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Spring 2010 Update - Natalie

After three months of nasty, cold, wet winter weather it warmed up enough today to where I was finally able to out and wake Natalie from her slumber. Bolted up the two 14 inch rims that I'd picked up a few months ago, they still need new rubber but I really like how they make the rear end look. My buddy from down in Georgia had sent me a pair of fourteen inch dog dishes that are an almost exact match for the ones I used to have on my '63 wagon... I put them on while I was at it. Mucho appreciateo Pete! *heh* Let's see, what else... installed the new replacement wiper arms (Natalie's were missing when she got here). I ended up getting two pairs after a spring in one arm broke from rust. The newer set is in much better shape so now I've got one spare arm just in case.

And finally, after sitting without being started for three months I fired her up today. The quick shot of starting fluid I used probably wasn't necessary since she fired right up without hesitation.

Still lots to do. Brakes. Floor pan. etc. Nice day for putzing around tho.

edit: 3/7/2010 - 3:53pm -- updated photos

The 2010 Grand National Roadster Show

570 awesome photos taken Thursday and Friday at the 2010 Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California, with more to come. The show was enormous this year, with every hall filled at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds. Some serious, drool worthy eye candy.

Check it out at Bang Shift
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Still At It

Dropped by the garage a couple times last week to take advantage of a slight warm up and do a bit of work. It didn't last long though and now we're due for a good 2 to 5 inches of snow between tomorrow and Saturday from a storm passing by. That's a trifle amount for someone who grew up on Lake Erie. Folks down here on the other hand generally just freak out. And I stay off the roads 'till they've cleared off.

One of None

Introducing the never built 1971 Plymouth Road Runner Superbird. With a Six Pack Hemi! The car is based on Chrysler internal documents that showed wind-tunnel performance testing of a 3/8-scale model of a 1971 Plymouth B-body aero car. What a truly awesome design!














You know, I've always had a special place in my heart for these B body MoPars, even owned several back when they were affordable but they've never really gotten the respect they deserve (just sit down and watch a B~J auction on Speed some evening and see for yourself).

Anyway, check out the full article for the juicy details (and more photos) at Bang Shift or the builder's web site at 71wingcars.com

Beginnings - Part 2

A video montage I've put together with photos taken over the past 21 months as I begin work on tearing down and stripping the paint and old body filler off Elizabeth.

San Francisco in 1906

Probably the coolest YouTube video I've seen yet, a seven minute long cable car ride down San Francisco's Market Street, a mere four days before the big earthquake would strike the city.

Amazing footage, cool music. And cars too! It's one wild ride.

Thanks "JohnR" for the linkage. :)

Winter Blows

Really. A nice brisk wind when the temperature is only 25 degrees is enough to make anyone want to hibernate until Spring. But anyway, we're still alive here. Just not doing much of anything when it comes to working on the girls. It's gonna hafta warm up a bit first. Here's a pic of one of the last things I did on Elizabeth... removing the fuel filler neck. I took my time and slowly worked each rusty screw loose only to find that it had all rotted out anyway. After that I got rather depressed about the whole thing and had to walk away from it for a while. Asking for help from friends in locating replacment parts, then having them disappear and not get back with you - well, that just put me in a worse mood. Maybe it's my deodorant!?! ;)

I'm sure the return of warmer weather will help to thaw my chilly disposition. Until then...

The "Other Woman"

Wise Garage Advice

"Don't ever set anything on your car. Then it will be a shelf." -Larry57Savoy, ICC member

Too True!!!

Remington Wide White Walls

WWW Remingtons - set 1
Originally uploaded by djMikulec

Snagged four of these bias ply beauties for Elizabeth! From what I've been able to research, these are among the last WWW Remys produced (Goodyear dropped them around 2000, 2001). Very little wear evident, and no weather checking, etc.

:-)

Still Alive

Haven't made much progress lately. So what else is new. ;-)

Week 70 - part 2

Still working on getting the rest of the right quarter panel stripped of paint and body filler. The damage to the sheet metal is all the same - small random sized dents, like someone shot a bucket of gravel out of a cannon at it. It really has me stumped.

