Most difficult job in a Coupe build?

[petepetrolhead]

Hi Folks, greetings from across the pond. With a lot of help from a good friend, after several hours grunting and groaning we've managed to get the IRS rear end installed in my coupe - getting the last bolt to go in was a bl**dy nightmare!

Have I got any more jobs to look forward to that are more difficult than this??

[MSumners]

I found this to be remarkably difficult on the coupe as well. It was so tight when in place it didnt even need bolts to hold itself up. Way different experience than my initial roadster build.
Anything can be made difficult with these builds, but I'll say that was the only part to this point that seemed excessively painful.
Of course.. are you doing bodywork?

[Jphoenix]

No, that's the worst part of it - except for maybe trimming and sanding fiberglass

[petepetrolhead]

I found this to be remarkably difficult on the coupe as well. It was so tight when in place it didnt even need bolts to hold itself up. Way different experience than my initial roadster build.
Anything can be made difficult with these builds, but I'll say that was the only part to this point that seemed excessively painful.
Of course.. are you doing bodywork?

Thanks for your reply - that's good to know! I'm doing bodywork up to a point - hopefully getting the body, doors and hood to fit. Prep and painting will be left to an expert Mind you, I have set myself another challenge - I've invested in a Formacars electric window kit....

[petepetrolhead]

No, that's the worst part of it - except for maybe trimming and sanding fiberglass

Thanks for your reply Jim - that's comforting . But you're right - I'm not particularly looking forward to trimming and sanding the bodywork...

[Namrups]

Getting my hood to fit properly was not the hardest but was the most annoying.

[TTimmy]

I'll second Namrups regarding the hood. I found the process quite frustrating. I felt like I kept chasing around fitment issues from place to place. Eventually it came together.

I always tell foks to make sure and have some smaller, independent tasks that you can weave into the more complex/frustrating ones. For me I find it nice to be able to walk away from something frustrating but still work on my car, and perhaps have some small accomplishments to re-energize me. Worst case, I just have a couple beers and clean the shop.

TTIMMY!

[Jphoenix]

Yes, fitting the hood is time consuming and very fiddly. I suggest getting it on, then putting the doors on, after locking down the body. Get the doors where they will almost close OK, then get the hood to where it's almost closing OK, then take a step back, sleep on it, have a beer, etc. and then re-adjust the hood mounting hinges so the rod ends are in the middle of their adjustment. I had to re-position the hinges mounting to the hood (re-drill the holes) so only drill one or two holes when you first put the hood hinges on so you can re-position and re-drill. Put the rubber bumpers on, trim a very little bit at a time. Step back, think about it, adjust some more and trim a little bit.

Takes literally days, but it's not hard, just time consuming and nasty fiberglass.

Read all the threads like Namrups, EdwardB for tips and tricks and cautions on the hood. My brother-in-law used to do Corvette bodywork and he told me once not to put more body filler on in the morning than you can sand off in the afternoon

[lewma]

Anything concerning fitting the body/doors/hood was the most time consuming for me. Not hard, just a lot of back and forth.