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Just a quick note, I also had Five Points rebuild my front shocks and they are great to work with i talked to Matt several times and was very professsional at all times. I didn't get the same feeling when i talked with the other vendor. In my opinion we all made a great choice.

Fred D

Nice work bumping that fender. Did you have to shrink it after getting the large dent out?

The great thing about metal working fenders is that you usually have complete access to the backside of the dent. I pulled a good size dent out of my front drivers side fender with a hammer and dolly, a bullseye pick, and a slapping file. It only needs a thinnest skim coat of filler to finish it off. The metal on these cars is great to work with as it's a lot easier to work then modern high-carbon body panels.

The rear door and quarter panel required me to use a torch and a uni-spotter to get the dents out due to limited access to the rear of the panel.

A slap file, hammer, and dolly are the tools we used (hammer-on-dolly and hammer-off-dolly). The slap file tends to shrink the metal while you're "slapping" with a dolly behind. The file digs into the metal and leaves a very, very rough finish, almost feeling like you've sprinkled sand across the surface.

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It is easily possible to finish an open panel such as this without any plastic fill. It all depends on the amount of time you want to spend carefully "picking" all the remaining little depressions once you've pulled the dent out and shrunk it properly. In this photo that I showed previously, the circled areas are the areas where there are depressions that need to be addressed individually, using the pointed end of the body hammer, and a file. The area marked "tear" needs to be welded first, before any more work can be done in that area.

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As mentioned, one thing leads to another...
The backs of each front fender where they bolt to the front of the running board, were rusted, and there was no longer any connection.

So... while we were at it, we repaired the rusted flanges. Well, how much more work would it be to take out a couple of small dings in the hood and just go ahead and paint the whole front end?

Oh, and the paint on the cowl vent was peeling away, so we better paint that at the same time, and of course, all that's left is the grille surround.

I forgot about the headlights and parking lights. Since they need to come off the car in order to paint everything properly, and since they're such a pain to take off and put on, paint those too!!!

STOP!!!! The side mount covers will be done some other time, maybe when I get the rear fenders painted.

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Finally some progress. I was able to install the headlights, parking lights, bumper and one running board this past weekend.

When I first obtained this car, the running boards were not attached to the rear fenders. The holes in the fenders were about 1/2-inch further down than the running board holes. I thought at first that the running-board bracket had been bent, but it showed no sign of having been damaged. Also, both sides were exactly the same. The fender does not adjust by rotating.

Question: 39Packman has suggested that since the running boards are attached to the frame and the fender is attached to the body, the body has settled. Before I go through with adding some shims in the body mounts, is there any other idea out there as to the cause of this?

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Help. When I took the headlight stainless steel (stamped) trim off, I don't remember there being this much "spring" in it. Has anyone had any experience with these? The trim is not cast like in earlier models. I need help in how to attach it without kinking it.
Thanks.

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West,
I don't think the trim piece shoud be that flat. Is it possible it was accidentally flattened? If it was, the intended means of retaining it on the bucket may no longer be strong eoungh to hold. I recall learning of the senstivity of this design relative to the cast pieces of other models. THe sequence of assmbly may be to insert the clips into the trim, then the assembly onto the bucket.

Do they both look this flat? SOunds like we need to get together (that's the good thing about living so close).

I think I hear an excuse to fire up the 39!

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Here all this time I have had access to correct carpet for the rear of the Super 8 and never realized! We have a carpet production department! I am glad to know this, but am not sure how the folks at the meets would like the rear carpet jumping out and grazing at their car show. LOL

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