Thread: '37 Oze build

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Dave, One thing I have done on interior panels that saves a ton of time and makes it a lot easier is to make your patterns out of clear plastic, like whats use for convertible top windows, cut it rough size of your panel, go to Dollar General and get some really cheap Elmers spray tack glue (for temporary bonds), spray the clear plastic with the spray tack, stick it to the door, mark all the holes and locations of bolt heads etc. on the surface because you can see through it! You can use the stuff to make patterns for all upholstery, even seats, draw the pattern you want on the door, copy to the plastic then tack the plastic to your upholstery board and drill and cut right through it, peel it off and throw it away. I wish I could stake claim to this trick but it came from a great interior shop. Best of luck Mat

Originally Posted by Matthyj

Dave, One thing I have done on interior panels that saves a ton of time and makes it a lot easier is to make your patterns out of clear plastic, like whats use for convertible top windows, cut it rough size of your panel, go to Dollar General and get some really cheap Elmers spray tack glue (for temporary bonds), spray the clear plastic with the spray tack, stick it to the door, mark all the holes and locations of bolt heads etc. on the surface because you can see through it! You can use the stuff to make patterns for all upholstery, even seats, draw the pattern you want on the door, copy to the plastic then tack the plastic to your upholstery board and drill and cut right through it, peel it off and throw it away. I wish I could stake claim to this trick but it came from a great interior shop. Best of luck Mat

Thanks for the tip!

I finally managed to make contact with Dan Baker at Alumicraft. Soon, I'm going to send my grille to Alumicraft, to be used as a mock-up grille. My grille is mostly junk anyway. I ran into more problems while trying to improve the fit of my grille. I needed to lengthen the mounting flange on the driver's side, so I picked a couple of places where the fin spacing was too close together, so they could be spread slightly, then welded back together. When I cut through one of them, a group of about 15 fins all moved outward close to 1/8", making them wider than the body. There was no way I'd ever be able to apply enough force to moved the fins back to their original width, so I got out the belt sander and spent several hours sanding them back to a width that would match the body.

I also applied some bondo to the grille, just to show Alumicraft the exact width and curvature of the mounting flange, in a couple of areas. The angle on the top fin is now a lot closer to matching the angle of the hood, but still not perfect. I decided to quit while I was ahead, rather than risk any more cutting that would allow the internal stresses to distort the grille.