Its been a couple weeks since I’ve gotten an update posted on here. Having missed the boat making the Factory Five Open House this year, I’ve been in less of a rush and have been taking care of other things around the house the last few weekends.

I have spent a number of hours here and there working on the remaining list of tasks to do before getting the car registered though. While I’ve not made a lot of progress, I figured it was a good point to get an update posted on here.

One of the first things I did once the body was on the car was get the front and rear overriders mounted to the car. The rear ones are part of what holds the body to the car, whereas the fronts are just decorative.

The rears are mounted with long bolts and spacers that run from near the gas tank and thread into the overrider.

The bottom bolt on the passenger side requires dropping the fuel tank to fit. I didn’t want to deal with dropping the tank just to get it installed. Instead, I bought a long length of threaded rod and threaded a lock nut on the inside once the rod was in the car, which lets me get it on and off without dropping the tank.

The top bolts in the trunk can be seen with stainless steel covers from inside the trunk itself.

The fronts mount similarly, but pass through the body. Two bolts in the brake duct openings actually mount the nose of the body to the car.

From inside the radiator opening, the mounts for the front overriders are visible. There are three panels that seal the nose to the radiator that aren’t installed yet, which is why these are visible.

Once I had all the overriders on I realized the four were not identical and I’d managed to get the fronts on the rear and the rear on the fronts. I had to take them back off and swap them.

While I was at it, I connected the ducting from the brake duct opening to the blower.

With the body on, I hooked up the wiring harnesses to the lights. Everything worked except the hazard lights, which I expected (the dash isn’t wired properly for them), and the brake lights. For some reason the passenger side rear lights don’t work with the brake properly. I have to get under the car and double check my wiring. I was careful with it before, so it may be a problem with the Ron Francis harness, but hopefully that’s not the case.

I also disassembled and painted the door hinges. I hadn’t looked at them in two years and they were pretty much entirely covered in rust. I few coats of paint later, and they look much better. I wish I’d powdercoated them, but I’ve said that about all the things I’ve painted black on the car. This will be fine for now.

Next up was mounting the hood to the car. Actually mounting it was pretty simple, it just took an extra set of hands to hold the hood while I popped the bolts in.

The gas struts for the hood went on, and it opens and closes very nicely now.

Actually getting the hood aligned was a lot of work, and it still needs some adjustment. The body doesn’t seem to be aligned quite right in the front of the car, so I will likely have to adjust the hood once I’ve done that.

With the hood on the car, I re-assembled the hinges and mounted them to the doors.

I discovered while mounting the doors, though, that the driver’s side door no longer fits. That was another strong sign that the body isn’t, in fact, aligned properly on the car. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to adjust it and its better, but not perfect. I am waiting for an extra set of hands to help push the body around while I adjust and tighten the body bolts.

I also, thankfully, got rid of the body buck. It was really taking up a lot of space in the garage, and now someone else can make use of it.

Since these photos were taken, I’ve gotten the wheels back off the car and started looking at the elephant ears at the front of the car, and gotten the driver’s door on the car. The trunk is also mounted, but I didn’t get any photos of that yet, either.

Once I’ve got the body adjusted properly and the doors on the car, I’ll get more photos and post them. I should have some time this weekend to do that.

I’m actually, for a bunch of reasons, pretty sure I won’t be ready to get the car inspected until the end of July now, but I’m hoping to find time to pull that in.