Mike I don't envy you alining the sheetmetal. I helped a friend do his car and we drove ourself nuts. Greg is right split the difference. We did the door and set it to rocker and quarter first then the rest of the door. We didn't have to deal with the top frame on the door like you do. After seeing what you've already done you'll get this done.

Thanks again guys. Last night I kept looking at the pics of the gaps and you're right, it's an old car and this isn't a high dollar build. I'm doing it in my garage and it's my first attempt at something this big. And as I've read over and over again, the aftermarket stuff does not fit like the OEM stuff. With that in mind, I have aftermarket quarter panels and aftermarket hinges so I'm battling the aftermarket stuff on either end. I was looking at the driver's side and if I can get the door to come forward a bit, other than the bottom which I'll work on, I'll be happy. When I was looking at the hinges yesterday, I noticed that they won't go further any more. I'm just going to ream the holes out a bit to bring the door forward. As long as the doors work and look good I'll be happy. Here's some more pics of the doors as they sit now.

Driver's side. You can see on the driver's side quarter where I've already had to cut it to make it fit better.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000461.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000460.jpg

Passenger side

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000459.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000462.jpg

Today I got the deck filler panel finished

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000452.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000454.jpg

Looks way better now. Still needs to be cleaned up better.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000456.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000457.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000458.jpg

I really like the look of new sheet metal. I'm so tempted to buy new fenders and doors. I'll wait and see how these ones looks once I get them down to the metal.

Next thing ya know Mike -- you'll be opening a custom fab shop!:rofl:

Looks good... real good. :cheers:

Thanks Greg :cheers: :lol:

Well I've gotten around to getting some done on the car. I want to try and have it in primer before this winter so have been working on stripping the car. I also have most of the driver's side quarter done.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000502.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000491.jpg

Found a few areas of concern in the rear tail panel. I'm leaning towards getting both sections new from Auto Metal Direct. A new tail light panel is $150 and the rear trunk crossmember is $130. Better to get rid of the trouble areas.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000496.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000498.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000499.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000500.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000501.jpg

I also found a couple issues on the passenger door. Should be easy fixes though.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000506.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000504.jpg

I've also been trying to figure out how to run the gas filler neck. I went and looked at all kinds of pieces of exhaust tubing and all the bends weren't tight enough or weren't a mandrel bend so they were flat. In the end, I think the original filler neck I got with the gas cap will work. The one thing I didn't like with it is that is designed for camaros so it is slightly off to the right. I wanted mine to be through the middle. So I figured I would cut it in half and I'll just get it rewelded to be straight. I'll still need to run some exhaust tube through the trunk, but this will fit quite nicely under the rear trunk lock support.

The original filler neck

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000283.jpg

After I cut it. Just need to get it welded back together. I'm also thinking about cutting the neck part of it to make it a bit shorter.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000505.jpg

I also picked up some weather stripping for the doors and trunk so I can get them aligned properly.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000507.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000508.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000510.jpg

Bare metal looks great. What did you use to strip paint? If you don't care to go into details for your method.

Yeah there is something about bare metal. It looks pretty sweet. For most of the areas I'm just using 80 grit sand paper on a DA sander. The car was painted in 1995 and was taken to the metal then too, so it's not too bad. For the tighter spots and places I don't want to use the sander, I've been using a 3M Scotch-Brite clean and strip roloc pads. I usually use the purple ones, but also have some of the black ones as they were out of the purple ones. I found the purple ones lasted longer. These things last quite a while and go a long ways for stripping. http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3...beRJ5GMFSMV0gl

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d.../PICT00554.jpg

The other thing I'm using is a Nyalox wire brush. Both the 3M and the Nyalox fit onto my air die grinders so are easy to use. http://www.summitracing.com/search/b.../?autoview=SKU

This one's warn down some already

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000531.jpg

Awesome build, my Nova is heading to my buddies shop for mini tubs and some other mods soon, I can't wait. Did u spot weld the filler panel on the interior side similar to the factory? Also, how did u attach it on the corners where it meets up with the quarter channel? Thanks for any advice, ur car is giving me major motivation to get my ass in the garage and get started again(I may "borrow" the fuel filler idea though) I really like that look, it breaks up that huge open space between the taillights

Thanks!! Make sure you post some pics when you get the mods done. I just plug welded the filler panel from the top. I figured most of the areas won't be seen anyways, so I'll just grind all the welds down and put a bit of filler in. As for the corners, I also just used plug welds. Yeah moving the filler neck does look a lot better. I actually borrowed the idea of it from Billy (72Novadriver). Seems there are so many different ways it can be done, it's just trying to figure out which way to install the filler tube that's the hard part :lol:

Were there spot welds on the trunk side of the panel where the weatherstripping fits, or just on the corners and on the interior side? Thx, just making sure I don't miss any and f something up