And so it begins...the AP build.

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I almost drilled holes in the front clam supports for the new hinge bolts, but got to thinking. The new front structure isn’t only tack welded and I’m wondering if it will pull a little here and there as it gets finish welded. If it moves a little, I may have messed up if I already had holes in the clam corners and they were then in the wrong spot. So odd can the clam and out came the welder….then I ran out of mig wire.
I have always scratched my head about the spider corners where they meet the door corner and clam. The car was shipped with an aluminum spacer in the corner of the spider. Most other cars I look at, their spider is much thicker in the corners. Thoughts? I’m thinking I have to split the lip of the lower spider and widen it. Without the spacers, the spider cornered are way too low!
 
View attachment 144815View attachment 144816View attachment 144817I almost drilled holes in the front clam supports for the new hinge bolts, but got to thinking. The new front structure isn’t only tack welded and I’m wondering if it will pull a little here and there as it gets finish welded. If it moves a little, I may have messed up if I already had holes in the clam corners and they were then in the wrong spot. So odd can the clam and out came the welder….then I ran out of mig wire.
I have always scratched my head about the spider corners where they meet the door corner and clam. The car was shipped with an aluminum spacer in the corner of the spider. Most other cars I look at, their spider is much thicker in the corners. Thoughts? I’m thinking I have to split the lip of the lower spider and widen it. Without the spacers, the spider cornered are way too low!
Joe…this was/is what I find the most challenging part of my build. I don’t envy you but definitely know your pain. I finally had to “throw some jello at the wall” and commit to making some educated guesses at what was “correct” based on measurements found on the forum searches and asking a few questions from a select few builders. I know your body pieces definitely aren’t quite the same as mine but found most helpful was to screw my body pieces together with metal straps and see where things match up (or don’t) regardless of the front chassis support structure. Once that was done, I could make a plan/decision on where things would end up and what cuts & changes may need to be made to certain pieces or chassis support structure. Also, make sure you are fitting the windshield into the spider periodically while doing this to make sure the fiberglass isn’t being warped into a bad position.

Hope this helps and gets you over the hump with where to go from here with the build.

Devin
 
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Well, I’ve done 2 frame-off restorations, but this thing is a whole other animal. Like a steel car, I’m working my way forward and up. The rear clam is set and the rockers are in place. I think the front clam positioning will be ok once the rad support structure welding is finished and the clam is hinged. The doors can be trimmed or built up where needed.
The spider was shipped with no inner panels, I suspect because of my cage. I request Chris send them so I could see if I could make them work after some mods. The spider is fairly flimsy without an inner roof panel or inner A-pillar panels.
Deer season is done, so I put my blind heater to use heating up the warped clam. It’s much closer now after the 1st heating session. I moved the heater around to get the heat even and used a heat gun on top.
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Randy V

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Joe - I didn’t go back through the whole thread, but I would get the windshield back into that spider for fitting everything up…. Earlier pics looked like it all fit together pretty good - so curious what happened!
 
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Once I get the front clam rehinged and the doors back on, I’ll put the windshield back in and get it roughed in. Then I can see how much height my spider split in the corners has to add to get the height I need to meet the door and clam corners. Then I can see where the roof ends up before I can figure out how to stiffen the roof and A-pillars.
I’m confident windshield will eventually fit again, but I’m not going to build the car using spacer blocks in the lower corners of the spider to get the door-spider-clam fitment to meet up properly.
….as delivered.
 
Place my order for a 440 horse 8-stack 347 yesterday with Prestige. It looks like 12-13 weeks until delivery. I told them I have a few million other things on my punch list before I need the motor!
I'm also going to put in an order to GP Headers and Kennedy Engineering so I will be ready to put the drive train in and begin mock up when the motor arrives.
I got most of the welding done for the front structure...it was a lot! I'm hoping it is rigid enough to be able to jack the front of the car up if I install some quick jack plates like the race cars had.
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Front floor mock up in 1/8” MDF. I’d rather sacrifice it than a sheet of 1/8” aluminum. It still makes me scratch my head why these cars are shipped with the whole front end, rad, etc being held up by 2 pieces of aluminum bolted to the front tub!
 
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More welding. I’m going to box out these areas to keep road/track debris from collecting on top of the belly pan.
When it’s all said and “done”, I’ll be tearing it down to refinish the chassis in semigloss black.
 
View attachment 144985View attachment 144986View attachment 144987View attachment 144988More welding. I’m going to box out these areas to keep road/track debris from collecting on top of the belly pan.
When it’s all said and “done”, I’ll be tearing it down to refinish the chassis in semigloss black.
Joe, I’m working this same part of my build. Just another thought…I’m making that particular section (under the suspension) removable in order to clean that area and service any of the control arms or other wires/hoses/tubes I may end up running through that area. I may end up going your route and riveting some paneling in there also but figure I may try it without and see how it plays out for a while.
 
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When you find out your floor is warped right where the pedal box will probably be mounted…time to cut and reweld the new closeout panel. I’m planning on seam sealing the new panels, along with some of the other seams, instead fully welding them. Also remodeled the front corners of the frunk to better accept the pins that will be used. The original corners were too narrow to allow the pin cup to sit flush.
 
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The second side always goes better! I put a fillet of thickened epoxy in the corners and coated the rest of the mold, then applied glass fibers and 1708. The finish after the mold was popped off was much better. The corners needed to be widened to fit the quick release pins and cups. I initially thought I could grind down the cups to fit, but they didn’t look right.
 
Grinder to get cuts started, then used a jigsaw. I clamped the 1/8” board template to the aluminum to act as a guide. I drilled the inside corners to prevent any cracking from sharp corners.
 
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With the tops of the rockers not level, this was going to affect how the locator pins functioned at the lower corners of the front clam. Fabbed up a dam to give me something to guide my spreader. The thickened epoxy worked well. I filled the bolt holes with compacted styrofoam so I know where to redrill on the underside.
I’ve been using it instead of polyester resin because it is more tolerant of the 55-60 degree temps in my garage. I’m saving the larger fiberglass jobs for warmer weather.
 
Chopped a section out of the hollow Corvette sway bar (out of the passenger side per Chris’s advice) that would position the end links nearly vertical when the bar was welded back together. I put a pretty wide bevel on each end of the bar prior to welding to give the welded section plenty of strength.
It currently has OEM end links on it. I don’t plan on mounting the bushings until the motor and trans are in. I’m also planning on getting a pair of adjustable end links like the front to allow the bar to be leveled out.
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