Gerahead's 71 Dart

After getting the trunk coated in epoxy primer, my obsessive tendencies surfaced. I had never noticed it before, but there were a couple of small creases in the end of the left rear quarter panel, under the extension cap. I have no idea how I missed them, but they could not stay. I spent the better part of Tuesday night with a hammer and dolly eradicating the demons! Without really anything to go by, except the appearance of the right side of the car, I hammered on dolly, off dolly, every which way until I got the area pretty smooth. All of this for a part of the car that will never show.#-oThe attached pictures show the before and after versions of the panel. The after version doesn't really show it very well, but the area has compound curves in it and it is really a lot smoother than the picture shows.

I think I also figured out why there is a large difference in the cost of body hammers and dollys between the cheap Chinese tools and the others. The surface finish on the "finished" surfaces if the imported versions is incredible. The flat surface on the heel dolly from my set (yeah, I admit it) was actually concave! These surfaces are supposed to be smooth or the imperfections can be transferred to the metal being worked. I can't even guess how much time I spent on the hammer faces and a couple of the dollys to get them smoothed. Originally, they looked like they had been surfaced with #10 grit. Would have been pretty good if I was trying to shrink, I guess. Still have a lot more work to do to smooth them out some more.

I hope to get the rest of the inside of the deck lid sanded and primed this weekend. The incredible humidity is back, making it really miserable out in the garage. L8r.

Jim