Body gaps

[ydeardorff]

I have noticed on alot of the sterling, nova, cimbra, and eagles that the body lines are uneven, some badly.
Given most OEM cars we buy and drive have fairly even gaping. I wonder how involved it would be to fix this.
Since most car bodies are made of metal sheet, closing those edges up shouldnt be too involved I would think. But it would add a significant amount of fit and finish to the car as a whole.
The gaps that stick out to me seem to be around the front half of the canopy, and the front lid. Granted thats about all the panels on this car. But I have only seen one car that had the gaps cleaned up in a video on youtube and it looked amazing.

On another note this looks like it also might add to the problem of a good seal when the hatch is down, and promote leakage while driving. Anyone attest to this?

Has anyone tried this on this board? Id be interested in what other members/owners have come up with, and done to clean up the gaps.

 

[farfegnubbin]

Tightening up those gaps is a noble goal. If you like body work, most of it should be very straight forward.

I don't have a ton of advice on this topic. Honestly, although you're totally right that the canopy-to-body gaps are larger than production car gaps, I've never felt that any of them were offensive.

Also, as a Sterling fun-fact, I've been told that a certain run of wither the bodies or canopies were a little distorted and tended to stick up a little on (I think) the paggenger side front corner.

For my money, my main goal is to just get the gaps EVEN, which is more a matter of aligning the canopy. If they are all 3/8" (instead of 1/8") but are even, I personally am okay with that.

One thing that I don't like right now is my hood. The gap on the right side is wider and looks bowed in a little. I don't know what that's all about. But as you and I have discussed, I'm planning on re-working the hood a little anyway to give a little better cooling, so I'll address that localized gap problem at that time.

But I don't have any real expert advice on this topic.

Has anyone else out there done any bodywork aimed specifically at tightening up gaps?

 

[letterman7]

I was one of those cars with the right hand twist on the canopy. It wasn't totally objectionable, and with a little tweaking on the hinges it made it manageable. I think the car you're thinking of Yaughn is Craig Breedlove's black Sterling with almost zero body gap. If you know his background, then you know how much bodywork went into doing that. BUT... the canopy still has the same basic gaps - for a reason: it moves. Not just opening and closing, but side to side as well. Not much, but any panels close to the canopy would likely get chipped in the process.

Everything else is just fiberglass work!

 

[delbertinie]

The gaps on my cimbria are off only because the doors are twisted from being left open for long periods of time.

When I refinish the body I am going to subject it to a bake oven for a few hours so the body will warp as much as its going too. That way any resin that is not fully cured will harden. Then I will fix all the gaps and other problems.

Dale

 

[letterman7]

Any resin that hasn't cured by now isn't going to cure in an oven, Dale. When I purchased my newest Sterling, it had been sitting in a heated, climate controlled garage for 35 years. I pulled the side pods (the "glove boxes" on the inside) and my hand stuck to the back of the pods. They weren't completely "cured" even after all those years. A quick swipe with some MEPK and it set right up. What you can do, though, is set all your panels and doors as close as you can when it gets into the oven, and continue tweaking them as it heats. The heat alone will make the fiberglass a little more pliable to an extent, and some warpage can be brought back into line. You'll have to be creative in straps and clamps to do that, but it will work. And you'll need more than a couple hours - a full day or two. Keep everything clamped and in place as you let it cool back down, or else all the work will be for nothing.

 

[delbertinie]

With all the fiberglass race cars that i have either built or repaired over the years. regardless of how old they are heat makes them do funny things. You are right that they get a little more pliable. Also any pent up energy is released when it becomes pliable again. Everything has an amount of elasticity fiberglass wood metal ect. Sometime fiberglass goes back into the shape it was intended, sometimes it does the direct opposite. The point of putting it in the oven before I do bodywork is to release the stored energy whether it helps me or hinders me is not the point. The point is to make it a more stable medium to work with. The higher than normal temps 400 to 600 degrees will bring the soft resin to the surface and then when it cools it gets harder. Yes I over simplified it when I said it hardens the soft resin.
The higher heat that you subject fiberglass before doing your mud work the less telegraphing you are likely to have as well.

disclaimer
In saying that 99% of the fiberglass that I have worked with is hand laid and super thin.
The chipped fiberglass is a whole different ball game I'm told.

If you make fiberglass super thin and get all the resin out that you can with no air bubbles.
It acts like a flexible bumper, its very strong but flexible. I have made door panels before that you could kick and it would pop right back to its original shape.
(My old boss would kick it to see if it was made right). seriously!

 

[Nic]

A silly thought... take advantage of the body/canopy gap and install a LED strip on the underside of the canopy where it meets the body. At night, you'd get a cool glow out of it aka TRON style. or something similar to this.

Know what I mean?

 

[ydeardorff]

Actually this wouldnt be to terribly a difficult mod, other than the glow strip on the tires, and the body work. It would be involved, but not really hard overall.

They make EL wire that is very cheap, comes in many lengths, and is powered by 12VDC via a small transformer.
It comes in single colors, but just about any color you could want.
Some opaque lexan, and the EL-wire, and you have a nice glowing piece.

Now I'm sure this wouldn't be legal on the streets, but as a show car, it would blow everyone away.

If you wanted to get really trick, you could use a DMX system, ans RGB LED light strips. Then you'd have 24 million colors to choose from. Again its more about the body work, than the electrical.

Im playing with DMX now for christmas light displays. Im working on about 96 channels now.