Super Street/ Super Gas Fairlane Build

[MP&C]

Although this car is now together, and I did take a grunch of photos, I realized the other day I never had done a complete build thread on it... I had been working on bowties at the time, so by default it just didn't fit in the forums I was on. There were a few excerpts here and there to show some of the process that could help out with other makes, but not a start to finish build thread. So let's do one. Hopefully someone can pick up some tricks or tips for working on their own project.


The owner first had plans for a resto-mod, but after a weekend as a spectator at the MIR drag strip, he had flashbacks of an earlier time, and the direction of the build drastically changed. A full chrome moly tube chassis was built and the body installed at Cheeks Performance in VA. And this is what I had to work with.....

As an homage to the Thunderbolts from a year earlier, the owner had decided on a Crites teardrop hood. Only it didn't quite fit......

....as the engine was raised up a bit for the harmonic balancer to clear the rack and pinion. He was ready to throw in the towel and send the hood back, and concede to using a snorkel. I told him to order another teardrop, and we'd make it work. He was hesitant (I don't think he trusted me), but he did order it.

Height mocked up. The aluminum will be used to support the f/g mat while the resin cures. Then it will get flipped over, remove the aluminum, and more mat goes in from the back side. I never could get the hang of welding on fiberglass, so I had a local Corvette guy come over and join in the fun.

Strips of f/g mat laid in to tighten things up, and keep the hood scoop from moving.

The owner did stop by and loved the look. When I gave him a hard time, he did say it wasn't that he didn't trust me, just that he couldn't see my vision.


Starting to take shape. All the aluminum is removed, mat installed inside and out. A couple low spots and thin spots, as well as one really thin spot that looks like a hole!

I think this might work yet!

 

[David79z28]

Great write up!! And that car is awesome. I love seeing cars that are out of the norm, even though I have a Camaro.

 

[rt dak]

Holy **** that's a tall hood. I've always hated those teardrop hoods but this just took it to the next level. Car is nice though.

 

[MP&C]

Haha....yeah, it's been compared to Tip Oneal's nose before..

more progress on the hood.....

A final smoothing with some evercoat 416, and ready for another test fit..

Next, as I was busy working on something else, the owner decided to try his hand at sanding the paint off the body. This was about June-July time frame, the sun was mercilous on his thinning topside, and after about a week using a DA outside in the heat, he found someone to media blast it.

This showed some areas in need of repair....

...a factory misfit (identical on two different 65's I've seen)

As he was anxious to go racing, he thought we should leave the door to cowl issue alone, but I assured him that a smoother, more streamlined fit would shave at least a second off his e.t.


So with a little cut here, and a slight bump downward, it was fixed to where the factory should have made it....

Much better.


Another area that needed attention was the lower front fender where the stainless trim had served as a nice moisture trap...

Looking at the backside, notice the full penetration on the "dot" welds. If it's just sitting on top, there won't be anything left to hold once you grind things down smooth, so always check the back side to make sure the welder is set hot enough for a full penetration weld. Then they are planished, ground down, and repeat.....

 

[MP&C]

Moving back to the trunk area, the more you look the more you don't want to.
The channel for the weatherstrip seems to have sealed water in as well as out....

It took a few weeks and a few phone calls, but there are still some good junkyard pieces available. We got the corner pieces out of a yard in CO. The rear channel across the trunk opening also has scattered pin holes, so I though I'd give a shot to bending some new ones. First, need a template:

That looks close enough. My press brake dies are only about 18" long, so I'll need to do this in three pieces. The middle one got put in first.

Be sure to check the back side for weld penetration:

The replacement corner was cleaned up, the spot welds were ground off of the adjacent pieces to release the corner with no damage. Looks quite a bit better than the old one.

Well, on to the next corner. The driver's side was in sad shape:

But in looking at the replacement, although in better condition, it did have issues of it's own.

Time to break out the trusty Lancasters and make some replacement parts.

The replacement corner was left attached to the quarter panel section it came with while remaking the channel in an attempt to maintain the shape.

Note the sharpie "reference lines" in the next picture, to keep the bend in the correct location.

....And a comparison of the "new" part to the old one. That should do the trick!

 

[54FordPanel]

Excellent work, thanks for the write-up and the photos.

 

[MP&C]

Got the repaired piece all cleaned up in the sandblaster, and the car prepped for it to go in.

