Choosing a colour

Whilst Stevo was doing the floorpan he also painted some old panels so that I could decide on the final colour for the body. It was definitely going to be blue, but I’m trying to decide whether it was going to be Fjord Blue L434 (left) or Capri Blue L335 (right). I decided on Capri Blue in the end.

Delivering the body

Here’s is the Body being delivered to Double H Restoration. Again a special transport frame was built to take it there. The body bolts to the frame, and it can then be ratchet strapped down to a trailer. Having caster wheels it also means it easy to move around in the workshop. Cheers Phil for your help with constructing this.

And here’s all the panels that also need painting! (other than the main body shell). You don’t realise how many there is until you dig them all out!

Panel adjustment

Although I’d trial fitted the doors I’d always knew they’d need some adjustment as they were tight at the B pillars and not even all the way down. Using a panel gap gauge Nick measured the gap at the B pillars. They definitely needed some adjustment.

In the end we tried a couple of different doors to see if it was the doors, or the body, that was out of shape. It turned out that all the doors fitted pretty much the same, and thus we decided it was the body that would be adjusted.

I had actually got some genuine 59 doors by this point. It had always bugged me that the door I had initially used were slightly later door (60-63), thus it was decided that we would use the 59 doors even though they had a few dents and dings in them. I must be nuts as the 60-63 doors were new old stock!!

However the 59 doors would need to be adjusted as well, as they also did not fit great down the B pillar. In the end Nick awsome metal work skills saved the day with him actually slitting the edge of the B pillars and moving these in order to set the gap. Although this sounds drastic it allowed the alignment on both doors to be set perfectly.

Repair work

The body was then mounted on a roll over jig so the underside could be checked out. Sadly a few patches of rust were found.:(

Both rear body mounts needed some work. Although the passenger side was repaired by lettings in some fresh steel in, the drivers side was going to need some more substantial repair work.

A repair panel was sourced, but the quality of this was poor with it being very diffrent from the original panel. The shock tower hole was square not round, and the body mount was a very poor copy of the original.

However, a spot on reproduction of the original mount was sourced from Hooky's Panel Shop, with Nick sectioning the new and the old panels together.

And here's the repaired panel. Massive thanks to Nick for all his attention to detail. It is impossiable to tell that the panel has been repaired at all. :)

The carpet grip strips on the heater channels were also looknig a bit worse for wear.

Once removed a whole lot of rust was found behind the strips.

Luckly the rust cleaned away nicely leaving solid metal. Nick again saved the day by hand fabricated new carpet grip strips as none are availalbe for early cars. Thanks again dude. :)

Body and panel prep

Once the doors were fitted and the repair work was completed Nick began to strip the paint off the body. Luckily most of the outer panels were pretty solid.

Work has also begun on the other panels. The bonnet has been blasted, filled and primered.

Both the vert and standard decklids have also been fillered and primered. Really pleased with the vert decklid, as it was in really bad shape when I first got it.

The wings are also now in primer.

As are many of the smaller parts.

Stevo has really got on with the bodywork of the car now. The first thing that was done with the body shell was it was shot blasted and all the old paint was stripped off.

Luckily not much additional rust was exposed, and the body was given a coat of etch primer.

Next Stevo lead loaded the join were the ragtop was installed. I am super pleased with the finish on this. :)

And finally after some filling work, the first coat of filer primer and a guide coat were apllied.

Stevo even preped and filled any imperfections in the engine bay and under the bonnet. :)

During the prep work Stevo even found a mysterious number 7 stamped into the front wheel wheel panel by one of the inspection plates. No idea what it is, but its being kept!! :)

The car body has had yet more primer laid on it, and is now ready for a final coat of primer before the top coat is applied. I cannot thank Stevo enough, the finish, even in primer is excellent.

You’d never know it didn’t come with a ragtop from the factory!

The modified pressing in the wheel well also now looks factory.

Here some of the body panels waiting for final coat also.

Talking of final coat, here’s the heater tube cover thingies in Capri blue. I can’t wait to see the rest of the car painted in this colour.