Progress
Finally, after working on the wifes car, friends cars, and my bass players POS Ford truck, I got some time to work on the vette. Here's more detail on how I fixed the door gaps:
Here are the tools I used.
The small file was used to do the finish shaping of the gaps, the drill bit was the pin gauge.
First, I lined the door up as best I could against the rear of the car and the sill plate. Learning that the front clip had been replaced at some point and seeing the other trouble areas, I knew the fenders were what needed to be fixed, not the doors. First, I roughed up the fender (the door was the good side) with a course file. Then used tape to back up the fender and to make a rough mold for the high density adhesive filler.
Then add the high density filler
Then, as the filler starts to set and gets firm, I started shaping it with a pick.
Then and before the filler is fully set, I trimmed the tape and filler with a razor.
Once it's set, pull the tape off the fender side, and knock down the high spots with a file, or sander.
Then re-tape it and use the medium density filler down the entire gap. Don't worry about filling the void too much (don't go nuts though, you don't want to loose the door edge for your guide), you'll be cutting a new gap when it's all set.
Once the medium filler is set, sand it to fit the fender, don't worry about the gap yet. Once you have the filler sanded down, you can start shaping the gaps with the small file.
Check it with a pin type gauge often.
Once you've worked the entire gap, pull the tape, there's likely some work to do on the back side too.
Nice and clean!
And here you go...
Now off to the hood. I got the hood gaps (an Ecklers L88 from a few years ago) as close as I could, which is great along the front and down the passenger side, and about 2/3 of the way up the drivers fender. Then towards the windshield, the gap opens up to just over 1/4" for the last 18 inches or so.
The passenger side:
Drivers side:
A big gap....
Also, in grinding away the previous repair, for some reason, there was work done to the top of the firewall. I don't understand why you would ever be here grinding, but they did, so I'm fixing it with something other than bondo...
I used the West System high density filler for the first round of the hood gaps and fire wall just like the door gaps. Used the tape as a "form" for the other areas of filler:
Then fill'er up:
With the filler set, I'll do some more grinding (you can start working with this stuff before it's completely set, and it helps to knock down some of it before this stuff really sets) hopefully today or tomorrow, and will then use the medium density filler for final contours.
You can see how much was necessary to fill this gap:
At least I got some work done, I'd really like this finished by the Turkey Run!!