Here's the plug weld holes drilled, ready for the welder to be fired up:

There we go.....that should hold paint for awhile

 

[rickairmedic]

Robert as always fantastic work. I dont know if I can stay up late enough for the whole build though course not sure you will be up late enough to post it either .

Rick

 

[MP&C]

Thanks for the comments guys. One more for this evening, then we'll post some more tomorrow...


This area had a bit of bondo in it, always worth further investigation. Once removed, it showed the damage. This is a 1965 vintage, so probably lucky there isn't more to deal with than this. Someone's version of a previous repair involves banging in the rust holes and covering up the mess with body filler. We'll try to do one step better than that, install new metal.

Here's the point of no return, hope I can bend up a replacement!

Started off with a piece of steel, laid out the rough size and bend lines, then trimmed up a bit.....

Made a new radius die to match the bottom bend on the original piece....

Made some bends along both sides, not too much at first. Need to get in there with the Lancaster shrinker, which won't tolerate too much of a crease in the corner.

Keep progressing along, bend a bit more, shrink some more, etc...

Once you have the basic shape, then use the shrinker along the wheel opening flange on front to get the same contour as the original. Then I used the large radius die again to add this same contour across the whole patch panel by giving a slight bend (real slight), moving about a quarter inch, repeat, etc.... The radius in the corner was trimmed slightly different from stock to provide a bit more room for the rear tires. The other side will be trimmed to match.

Installing the patch panel

Much better!

 

[Garys Garage]

You got skills, I will give you that. Nice metal work. Not feeling the hood. What was the second scoop for? Maybe painted it look right. Dont get me wrong I love a tear drop.

 

[MP&C]

The hood had a 4" teardrop, the "scoop", bought separately, was 5". As the lower circumference is the same, this made the flat area up top considerably smaller, so it actually is less "bulbous" than had we kept the original scoop. Nice 64!

 

[MP&C]

For some reason, drip rails don't tend to like me. This is the second car in a row needing drip rail repairs.

Using the cut-off wheel to grind/remove the spot welds.

Dominoes, anyone?

Looking at the rust just above the drip rail, it looks like it is up into the roof panel as well.

The first order of business will be to remove the leaded seam to expose the lapped joint between the two panels. A soft flame on the acetylene torch and a wire brush makes short work of it.

The closer I stay to the crease of the leading edge of the sail panel, the less the metal should move. A quick check of the back side shows that, although it will be tight, I can get a dolly in there. The top piece is marked a bit larger, to give room for welding and grinding the seam for the repair panel below it.

An ice pick and a bit of grinding will show the extent of the damage, and let us know how far up we need to go for good metal. I did have to trim the top opening a bit more.

....and before we get too carried away with the cut off wheel, let's mark some reference lines so the new piece will go back in the same spot.

Opening up the tin can....also will need to grind away the spot welds holding it to the inner sail panel.

In bending up the new piece, there needs to be a joggle just above the drip rail.

The machine you see in the background here is actually what I should be using, but I think it would take longer to make the dies than what I have in shop time this evening.

So we'll cheat, especially since I found a flat bar in the scrap pile just the right width.....

Some hammer work on the welding table will reform the end, and then we can trim and test fit this piece. Still need to trim a bit more to match my reference marks, but it's real close. And as it's late, we'll have to put off welding until tomorrow.

 

[MP&C]

It took a bit more trimming to get the measurements right to the reference line, and then the patch could be tacked in place.

And then to fabricate the roof repair....

A hammer and large diameter punch will do wonders on a 2 x 4 block.

Test fit:

Well today was a good time for practicing bends for drip rails.

The last one I did for a 55 Chevy. A quick glance at the profile shows a slight kick up on the bottom just inside the face of the drip rail......

Where my replacement came straight across the bottom...........

Now I'll be the first to admit there's always room for improvement, and the gutter fabrication was one of them. I remembered the Pullmax Lockformer tooling I had bought off Ebay a couple years back. In looking at the tooling, I thought it may just work.

I made a pass with a piece of scrap 18 ga................

Marked and trimmed the top edge for the hem............

The hem gets flattened out..........

..........and is inserted headfirst into the apron brake. The apron clamps down just inside the tooling mark you see

A finished sample, and comparison to the old original:

Yeah, I like that much better....

 

[MP&C]

Here's the final drip rail, complete with 3 clearance holes for the window weatherstrip screws and various plug welds.