Also got the rear panel knocked out while I was at it.

Week 70 (behind the bondo)

Started tackling the right rear quarter panel, the one with 100 pounds of bondo smeared on it. I was almost afraid of what I'd see as the DA sander peeled away the layers of paint and filler. What I found was almost surreal. The metal is full of ripples and horizontal slash marks. I'm really not sure what caused it as it doesn't look like your typical impact damage to me. And the damage to the sheetmetal starts pretty high up. Dunno. May be time to seek out some expert advice here.

Here's a before and after shot.







And here's shot of the left rear fin after I finally got the rest of the paint sanded off. The complex curves here are beautiful.





Guess that's it for now.

63 Plymouth Wagons

Some old photos snatched off the internets, the subject of my attention more than obvious here. Man, I'll never get tired of seeing these old 63's.

And check out the old Burger King!

Week 69

Slowly stripping her many layers of paint. No less than six in places!

Factory Primer
Factory White (for sport tone, goes up 2/3 of the way in spots)
Factory Maroon
Yet another coat of Primer
Dark Green
Metallic Green

Whew!

40 Years

I wish I could have been there (I was only nine). By this time I was already listening to groups like Velvet Underground and Zappa, thanks to that wonderful American institution, the flea market (and a really cool and understanding stepfather).

Peace out!

Week 64

Got a bit more work accomplished today - find myself still removing bits, it never seems to end. Spend way too much time trying to get the front brake lines and couplings off intact... that turned out to be a total waste of time. Finally took a mini coping saw to the mess and cut the lines at the fittings (since it's all gotta be replaced with new anyway). Also got the power steering pump and hoses removed, without making too much of a mess. Cough. Cough.

Also spied some interior trim that I missed, around the windshield and dash, so got that all taken off as well.

Slow.Steady.Progress.

Bulgarian Mopars

Recently stumbled across this Bulgarian classic Mopar web site. Spied a couple of odd cars that really got my attention.

http://classiccars.zonebg.com/Bulgarien/Konkretno/amgalch.html

I Can See... I Can See!

It only took me a year but yeah, I finally got some fluorescent fixtures (thanks Mark) installed in the garage. You know, it's a lot easier to work when you can actually see what you're doing.

Let there be light!

Hemi Ford

Almost makes coming to work worthwhile to see this, though rat rods really aren't my thing. This motor though, it seriously needs to go into a real car. Something with big ole' Virgil Exner fins on it I'm thinking.

He could always replace it with a 225 Slant Six.

Miss Belvedere - An Update

Miss Belvedere, Tulsa Oklahoma's entombed 1957 Belvedere Sport Coupe that was unearthed in 2007 is still in New Jersey undergoing stabilization work. Accurate reports on her progress have been hard to come by so I was pleased when I came across this update over at the Hemmings blog (click on the 1st photo to go there, and be sure to listen to the MP3 interview with Dwight Foster that's included in the article).

edit 6/23 - additional photos

Miss Belvedere - history and DVD

Stand. And Deliver.

Some assembly required!

Bueller.... Bueller.... Bueller

We caught Ferris Bueller's Day Off at the local mall when it was first released. Summer of '86. Great, typical eighties fare. And Funny. Still. I've got an ancient, original VHS copy that I watch every so often... it takes me back. A different time. A different attitude. A different life.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Week 57

Drive-In

Was forced to sit through the Night at the Museum (sequel) so that I could finally get to see the new Trek movie. And although there were several things that bothered me, as a child of the original series I have to admit that overall I wasn't disappointed in the least.

Week 55

Back to work! Set out today to remove the passenger side doors and hardware. Which I accomplished. They're in really nice shape with only some minor rot at the bottom which will be easy to patch. Taking the doors off would be an easy enough task if not for the door travel limiter, which is riveted on one end (a feature unique to the '57 model year, the 58s having a different setup from what I understand) and requires grinding to remove. It's time consuming since space is tight and I wanted to make sure I was only grinding the rivet and not it's mounting bracket. I also had to rassle with the door hardware... both the window crank as well as the opener took a lot of coaxing to remove (first time since the car was built no doubt). Again, a slow process as I didn't want to break them. After it was all said and done though I got them all off, intact. Whew.

