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Sunday, July 15, 2012

Cr@*ck!

The good news is that I've finished all the rear fiberglass repairs. . .




. . . and got it back on the chasis (sort of).



Then there's the bad news, and the really bad news.

The bad news is that the fiberglass body doesn't fit on the metal chasis. 



The passenger side all fits like it's supposed to, but the drivers side (surprise!) is riding too far forward by about 1/2".  It is binding between the metal frame and the body panel at the drivers side rear door pillar.  The rocker length is exactly the same on both sides, and there is the necessary room between the chasis and body panel at the bottom, but the top corner is binding.  I've triple-checked all the measurements, and the fiberglass appears to be the same on both sides.  So apparently the chasis frame is out of whack.  This is not a complete surprise as that area had been mangled and reworked in the past, but I would have expected the result to be too short, not too long.

Oh well . . . It appears that if I take the body back off, cut the metal pillar, and weld it back together, the fiberglass body will slide back into position where it should be.


Which is just as well, I guess, since both mufflers are riding higher than before, and the body needs to be cut back some around them anyway.



The really bad news is that in the process of working on the fiberglass one evening the body jumped off the sawhorses and fell to the floor, cracking the windshield. 



I'm pretty sure spares can be purchased.  I'm pretty sure they're really expensive.  I'm also pretty sure you can't just FedEx those things.  In Texas you can still pass inspection with cracked glass so long as your wipers still work.  So. . . I'm thinking I can progress as-is for now, and once the car is legal again and proven itself around town, I'll need to go on a road trip to pick up a new one.