Oops, still need to finish the roof patch!

Test fit and installation of the drip rail:

And there you have it.

 

[slammedstepside]

Great work. I really envy you guys who are that good at bodywork and able to form your own patch panels. It really is an art.

 

[rickey1013]

Great metal work can't get enough of that here. I like the car get tired of looking at all the regular picks for hot rods keep up the awesome post.

 

[MP&C]

Thanks for the comments.

After fixing the drip rail on the drivers side, the other side is already suspect for similar damage. The owner was hoping we could get by with leaving the passenger side alone. There was some deep pitting in the drip rail, and some visible where the seam sealer was removed. Found two small holes in the outer part of the drip rail, which I thought could be welded up if I had to........but where the inner part of the drip rail spot welds to the underside of the sail panel, I could feel the telltale signs. The metal had swelled up, giving the indication of some rust scale lurking between.

Note pin holes:

The owner really didn't want to cut this side open, so what's an ****-retentive guy with a bunch of raw sheet metal to do? So I waited for him to go on travel for work, called him up and then told him the bad news.

Replacement fitted and welded:

There, all put back together, before he could protest too loudly

 

[MP&C]

Working on getting the hood pins installed...... The goal was to finish up the body fitments and get the fenders, doors, hood and trunk lid all removed so their insides could be painted. The frame guy, Chris in Fredericksburg, had cut out the corners of the dash when installing the roll cage, and I trimmed the holes around the tubing a bit better, and finished welding where he couldn't get to when the windshield was still installed. The dash holes for the cage tubing will get some trim-lok edging to finish off the hole.

The owner had shown up about the time I finished the dash, and we got to work on the hood pins. I didn't want to just have an angle bracket screwed to the firewall, so I came up with these brackets out of 12 ga, they turned out nice and rigid! The front hood pins used the original holes in the core support that were for the hood pads.

Hood drilled. Took some 7/16 bolts, ground a point and bolted in the hood pin holes to use as "spotters" for locating the holes in the hood.

Now to concentrate on fixing 6 remaining pin holes :fingerscrossed:


Three above the wheel opening were easily filled with the mig, but the next three were about midway back on the rear quarter and about two inches up. Don't know where these came from, unless some bright individual had a rag stuffed down there to collect all the leaking rain water. All attempts to weld these holes just opened the holes much bigger, so i decided to cut a circle around the three and replace with some new metal.

Now I'm not sure about what happened next, whether it was the domino effect, or just plain my luck. But when finishing off the welds of my patch, I noticed some of the telltale dark brown spots on the bottom side of the quarter. These are a tell tale sign of pitting working it's way through from the back side. Ice pick easily went thru, so I took the crud thug to the entire lower quarter on the inside to reveal the rest of them. Quite a bit of pin holes and deep pitting, so another hole was cut. The crud thug was used on the passenger side also, but it did not need any repairs. Whew!

In this repair I clamped everything up, started the weld from the back end, and just removed clamps as I went. This allowed the gap to close up for a nice tight fit for **** welding.

Inside view:

 

[MP&C]

Noticed this was lurking while cleaning up the rear window channel, hoping to get a step closer to primer.

The first step I normally take is to use the pick to check the surrounding area for any hidden damage, and decide how far to take the opening. Once you find solid metal, the next consideration is the ease of dressing out the repair. It's easier to grind and sand on an outside radius than an inside one, so that is factored into the cut size. Sometimes you don't have a choice, but best to make it easier on yourself when you can!

The channel is actually made in two pieces. The spot welds in the pinch weld area are removed from the top layer to remove the damaged pieces. The vertical piece actually travels down beyond the bottom of the window in this case, so that will be installed first. A new piece is cut out and bent to fit, and final sanding/grinding to get a tight weld joint.

The bottom piece has a radius in two directions, slopes up and in.

The outer (rear) radius was hammer formed after the shrinking and stretching was done. Then trimmed to fit and welded in place.

The inside corner joint was welded and cleaned up with a ball nose burr grinder, to keep water traps to a minimum.

 

[mad57]

Very nice attention to detail!!! great metal work...is it possible to see pics of the equipment you used to form this steel? I love this kind of tooling but from what i know these machines are huge and heavy and you need a huge amount of extra space... am i wrong? also is that 16 guage steel?

 

[MP&C]

We did run across more metalwork to fix prior to painting. The front fender had a hole for the antenna, which he didn't plan to use, so it was filled.

