Sue's 59 Corvette project....

[TrifiveRichard]

Spent the majority of the last couple days bolting panels in place on the Corvette. Once these are in place, we will work the gaps and body lines.

First up was the deck lid behind the seats. The hinge assemblies for the deck lid and the trunk lid are packaged together and interact to keep the two from hitting each other when open. These were previously cleaned up and painted satin black. Putting these inplace under the center divider turned out to be a chore, since they wedge under the top lip and need to be forced in place, then bolted down. I noticed in the assembly manual, the design was changed for the late 1959 Corvette, and the assembly is shorter, slips right in, and steel spacers are put under the assembly, then bolted in place. Turns out, there are a number of small, but significant, changes made mid year. Naturally, we have the early 1959 car, oh well!

Once the hinge assemblies were in place, the deck lid bolted down easily. Next was the deck lid latch. it is located on top of the center seat divider/glove box, so that was installed, latch mounted, and deck lid is solid.

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Next up was the hood. It's been on a few times, so we know it fits fairly well. We just used paint stir sticks to center it, and bolted it down at the front from under the grill area.

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From this point, we continued to the trunk and the doors.

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I'm sure we'll be moving things around some by the time we're done, but at this point, we're ready to start working the body gaps and lines.