I decided to use my NOS metal fenders as plugs from which to pull the fiberglass copies. It would have been simple enough to create a couple of outer skins to fasten onto the chassis but I wanted these fenders to be complete copies, they would have to mount and fit in exactly the same manner as the originals. The curves, angles and adjacent mounting surfaces meant I could not do this in one simple pull. In fact, I had to make the copy in five separate sections. The lower valance was no easy chore either and I had to duplicate it in two pieces.

This sequence of images shows the fabrication process with the separate fiberglass pieces in place.

Naturally, I just had to have a hand in complicating things even further. I had already made up my mind that this car was going to be black, which is just about the worst color choice if your body panels aren’t perfect. Where white hides it, if you’ve got bad body prep, black will just flaunt it like a trashy whore. After eliminating the rusty spots, I worked on eliminating minor dings, dips and imperfections in the body starting at the front fenders. Much of that was handled by using a small amount of filler and careful application of acrylic catalyzed primer. As I knew that fiberglass is notoriously conducive to waves I spent hours upon hours working them until they were seamless, straight and true. In order to accomplish this I applied 2 coats of waterproof epoxy primer, followed by 3 coats of acrylic primer. After a couple of days curing I attacked the body with a 16” hand block sander (not a machine sander) with 100 grit sandpaper. I sanded it down just until the metal of the filler was exposed. This whole process was repeated 3 more times using successively finer sandpaper going to 120, 220 and finally 320 grit. In total this step consumed five gallons of primer from which four were sanded away.

This next sequence shows the finished attached fiberglass valance, the straightened, sanded body and the paint as applied to the interior and the engine bay.

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