[Chuck]

Body Panels

Sunday, May 11, 2008. The body panels are finally all in place and aligned to our satisfaction.

In early March we set the body panels and doors, and then contemplated our next move. There were clearly some body panel alignment issues that needed to be addressed. Before we made any bad cuts, Tom (EGLITOM) from Germany happened to pay us a visit. Tom gives new meaning to the phrase ‘German precision.’ We spent several hours studying and analyzing the situation. With his thoughtful guidance, we realized by careful alignment and manipulation of the body panels one could realistically expect linear gaps around 3/16”. (Tom is striving for 1/8” gaps).

I am keeping a detailed log of hours spent on this build project, with the date, time and description of what was done. Looking back over the last eight weeks revealed that around 40 hours time had been spent setting the body panels in place and getting them properly aligned. This job requires patience, studying, and lots of experimentation to get a good fit. (At least for someone with no prior experience in such endeavors).

The fit one can obtain is quite impressive. The only area that was significantly sanded was the leading edge of the rear clip. None of the other panels have yet been sanded. Yet with the weather stripping in place we have fairly uniform gaps typically 3/16” wide. There are only a few surfaces which do not mate as well as they could, and those will be easily evened out with a bit of fiberglass.

I have drafted some detailed descriptions of how we fitted the various panels, but I won’t post them unless someone is interested.

The door panels have not yet been trimmed or sanded at all. The door gaps you see in the pictures are exactly as supplied by RCR.