First of the Texas Twins, First Build Options

[Puebloswatcop]

But as usual, one little thing leads to another little thing...and since I was working on locks, I remembered I had a broken door handle to fix. It would appear the PO had broken off the mounting tab, so rather than replacing the base, he improvised a mounting tab...

[Puebloswatcop]

A few years ago I won a replacement base from Auto Atlanta, so decided now was the time to fix the handle.

[Puebloswatcop]

So it was a fairly easy fix and the price was right...free.... the hardest part was getting the spring that operated the flapper handle put back in....lol. Certainly not a perfect handle, but will work as a spare if needed.

[Puebloswatcop]

Shoulder feels alot better so back to some body work. Started by filling the weld line on the front fender. starting to get the right blend for the flares.

[Puebloswatcop]

One initial fill and then sanded out...starting to blend.

[Puebloswatcop]

Same for the rear fender. First sand with 60 grit, then clean with surface prep...

[Puebloswatcop]

The first fill on the rear fender. Mainly filling the weld line.

[Puebloswatcop]

Over the top of the arch there are 3 transitions in shape, a convex curve to a concave curve and where the rear portion of the roof support comes in. This area will take an extra lot of work and care to get the lines correct

[Puebloswatcop]

The rear portion of the flare after 1st coat of filler.

[Puebloswatcop]

Then back to repeat the whole process again. Extending the fill out each time to get the right contour.

[Puebloswatcop]

Second coat of filler all sanded out, the hotter it gets the faster this filler is hardening, leaving my working time to spread and shape much shorter. I think this will be the last coat for today.

[9146C]

Looks great Kevin! Keep up the good work!

[Puebloswatcop]

Looks great Kevin! Keep up the good work!

Thanks Rob, I just keep chippin away at it, but this heat is killin me.....lol

[Puebloswatcop]

Okay, so I wasn't going to work on the car since I have to pick my wife up at the airport later today, but 76-914 got me to feeling guilty for not doing anything to on the longest day of the year.....So I decided that something needed to be done.

I decided to fix the PO's butchering of the doors when they did the 1980's speaker in the door install. I had already started the repair, however tody was the perfect opportunity to finish the job.

[Puebloswatcop]

Since the repair was kind of a curved shape I decided to do the flat work first and then add in the lip that strengthens the structure. The piece was so small some might wonder...why bother?...because the cutout bothers me....OCD I guess.

[Puebloswatcop]

After welding in the lat work, then came the lip. Once it was welded in there was no more flex in that area of the door, I feel much better.....

[Puebloswatcop]

After grinding it all down, of course the next thing that bothered me was all the extra carricular holes the PO had left behind, there was a total of 11 extra, that I did not see on the factory picture. Of course some were easy to tell they didn't belong, but htere were a couple that I questioned, so I welded closed the obvious ones.

[Puebloswatcop]

Here is a picture after I finished for the day. You can see the two holes I didn't weld shut. They just seemed more purposely placed and better drilled. I will research it more and if I find they don't belong I will go back and they too will be welded closed. Now I feel better about finishing that door and I no longer feel guilty about not working on my 914 on the logest day of the year....lol

[autopro]

Good work, the fenders are looking great!

[Root_Werks]

Nicely done on the flares!

Like the detail metal work on the doors. Mine was a little cut up for speakers as well. I didn't fix mine, door panel was the fix, cover it up. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)