Update time. I've spent a whole lot of time lately on the car, sanding bondo, priming, block sanding, getting the door gaps right, etc. Drivers side is nice and straight and ready for a final sand before paint. Took me about 2 whole days in the garage but the rest should go way faster, that side had the spliced together fender and the rougher rear wheelwell. Plus I hadn't done any body work in years, think I'm getting the hang of it again.
This past weekend I got the passenger door in the right place and started on the front upper valance. That thing is BAD! I spent a couple hours tweaking, bending and hammering and got it mostly lined up. Had to take out some metal to even up the gap and looks like I have some more metal to take out to match the contour of the hood (no way I'm leaving it like that, definitely not going to try and fix it with bondo)
Here's the valance tacked together, still needs some tweaking but it's getting there
And here's where I need to remove all that metal. I still get amazed at the poor fit and finish they got away with back then, even my old Chevette was way better in that dept. Maybe the '72 front and '76 hood is to blame? Either way I've got some metal work ahead of me.
Here's the other side. Not as bad but still needs work. I'm giving myself about a 1/16" tolerance on panel gaps and building up the difference with fiberglass filler.
On top off that I've finally got the mastercard out and spent some money. Ordered up some Metro door seals, door pins and body bolts from Summit,a hatch seal from the goat farm and gave Dave's Vega Village a call for front and rear lower valances. The door pins I got are for a late '90s Grand Cherokee. 3/8 dia pins and 1/2 od on the bushings, the ones they list for the Vega are smaller than these and wouldn't work. Only downside is these pins are a bit long and don't have any kind of retainer to keep them in place so I'm adding a retaining ring and cutting them shorter. Should work out nicely.
It's getting pretty close, I really only have 3 or 4 weekends I can work on it before that show in Ohio in June. The goal is to drive it down there, hope I can make it! On top of the body work I still have front bumper mounts and a few minor mechanical things to figure out by then. I think its very doable.
Phill