It was a great opportinity to work Nick Sr. and Nicky on the restoration of this body since it was one of the cars I saw on a regular basis at local funny car matchraces when I was growing up.
The photos below were shot as we worked on the project. Th caption will take you thru the process and the scope of the work needed to achieve the finished product.
The U.S. Male came to us on a flatbed trailer and it needed alot of work. The wheelbase had beed stretched to fit a 125 inch chassis, but that was about it, the rest was up to us.
The first thing we tackled ws the body scoop on the quarter panel. When the wheelwell was moved back, the scoop was left in the original location. That was not acceptable and itneeded to be moved to the proper location in respect to the wheelwell. This left us with a hole. To fil this we cut out the patch that was there, bent some scrap alumnum to the shape of the body and back filled with fiberglass mat.
As you can see by the color of the body we are well into the process of smoothing the body. Jason works on the quarter panel and Dave works o the windchield. There were holes in the hood for frot tire clearance. The holes are now filled and wheel bubbles fabricated.
At this point the first draft of the body work is done and it's ready for the spary booth.
In the booth we lay down the first layer of gel coat to seal in the body work. With the gel cat on we go over it one mort time and fill any pin holes and imperfections. Then it's back into the booth for primer.
We masked out and layed down the colors then Steve Bell came over and airbrushed the lights and the grille. After he was done the body was cleared and rubbed out. Steve and Karen Bell returned to complete the lettering and pinstripe the colors.
All done and making the maiden run at Atco Raceway on June 20, 2008 looking like 1978..