Reg, a previous customer of Restore-A-Ford has entrusted us with another one of his projects. This time a Vauxhall Firenza Droop Snoot.
Reg has undertaken and completed all the structural welding repairs to floors etc and has instructed Restore-A-Ford to fit the wide body panels and some fettling to some alignment issues. The car also has a webasto full length sunroof which will be replaced with a reclaimed roof skin panel. It will be refinished in the old nail racing colours (although this may change!).
The first task was to replace the roof skin to meet with Reg's requirements to loose the full length webasto sunroof. A second hand roof had been sourced by Reg for the replacement skin.
After the donor had been carefully unpicked from the framework, it was cleaned and treated with an anti-corrosion primer. The old skin was removed from the car carefully to avoid any damage to the framework and the gutters. The same anti-corrosion primer was applied to the roof frame before the new skin was fitted.
Some repairs were needed to the skin once fitted, after all you cannot be to choosy when after a panel like this!
Once the roof skin had been fitted and finished, the next task was the fitting of the fiberglass wide body kit. The complete front section is a one piece item, so the rears were tackled first. Reg had already completed the extensions to the inner wheelhouses and modified the rear quarter panels to accept the new fiberglass panels. So easy... just fit them and blend them into the body.... not quite so. Even though the panels are an original Vauxhall item the fit was vauge to say the least. After much time and effort we finally got the panels to fit and line up with the doors and rear of the car. The dummy side vents have been altered to make them actual working items. The rear section around the lamp and rear panel also required some time and effort to get correct. Parts for these cars are hard to find to say the least, so a second hand nearside door was used that was rust free but unfortunately had suffered poor previous repairs all over. After striping the door of all the old paint and filler it was dressed back into shape as best as possible, but as you can see in the pictures a full skim over with stopper was required to eradicate all the ripples and imperfections.
The door to the driver's side also needed some work. The bottom of the skin was removed due to corrosion to allow access to repair the inner lower door frame. Once the inner had been repaired, a new section of doorskin was fabricated and welded in to the existing door skin. It was then time to fit the one piece fiberglass front end. Much like the rear quarters this proved to be more than just a bolt it on and that's it, job done. Much adjustment and reshaping was needed to get the front to fit and make it look as if it was meant to be there. The fit to the doors proved to be the most time consuming job on the front end. After many times removing and refitting the front to ensure it was correct, it could then be bonded and bolted to the car for the final time.
It was then a case of some final work to the kit to remove any imperfections in the fiberglass prior to the car being primed in a high build primer. The car was then left for several weeks before being preped for its new paint. This is due to being a fiberglass kit, often primer can sink into the fiberglass so this time was to allow any sinkage to happen now as opposed to after the topcoat has been applied. The car was then preped ready for its new paint.
After being wheeled back into the oven and masked it was refinished in a very special colour. It is a secret until it's unvailing next year, so you will have to wait a little while longer! It is a fantastic colour choice for this car and you will not be disappointed... All that's left, is to refit the glass and lamps, some black detail work and then the car will be going back to the owner for its final refit.
