as i was reading i was thinking "yea sounds good to me" then i saw the first pic,
and thought, "that looks like a tube of refrigerator biscuits that exploded in the freezer!" nonetheless the finished results look great!
JackMcCornack wrote:
So here's where the body stood Monday afternoon, before it started raining and I had to put it away, I'm just a trim and finish away from done.
Since this particular car is being built for fuel economy, I mounted the rear fenders a bit lower than aesthetics would dictate. Problem is, the front fenders have to be pretty high to deal with street car turning radius and suspension (I took out the springs and checked full jounce and full lock) but the rears do not. If I had this to do over again I'd probably have the doors taper down in the back, so there could be a rise up to the rear fenders.
The fairings between the doors and fenders were first roughed out with canned spray-on insulation foam, using clear packaging tape to keep it from sticking to the doors (most everybody who works with composites has bonded two parts together by accident—I've already had that experience so I was careful not to glue the door shut). I squirted the foam into the gap and gave it 24 hours to firm up, while every spectator pointed out that it looked pretty horrible and wondered if I'd really thought this through. But once it was firm, I carved it to shape, sanded it smooth, covered it with fiberglass, and filled in the flaws with automotive body putty. That's the stage of completion in the photo at the top.
Then so I could see the dips and bumps better, I gave it a coat of white primer. The white doesn't quite match (hey, it's a primer) but I think a coat of gloss white would put me well on my way to a 50/50 paint job (a car that looks decent from 50 feet away at 50 miles an hour).