More fun with Gene

For a brief moment I started to feel a touch dissatisfied with the progress that we are making. It seems like we put in a huge day and when I look at the car I can’t see what we did. Then it struck me that I had probably overdosed on car shows, you know, Pimp my Ride, Wrecks to Riches, Trick my Truck. Now I know that they don’t actually get a full restoration done in 30 minutes (duh) but they claim it takes a week. Still they have a huge team and work 24/7. Team Galaxie comprises of Gene, Marco and myself and now the evenings are drawing in we will shortly be down to just one day a week. The good news is that time is not of the essence and the real problem is that I am excited about getting this proud and haughty beauty back on the road.
So progress this weekend; I get the gas tank slosh and spend hours getting the rust out of

Me with a tank full of stones

the tank. Marco came up with the ultimate solution, which was to fill the tank with rocks and shake rattle and roll for 30 minutes. After that we sandblasted the tank and found several small pinholes that the slosh is supposed to seal. Gene (the professional that he is) decided that we should Bondo the outside first and get this, he also sanded the Bondo down. This is the top of tank, which is not only out of sight but pressed up against the body. This is the quality of his work


Gene gives a master class

Marco sandblasted the underside of the chassis and body and then sprayed on the primer. The smell of the paint made me retch at 20 feet but Marco is spraying happily with no mask and a cigarette in the other hand.

Marco proving that he can live without oxygen


I got the hardware off the bumpers so that we can get them sent away for re-chroming. Damn there is a huge amount of metal and brackets, these bumpers are build like a box girder bridge. One of the great things about working in a professional shop is having the right tools. The air powered impact wrench made short work of 43 years of rust and I would still be there if I was using a socket wrench.


The last time she was on the road


I am going to have to replace the wheels with 15” in order to accommodate the front disks which means that I have a set of 14”alloys surplus to requirements. One of Gene’s buddies turned up on Saturday and in conversation it transpired that he has a set of skirts for the Galaxie (skirts are the panels that shroud the rear wheels and I think that they make the car look even cooler). It may be that a straight swap is going to happen here and that works fine for me.

Finally, between writing this entry and publishing it, Gene arrived for a coffee and a chat. He thinks that he may have a set of 15" wire wheels and that would be so sweet. Watch this space.