4/2/2011. Second attempt to glue the front. Friends Tony Serritella, Kevin Arnold, and Bob LeSatz were there to help. Notice the fixtures on the cowl and side so that the front could be rapidly and correctly placed after the glue had been applied. Even though I had experimented with how much hardener to use to determine how much time we had, it was to no avail. It went off in about 10 minutes, about five minutes too soon. We got the cowl set, but not the sides. So I had to take the front off again, remove hardened glue from the cowl and the underneath of the front, repair the bonding surfaces, and re-fixture everything.
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From the pictures it looks like you are in Arizona or New Mexico. Since it is very dry the polyester resin you are using is going to cure more rapidly than if the environment was 50% humidity or higher. If I were bonding the front to the body I would have considered using epoxy. In recreating the bonding strips I would have tried using the body clip surface to recreate the bonding strips and then attach/bond them to the cowl.
I am wondering ig you are using the bonding compound that is a thickened polyester resin with chopped glass fibers and powdered glass mixture to which you add the hardener. This stuff was used in a number of articles that appeared in some Peterson publications throughout the years where it was used to join fiberglass parts or fiberglass flares to wheel well openings.
What was used originally by the factory? Do you have any idea what the assembly procedure was at the factory?