C1 1959 Hand Laid Nose vs Press Molded Panels for Bride of Frankenstein

[Richard M.]

I'm restoring a 59 that has serious surround and nose issues. Reminds me of the old horror movie character B of F. Car has been patched up over the years with improper repairs in about 20 places.

A HL nose can be acquired locally in a week(I'm in FL, about 1 hr from the supplier in Titusville FL), & the PM panels about 6-8 weeks out plus freight. The HL one-piece nose w/inner skirts is about one fifth of the cost of a PM nose. However, I was considering 3 major PM panels, namely a hood surround, front valence & new right inner skirt. Lower side fenders & rockers are good. The PM supplier resides in Indiana.

-HL nose, 2 skirts, hood apx $2100.
-PM hood surround, lower front valence, rt inner skirt, hood bnd strps, w freight apx $4200

The car does not want to be perfect, i.e. flighted, shows etc. It told me it wants the HL nose. It says it wants to be a nice driver. I tried to convince it that it'd be better off with PM panels. I said that later on if it's ever sold it would have more value with PM vs HL but it won't listen to me. It wants to keep costs down. I told it that fit and detail won't be like it used to be. That it will be hard to line up the fender lines and hood area, and that when I go to put all of it's jewelry back on it won't fit right and I'll have to make modifications and take longer to get it right. I told it why spend all that money on a paint job knowing what's underneath may have problems later.
She just wants to look decent on the outside and drive around and have fun.

Could you please give me your opinions of what the real life trials and tribulations of installing, fitting, painting & trim assembly of a one-piece HL nose is? Total labor hours comparisons for both appreciated too. Details welcomed.

Thanks,
Rich

[Mark P.]

C1 1959 Hand Laid Nose vs Press Molded Panels for Bride of Frankenstein

Has anyone that has done a fair amount of fiberglass looked at your car. I would think you should repair your nose with fiberglass that you have colored to match. I have done some fiberglass and the repairs were pretty hard to detect. Having all original bonding strips is real nice and much more desirable.
My 60 needs some repairs but I plan to keep all the original panels.


I bought my 65 with a one piece hand laid front end which discounted the car at least $5K. I wish it would have had an original or PM front end. I took some hits in flight judging. I bought the car thinking I would never get it judged but things changed.

[Brad H.]

Re: C1 1959 Hand Laid Nose vs Press Molded Panels for Bride of Frankenstein

If your panels are original and someone talented enough can glass it correctly, why not call it all original, now that would make you more proud, just my 2 cents worth. Thanks and Merry XMAS, Brad.

[Lynn H.]

Re: C1 1959 Hand Laid Nose vs Press Molded Panels for Bride of Frankenstein

Richard,
I am certain you may get a lot of ideas and opinions on this, so I will throw about a couple that come to mind right off the top of my head.
How this project is undertaken does and will have later implications on the value of your car if or when you ever decide to pass it on to the next guy. Even if that is not a concern right now, as Mark mentioned things seem to change later in life. My experience with these cars in general, is that most of the folks I know who have gone the inexpensive route on things like this, wished they had not later on.
Another thing concerning the HL one piece, versus the PM panels, is that the top of the dash is part of the original and the PM surround, while NOT part of the one piece I see in the catalog from the supplier you referenced.
This fact makes it more likely to be more involved, time consuming, and possibly more expense involved. Especially true if your paying someone to install the parts, in the one piece versus the PM panels. It does sound like you may be doing the work yourself so this may not be applicable to your situation.
My own personal experience is that anytime I have ever spliced panels (and most of the ones I have seen done by others), always come back to haunt you through the paint at some time in the future. Usually sooner rather than later. If your planning on having someone else do the paint work, this comes into play for them and possibility of the way they approach standing behind the job later on.
Another thing about the possibility of having a shop do your paint work for you, is that if you have someone in mind, you might want to speak with them before you order the parts yourself. Many of the Corvette specialty shops can get some pretty good discounts on large purchases such as this, and they may be willing to pass some of that off to you if you are planning on doing business with them later.
The bottom line is you have to do what you feel works best for you and your situation financial and otherwise. i am sure you will get many opinions. Just a couple of mine,
Lynn

[Jerry W.]

