Making the bumpers removable

I finally had to tackle the job of cutting the bumper off the front of the car and reattaching it. I had temporarily molded it to the car so that I could smooth out the fenders as one piece...I just didn't want to screw up all my finish work by cutting everything up. It actually went better than what I was expecting, the cut lines came out straight (I used a cut off wheel on my angle grinder) and the bumper came off as one nice piece. Below you can see I'm using a laser level to mark my cut line---



And here's the bumper completely off. I'm going to fab up an attachment system so that the bumper flare and the fender flare will join together to add some rigidity.


The next issue I ran into was the rear bumper. There isn't any reason to make the rear bumper removable since it's only cosmetic and covers up sheet metal behind it. However, I noticed that the rear bumper was distorted and misaligned. I either didn't notice before I made the fenders, or making the fenders misaligned the bumper. Either way, I had to fix the angle and gap of the bumper. The only solution was to relief cut the rear fender and slide the bumper cover forward about 1/4" and up an 1/8". I used a floor jack to hold it in place while I fiberglassed on a patch. As soon as the patch dries, I'll laminate some Kevlar onto the backside of the cut. Hopefully the repaired section will end up being stronger than before the cut.

More body work, more primer

Well, I am a little behind schedule because I decided to take my time and block out the fenders by hand to get them smooth. It's time consuming but I'm getting good results so far. I purchased my paint, OEM Alpine White. I'm planning on getting some color on the car by the end of the week. After paint, I think things will progress quickly (and it'll be back on the road).

Primer is on!!

Utilizing my state-of-the-art cross-draft spray booth (aka leaving the big garage door open and the side door cracked to suck out the air) I laid down some primer today. I used a polyester based primer for its high-build and high-flex properties. It also clings to bare metal really easily, and since it's a 2 part cure, it won't attract water like traditional primer. I was really surprised at what little overspray I had, even though I used an old pressure pot style paint gun. Painting on a 10mph windy day with the doors open was just enough to keep the garage overspray free, with no contaminants in the paint. If sanding the primer goes well this week, I should be able to lay down the color coat this weekend.