1967 Firebird Convertible - Project "LEGACY"

[Firebird-Geek]

With all of the inner structure primed and seam sealed, I am ready to do final fitment of the QUARTER PANELS! I have gotten so use to pulling them off and putting then on, that it has almost become second nature. Anyone starting this journey, the more you work with these panels, the more you will understand their placement, faults and just how they want to sit on the car. With that being said, I will NOT miss fitting these panels!

The beautiful thing is that with the inner structure FINALLY in its correct location in relationship with where the quarter panels need to be, re-fitting the quarters back on the car was MUCH different than when I started on these panels in the early summer.

Started to hang the quarters for FINAL FITMENT!



A HUGE sense of relief seeing that after moving this much metal around on the car, things actually were lining up and the structure is LEVEL! Thank You GOD! (See those prayers DO work!)

[Firebird-Geek]

Unlike mock-up stage, this fitment was more of a fine tuning session.

I first started by getting the quarter to return to where they needed to be. In the past this was a HUGE nightmare, but now with the inner structure in place, it was much easier. The porta-power in the rear was there just to fine tune the body line and tail panel location. It isn't doing much, other than acting like a second set of hands. The ratchet strap is putting a bit of pressure on the quarters in order to pull them in along the trunk fill panel and trail panel. Again, not much pressure, but another helping hand.

Again, not wanting to go by any guessing or inner structure locations, I used my string lines to make sure everything was lining up where it needed to be! I also used a 6ft level to sit along the top of the quarters in various locations to make sure they are also level with the rest of the car.




This shot makes me the HAPPIEST! For I have stressed, anylized and dumped TONS of HOURS into this quarter panel in order to get it to sit level with the car. (Never cut the quarter, all done through HOURS of fitment) FINALLY laser straight!

[Firebird-Geek]

[rickpaw]

Looks great. You had a lot of work in there. When I did mine, I asked a couple of old school body guys about body lines/panel gaps not lining up, and they said if I were to restore it to when GM had it, then leave it alone. Which I did.