Viperpete

Nice work Jim! Glad I could help

So this is what I have been doing while I was waiting for my doors from NPD. I taught myself armoring. Back story.... I built myself a complete suit of armor (a couple years ago) for fun. Then this year I wanted to give my bosses something special for christmas so I made a helmet and stand and a pair of gauntlets. Both came out great. I shape the metal by hand with no heat. Helmet took 43 hours and the gauntlets took 19 hours. The helmet is modeled after a 13th century French Sallet style helmet. It's very comfortable. The interior is wrapped in foam and leather. The Bevor portion of the helmet is fixed to the stand but both pieces are movable. Hoping to get back to the car early next month.

I was waiting for a new pair of doors for a few months. I got them, but while I was waiting i have been doing some armoring. Looking to get back to the build early Feb.

Here maybe? @Cantedvalve

How about this

Thought yall might like to see this. [video]https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/784804116[/video] [video=vimeo;784804116]https://vimeo.com/784804116[/video] This is a clip from season 32 episode #4 (came out earlier this year). I hope the video stays up. Youutube and Fbook keep taking it down. The clip is not available anywhere else. They apparently only ran it a few times on the air but then removed it. Was an amazing experience. FYI my Viper was running high 10 sec passes. They deliberately slowed it down for the show.... Can't have a 9 year old American car beating a shiny new electric truck! LOL. What was most bizarre about the entire thing was that they would not prep the Viper's lane but extensively prepped the Rivians. Not prepping the Viper's lane required at least 30+ runs because the driver just could not get the car to hook and he was just not used to driving a Viper (it was 45 degrees out in January at the time of filming). The closeup of the spinning tire was actually me doing the burnout! And you can see me in several of the shots, notably inside the truck. Still an amazing experience. Every one of the 60+ Topgear staff were great people and I would do this again in a heart beat. The car was driven by F1 driver Eduardo Marques. They would not confirm or deny that he is the Stig, but that he does travel with them for the show and does most of the stunt, timed driving...etc. I was fortunate enough to have Freddy and Eduardo sign the car too. Get my car on Top Gear- checked that off the bucket list!

Looking good!

Spot weld cutter and an air chisel is your friend.

Happy to give you measurements i've taken if you need them.

Update So the last few days I've been working to get the front clip squared up. I didn't like the gaps from the fenders and hood or that the front clip just didn't look right. I'm glad I kept the original front end as that was very helpful along with the Mach 1 to get the measurements I needed. Overall, I'm really happy with the fender/hood/cowl gaps. Even in this rough mockup, I like the results. I'm actually quite surprised how tight the gaps are. The fender apron brackets were a pain. I even tried using an original one, but that fit worse than the new ones. The metal is noticeably thicker on the original versus the aftermarket bracket FYI. I don't know how that will affect strength, but there is a significant difference in metal thickness. I ended up having to buy a second passenger side inner fender apron because the Canadian one I bought fit terribly (I didn't read the description on NPD's website, and it does mention the fit). So far they both seem to fit terribly, but the import brand (which is less money by the way) required less cutting away of material to get the measurements I needed. Neither of them hug the contours of the firewall precisely, but they will have to do for now. I tried mocking up the new fenders I bought recently, but they were not cooperating. I tried installing the passenger side one on the Mach 1 too and it just didn't fit right. The original fenders just fit better. They don't fit the doors that well. I wonder if I should try installing the original doors now too and see how they go together. The front bolt holes on the aftermarket fenders also do not line up with the core support at all. I don't like that. The original ones like up well enough. I'll try installing the new headlight buckets and see how those fit next. The hood is just laying there, no hinges installed, but looks nice and straight The front end is about 1/16th - 1/8" off from being perfectly square. I just can't get it closer than that. It'll have to do.

oof that sucks. i've been welding for years. i always wear a auto darkening hood, long sleeves, boots, jeans and gloves. Ive been burned plenty!

