A few notes on the side...
Thanks for the fan mail...I'm pleased that my wordy rantings are
so well recieved. Progress on the Yellow Car is moving along and barring
financial disaster we should make it to British Car Day at Chateu Elan
by May 21. I have computed about $2400 remaining cost. It would seem my
two Chevrolets are becoming somewhat jealous for my affection and like a
spoiled child they will 'pitch a fit' and demand attention by not allowing
me to get to work!
It was my original intent to do the interior first and save the
engine to the very last...however it's been too cold in the garage to use
any sort of adhesive so we're doing the engine now while its cold.
C8*) <- smiley w/wool hat, safety glasses and cold nose
Imagine...in a few weeks/months having an all new LBC with no
place to interface your butt...AAAAAGGG!!
Ah, well, end realtime report, I`ve got to get you all caught up
to where I'm really at.....
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Miss June 1992 makes her encore appearance as we pick up where
we left off. The B shell is at last intact and rust free, the horror of
'Daisy's' past neglect and abuse hidden almost perfectly under a coat of
PPG DP-40 primer. The drab olive green color of the stripped out shell
reminds me of a large 'abandoned' snapping turtle shell I once found as
a child. Brother says it looks like a British army staff car. It is
possibly the first time in 20 years the car is all the same color. We roll
it out onto the driveway to wet sand, Kathy and the kids join in the fun
with the water hose and the neighbors slow as they drive by, wondering if
that is the same car that came off the flatbed and wondering about this
family who wet-sand for fun.
For several weeks now I've been working in the hard drive refurb
department at NCR. We catch up the tremendous backlog, the overtime is
great and the future looks good. We temps are still competing for a few
permanent jobs...but because the backlog is caught up, I am released. That
makes sense, right? The guy who teaches our Sunday School class lets me
work at his car wash.
Ah, but I still have the parts car! A gold mine of things to sell,
barter, swap and trade away! Kathy and I agree any money I get from the
parts car goes into the 'Daisy fund'. By sheer chance, I found a micro-
fishe reader somebody was throwing away. A few minutes tinkering and some
soap and it's good as new. This was traded to the PPG dealer for all my
high build up primer. Between the spraying and the wetsanding I stay busy
for a few more weekends. By this time, somebody wants the rear clip off
the parts car and I've got enough money to by the color coat materials.
Brother and I strip the parts car down to the shell in a few hours and send
it on its way. Sort of sad to see it go, knowing it was to be cut in half,
but it was bent so the wheelbase on the right side was 1.5 in shorter than
on the left, giving it the marked tendancy to drive in a large circle.
Anyway, the Big Yellow Painting Day comes at last. There is nothing
on the car to be masked. It`s just a shell. So, we mask off the garage
instead. (Good Advise) We wet down the floor and set up our fans. The car is
carefully tack ragged and wiped down with a cleaner to remove fingerprints
and oil. The doors and boot lid are hung by wires away from the rest of the
car. A neighbor who has painted a bunch of VW's comes by to help. I mix the
paint and load up the gun. The YL-12 begins to go on. I am estatic! THIS
is what the car is going to look like! The yellower it gets, the better I
like it. We paint everything...engine room...boot...interior...and its so
shiny! I've never seen the car shiny! The outside of the car gets 4 coats.
But, OH NO! There are little bits of trash in the paint! I fret and pace
like an expectant father. My painter neighbor assures me, 'let it dry and
we'll wet sand it out, leave it alone!'
So, Daisy sat in the garage and dried for a week. Then it's back
outside to be wetsanded, again, this time *without* the kids! #1500 paper,
round and round, by hand, untill it was dull all over. How depressing!
Then comes the buffer, and zing-o! You got to wear sunglasses to work on
the car! For the product of amateurs on a shoestring budget, it really
looks good! The neighbors ride by and scratch their heads. The car has
changed color 4 times in six weeks and they probably wonder when it will
end and doubt that this could be the same car that came off the flatbed.
I feel like this is the halfway point, that this is where we
'turn the corner'and this is a fabulous personal victory.
Opening up all those cardboard boxes, fishing out most anything
that can be stuck back on the car. Tail lights, sidemarker lights, head-
lights, the new grille work and luggage rack. Turn indicators, the steering
column, wiper motor, door latches. In goes the heater and all its tubes
and ducts. A new piece of vinyl goes on top of the dash and the polished
windscreen frame and glass, all the seals renewed at a Peachtree MG
Registry Tech Session, is struggled into position. (Easier written about
than accomplished! I have photos of myself STANDING on the frame uprights
forcing them to align with the holes in the shell!) Then come the vent wings
and door glass, the parts car seals saving me lots of money here.
Then the wire harness...ah...yeah...right. Pulled it out of its
box, ashes falling to the floor. Bare copper, ash, wires melted together
in mass. Brother talked me into saving the harness from the parts car.
Thanks again, Brother! That harness only had two holes burned in it!
Well, I used to work in a radio trasmitter factory and am not intimidated
at all by J. Lucas or 12 volts...so I took the two, made one, and wrapped
it in those black plastic sleaves ala GM or Ford. I even modified it so
the map light would come on when the drivers door was opened, which it
did not do previously. Tested it all out, and got it all working. Eventually.
Wheeled and Dealed for all sorts of things. Traded a tail light
base for a set of rubber inserts that go on the over-riders. Parts car
bumpers shined up nicely after about 4 hours work. On the car they go.
Swapped a door for some new sunvisors and seatbelts. Traded off a radiator
for the labor required to renew the radiator I wanted to keep. Got a
refrigerator from Brother for a set of wire wheels. I'd planned to trade
them for a new top, or maybe tires, but the 'fridge gasped its last and
I'm still working at the car wash. Oh, well.
I have the strangest habit. Apon installing a shiny new (or shiny
used, for that matter) part on my car, a sidemarker lamp, for example, I
then sit back and admire it. Stare at it. Gloat. Enjoy the newness for a
moment. Go get Kathy, 'See! It used to be grubby and nasty, but now its
NEW, and SHINY, and I DID IT!' Well, this is fine for major events like
windscreen frames and bumpers...but I quickly learned a sidemarker lamp
was NOT a major acheivement. No one else, I'm sure, has ever done this.
The car looks a lot more like an MGB, a lot less like a great yellow
bathtub and doesn't look anything like a snapping turtle shell or even the
sad little wreck that slid off the flatbed.
Miss Snap-On for October 1992 was pleased that my employment
situation had improved somewhat just about the time I ran out of parts.
More later,
Wade
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