A New Year

February 7, 2018

According to Stu, it’s best for the project to keep momentum. So, while there was certainly time to finish the body and paint work since my last update in early December, he chose to do a little each week (holidays excluded), slow but steady. This approach was perfect, as the motor parts were languishing in the machine shop, that turning into it’s own little comedy.

While it might have been a little overly dramatic to call the comedy with the motor a tragedy, I tried to appreciate the humor in the situation. For background, when I dropped off the block and attendant parts in November at the shop, the machinist said he’d be finished in about two or three weeks, as he reeled off a list of projects that sound like they wouldn’t be finished in twice that time. I was in no real hurry, as the justdashes.com was not going to finish my dash until mid-January at the earliest. That meant the body would not be ready for many months. So why rush on the motor?

Who knew that meant that more than three months later I still wouldn’t have the motor back from the machinist?

Now, to his credit, after 10 weeks of saying his work would be finished by the end of the week, the most recent time I called he said it would be done “tomorrow.” That was three days ago. But, progress!

Real progress: the slow but steady body work.

As previously reported, the hood and trunk were painted in November and in early December Stu finished rust repairs and priming the body. That continued a few days a week.

And other parts were painted during the last month of the year.

And then finally the shell, including the engine compartment, got painted.

Next? The “new” dash and the glass will be installed and the body re-assembled. And with any luck, “tomorrow” may eventually come and the motor parts will be ready for me to begin assembling the motor.