Hey yall Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I bruised some ribs back in June putting a drunken idiot in a headlock and it took a while to heal before I could get back to work on the car. But I have a nice update. I have fitted the rear seat bulkhead, rear quarter extensions, trunk lid, front fender aprons, radiator core support, fender supports, 3 pairs of fenders, and 2 pairs of doors so far. A friend lent me his 69 Mach 1 so that I could remove the front fenders to I could get measurements as my original car has no front clip. Poor car is rusted out really bad, runs and drives though. He is the second owner, it has 70k miles (I think). 351 and a 4 spd with AC. Nicely optioned. The rear of the new shell looks really really good. I need to move the quarters towards each other a little more so that I get a window width that is closer to my car. The quarter extensions actually fit better than the original car which is amazing. The rear bulkhead is interesting too. I think I've got it positioned approximately where it is supposed to go. The door situation has been frustrating. They both came damaged and my stupid ass didn't unbox them for 2 months. CJ won't take them back but gave me a small refund. Either way, I don't think I am going to use them anyway. The passenger side is tough I just cannot get it to line up. I had to cut the drivers side a little bit to get it to fit (as it was completely misshapen) to the quarter panel and it fits reasonably well. I am going to remove them and try my original doors and see if they fit better. That will tell me more about the overall rightness of my shell. I have tried 3 pairs of fenders so far on the shell. My original ones and the Mach 1 fenders just don't fit very well to the aftermarket front end. I bought some new ones from NPD and they fit much much better. It looks like I only need to close up either side maybe a few millimeters to have pretty good clearance. The front fender holes that attach to the MTF core support do not line up. I'll have to drill out new ones. Both stock fender pairs did line up to these holes. I still need to get my front end perfectly square. Honestly working on this assembly table at this stage of the build has been a pain. It's so high up. I am constantly climbing up and down and performing a balancing act and trying not to fall off. My advice to anyone who builds one of these, make sure it is height adjustable! The hood fits terribly but I think that is because I haven't adjusted the hinges and the fenders aren't property positioned. Looks cool attached to the car tho. I snipped the roof panel on the pass rear side and that took out those weird bends out of it. I still have to figure out how to pull it down or pull the quarter upwards so there is less of a gap where those 2 panels meet. The drivers side is a lot tighter. I am not going to use my factory doors and I am not going to use these new CJ doors either. NPD has some on order and should be hitting the warehouse around October I am told. Which means that I really can't do much more on the car at this point until I've got them. Everything seems to revolve around the fitment of the doors. Having fun with the build and looking forward to the coming cooler weather. I think the cooler weather and the welding stage are going to coincide nicely.

So I got the decklid lined up or at least very close to the original car's measurements. I layed the glass in to see how the front and rear glass fit. Not too happy. Pretty big gaps. I don't remember how big they were when I removed the glass originally or how much the trim covers. I'm going to try placing the glass back in the 69' and see if the gaps/fit are the same. Quite a large gap here.... Also, look how the roof skin lines up in the front versus the rear. The passenger side is a little off. Not sure how to correct this.

Nice update! So I had a flash of inspiration the other day. I unscrewed the firewall from the passenger side of the floor pan and used some ratchet straps to first pull the floorpan downward, then and used another 2 straps to get it positioned to where it looked right and level. I am happy to report that it is positioned really well now! I also fitted up the rear quarters, extensions and tail light panel. There are still gaps here and there but I think so far I have been really lucky with panel fitment. It would appear that aftermarket panels do fit well to each other. I have to take pics, but I also was able to fit the piece that goes between the back glass and the trunk. I used the original 69' for measurements and got it really spot on. Will post pics of that later.

OK will do! I honestly think that the firewall was just stamped poorly. I went to NPD today to see if they had one that I could measure but they didn't. They are getting one in for me next week. From the bottom of the rocker to the top of the firewall corner is 21.5" on both sides on the original car. On the new firewall its 21.5" on the drivers side and 22.5" on the passengers side. That's where the gap is. I think its just a bad firewall.