[Vic1947]

Wiring was on hold until I got some more sheetmetal hung, so now began the task of fitting it all up. Confession time - by now, I'd been working on this build for nearly a year, seven days a week. Other than stuff I absolutely had to farm out, I'd been toiling in solitude the entire time, so I was worn out. I'd taken a calculated risk and not pre-assembled the front clip prior to sending it out for paint. I don't recommend this approach. Instead of doing it the right way, I'd laid out the fenders on the floor next to the doors, lined up the body lines, eyeballed the gaps and adjusted as needed before sending it out for paint. But there were a few things I missed by not assembling it all first. All that was about to catch up with me. All I can say is - self imposed deadlines and fatigue make you do stupid stuff.

Fortunately, most of the fitment issues could be fudged enough to keep them from sticking out like a sore thumb, but not all. The most serious came to light later on when I installed the hood. The body line between the cowl vent cover and the hood had a noticeable discontinuity. The only fix was to take the cowl vent cover off, slice it from front to back, move the body line inboard and then weld it back together. Mike at Precision had kept some of the basecoat they used for just this situation. He was able to match the repair perfectly.