Apparently some of the repro panels Dave is using had some issues that needed to be addressed such as body lines not matching up or consistent throuhgout the panel. He ended up decided to use the top and bottom body lines for linear consistency and let the center body line meander throughout the length of the vehicle. The worst panel was about 3/16" apart in lining up but blocking the car after applying the spray poly really helped to manipulate and straighten the line. Dave said there will be a black side molding that runs down the center line so that will allow these slight discrepancies to be completely eliminated and unseen.
The hood of the car was NOT made by AMD. They did not have a flat Hood so they had to go with a different brand. In keeping with the period corrrectness of the car, the hood had "crumple zones" so they welded metal strips to bridge the recessed areas and then appied a thin layer of body filler (over the welds) to make the repair invisible. The heat from welding those areas bowed the side profile of the hood almost a half inch! From what he typed over on another thread, it took a couple of hours to fix the warped incorrect curvature. He had to use a 1968 Hemi RT Coronet to remove the bowing from the center of the hood. Lowering the car from a lift onto the top of the hood apparently did the trick! (Pictured below) He said it took some nerve racking trial & error but it ended up working out perfectly. Personally, I would have been way too paranoid to be doing something like this! Especially with a hemi car. Maybe they needed the extra weight of the elephant in there!
Dave says every gap throughout the entire vehicle is now consistent and within factory spec. He said he will have pictures of the vehicle showing its complete gray color sometime next week. I can't wait to see it in all one color!
crumple zones smoothed over
very rare "Hemi press"
hood all flattened out and lined up with fender lines
door gaps
