As I’ve said before… when I decided to write a build thread, I committed to documenting this entire foreign experience… the good, the bad, and the ugly from the unique-ish perspective of a non-car guy who has never done anything like this.
This is my one and only - first and last - car restoration.
For perspective - until just a bit ago - I called the ‘wing windows’, ‘triangle windows’.
I am not proud of that.
But I am committed to being honest.
To the point:
I reckon 90+% of you have dealt with serious ‘body work and paint’ before.
But, for me, my only experience is hammering out the Volvo wagon fender that I crushed because I was 16 and young and dumb and doing multiple things I shouldn’t have been doing on a very curvy road.
Other than that, I have no experience. I have been trying to get this car done for literally years, and being 531 miles away didn’t help. Covid and busy body shops didn’t help (I heard at least 3 times… “Call us in a year, and we’ll see if we can take you then).
Rewind to August 17, 2022… almost 10 months ago to the day:
iloveredmeat wrote: ↑Wed Aug 17, 2022 10:15 pm
They'll pick it up in a week after their vacation (at a race track), and off we go. I am so excited.
Naive little me thought that was a huge turning point… the beginning of the end… the watershed moment… when a ton of important work would get done and we would soon crest the disassembly hill and speed down the assembly grade.
Not so much. Nope. Nada.
I reiterate that my brother has zero obligation to put my projects in front of his. He is an Extremely busy guy, and I am repeatedly amazed that he even helps me at all. But, with his busy schedule, we missed our slot, another car jumped in front of us, then the winter rains absolutely hammered these guys and they couldn’t even take any work if they wanted to due to flooding, etc.
So, for a gazillion reasons, and the fact that I couldn’t take time to fly up and do it myself, it took over 9 months for my car to finally make it to the body and paint guy.
But, here we are, and I finally have actual documentable progress on the body and paint!
My brother carved out valuable time and was able to get the car to the body guy about 2 weeks ago.
That was the official beginning of the ‘Body and Paint’ chapter of the Restoration Saga.
I will be traveling up north for a family reunion at the end of July, and am extending my stay to work on the car.
I was originally hoping that body/paint would be done, but that’s no longer feasible. I just spoke with Kevin, the body/paint guy, last night and got some updates - some good, some bad.
He has the outside stripped to bare metal and has the body off the frame. He did find some bondo around my rear tail lights, but nothing major, and some bondo hiding damage on the replacement passenger side fender, but it’s all workable. The bigger issue is the rear clip that was supposed to be the panacea for the trunk and rear wheel wells was not quite as good as we hoped... at least up into the quarters. The floors, wheel wells, and rear ‘luggage wall” are excellent and that’s the important part. He’ll be able to cut them in on factory seems with my good upper rear quarters. This is all fine, it’s just money that I don’t have.
Good news: Since I first realized the extent of the trunk rot, I wanted to do a frame-off. In an ideal world, and if I was actually with my car, I would have definitely planned for a frame-off restoration. But, since the world is not ideal, and I am not with my car, I’d have to ask my brother to squeeze my body and frame in one of his bays, take up valuable shop space, shuttle one or both back and forth, and that’s not fair, and would just be a pain in the ass for him.
So, I’ve always surrendered to the reality that doing a frame-off is just not practical, if even possible. Hands tied. Oh well, at least the frame is in excellent shape, I’d remind myself.
But... never say never... and now that body is off, I see an opportunity! Kevin did offer to do the entire chassis… the full nine yards, but frankly, I just can’t afford it.
Kevin told me that the frame is in excellent condition, and I could run it as is, but it would be a shame to put such a beautiful body on an unclean frame. It doesn’t need the full powder coat, but it would be nice to at least paint it. So during our talk, we hatched a plan!
Between now and when I go up, he’s going to get the bodywork done and the entire body primed. The day I get there, we’re going by the paint supply store and pick up the paint together.
Jeez, some of my posts are boring.
Then I’ll tow the frame to my brother’s and power wash it somehow (rental, hire a mobile person). Get ‘er all cleaned and degreased, and assess everything.
Then I’ll take the driveshaft to get balanced.
While that water on the frame dries, I’ll be at a family reunion.
Then I’ll marry the engine with the transmission.
Then once the frame is dry, I’ll paint that sucker.
Then, while the paint is drying, I’ll assess the suspension, brake lines, motor mounts, etc. And do some other cool shit.
Then, if all of that happens, I will proclaim a miracle and mount the motor/tranny on the frame.
Hallelujah.
Long shot, but what a plan!
Wish me luck.
Peter