Speedster

Apart from finishing mounting the screen and hood, the next job is to tackle some of the body issues. Most of the little jobs that need undertaking require holes to be glassed up, so it looks like I need to hone my fibreglassing skills. I've got door handle holes to be patched so that I can fit the correct handles, a dash gauge hole to be filled so that I can fit the correct gauges, holes that the hinges sit in that need to be repaired so that I can fit the correct hinges and a bunch of shoddyness to address.

I've been swatting up on glassing techniques and have received some good pointers from the FB community. I'll do a bit more reading too before I get stuck in but starting to get my head around what's required.

The absolute worst part is the doors, they have the wrong door pulls, wrong outer handles, wrong hinges and the body has been hacked to try and get everything to line up, which has resulted in some MAJOR SHODDYNESS. But nothing that cannot be fixed with a little time and patience.

The door gaps are probably the worst part of the body, they are shocking. First step is to get the doors hung correctly with the proper hinges and then repair the A Pillar where it has been hacked. Once this has been sorted out I can fix up the external and internal door handles. I'll leave the cosmetic aspects such as door gaps until I attack the rest of the body.

For me the doors are one of those components that need to look right, they are another clear giveaway that the car is a replica. A lot of this has to do with the style of the door capping and handle type / location, small details but it's always the small details that make or break a project.

The door cappings that were supplied with the car are made from wood. They are super heavy and not really the right shape or size. They were obviously made by the utilising skills that the past owner had, which is fine, they would have looked okay trimmed but I'm not happy with them myself. The original cappings were made from steel, and whilst this is probably outside of the skillset of most, it's something that I should be able to make up as they look relatively simple. They are also necessary for fitting the side curtains, so something that will likely be tackled soon rather than later.