All the Panels Still Fit

 Well, I'm pretty excited!  Today my neighbor helped me go get the new hood out of storage and trial fit it to the car.  It was perfect!  When you put the hood on you find out if all the panels are square and not paralellagramed.  All was perfect.  It fit so well I took it right back off and set it aside as I don't need to do any work on it so next step for it will be prime and paint.

I can't tell you have nervous I was about this because of all the work that was done on the firewall.  The passenger fender is also mocked up along with the header panel going across the front.  The passenger fender is also new and with new parts they rarely fit well, that's why you try to salvage as much of the original metal that you can.  I had to do a lot of work on the front attachments for the fender where it meets the header panel and where if meets the radiator support.  This panel is also new.  But I got all the adjustments made and we are ready to sand and prime them.   The are all black like the primer but I am still going to sand and epoxy them anyway.  The epoxy will make them last way longer that the crappy primer they come with which is only on there so they don't rust while they are on the shelf waiting to be sold.

I still do need to get the truck lid on but I know it will fit OK once I get the hinges right.  That's a job for tomorrow.

I can't do any priming though because its too cool.  It only high 50's to mid 60's for the next couple weeks and I primed the trunk and doors is similar weather and they came out horibly so I won't do that again.  Even my neighbor Chuck told me they sucked and he's usually too supportive to say something like that to me.  Doesn't matter though because they have to be sanded anyway.

I am going to have to jump around a bit on my schedule because of the weather but I think it will all come out in the end ok.

I have decided not to put the high-build primer on the new panels because the purpose of that is to smooth any any small dents of imperfections in the metal.  The new panels are perfectly smooth already and don't need it so that will save a little time.