[sick472]

I am probably overthinking the step of my build, but that's what I do. So, I appreciate everyone's input to no end. Anything that make me think is a bonus.

I have attached a photo from before much of the de-rusting that best shows the gap changes from front to back. It's a bit hard to see, but the gap is much narrower towards the front. I did some pushing around on the braces last night and I think I can improve the gaps with some muscle without jeopardizing the niceness of the outer surface.

Part of me says...get the brace to hood gaps (center and front and back) supported with something like padding, weather-strip, edging or urethane, then do the outer finish work accordingly. There is slight waviness to the outer skin, slight, which would require the usual putty work. Now, part of me wants to add temporary shims to finely wet sand the primer to get a shine going on (it's remarkable how much shine you can get from primer by wet sanding with 600 to 1000 grit which makes body waves stick out like a fat thumb - just dont forget to rough the primer back up, paint does not like to stick to shiny primer - don't ask how I know that), then add the jack-bolts to compensate for some of the wave. Adding urethane at this point holds the finessed shape hence reducing the putty work. I am also thinking that I could wrap the braces with a heavy plastic before the urethane is applied and then trimmed away afterwards leaving the outer skin to be free to move independently.

I will argue that the efforts of all this may be about the same as other more common approaches...maybe I'm in this for the journey more than the results. Anyhow, I appreciate the conversation just the same.