66rdster]

I didn't care for the bolt thing the the trunk latch catches on so I came up with a better one. I also didn't care for the wire for the license light running in those plastic things so I drilled a hole near the hinge, added a grommet and ran the wire inside the trunk between the two panels.

[66rdster]

For some reason I didn't get any good pics of the doors after my cut and paste method but you can get an idea of the fit in the pics of the rockers. Here are a couple of the hood after fitting to the body.

[66rdster]

Another of the hood

[66rdster]

My roll bar holes were a little off - maybe a 1/4" or so. I haven't decided if I want to use grommets or what kind if I do so I moved them so the bar is pefectly centered. That way I'm covered no matter what I do.

[66rdster]

I added door sills. It was a lot of work but I think it was worth the time spent on it.

[66rdster]

I decided to extend the rocker panels in front of the rear tires. The early cars, like mine, had the rockers cut in a way that it exposed part of the frame in front of the rear tire (see previous pic). The guys at Hurricane made this change on the newer cars. This was a big job. Not too difficult but it did take a lot of time.

First I removed the bolt from the body and glassed a nut to the out side of the body so the bolt could be used from the inside of the car. Then I started on the polyurethane foam. I tried to make the form one piece but that didn't work so I glued strips of foam to the body and the frame (I had painters tape on the frame). This stuff sands extremely easy. In a matter of minutes I had the rough form to put the glass over.

[66rdster]

I decided to put a coat of fiberglass filler over the foam before adding the fiberglass mat. I thought this would fill the gaps between the foam and create a bit of a bridge between the body and the fiberglass mat to give it extra strength.

[66rdster]

Then I added the glass. Its 6 plys thick at the bottom and tapers to 2 plys just under the door.

[66rdster]

I had to cut the bottom off of the flare. I used the piece I cut off and glassed it further down on the body so the flare would extend to the new bottom edge of the body. I then filled the gap between the two pieces with fiberglass mat and resin.