A convert (with a convertable)

Well I was there rubbing down the primer and I am sure that I don't have to tell you how little fun I was having. Still it is showing the nicks and chips and dings that I missed on the last 20 or so walk arounds and that is a good thing.
Red has taken to calling in on a Thursday and he brings his Galaxie which just serves to remind me how nice my one will have to be. It transpires that he broke down this week when his distributor fell apart. The good news is that NAPA can supply a new one for just $55 and the really good news is that he decided to use this opportunity to convert to electronic ignition. So to all the old boys who scorned my conversion I now have a convert and his Galaxie (like mine) starts up on the first crank. Je suis une rock star baby.

Progress!

Well the Galaxie was for the briefest time all one color, here's how it went down.

I have pretty much got to the end of the sanding and under Gene's watchful eye decided to spray the whole car with the expensive (ouch) primer. So after a long tedious trip around with masking tape and newspaper she was almost ready. A quick wipe over with a rag (having checked to make sure it wasn't a pair of Gene's old pants, I still don't know why he does that) followed by a more serious wipe with a tack cloth and we were set.

I parked that car under a shade tree to keep the sun off and we mixed up the primer. Up until now we have been using some old stuff that Gene has about 50 gallons of. This we throw into the spray gun and shoot. However this stuff is the real deal and requires thinning and mixing with hardener and so on. Well about half of the car was well shaded so I started on the right side and really did not make too shabby a job of it.

Then the sun came out and the roof and left side got too hot. So whilst we waited for the sun to move over the tree again we decided to go visit a friend, forgetting about the paint in the gun. Now the old primer you can leave in the gun forever but remember I said that the new primer we added hardener? Well you get my drift, when we returned the primer had turned to jelly in the gun and we were royal screwed. Hours later I got the gun cleaned out and with the pot full of thinners was desperately trying to remove the last of the jelly from the nozzle. Just when I thought that the gun was toast it spluttered and farted and blew a chunk of snot out followed by clear thinner. We had just enough primer to finish albeit that Gene (who hates to waste a penny) complained bitterly for the rest of the day about the primer that we tossed out. Such is life at the body shop. Once the primer was on I was able to once again check out my sanding and joy of joys there are not too many faults and those are going to be easy to fill and buff out. At this point Gene decided that it might be fun to spray some lacquer paint over the areas that we had particularly worked on so see what they would look like under gloss. Once again I have to say that the quality of our sanding and filling was pretty damned good. Even the big areas behind the driver's door and the front fender where we welded in a patch to remove the fender mirror came out real well. So we have some ares that need a touch more work and the the entire car needs to be blocked but all in all a very productive (and tiring) day.

PS I almost forgot in celebration I took her out on the lane again. This time just for fun I lit her up and left a most satisfying trail of rubber and smoke behind me. Happy days

The parts are arriving

Well I haven't blogged for a while as nothing really exciting has happened. I did collect the bumpers and assorted trim this week and hats off to the chromers, the bumpers look tremendous. The interior parts are starting to arrive and everything looks cool. I am hoping to get a coat of primer on this weekend and then more sanding. I think that the end is in sight.

The saga continues

Saturday was hotter than the very anus of Satan himself so not a great deal got done on the Galaxie. I am now down to the fine scratch filler which is good and every time I walk around I see another chip or scratch. It was way to hot to spray primer so that didn't happen which was a disappointment as I was looking to see the car all one color. I did, however, carefully remove the roof liner and sailboards. There is some minor rust in the roof but nothing worth writing home about. For want of something better to do I cleaned and vacuumed the car out and wiped years of crap off the top of the dashboard. It was satisfying to see it start to look almost, kind of, nearly, maybe, sharp.

The rest of the day was spent getting one of the F100's ready for Ebay. Now if only I can find a mug, well qualified and motivated buyer. Hopefully I can turn that into a pile of cash. It would certainly be good to see money coming in for a change.

Finally, excitement of excitements, the new interior is due to arrive tomorrow. I won't be able to sleep tonight!

Revelations

As a result of last weeks misery I have discovered two important facts.

1. A new fuel tank costs $322. I know this because I bought one

2. God is obviously a Chevy man.

Bollocks!

I decided that I should order up the interior for the Galaxie. Two reasons; I figured they may be a delay whilst parts were back ordered and I wanted to spread the costs as I knew that the bumpers were due back from the electro-platers. So I dropped $2755 on the interior and lo and behold the very next day the chrome work is ready and the Shylock's want $1225. Such is life.

On Thursday I was once again sanding away when I started to smell gas and looking underneath I saw that the gas tank had split. Ah more expense but am I disheartened, crestfallen, monumentally pissed off more that words can say? You bet your *&^%ing ass I am!

The need for speed

OK Saturday was block sanding and block sanding and block sanding. It was a day without the slightest molecule of enjoyment or satisfaction. I didn't even get to spray the first coat of primer (although I did get to block the entire car).

Because it had been such a crap day I threw caution (and my liberty) to the winds and took the beast for a drive. It occurred to me afterwards that had the local deputy stopped me it would have been easier for him to write a ticket listing the things that I was driving with, than without. (Well at least we now have a driver's door that latches closed). So I wound it up and we were flying down the lane. It was so fast that small tornadoes of sanding grit whirled out of the dashboard, so fast that the g forces sucked my eyeballs into the trunk, so fast that I caught myself grinning like a retard. Now get this; at 70mph in top gear I mashed the throttle into the floorboard and I swear to God that this magnificent engine made the rear end hunker down and we were just eating the road up. Now the engine is still hardly set up and running on regular gas instead of the premium it so richly deserves. I am still smiling as I type this which is the silver lining to my otherwise naff day.