Great strides

We're at a point now where it seems like we're nearing the end of the disassembly, and we're starting to put things back on to the bug now. THAT is a good feeling!

It's been really hard to find the time to get up and work on the car, but Renae and the boys went to PA this weekend. It was "payback" for G and I going camping two weeks ago I suppose. So I have been taking full advantage of the situation and using my time wisely, if you will! Unfortunately, I also spent most of this weekend so far pretty sick - so out of three days, the first two went pretty slowly, but today as long as the cold meds were working so were we!

We've been making up hard to find panels from scratch. Sometimes that is pretty easy, like the inside rear apron that nobody is really going to see. But other times that is pretty difficult, like making up the outside "H" apron that EVERYONE is going to look at. We spent a little time today shaping the bar stock that will form the "H" and the little bars to either side.

Once the relief is made up, a template is used to cut out a steel blank. That steel will then be clamped to the form, and then hammered into shape. Hopefully soon we will have a planishing hammer (its on order) which will make this much easier, faster and more professional looking. The bead roller helps make the long, even grooves and shapes. It's really cool!

We got the transmission out pretty painlessly today. That was a real relief after it taking more than a dozen hours of hard labor getting the motor out last fall. We were able to save the emergency brake cables and tubes, complete with zirks. We're going to change over the brakes to a larger dual cylinder system, so most of what we took out won't necessarily be reused.

I spent a good deal of time cleaning up hardware though ~ ironically, while we can make panels large and small, matching hardware seems to be quite a problem!

There was a bit of rust that had formed in the center of the rear seat area. We knew a while ago that it had to go, so we made the repair panel some time ago - but we didn't get to actually cut out the bad area and weld in the good until now. I have to say it was a pretty challenging piece, as we had to line up panels and grooves coming from several directions.

After lots of cutting, welding, hammering, cutting, welding, hammering, cutting, welding and hammering... We got something that looks pretty darn good!

We got all of the butt welding and most of the rough shaping in tonight, but we sort of lost our light - and our steam.

So - we'll see what tomorrow brings!