Trains

Not automobile related but I needed to post these somewhere - and since locomotives have internal combustion engines and wheels I figured I could get away with it. And well, it's my blog. ;P

Taken with my cell phone camera from the rickety wooden overpass that's near our home, these are the antithesis of contemporary rail photography. My answer to certain "railfan" photography websites that accept only the most perfectly lit and composed shot. Folks who've managed to elevate the word "uptight" to whole new levels. *heh*

365 !

No Explanation Necessary

'Nudder Update

New look for the blog. Whaddya think!

Quick Update

Yeah... I'm lazy. ;)

I am making a parts run this Saturday. Hoping to snag a drivers door and a couple of body panels to replace the rotted out areas on Elizabeth. I'll have more news on that this weekend.

Visions

Or hallucinations! This freshly Photoshopped pic of a '57 4dr sedan will give you a pretty good idea of what I hope Elizabeth will come out looking like when this is all over. Missing are the wings of course, and I'll be replacing the stock grill emblem with the '58 "V"... but, well you get the idea.

Oh, yeah. The decision has been made to keep her outer appearance (including side trim and taillights) more or less stock '57 Belvedere. I've spent several weeks going over photos of both '57s and '58s, from every angle and the more I think about it the more I find myself preferring that look. Two decisions remain: whether or not to paint the front lower grill the body color or stock silver, and whether of not I'm going to paint the area below the rear deck lid, in between the taillights white as the factory did for the Belvedere or the body color.

More on this later.

Year One

It's been a year since I found Elizabeth, and made the deal to bring her home from Georgia. Thanks Pete!

If you're new to my blog or have not had the opportunity to do so yet, take a few moments and scroll down through my entries form the past year. Informative, and comical. ;)

Stay tuned. More hilarity to come!

Thinking Warm Thoughts

Supposed to warm into the sixties next weekend!

Miami Beach, Florida 1962
time to break out those old Gleason records!

Mid-Winter update

Unheated garage = won't be much news until Spring arrives to warm things up around here. I did stop by Saturday to check in and was relieved to see that the garage had suffered no damage from the ice storm, and that everything was just as I left it. Whew!

Also, the blog's a year old this month! 

The Official Yearly "I Hate Winter" Post

Haven't been to the garage in weeks as January has been brutally cold, at least for us. Then, to make matters worse, Mother Nature decided to give us a severe beating this week in the form of a day and a half worth of freezing rain. The photos tell the tale.

We've been without power since 4am Wednesday.

I'm ready for Spring now. *8-(

More 6.1L Hemi pictures

I have been playing around with Picasa and wanted to share the photo album I made of the the pictures I took of the 6.1L Hemi.

Hemi Rat Rod

This is one sweet Rat Rod. I found it surfing YouTube videos. When the 6 (yes 6) strombergs come to life, your hair will stand on end. Enjoy!

6.1L Hemi Head

Pictures of the 6.1L Hemi head. I am in the process of obtaining the pictures of the engine when my grandfather obtained it. Enjoy!

Week 36

No major earth shattering news this week - spent some time Saturday reorganizing the garage and moving things around to make room for the engine stand I plan to purchase before the end of the month. I would have had it already but it's sold out at my store of choice. Picked myself up a handy-dandy "service cart" instead which is already stocked with my tool boxes and air tools and the whole thing fits nicely under the workbench. When your shop is as small as mine you gotta make sure you put every inch to good use.

Still working on getting Elizabeth's right side doors off. Got all the interior door trim removed, along with the quarter glass behind the rear door. If the weather cooperates next weekend I should be able to finish up.

Week 35

Seventy plus degrees out today. Not too shabby for December 27th and a perfect day to be down at the garage. The pictures tell the tale.

Next week I'll work on the other side. :)