Horse Sense -  66 Coupe to Fastback Conversion

Horse Sense - 66 Coupe to Fastback Conversion

It's been a while since my last update ,the weather is finally clearing up .
I bought the hood pin kit from Stang-Aholics ,it's a Scott Drake kit in stainless steel and it is nice . The pins bolt into the hood bumper bracket ,you need to drill them out to 1/2 inch first .The hood bumper then moves to the first fender mounting bolt hole .I just screwed the cable for the pin clips right beside the hood bumper mount.
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I used my hole saw kit and drilled a 3/4 inch hole top and bottom of the hood for the pins . the top plate is only slightly larger than the pin so it covers the hole in the hood ,it makes it easier to align the pin this way .
After it is painted i will pop rivet the plates on ,for now i used the stainless sheet metal screws that came with the pin kit. ALWAYS drill a pilot hole before you run a screw into fiberglass ,if it breaks off it will not be easy to remove and it will keep the fiberglass from chipping around the screw.
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The pins fit great and look good .
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I epoxy primed the quarter vent covers, front and back, with two coats .A block sanding and they would be ready for paint .The fenders and hood will be next .
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one thing i forgot to consider while making my covers was when shaping my covers on the English wheel ,the metal shrinks in size as the curvature is formed . i got lucky ,all the rivets worked ,just barely . they look a lot nicer formed to match the curvature of the quarter,rather than being a flat panel just riveted in place. i used a few aluminum rivets to hold them in place as i drilled the rive holes so they would not move around, they will drill out easily. the next problem will be when painting .if i paint the panels riveted on the car ,i am afraid the paint and clear will build up around the rivets, and with the rivets being there it will be hard to buff without buffing through the rivets. i would like to paint the covers off the car ,they would be easier to buff .but that would mean the rivets would be shinny and not painted and i am not sure how that would look. but it looks like this is the way i will go. i can use stainless rivets ,take them apart ,polish them and put them back together then pop them in.
i have one of the inner panels in place ,i like the smooth look here .
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i was going to use Shelby quarter windows but pricing changed my mind.
i decided to go with block off panels instead. i decided to make my own ,the last ones i bought were not all that great. i made them from 18 gauge
mostly because that is what i have here. i started off by making a card board cutout that i traced from the vent opening. i transferred it to my 18 gauge ,then i added 3/16 to my pattern so i had something to pop rivet to.
i cut my pieces out on my foot shear. the new panels are flat so i took them to my English wheel to match the contour of the quarter .it took a little while but they shaped out perfectly. next step will be drilling the pop rivet holes in the panels and the quarters and then primer the panels. i already have the block off fiberglass inner panels ,i made these for another project that i used the windows instead.
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i cleaned up the old suspension and bolted it back in so i could roll it out of my paint booth. :spot:
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