The fun never ends

Another very full day for team Galaxie (albeit that the invisible man seems to have gone forever, with my $20, the git). As it happens this is not slowing us down at all as there is still a veritable cornucopia of body work to be done. Gene has been very kindly working on the Galaxie during the week so I offered to trade a few hours on projects for him, which has the added bonus of keeping the damned block sander out of my hands.

So I started my day by installing a nice word burning stove in the Galaxie garage. Check it out, my ass is going to be toasty all winter!
OK so the flue is a touch Jed Clampett-esque but I testing it with some cardboard and kindling and is draws just fine and that is all the matters.

Gene decided that it was about time I learned how to use the torches, so we set about cutting the centers out of wheels (I would tell you why but it was a bit complicated). So he starts off with a perfect circle cut freehand and passed the torch to me. Let me tell you people that when it comes to cutting and welding, I am complete and utter crap. I don't know how I did it but the wheel went super nova and fell apart. I am sure that Gene had never seen anything like it as he just looked at this puddle of molten steel and quietly turned off the gas bottles.

On another miserable note here is why I hate sanding. Below is the left fender (or wing, to my European readers). Gene had previously welded up the holes where the remote control mirror was (and where the spotlight will be). You can see in the center the green filler, and around the edges the white finishing filler. Notice how beautifully I have feathered it all in. Now look at the four corners and you can see bare metal. This means that the metal is too high, so I will have to beat it down with a pecking hammer, fill it all again and start sanding again. You see why I hate this sanding nonsense, just like those Aegean stables, it never ends, call me Hercules

Below is a picture of the replacement drivers door. The image does not do justice to my skill as a sander as I think that it is almost done and thus ready to be installed.

I also took a cartload of tires off rims and sorted some scrap from good stuff. I ended up with these

Now I know that the purists will whinge on about them not being the right wheels but ;

I need 15" wheels to accommodate the disc brakes that will eventually be fitted. The car must have discs, not just because of the greater stopping power but also because a single line braking system is about as sensible as assuming that the parking brake is a good emergency backup. The only Galaxie that had 15" wheels was the 427 so whatever I do will be wrong. In any case only the most tiny penised of pedants is going to care. I think that with the accents painted in Viking Blue they are going to look sweet. In addition I got them for the scrap value of the metal, not of course that that affected my decision.