The Happiest Guy on Route 95

In my last post three weeks ago, I knew I was getting close to getting the body back from the painter.  Then, a few days ago, he told me he was done and I could pick it up today.  More about that later, but this afternoon driving with the freshly painted car behind me on the trailer down Route 95, I caught myself glancing back through the rear view mirror with a big grin on my face!

I knew I had a lot to do to get ready for the body, but boy did I underestimate it.  The first thing I realized was that for every hour I spent working on the car, I only got 20 minutes closer to being done.  And the second thing I realized was that a couple months ago when I would tell people I was 80% done, I was closer to 40% complete.

As this week progressed, the days got much longer culminating with a 20 hour workday on Friday. Here's what I got done over the last three weeks.

Finished the wiring throughout the front of the car.

Made a pair of butterfly valves for the fresh air system.

Prepped the dashboard for the final switch and gauges location.  Next it will be covered in leather.

Installed carpeting in the driver's footbox area.

Completed the engine wiring.

Did my first wheel alignment (all four wheels).  There are strings running along side the car from front to back that are parallel to the frame.  These gave me reference points to make sure the wheels were straight.  Then I used a wheel alignment gauge to get the right angle on each tire.

This week was a record for the number of parts deliveries I got - at least one a day.  Here is UPS Chris checking in on the progress.

I made molds to create fiberglass enclosures for the rear speakers.  I'll put fiberglass on the outside of the mold and then remove the pink foam.

I finished fabricating the trunk area.

Covered all the aluminum with sound deadening material and did about half the carpeting.

I built a frame to hold the stereo components in the trunk.

 I welded the frame pieces together and I was worried because the welder hadn't been working correctly.  I even took it to a shop for them to check it but it worked fine there.  I knew welders use a lot of current and I was concerned that our house wiring couldn't handle it.  Well, I traced all the wiring back to the main electrical box and everything looked fine.  Finally, I found the problem.

We have a refrigerator in our garage and it's on the same circuit as the welder.  Whenever the refrigerator turned on, the welder stopped working.  With the frig unplugged, the welder worked better than ever.

I finished about half the wiring in the rear portion of the car.  You can see some of it in the picture above.  Here's another view.

While I was busy on my end, the painter was doing his job.

All that took a lot of hours.  Laurie has been so supportive during the whole journey and that's made it possible for me to get this close to being done.  That's why I love her.

Last night I wanted to load the car on the trailer so I could leave early this morning.  Since the wiring isn't connected, I couldn't start the engine and drive it onto the trailer, but fortunately we have two French exchange students staying with us.  They helped push the car up the ramps and onto the trailer.  That's how we do it in America!

The trip to the painter this morning was long but uneventful (he's in New Haven CT).  Before I got there, they had staged the body in a separate room so they could have an unveiling ceremony.  When I walked into the room, I was so overwhelmed that I actually couldn't breathe!  The car looked incredible!  Better than I had imagined and it looked even more amazing when we got it into the sunlight.  My friend Ninat met me there and was a big help getting the body on the chassis.  That only took about 10 minutes, but then we all stood there for an hour admiring the colors, the body lines and the mirror finish.  I definitely made the right choice on the colors and using this painter.

I as said earlier, I realized during my return trip that I must have been driving along the highway for at least an hour with this big grin on my face.  You know the type of smile when your face starts to hurt after awhile.  I couldn't wait to get home to show Laurie and the kids.  They were waiting for me as I drove down the road to our house.

My plan was to keep the car under wraps until the big unveiling party.  Well, as soon as I pulled into the driveway, some friends who were driving by stopped to see the car, and our neighbors on both sides came over.  Later, some other friends who heard the car was back came by.  We'll still have the party and I can't wait! 
 
I'm not ready to reveal the whole car yet, but I'll give you a sneak preview.

Now I'm really excited to finish.  I better get back to the garage.