Begin body work and paint

I got back from a week long trip to Austin on business and started in on the saga of painting the car. This started with removing the interior which wasn't too bad. However, the drivers side dash pad was a royal pain to remove from the gauges. With that done, the interior is out. I have all of the pieces to be replaced sitting in various boxes in the garage deliverd earlier in the year and in another recent order.

It started with needing to check a problem I already knew about, hood sag. I found that the bumpers in the drip rails had collapsed some and were not supporting the hood to the proper height. With a mock up with some wood blocks I found I could get the hood planar with the body again.


Passengers side hood sag 


Hood sag is a good 1/4 inch. Fix this with new bumpers in the drip rails. 

Here's some of the pics on the before state of the body. It was pretty bad off due to the bead blasting. This is how Jim had removed the paint and maybe it worked well for him but I would not recommend bead blasting a fiberglass body to anyone. The sruface is eroded and very pitted which means it needs a lot of work to get it smooth and straight.


Before picture on the state of the body 

I also had a passengers side door sag and planarity problem that can be seen here:


Passengers side door is not flush with the body and will need some shims to the hinge of about 1/8" before remounting. 


Can also see some gap variation on the passengers side door that will be fixed when remounted.