The headlights and front turn signal repeaters were installed, and the next job will be fitting the grille and front bumpers.

There was some previous damage to the nose of the car that was repaired, but we had to make sure the bumpers fit properly, so before final plating, I brought the bumpers over to the metal shop so they could check the fit before paint or chrome was completed. The body guys covered the polished bumpers that were plated in copper with tape and did their fitting. I double checked the fit now that the car was painted, and everything looks good, so now I can send the bumpers off for final chrome plating. I’ll need to tell my metal guys not to use Gorilla Tape on bumpers again, as taking it off after it’s been on for a while is a real pain in the butt!

The final nuts were tapped on the window frames so it could be installed on the car.

The front window frames fit very nicely, with good even gaps all around.

…but I ran into a problem with the rear windows. The rear chrome window trim was proud of the window frame by about 2 millimeters, so when the door was closed, it would catch on this small section when the door was opened. Although this didn’t happen before the car was disassembled, many things change when putting a car back together. Fillers and paint add dimension to the car, the alignment of the body panels change when things are disassembled, reproduction rubber gaskets change in dimensions, and even chrome trim can change as they get refinished. I checked all the places that could have changed, and tried to see if they could be corrected to stop this trim piece from catching on the door, and found nothing else that could be adjusted except for trimming this piece of molding down.

I took off just a couple of millimeters of material, but this will require I send this piece back from stripping and plating. When it’s all done, it’ll look perfect, but perfection takes time, and sometimes it means taking a step back to go forward!