Project WidowMaker - The Chevelle Build Thread

[The WidowMaker]

Ask the seat belt manufacturer the origin of the yarn. I worked 7 years for a manufacturer here in the states but the yarn came from Korea mostly because it was so much cheaper.

thanks for the tip. i'll ask when i call again next week.

[The WidowMaker]

i finally finished the drivers side. i will start working the passenger door tomorrow. heres a before and after of the door to fender gap. theres one area in the middle that looks tight in the pics, but it measures and looks perfect off camera. go figure.

[craigs73]

tim your attention to details is gonna make this car top notch what you do to the lines to make them perfect? add round bar?

[The WidowMaker]

what you do to the lines to make them perfect? add round bar?

its a combo of a file, weld bead, and occasionally some round bar. ive only really used round bar when its really wide.

[The WidowMaker]

heres the starting point on the passenger door gap and a crappy pic of the door handles. i'll see if i can get a better one.

[The WidowMaker]

passenger side door is done. the bottom looks fine in person, but showing up tight in the image.

i started working on the fender to door gap and should be done by early next week.

before


after

[The WidowMaker]

its been a little while since an update. i had a few questions on how ive been gapping, so i plan on posting that up tomorrow night. here are a couple pics of the almost finished passenger fender. i just need to finish the very top where it is flat. i will do that on thursday, mount the hood and start on the fender extensions.

[The WidowMaker]

i still havent researched the headlights yet, and i probably wont touch the chevelle much in the next couple weeks. life is getting in the way of my hobby again. oh well.

here is a brief "how to" on gapping. it probably isnt perfect, and the experts can feel free to chime in. i must have 200 hours into the doors, fenders and hood so far. i learned that every little change changes something else. and when youre trying to work with .005, you dont need much.

before you start, you will need to make sure that the front end is square since any movement of the front of the fender will either open or close the gap. you also need to make sure that you have the door edges pulled out where you want them and also the contour already needs to match.

this is how it all started. i got the other side done after squaring the front end based on the hood. the other fender was tight to the door in some areas <150, but this one was about .190 at its closest. it was actually over .300 at the bottom.


this shows how i add to the door. i took some copper tubing, slit it down the middle and beat it flat. i rough contour it to the back of the door and attach it with the vice grips. the vice grips suck it in the rest of the way and leave no gap. this helps greatly in the cleanup of the weld on the back. also, if you look at the top fender bolt you'll see two little pieces of sheetmetal welded to the cowl. the fender mount rests up against these to position the fender quickly. its simple to grind the back of the door since you can open it, not so much with the fenders. youll also see my impact wrech laying there. i just picked it up prior to the sheetmetal project and it has saved me hours. i cant imagine having to use a socket wrench like i used to. 65 bucks brand new on ebay since it didnt have a battery or a case.



this is how it looks when im done with all the tacks. i would do a series of 5 tacks in a row and then skip to another area. since i had two pieces of copper going, i would do one set up top and then move to the other piece. i usually had two areas per piece of copper (between vice grips) and would do all 4 areas and then let it cool really good. if it was warm when resting my hand on an area before starting it would get cooled before starting. no reason to push too fast and make more work for myself.



this is what it looks like when all the the tacks are knocked down. i use three tools that work really well for me; an 80 grit flap disc, fiber wheel and a sander conversion with 50 grit. all of this goes on my variable speed grinder which is key. im not sure any of this would work at 15000 rpm. i would knock down the gap with the 50 grit until all the peaks and valleys were gone and i would use the flap disc and fiber wheel to knock down the outside. i used to use just grinding wheels until i found the flap disc. then i used the flap wheels until i found the fiber discs. i dont think im going to find anything else that amazes me like this combo. the flap discs do a good job of quickly knocking down the high spots and they dont gouge like a grinding wheel. then when its close, the fiber disc finishes it off and leave a nice hatch pattern.



another picture after the first knock down. you can see its no where near perfect, but the major stuff is flat. this is also the time to check how flat the end of the panel is. i had most areas pull in slightly with the heat, so a hammer and dolly knocks the whole edge back out in less than 10 minutes.



