Collateral Damage…

Two other things that burned me this weekend aside from that bad patch piece was the fact that I destroyed my pullover jacket. You see I got in the welding mode and didn’t care to put on the protective jacket my dad has and that I wore many times while welding just feet away. I was welding in the vinyl top holes on the sail panel leaning on the car when I experienced a nasty burning smell. I stopped and looked around on the floor, then to my dad, and finally down my chest to see a decent flame climbing towards my face. I quickly snuffed it out but not before my jacket paid the price for my stupidity. Later as I was finishing the weld on the trunk lid my dad wanted to take the lid off so I could sandblast it. Well he started to loosen the bolts and I didn’t want the lid to simply slide down and cause a problem so I placed my hand on the corner, which is where I just finished welding. Needless to say I branded myself. After this experience I can’t see how people choose to brand things into their body. I now have a small line to remind me of the day I wasn’t thinking, TWICE!!!!!!!

Out of Major Surgery…

This weekend was a nice boost to this long process of bringing a muscle car back from the dead. The passenger side fender was welded on and straightened to match the body lines. It wasn’t as difficult as I once thought it would be. I’m sure glad I wanted to learn to weld or this would probably not have been done so quickly with calendar conflicts. We had to also make a couple small metal patches to go under the wheelhouse to have some metal to weld it to. Then we hand sanded the replacement piece so we could primer it gray so in the end the paint wouldn’t appear darker with the black. I'm glad to have this piece on there finally. We would have actually had the other side done too but I had to send the patch pieces back to Sherman Parts because they bent the piece wrong and the body line was off by a full two inches. This is the second piece I got from there that was bent wrong. Anyway I experienced the frustration of having a nice day and the time to complete the ¼ panel with the wrong piece to put on the car. Just something I’ll have to wait for again.

ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For the engine.

My addiction to the Internet has resulted in another unexpected purchase for Rusty. Something I wasn’t really looking for but for some reason kept typing it in Craigslist ( online classifieds). I would type in the numbers 383 big block MOPAR. After probably two months of just monitor shopping these engines going for a couple thousand dollars I came upon this listing that was intriguing - 1968 Dodge 383 engine with 727 tourque flight tranny $350 - At first I thought it was just the block itself, but I emailed the guy who said it was a running engine but blew oil and has been sitting for 6 years. Also the tranny would need a rebuild. I was excited about the opportunity and called my dad to see if this is something we could do. He shot the idea down at first and I emailed the guy back and told him to forget it. An hour later my dad called back and said to offer him $300. Therefore I had to email the guy back and try and make a deal. He accepted the offer and two days later we were off to Constantine to pick up Rusty’s future engine. I’m always one for road trips, so I was very excited. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. We had no problems getting it or bringing it back. The 383 is now resting in my garage as we will slowly begin that part of the restoration later. I know in the end I will have to put some money in this engine, but I chose this route instead of buying a read-to-drop-in-engine for the simple fact that I wouldn’t learn anything about engines if I did that. Plus I think I will appreciate it more when I can say that I helped re-build the engine. Onward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Learning to Weld

Mostly the last weekend was devoted to learning how to weld and getting it right before I applied my skills to the car. It took us many hours to complete the bottom patch to this door. It was a long process, but in the end replacing and applying new sheet metal will go much further. All the rust and rotted holes were cut off the bottom of the door. While the door was off we were able to clean and undercoat the front fender. I have to say that I did a pretty good job on the welding on this door. Another small objective achieved in this process. I am learning and having fun seeing the car getting new clothes.

Front Valance

After banging out some small dents in the front valance, blasting off the surface rust and getting some clean primer on there, I put it back on the front so it wasn’t just sitting around. The garage only has so much space. It’s a small victory, but it’s nice to have moments in this process where something is done being cleaned. I gave the frame a blasting and the surrounding areas before the valance was put on. Those areas were pretty clean, just 38 years of surface rust. It could have been much worse.

Beautiful sunny days make me happy…

Beautiful sunny days make me happy… Why? Rusty gets to take in some rays and breathe in some fresh air while I sand blast the top. Though a ladder gives some leverage, I needed a boost to get the whole roof. Up on top there was just surface rust that was baked in from years sitting. It all cleaned off real nice. Rusty would appreciate it too. Imagine not taking a shower to wash your hair in 20 years or so.