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Old 06-17-2018, 08:18 PM
Kerry Pinkerton's Avatar
Kerry Pinkerton Kerry Pinkerton is offline
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Near Huntsville, Alabama. Just south of the Tennessee line off I65
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It's been awhile since I've done anything on the roadster but lately I've been trying to make some progress. Before I get real serious about getting the body ready for primer, I need to finish the decklid and taillight housings.

Some time ago, I bent the flanges that will form part of the weatherstrip trough. My plan was to weld in the 4 sides and then make and weld in the corners. In the below photo, I'm comparing the two side flanges.

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The first thing I did was shape an 'L' that is to welded the flanges. In this photo, I'm read to scribe it for the cut so that it will be the proper depth.

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Welded and trimmed

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Other side tacked

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Things were going really well.... and then they weren't.

Once AGAIN, I got bit by my foolish thinking that I did not need a symmetrical structure to build to. More times than I care to remember, this fundamental error has caused me to do major rework. Today, It was quite hot and I took a break in the nearest empty chair. Which happened to be about 20 feet to the rear of the car. As I was sitting there cooling off, I saw this:

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Do you see it? Yep, the right side of the decklid opening is lower than the right. Three quarters of an inch to be exact. *&$%#@)** This photo shows a straight edge that is actually in the correct line and if you look close, you can see that the left side is higher than the right. I really thought I had made triple sure this was right before now. sigh....

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Lots of ways to fix this but the easiest way was to cut a long thin wedge out of the panel and lower the left side to be symmetrical to the right. So I did. &$$#&^^%

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So it's done and I got one corner welded in. I'm hoping to get the other 3 corners done in the next couple days and start on the decklid inner structure and hinges.


Once again, just for the new folks who may have just found this LONG term thread, I'll over this sage advice. Don't, under any circumstances, EVER attempt to build anything that is supposed to be symmetrical without at least a rudimentary hard buck, wire form, something! Never ever! If I had spent 40 hours more at the beginning of this project back 12 years ago, I'd have been finished years ago.
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