Seriously, Reassembling a car after a full windows-out, bare metal paint job takes a lot of time. We're working on the car about 10-15 hours a week and it's not something that can be rushed. We make little steps forward with each session and make progress every day.
This past week's progress includes installing the front bumper with all new seals, as well as refinishing the factory date-matched ATS Cookie Cutter wheels.
We were tempted to replace the original 15x6-inch alloys with a slightly wider 15x7 version, but in the end, the fact that all five are original gave us pause. We used lacquer thinner and a red 3M Scotchbrite finishing pad to clean and scuff the surface before giving them a shot of SEM matte aluminum lacquer. The result is a perfect match to the original finish. The freshly-finished wheels were mounted up with Kumho Solus 195/65R15 tires—a nice modern upgrade to the original 185/70R15 Dunlops that came on the car. We kept one of the original Dunlops to use as a "Concours Spare" but will use a real tire for spare use on the road.
Those big rubber bumpers were used on the 1973 cars. While many 1973s have had these admittedly freakishly large bumperettes replaced with the more subtle metal versions, ours still has them in another nod towards originality.
For headlights, we're using near-Period correct Cibie BOBI H4 headlights. They look much like a normal sealed-beam headlight bulb, but they've got the better replaceable H4 bulb and reflector. These are trimmed with the original "sugar scoop" frames.
Out back, we've finished up the installation of the rear lights and bumpers as well.
Next up, we'll start the door reassembly process.