Re: C1 1959 Hand Laid Nose vs Press Molded Panels for Bride of Frankenstein

B of F is naked now and she's ugly.....give her a nice boob job yourself....a nip and tuck here and there and you'll be glad you kept her as original as possible...my two cents

[Edward M.]

Re: C1 1959 Hand Laid Nose vs Press Molded Panels for Bride of Frankenstein

With enough work you can make an HL front end look like a PM front end. Grind the inside smooth and put the bonding strips where they belong.

It is a lot of work, but I have seen it done on some very nice cars (before PM panels were available).

[Lynn H.]

Re: C1 1959 Hand Laid Nose vs Press Molded Panels for Bride of Frankenstein

With enough work you can make an HL front end look like a PM front end. Grind the inside smooth and put the bonding strips where they belong.

It is a lot of work, but I have seen it done on some very nice cars (before PM panels were available).

I not sure how it fits in the equation from a financial standpoint, but aren't some of the manufacturers making a one piece PM with the bonding strips, as to appear original. I have not personally seen any, and not sure what years they are available for, but I have heard they are pretty nice also.
Lynn

[Stewart A.]

Re: C1 1959 Hand Laid Nose vs Press Molded Panels for Bride of Frankenstein

My car was way worse than that ! Try 3 times more body damage and I have worked with the original panels and you would never know. Clean up what's there. Fiberglass is great to work with. Stewy

[Richard M.]

Re: C1 1959 Hand Laid Nose vs Press Molded Panels for Bride of Frankenstein

Hi Guys....Thanks for the replies. Been wrapped up with some family stuff and finally got back in here. I agree whith most all points, except in this case I have some limitations I am obligated to consider. Sorry for being long winded but you know me.....mr. details.

Bride of Fr. belongs to a friend of mine and yes I'll be doing the work. I had pretty much convinced him to go with the separate PM panels and we were ready to push the button to order things and then he got gun shy. A PM front end from Sermersheims lists for about $5700 now, and that was out of the question for his budget. Just the PM panels I was going to change totalled about $4200. The one piece HL front end is about $1000, hood about $500, with no freight as we would pick it up about an hour away there at Ecklers. Turnaround is about a week after order is placed. The PM panels are out 6 weeks, the hood about 8 weeks.

I agree that down the road the PM process is the way to go but cost is a big factor. He's owned the car about 35 years and just wants a nice driver and he is not into what we're all into here. He plans on keeping the car until the end. As a friend I have to understand what he wants and will be here to help him with his goals. The decision is made and we'll be getting the HL front end & hood soon. BTW, the radiator support on the car is bad and we have a reproduction on order, arriving around the same time as FG. I have another experienced friend helping me, but I have not done a one piece HL FE like this before.

Lynn, you wrote, "Another thing concerning the HL one piece, versus the PM panels, is that the top of the dash is part of the original and the PM surround, while NOT part of the one piece I see in the catalog from the supplier you referenced."........
That's exactly the thing I was thinking about too. I can't understand why the FE doesn't include material up to the entire winshield mount area. This way there are no visible seams. I'm going to have to splice it in near each wiper post and am planning bonding reinforcements under the seams just like other panels on the car. Problem is getting it properly secured while the bonding adhesive sets up. I was planning the "sheetmetal screw" method to hold it then remove & fill the holes. Opinions?

As far as doing repairs on the existing body, we really tried to consider that but it's just too much work and fear of problems down the road after paint. There was about a 7/8" inch gap between the hood front lip and the front center panel. If you look at the first picture carefully(below), the pass side distance from the grill to the rear of the front panel lip at the hood corners is about 3/4" more on pass side than drivers side. She has a droopy upper lip if you look close. That's because the prior repairs were not aligned from the beginning. Also the rt inner skirt is too far forward at the repairs there(look at sway bar vs semicircle relief in the skirt in my first post) See more photos below and you'll see what I was talking about the metal plates and pop rivets.

If there are other "watch outs" and "gotchas" about the HL FE I'd like to hear them before I get into it. I also have concerns about how all of the trims will fit. Am I going to have fit and gap issues here? I at least have my own all original body panel'd '59 sitting next to this one so I'll have a "model" to go by.

Thanks for the help!
Rich