Tonight started with a better fit up of the tail panel and the goofy quarter panel extensions. To get this all to fit right, these trunk gutter pieces need to be at least clamped in place. I also had to do even more trimming to the tail panel to get it right. Luckily, I have a finished 70RR sitting right beside this project to measure off of. I cannot imagine trying to get it all right and not knowing if you're as much as 1/2" off. All of these sheet metal pieces can move around alot and still "look right".
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I also had to add a clamp here to pull the quarter panel in to fit the profile of the extension.
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Next I fit up the extension. I wouldn't describe the fit on either side as "perfect", but when comparing them to my other car, they look just as good if not a little better.
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It took a half dozen times of removing and reinstalling these to get to this point. Wore me out mentally!
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The right side of the panel looked a little low when viewing the tail light socket area as you can see below.
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This close up shows it a little better. I put the box behind it for clarity.
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I had to remove the extension yet again and raise the panel up a bit to get that to look more even. The left side looked real good.
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Here, you can see if fits a bit better leading me to believe some of that is in the adjustment but a part of it might be just how the panel is made.
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You can never clamp everything, but the more you clamp, the better you can make the 'fit up' of the panels which leads to a better finished product. These long clamps do well at clamping the angled corners.
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Once I had all this clamped together and had the trunk opening clamped to the proper width, I started welding in the rear panel along the trunk floor seam.
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Now it's starting to look like a car. If you can believe it, I didn't even have any beers while fitting this up!! And it still looks good!! LOL
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I finished welding out the seam to the trunk floor and decided to call it done for the night. This weekend I'll put some tack welds on the quarter panel to tail panel joints from in the trunk, then unbolt the extensions and weld up all the plug welds. Now I need to ice my index finger.
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More inspiration and yes, I know this and 'Joe's' car are Daytonas:tongue:
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Here's the next piece of the puzzle that I need to order.....