The 1957 Hood Plus Strategy Considerations

I have spent a few hours trying to prep the 1957 hood for primer. Unfortunately my endeavors have not met with much success. The hood actually might be too far gone to salvage.. There is a small dent/bulge in the hood probably caused by it being shut on something that was left sitting on the engine? It is proving to be very difficult to repair and I am getting close to giving up on the process. I have to admit my "shade tree" bodywork skills are probably being pushed to the limit and as a result it might be time to turn it over to an expert or even pursue a replacement hood? However this all becomes a secondary consideration if I do not plan to reassemble the 1957??

I continue to ponder my strategy around the disposal of the extra car (the 1957) and the related parts. How far should I take the reassembly before throwing in the towel and hitting Kijijji and placing an ad? The big issue for me is making one drivable car out of the two and having enough money generated from the sale of the second car to finish the first one. My "spider sense" tells me to reassemble the powder coated chassis with all the good parts from both cars then sell off the remaining vehicle as a "basket case". This action must be taken soon as I really feel the need to make a definitive decision and get on with it?

Primer and Such

Current Work: I managed to get back into the garage late last week after returning from vacation. I straightened out the rear spare tire cover and primed it plus the hood and both doors. Total time spent about 8 hours. Yesterday I started doing the prep on the 1957 hood for priming-realizing I waited a little too long between sandblasting and priming so some surface rust formed. Easy to remedy at this stage..

Overall Strategy:

A friend indicated I am probably a better planner than do-er and he is probably right. This observation fits my Meyers-Briggs personality profile..INTJ-I am a big picture kind of guy...details often mess me up....Talking about the "big picture", nothing gets my creative juices flowing more than an early morning planning session and the creation of a critical path to follow.... The problem comes with actually committing time during the day to get the work done that has been planned. I think this is a common issue with people restoring vehicles and one that is causing me a fair amount of grief with respect to making progress... but at least I am aware of the problem..now I am trying to address it...

1957: Hopefully I am going to be able to get the 1957 tub sandblasted along with a couple of the fenders next week. I have a friend who works for a sandblasting firm who has offered to do the work. I really need to get the tub primed and an assessment of the work needed to be done completed. I am uncertain how I am going to proceed but for now are considering a partial reconstruction of the car and subsequent marketing if all goes well..

1959: I need to be heads down on the bodywork while the weather is still good. I want to have the car painted by mid September and if I am going to do this there needs to be a focused systematic approach. Much of the major body work has been completed-it is mainly paint prep that needs to be done...

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.

Back In The Garage

I have been distracted by a 3rd party home reno project so no TR3 time for the past few weeks. Yesterday I returned to the garage to put away wood working tools and clean up so I can get started again on the reassembly. I am eager to get the body work completed so I can prime the rear of the tub and move on the the rear left fender reassembly. I have to be satisfied with incremental steps taken on a day to day basis. I really want to be driving this car in the summer...

Taking Stock and Cleaning Up

After a few days away from my TR3 project I ventured back out to the garage t0 clean up and put my tools etc away. I need to do this every so often in order to start fresh in an organized way. I also temporarily reattached the reworked body panels to the car to get them out of the way. It was satisfying to see the blue primered panels in place which resulted in a tinge of "job satisfaction" being experienced. Lot of work left...

I also thought about the 1957 car yesterday and what I should do with it. I am considering some options..;.