now comes the time consuming part. my ideal spec was .175. my acceptable spec was +/- .005 as long as that wasnt right next to each other. my eyes can easily pick up .010, but not when they are 2 feet apart and the countour of the panel is in play. so i start by using the 50 grit paper on the grinder to get everything to .150. there are some high spots that need more love. then it all goes to .160 the same way. i used two points just to keep from going too far. for the .150 youre working small areas. once at .150 youre most likely running the entire edge to get to .160. youll see some .175 markings, but that was before i found a metal shaving in between my stop at the fender bolt. i used a reference point every time after to make sure the stop was working.




and done. it looks much better in person. the camera has a way of ruining the depth of the panel and making it look tight down at the bottom where it curves back in.

it will also now get coated with gibbs to keep the rust off until it gets painted. before final paint the whole gap will get a coat of filler. its REALLY close, but blocking will make it perfect.

also, the rocker isnt as tight to the door as it looks. its ~.160 but this pic makes it look more like .100.



another profile pic. i wish i would have taken more in the beginning. i cant believe how far its come. i hope somebody knows of a better way to fix the profile than all the work i did to the back. but its the only way i knew how.

[The WidowMaker]

so...... you know that feeling you get when youre about to make a huge mistake and then you catch yourself. well, i didnt feel it, but i wish i did......

i just got the driveshaft back from dennys after a $115 round trip. i had to have it shortened since the magnum is longer than the tko. dennys is nice enough to supply you with a sheet to make measuring super easy, and it was. and my measurements were spot on. problem was i painted the rear when i did the frame and i sent my yoke off to have it coated. when i got it back i put it on the splines and slid it until it stopped. "stopped" is the key word which should have been replaced by seated. but it didnt get seated until today when i jacked the rear of the car up to put the driveshaft in and noticed that the yoke looked a little funny sticking out like it was. when i measured for the first time for the diagram i had jacked up the front of the car and couldnt actually get my head into a spot to notice.

so..... dennys wants 3/4" slip at ride height and i have 1 1/8" now. i dont think its going to be a huge deal. in fact, i dont think its going to be any deal. it just that little things like this piss me off. my only concern would be less support and extra vibration which is something i really dont want. im going to call tomorrow but i dont expect him to tell me to send it back.

[The WidowMaker]

well i called dennys and they said there would be no issues. they nomally shoot for ~1", so my 1 1/8" isnt too much. he said that if it were 1 5/8" he would worry a little. i never really asked what the issue would be if it were a little shorter. im not sure if it would be a vibration that would ruin the bearings on the output shaft, or if the reduced spline engagement would result in a failure from twisting.

i also started on the fender extensions today. although the first pic is the opposite side, both were about the same. even though it appears the hood could have been shifted back to get a good gap, the angle at the front of the fenders were wrong leading to a crooked gap if the hood was back and the extension was flush on the fender. i welded up the gap along the top and down the side and filed it down to fit. i still need to work the area towards the center of the hood since its about .030 too tight. so far i have about 4 hours in this since it took a lot of twisting and hammering to get it to fit pretty good before working the gap.

heres the first pic. in order to get .175 across the entire gap, it had to be pulled out. i had thought about spliting the extension and tweaking only the hood side out, but decided this would be cleaner.



heres the second pic. it snugs up a little more, but im holding it in place with one hand and snapping the pic with the other.




and heres the other project ive been working on. so far i have about 4 hours in this as well. way too much time for how little work it appears, but getting it all set up and repositioning takes a lot of time. plus i can only take about .050 in depth and side bite at a time. it will get recessed in the trans tunnel and it will be held in place with some screws that i havent drilled for yet. its obviously not necessary, but i like playing with the mill. each project shows me how much money i need to invest in good tooling.