The trunk lid hinges had been relocated inboard to clear the rear tubs, so the original holes were removed and filled.

And just when you're ready to load parts in the paint booth, this shows up:

Wonder what caused that?

Back sides primed (H/K KP-2):

Front side primed, slick Sand high build, and guide coat (next day):

Hood all one color, it's starting to grow on me.

 

[MP&C]

Very nice attention to detail!!! great metal work...is it possible to see pics of the equipment you used to form this steel? I love this kind of tooling but from what i know these machines are huge and heavy and you need a huge amount of extra space... am i wrong? also is that 16 guage steel?

Primarily automotive sheet metal is 19 GA from the factory. This size does not have a huge demand, so in some areas it is difficult to find. What you see me using for the repair panels is 18 GA, which is just slightly thicker. Here are some pics of what I use to make most repeir panels.....


Apron brake

Jump shear

Manual Press brake

....and yes, these take up a bit of room, but these machines are "nice to haves" as most bends can be made up by clamping something to a bench and bending/hammering over an edge. There's quite a bit that can be done with simple hand tools and a bit of determination.

 

[mad57]

Thanks for the pics. I too have that pexto shear i just mounted it on rollers last night i also have my out rigers taken off as i mostly cut smaller pieces easier to store against the wall, Def my next piece will be some sort of brake iam so curious about those older northern freight 3 in one press/shear/roller combos, i know its cheaper but for what i do it would work. hers a pic of my pexto on skates.thank you.

 

[mad57]

Primarily automotive sheet metal is 19 GA from the factory. This size does not have a huge demand, so in some areas it is difficult to find. What you see me using for the repair panels is 18 GA, which is just slightly thicker. Here are some pics of what I use to make most repeir panels.....


I had gotten lucky a sun roof shop by me has tons of blanks or cut outs from installing sun roofs i usually shop there for my steel free or real cheap.

 

[MP&C]

Mad57, those three in one tools typically have one weak spot....the cheap cast arms on the sides. The first bit of overly exceeding the machines capacity and they tend to crack. I picked up the apron brake and shear you see for about 300 each at auction, so if you have the space, I personally would rather have older better stuff.

That's a good source for metal, and most of those will not have rust issues. Take all you can get!


A slight bit more progress, got the hood and trunk lid blocked out and low spots addressed. Will need a couple more coats of high build later this week as well as some of the few remaining bare parts. The doors and fenders look like they will get by with wetsanding only.

I did have some help with sanding.

One front fender left to sand, and then I'll spray another couple coats on the hood and trunk lid.


My nephew Chris did some prep work while I continued wet sanding, the rear tires were removed so we can trim a bit more inside the bottom edges of the wheel opening. We had a set of "painting grade" wheels and tires, but had to open up the bolt holes to accomodate the 5/8" studs. Also had to unbolt the bottom of the coilover shocks to get the rear tires off. Forgot how large those beasts were

The roll cage and chassis has been NHRA inspected, and we don't want any more paint on it that would interfere with weld inspections, so Chris masked off all the roll cage, and then he and Brad (the owner) cut and fit the padding to get it ready for the upholsterer. Here's the official "treasure map" to locate all the pieces.

I had sprayed another couple coats of slick sand yesterday on the trunk lid as I still wasn't happy with it, and it turned out pretty nice this time. Started masking off the holes and front sides of the body panels, getting ready to spray some red on the back sides.

 

[HGFS]

more, please....

 

[MP&C]

Got some painting done this evening, White sealer, Viper red base, and a couple coats of clear. Will let this sit for a few days and then get it prepped for spraying the outside.

Part of the job done by the frame builder was to cut out the opening for the new, larger, aluminum radiator. This was done with a plasma cutter, and still needed to be cleaned up a bit to straighten the edges. Here Chris is trying his hand at giving the opening in the core support some nice straight edges and radiused corners.

While he was tackling that as well as blocking the bare body to find low spots, I got a couple coats of white sealer on the loose body panels. It's an extra step, but I normally wet sand between this and the red base, as it prevents any stray dust nibs from appearing as little white dots when you wet sand and buff any imperfections later.

After the sealer and guide coat was sprayed, I started fixing some dents while Chris continued sanding.

This was about a 3 to 4 inch diameter bondo repair on the roof. Chris had sanded it out, so I got out the dent puller to try it's magic.

