#17 Trimming & Installing the Panels

Before painting the complete car there are areas that need to be trimmed in because they are inaccessible once assembled.  In these views below you can see that I have painted the bottom side of the trunk lid and hood.  Also the fenders along the edges have been painted.

The edges of the fenders where the hood closes are painted, along with the rear edge where the door would make it difficult to spray paint.  I also trimmed in the edges along the wheel openings.












Below is a close up view of the bottom side of the trunk lid.  Every one of those curved areas had to be sanded thoroughly with a ScotchBrite pad to rough up the old paint. 

Here is the bottom of the hood.






















In this view below you can see where the lower half of the hood hinge has been buffed down with a wire wheel on an electric drill.  Once all of the old paint and crud are removed down to bare metal it gets a light coat of phosphoric acid and then painted.  Getting the old paint out of all those nooks and crannies takes a lot of attention to detail and time.

Here the hinges have been installed, along with the hood.  I had been planning to spray clear on the upper part of the cowl at the same time as the rest of the car.  But when I started to put the hood on I realized it would be difficult to get paint in that area with the hood on.  So here you see it masked off with newspaper from where it had just been sprayed.

The trunk lid was also installed.  Great care has to be given to getting all the panels lined up correctly and the gaps between them straight and even.
















 The edge where the left quarter panel meets the trunk lid did not line up correctly.  The fix involved jacking up the edge of the quarter panel where it meets the trunk.  A sledge hammer and a couple of 2X4s were involved before it decided to cooperate and line up nicely.  The result was minor damage to the top of the left quarter panel.  So here I have ground the primer off after using a hammer and dolly to remove most of the imperfections.  A thin coat of filler will be spread on and sanded smooth.