[The WidowMaker]

the sheetmetal work is done for now. i finally finished up the front fender extensions and the bottom of both doors. ive now started on the bumper. in the next month i hope to get the bumper narrowed, tucked, shaved and the plate area filled in. i also tossed the idea of a turn signal incoporated in the headlight and will instead find a thin light that can be mounted in the stock bumper area. the plan is still to open up the stock hole a little more and put the light behind a honeycomb cover. the rest of the hole thats not taken up by the light can serve as some sort of air inlet later if i choose.

the other plan is to get started on the grille. i had thought about a billet style slat grille, but it really doesnt flow. so my thoughts are a stock shaped grille, but 4 sections of honeycomb instead of the stock slats. plans are a bunch of 3/4" square aluminum stock that will get cut and welded with the honeycomb inset. my only other thought is to remove the horizontal divider, but i'll have to see how it all goes.

[bhcustomdesigns]

You are doing a great job on your panel gaps,thats the little details that seperate a good job from a great job

[WS6]

Wow Tim. You're really going all out with the panel gaps. The car looks fantastic.

[The WidowMaker]

thanks guys!!!

ive placed a few orders in the last week. the first was for glass from auto city. contrary to popular belief, money is tight and needs to be spread out as much as possible. i have a closet full of parts for this reason. so i picked up all the glass this month. price was 750 shipped to my door. i ended up getting all smoked glass other than the front window. i requested the front without the strip up top as well. ive never like it or seemed to notice any difference with it.

i also started picking up the pieces for the front end. the first pieces were some led lights for the turn signals. i bought 2 15 bulb strips, but may order 2 more depending on how bright these are. i also ordered a sheet of aluminum hexagon mesh tonight from grainger and im going to pick up the 3/4 bar tomorrow. im slightly worried that the 20ga aluminum mesh is going to be too fragile, but i'll have to see when it gets here. the only other material i could find was stainless and the smallest sheet i could find was over 200 bucks.

the bumper is also about as far as i can get it for now. i took 3/4" out of the middle and am going to pick up some 14ga to shave the license plate recess when im at the metal shop tomorrow. the brackets were also reworked and are now welded to the bumper. i also decided to reshape the ends of the bumper where it wraps around. the bumper has a nice tight radiused end and the fender has a larger radius. the plan is to make both the same. more to come......

[preston]

I've always been curious when guys modify the bumpers - doesn't the metal have to be near perfect to chrome ? Obviously you can't use bondo to clean it up. ARe you just going to weld it up and flap it down ? Then depend on the copper plating to fill in the imperfections ? Just always wondered about that.

[The WidowMaker]

I've always been curious when guys modify the bumpers - doesn't the metal have to be near perfect to chrome ? Obviously you can't use bondo to clean it up. ARe you just going to weld it up and flap it down ? Then depend on the copper plating to fill in the imperfections ? Just always wondered about that.

theres no way to chrome these for a reasonable price. ive heard of guys paying thousands! of dollars to get bumpers chromed that needed a lot of work. i have a few options; spray aluminum and brush it or just paint them. im probably going to try the first but ive never seen it done on a large scale. in fact, ive never seen it in person. either way i do it i will be able to use some filler and get them nice and smooth.

[The WidowMaker]

well i got a little more done today. i started cutting out the license plate recess and bent up a piece to weld back in. i also picked up all the metal for the bumper inserts and the grille. the aluminum weighed 23 lbs for just the inserts. its a shame that all but about 2 lbs is going to end up on the ground.

here are a few pics.

overhang prior to narrowing but after working the bottom to make it more even with the top. the bottom was touching the fender before i started and couldnt be narrowed any more.



overhang after narrowing



profile across the front. it looks good, but cutting the chunk out of the middle moved it a little. ill try and get it back perfect before tacking the piece in.



bumper prior to cutting



giant hole to be filled

[SickSpeedMonte]

Great work!! I'm looking forward to seeing the grill idea.

[brans72]

Loving the front bumper so far man!

[racedaddy]

theres no way to chrome these for a reasonable price. ive heard of guys paying thousands! of dollars to get bumpers chromed that needed a lot of work. i have a few options; spray aluminum and brush it or just paint them. im probably going to try the first but ive never seen it done on a large scale. in fact, ive never seen it in person. either way i do it i will be able to use some filler and get them nice and smooth.

Look into Spectra Chrome (I think that's the name). I've heard it goes on over everything even bondo and looks great. The monster truck Grave Digger's body was done completely in it.