Hood Latches, More Body Work and Scuffing

The hood release mechanism has been installed and it works great.  This is a very tight fitting hood.  It's hard to believe the 63 hoods vibrated bad enough that the Chevrolet engineers added hood blocks half way thru the model year.  Ours is an early 63 so it doesn't have hood blocks.

Take notice of the cable that connects both hood releases.  Turns out it has to be fastened in three spots behind the distributor, upside down.

During the fire wall repairs a couple years ago we didn't know those holes were needed so, if they were there, we glassed over them.  The holes have to be drilled in the overhead position and that means all the work must to be done using an inspection mirror.

It took a couple hours but I got it done.  Instead of just screwing the bolts into the fiberglass I used 3 Rivet Nuts.  If you didn't see the Rivet Nut Fastener you can check out this cool tool here:  http://1963splitwindow.blogspot.com/2011/07/rivet-nuts.html

So now that the hood is locked into position I can check the fit on the front of the hood.  You'll recall we originally fit the car with the 1967 hood but we later decided to use the 63 hood.  There is a low spot just behind the emblem area on the left side.  This needs to be fixed.    

A little Bondo is all that was needed.  I like to bridge the gap... 

then trim it with an Exacto knife while its still setting.

It turned out nice.  I have primer and primer sealer on order.  Once received I'll give this area a fresh coat of each.

So while I wait for paint it's time to start prepping the car for masking.  All the areas that will be painted must be scuffed until dull.  This includes the jambs that we previously painted.  Here I am using a red Scotch Brite pad on the upper drip rail area.  We will mask just below the scuffed area.

Same goes here.  When we paint the car we want the paint to wrap about a 1/4" into the jambs.  I'll buff out any remaining scuff marks later.  Remember, I am only scuffing the clear coat, not the blue.  

Both fresh air intakes were scuffed along with the hood and hood jambs.

The rear valance area needs it too.   I'll start masking when the scuffing is done.

Truth is I already started masking (check out the first picture).  It's going well but there is a lot of it.  I'll cover that in the next post.

Thanks for watching.