Looking forward to seeing this all done…
Just went out and did a little work…
Decided I want to shave the ford emblem on the hatch just to give it a sneaky touch that makes people think “I can’t tell whats different, but I don’t think that’s totally stock”
so I wire-wheeled the paint off the area, and made a paper template…then cut it out of sheetmetal and formed the bodyline with a hammer and dolly in my vice
Result:
Then I welded it in place:
Then I ground it down with the grinder, cleaned it, and applied some body filler:
I also put what I think is the last layer of body filler on the driver front fender, but forgot to take a picture. The extra panel bond I ordered is supposed to come in tomorrow mid-morning, so hopefully by the time I have the passenger rear quarter mocked up with screws like the driver side currently is, the FedEx guy will pay me a visit. I’m hoping to have both rear quarters permanently affixed tomorrow and both front fenders ready to be molded. If I have time I’ll actually build the molds tomorrow but I’m not holding my breath. Might have to lay the molds sunday morning.
:snky:
I did the same thing with my badge last winter but used body filler for everything. You’ll love the look when it’s done, it really cleans up the back of the hatch.
blocked down the hatch area where the ford emblem was and hit it with some high-build primer
Cut down the tail pipe cause it sticks out way too far
then I finished up the driver front fender and sprayed it in primer. gotta do some minor touch-ups but its nearly perfect
Then Checko helped me out getting the passenger rear quarter mocked up and bonded
drilled a CRAP TON of 1/8 pilot holes, with plans to put a pop-rivet temporarily in every other hole. I counter-sank the front of the ones NOT getting rivets on the outside of the metal and the backside of EVERY hole on the fiberglass…I plan to drill the heads off the pop-rivets, and any that fall out I’m going to put more panel-bond through them…so the counter-sinks will take up the glue and act as a rivet by not being able to pull through or anything due to the taper on either side from the countersink.
I ran out of rivets and patience for today, only got done about half of what I thought I would. might do more tomorrow morning
Got the other quarter panel mounted permanently this morning with the help (yet again) of Checko.
The rear bumper when I got it a long time ago came damaged…corner was chipped off. made a cardboard backer by tracing the good side, and pounded a bunch of epoxy over it to make a new corner
then I wire-wheeled the old window-weld adhesive off and etch-primed the opening
It’s finally starting to look like a car again! Need wheel spacers!
Nice progress :tup:
UGH, I’m REALLY getting burnt out on this thing. Every time I go to work on it with a list in my head of things I plan to get done, I get about half of the list done. Luke and Nick came over yet again to lend hands. (thank god for awesome friends gung-ho to work on your crap!)
Nick went ahead and removed all me weather stripping and trims from the doors, and bagged the window openings for me
Luke went around and removed all the adhesive tape from where the trims were, and I set him up to cut some strips of sheetmetal for me so I could connect the inner fender to the new quarterpanel.
once luke cut the strips for me I did this:
hammered a flange on one end, made releif cuts, and drilled holes for pop-rivets
then I set the strips into the wheelwell and marked where all the holes ended up, then came back and drilled the holes through (all from the back obv.)
Then I used a countersink bit on the outside of each of the holes to recess the rivets so they’ll be hidden by fusor and bodyfiller later.
I started to repeat that procedure on the other side, but I only measured the driver side and assumed I had cut them both in the same spot. I did not. PISS. it was already 9:30 so I didn’t want to be running an angle grinder and pissing off the neighbors so I called it a night.
Other things of note:
Everytime I block out the driver fender I find a new blemish or two that needs taken care of. I blocked and primed it yet again tonight, and found a couple more defects that I have to take care of again before it’s ready for molding.
I haven’t even touched the passenger fender since I mocked up the two halves. I have decided that I’m going to get the inner fender strips all ready to go and the passenger fender ready to go and bond them all at once so I don’t waste any of the panel bond by having it harden in the nozzle. I’m hoping I can at least get the strips and fender bonded tomorrow night and the driver fender hopefully DONE.
I’m considering finishing everything besides the front fenders and using the hybrid fenders for the rest of the season unpainted to save time and get some miles on it before winter. The way I see it, I have at least 2-3 days worth of work just to get the passenger hybrid fender ready to mold. Then if I’m going to make the molds, that’s a day. Then if I want to make fresh full fiberglass fenders that’s another day minimum. Then those will need a day or two of bodywork to prep for paint. That’s nearly a week just to do fenders, YIKES.
I still have to remove the windshield, rainguard trims, and address any imperfections in the doors and roof, not to mention the remaining bodywork on the rear quarters. BOY am I stressing. All this plus my father is calling me literally every day harping on my to get going on some of the bodywork for the challenger. He’s taking it to a picnic saturday… so I have to find time to fix a few dents in the spare hood, block that down, and get it at least in black primer-sealer by then.
Yeah…I’m fucked…
youre making a shit ton of progress. :tup:
it’s never enough lol. Thank god I have a couple good friends that literally call me up and say “I’m coming over, lets work on your car”, I’d never be this far without them. I just have to keep trying to chip away at it without really get myself in too much of a rush…even though I REALLY want to hurry the fuck up and finish it haha. I’m REALLY hoping to have the inner fenders for the rear done today and the passenger front fender bonded together, if I have extra hands I may have someone drilling the heads off all the rivets on the rear quarters so I can start applying body filler and get moving on that.
I WOULD HELP IF I KNEW WHAT THE HELL YOU WERE DOING AND IF PEOPLE TEXTED ME.
<3
I owe you, you’ve basically built the cafe to where it is.
^just show up haha!
probably going to work on it all evening tonight, all evening friday, and most of saturday (up until about 4:30pm cause I’m going to da bills game with checko). sunday won’t be around, racing motocross in palmyra
got an assload done tonight surprisingly. Luke and Nick AND my buddy john all came by today to contribute. Didn’t take all that many pics of alot of it because we were in the zone, I had luke shoot a few with my phone towards the end so I’d have a few to show and narrate lol.
Things that got done:
-blocked down, scuffed, and filler primed the hood for the '74 challenger 
-mocked up and drilled/countersunk for the inner fender patch strips on the passenger side
-drilled and countersunk/dimpled the front fender to bond the two halves together
-bonded and riveted inner fender patch strips on BOTH sides in the rear
-bonded and riveted the tow halves for the front passenger fender
-applied body filler to the corner I repaired on the rear bumper
-accidentally panel-bonded a bunch of my hair to my left ear and made a few spikes in my hair with panel bond, unknowingly until I went to scratch an itch by my hear about 20mins later. holy shit did that hurt pulling out all the hair that was bonded!
pics!
fender:
(yes we chipped off a hunk of the pop-riveter from smacking it on the ground to get the tails out after riveting)
dude
makes your life 10x easier lol.
i hate doing rivets by hand
WAYYYYYYY too late to learn about this 
pretty sure I have less than 5 rivets left to put in on the entire car hahaha
I love this build! Can’t wait to see it done