Back at Panel Bashing

For the last few days I have been working on the doors: The weather for the most part has been cooperating and nothing is better than working in the garage on a warm summer night especially when there are no thundershowers to contend with. I have finished removing all the paint from the right hand door and placed a skim coat of filler to smooth out the contour. In my wisdom (based on an assessment of the existing left hand door skin) I determined to make one good door out of two and sacrifice a damaged door with a good skin to be a donor. The process worked well and I think in the long run will be much more time efficient than trying to repair the existing skin. I also determined to revisit an existing patch panel and through my assessment determined my first attempt is not acceptable so I started over again using the discarded door skin for the purpose. It worked great.

I am trying to get the car totally in primer by July 3rd. I am going to keep my head down and push for this milestone prior to my vacation. I know I will need a break from all the toxic activities related to the body work. When I get back in late July I am going to go back to the mechanical work.

Automotive Project Jealousy

Last weekend I was working in my driveway when I heard someone "feathering" the throttle of a high performance car to get it to idle appropriately. I looked up and saw my neighbor Jim driving his 1968 Camaro around the block. The paint was all stripped with some filler applied. It looks like he is getting ready to take it in for paint. Jim has been working steadily on the car over the last year and a half and it looks like he now has a "runner".

I experienced a full range of emotions as I looked toward the street and saw him motoring by. I will admit I "internally" shared the experience with him and how great it must feel to take the car out of the garage and onto the street under it's own power. At the same time I felt extreme jealousy and disappointment in myself for not being in the same position myself. (we both started our projects at around the same time) The blame game started to get played and from there things got progressively worst emotionally as I crashed into a state of self loathing. It took me a full 2 days to recover-not good. The experience opened my eyes as to what is happening in my life and what I found out was very illuminating to say the least.

!957 Tub Comes Home

Last week I made arrangements to have the 1957 body delivered to my driveway. The tub was sitting beside a quonset in a farmers field and really needed to be brought home. Other than cleaning out some grass and mud and putting a car cover on no additional work has been done. It was a tremendous relief to finally arrange the transfer. Cost $50.

I was surprised how "solid" the tub is. A considerable amount of body work has been done already. I just need to neutralize the rust and get the tub cleaned up. Critical path has been set up. I just need to turn up and do the work.