1976 280Z Restoration Project

[wheee!]

Hood lined up nice too. Good to know the gas shock hinge mod worked!

[wheee!]

Hatch lined up nice. Refurbed (painted) gas shocks still work good.

 

 

 

Only the outer seal installed as the inner seal won’t let the hatch close easily and will put off the body work. I will get the seals sorted later.

[wheee!]

Hood gas shocks

[wheee!]

Some more work on the nacelles today. After I got them coated with truck bed liner on the inside, I prepped them for paint. The last picture shows the high gloss clear coat and you can even see the ceiling filter and burnt out fluorescent bar! Very happy. 
 

[wheee!]

Too much gap? I don’t know if I will get it much better than this in the end...

[grannyknot]

What does the other side look like?  Would you consider adding an 1/8th" welding rod to the leading edge of the door?

[wheee!]

I haven’t finished fitting the other side yet but it looks a little tighter.
This is my bad. I didn’t hang the panels first before finishing the inside edges etc. I completely forgot and skipped that step in my rush to the finish line. At this point, I can do as you say and weld new metal to the edges, remove the door and fender, grind and finish the welds, repaint the panels and rehang them... a loss of a lot of work already done and adding a lot more time to the build.
Or, I can work a small amount of edge fill in with fibreglas filler to extend the edge lines a little closer and have less gap and less repaint work on the panels. I am not too unhappy with the gap size as I think it will hide well on a dark car. I am more concerned with it being balanced to the rear edge which is also a little off top to bottom.
Again, this isn’t a concourse car and I don’t expect perfection. I would really like to see this car on the road this summer and there is a ton of work to do still.

[Jeff G 78]

In all honesty, they look as good as they did when new.  1970's gaps were never good and they varied a lot.  Leave it and be proud of your work.

[wheee!]

I am not done fitting the door too. It can be adjusted up a bit and that should help.

I have seen worse, but I expected a bit better. Like I said, I can make this look better before I am done, I'm just not sure I want to invest the time welding and repairing the panels at this point. Lesson learned....

[240260280]

The front of the rocker and the bottom of the fender in front of it have a slight step on the lower edges.  I think this is the design but if you decide to go at the fender, you may wish to take a look at this too.

 

[Patcon]

What does the rear edge of the door look like?

I wouldn't try to close the gap with a filler material. I don't think it will hold up well. If it needs to be closed up, Granny is right about adding a rod down the edge. The fender sort of has to "go where it goes" to fit into the reveal in the rocker panel

[wheee!]

Yeah... that relief was also a little off as I hand built the replacement “bulldog” end of the rocker. It looks like I might have made it about 1/8” too low as the panel doesn’t want to wrap around it easily. Again my own fault.
I will get a pic of the rear of the door too.