A little clean up afterwards with the hammer/dolly, and then a bit of sanding brings it right around......

We had a couple of "issues" left in the drip rail, namely a couple of scattered pin holes in the bottom that I thought I could fill with the mig. The first three went well. The last one, not so much. Here I thought I was done with this stuff!

These holes were not visible prior to welding the pin hole in the bottom, but once the blue heat travelled up the side it appeared to stop there along the center in a jagged pattern. The trusty ice pick told the tale. I had a "practice" piece left over from my drip rail fabrication, so it came in handy. The damaged area was trimmed out, a replacement cut, and some shrinking done on the Lancaster to match the original.

All dressed up.....

........and back to where I thought I was two hours ago.....!

 

[NUTTSGT]

Love the pics, it's going to look even better when finished.

I see a mount for a chute, the owner planning on running faster than 150 on a 9.90 index ? Or was it a matter of putting in on when the chassis was being built?

 

[MP&C]

The chassis is certified NHRA and IHRA I believe to 8.50...If I find out different, I'll post the info...


Got the hood wet sanded and test fit the Griffin radiator.......

In addition to getting some more wet sanding done, (hoping to spray more red tomorrow) we had noticed a patch of lead in the B-pillar on the passenger side. Used the torch to melt it out, only to reveal a nice hole punched in. Judging from the direction the striking object must have travelled, it appears the door was not installed at the time. Looks like it had to be damaged and repaired at the factory??

I've been told this was likely a "suspended" spot welder that was overzealously swung into the car at the factory?

 

[MP&C]

More painting done, basecoat:

Cleared:

Here's some progress on the body. H/K epoxy primer and then Slick Sand high build.

My nephew's contribution to the interior

Full paint cans taped to the floor to help keep the air hoses out of the masking paper.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Yeah, if the chassis cert is to 8.50, it's going to need the mount. That was DUH moment on my part.

 

[MP&C]

The car is blocked out, ready for the white sealer.

Do these tires make my rear end look big?

Here's the sealer painted. Even though I am using the 3M PPS on the paint gun, it was still a bit tight last time in painting the rocker panels. So we raised the car even higher in the air, and made use of some walk boards to get to all of the roof. Painted the roof first, and then moved the walk boards and finished the car.

I took these last two pictures as teaser shots for Brad (the owner). He had talked about painting the roof white, but this is as close as it gets. The Viper red is just too bright to have a white roof also.

One more dose of wet sanding and it should be ready for red paint.

Just to back up and offer some explaination here, I normally use a white sealer under the Viper red just to give it some more punch. The downside to this is if you were to get any dust nibs in the white that may not get noticed until after the red goes on, when the imperfections get buffed out you have a good chance of little white specs showing up in the bright red paint as the red gets rubbed off the white painted dust nib. This is why I usually do separate processes, wet sanding the white in between painting the red. One thing I noticed while spraying the white sealer was that it is a pain to get inside and paint the dashboard with the roll cage in the way. It was also a pain to get the underside of the rockers sprayed (let's use some jackstands) which made it fun to get to the roof (and now walkboards). Now all of this was fine for a sealer coat that was getting wetsanded anyhow, but I could just see me dragging an air hose across the door sill or opening at the quarter while trying to climb inside to paint the dash. Likewise, using walkboards on final paint, and having to move them between coats, was just an invitation for more debris in the paint. The early Fairlanes were known for having a chrome divider along the bottom of the sail panel, so I thought to use this as my saving grace, a break point to divide the paint job up into separate sprays. (like I need to drag this along further.... ) But in the interest of a better job, that's what we'll do. Here's the masking for painting the roof, dash, and front cowl. The car was placed back on the ground for easier access to the roof. Once the red has set up, we'll mask those areas, revert back to jack stands for access to the lower rockers, and spray again. Fun, fun.


White sealer wet sanded and masked:

Basecoat:

Cleared:

 

[MP&C]

After waiting on my paint supplier a couple weeks (someone used up all his red tint ), here's more progress:


Base:

Cleared:

We'll let it set a few days before starting to wet sand and buff. We've got one rack of parts to spray Hot Rod black still.


Here is the car unmasked.

Nephew Chris has started to reassemble some of the components, and has been touching up some of the black paint on the roll bar and tubs. We had our upholstery guy stop by a couple evenings last week to get the headliner knocked out. That goes in before windows, and I want the windows in before w/s & buffing so I don't sling too much inside.

