More front hood latch work

In reviewing the photos I took when the car was outside, I came to several conclusions on the front hood latch mounts. Here is a pic of the right hand side.

And here is a real 037 in profile.

In looking at the part, several things became clear. First, the bottom of my part was not horizontal.

Second, the back side of the part did not drop to vertical at the bottom of the door.

And finally, there was a curve away from the tire on the front side, rather than the more straight drop the 037 has.

I have been working on all three of those things. Still not where I want it, but here is where it is at now.

Improved, but not there yet. Oddly, the angle meter indicates that the drop below the door is vertical, but it looks anything but. Optical illusion I guess, but it definitely needs less angle. I’m also starting to see that the area just above it probably needs more curvature as well. Another thing for the list.

A Trip Outside!

Although my shop is fairly large, one thing that has been impossible to do is to see the side view of the car from any distance at all. That makes it difficult to judge if body lines are straight, the ride height is correct, and so on. So having gotten all the body panels on it, I decided to put it down on its own four feet. I had the car sitting on blocks for so long that I had kind of gotten used to that height, so when it dropped down a foot, I was amazed at how low it was. I used my lawn tractor to drag it out of the workshop so I could see the car from different perspectives.

Driver side, standing.

Driver side, car height.

Passenger side, same two shots.

Front view.

And of course the obligatory “clamshells open” shots.

Overall I’m pretty happy with it, but there are a few areas that may require closer attention. I think I may have to rattle-can primer it so it’s all one flat color to get a better idea, but it seems to me that there’s something weird with the front lower clamshell latch area. An odd angle perhaps. I’m going to have to compare them to 037 photos to get an idea of what, if any corrections need to take place.