Tree freshener has lost some of it's kick, but it's still hanging in there......(+20 hp)

 

[MP&C]

Got some of the piece parts painted this morning, as well as the bottom of the hood, using SEM Hot Rod Black. I think there were some questions previously as to the amount of gloss, so hopefully this will help out.

The viewing window in the booth needs cleaning:

Masking removed:

Should dull out just a touch more, but seems a nice black to use for underhood sheetmetal.


We went to put windows in and the rear window had been damaged by some sand blasting, and Brad decided that while we were putting the window in, it may as well be a new one. We found a company that still makes the replacement rear window, and it showed up last week. We got the rear window and windshield in, so now we can start the buffing process on the body without slinging too much stuff inside.

Got the tail light panel and roof buffed out today, will work on some more tomorrow. Then we can start re-installing the stainless trim.

 

[MP&C]

Started putting stainless on. Sure makes a world of difference having polished it up, really looks nice against the red.

Still need to polish the aluminum trim around the rear window and Zoops that as well. Brad's not installing the wipers, so we found some chrome bolts and polished up some stainless washers to fill in the holes.

We ******* some loose ends on the car and got the rear wheels back on. Seemed like a nice day to roll it outside again for more pictures....

For what was considered a mid-size car back in the 60's this thing sure has some long quarter panels!

 

[MP&C]

We got the quarter windows installed, but while assembling all the pieces, noticed that one window was missing a felt "shoe"

The "shoes" are used to keep the rear corner of the window from flopping around so much when the window rolls down. So we used the one remaining as a pattern, a piece of the old window felt was recycled, and some .06 stainless tig wire duplicated the "factory" staple. These were originally held in with sheet metal screws, and as the holes were quite sloppy, rivet nuts were installed so we could use machine screws instead.

Wheel tubs and no back seat quickly retired the old kick panels, so some new ones were cut out of .06 aluminum. Some trim lock finished off the edges.

The rear window trim (aluminum) had been polished up so Chris Zoop sealed and installed that as well.

The tail lights and rear bumper were also installed. Getting closer all the time.

 

[NUTTSGT]

boing . . . . .

 

[MP&C]

The "Fat" 460 really fills up the engine bay....

All the components needed under the hood and no inner fenders to mount to make for challenging work. The radiator core support is filling quick.......

.......and as we wanted to keep the other side open for fuse blocks and electrical relays, we had to look elsewhere for the overflow/vent tanks. Decided to make a bracket to clamp the vacuum pump tank to a section of the moly tubing of the frame. Once it was comleted, it was easy to see a simple modification would kill two birds with one stone.......

And DMV sent the tags the other day.....

Starting on the electrical, everything from the switch panel, which mounts to the top cross bar of the roll bar.....

.................and all the circuits from the switches go thru in line fuses, which will be mounted in the new glove box liner:

The relay mounts above, and as you can see there are a couple extra spots pre-rivnutted in case we missed something. The wiring coming from the switches:

The large red wire hanging in the above picture will feed the switch panel. The fuse panel for the main power inside will be mounted onto the glove box door, and another will be located on the radiator core support for engine components.

 

[MP&C]

Starting to assemble the rest of the car.

Fitting the front fender and stainless. Wax paper inserted under the stainless, one strip from below, one from on top. After all the tweaking is done with the panel fitment, the stainless is aligned one end to the other, remove the wax paper while holding the position, and snug in place. Helps to keep from scuffing up the new finish while fine tuning the stainless placement.

Pretty pleased with the door gaps. We'll see how well they stay that way once he get's racing....

Starting to take shape now!

Still need to fine tune the gaps and tighten down the panels, then align the stainless down the sides.


Aligned the gaps on the front fenders, had to lower the core support slightly to close the door to fender gaps at the bottom. Aligned and tightened the stainless trim on the doors and front fenders, and installed the headlights. The low beams are the only ones hooked up, in case the return lane is dark....

 

[MP&C]

Still polishing the grille, we'll get that in this weekend.


Is this enough clearance?

Got the grille and lower rocker moulding installed today.

edit....here's the color difference with a REAL GOOD camera:

Still left to do..... final detail, wire loom in a couple places, and help load it up...

Battery is still up, time to go racing. We got him loaded up, and by 4 this afternoon he was headed for the test & tune at MIR in Budd's Creek.