My strategy for working on the car

Here are a few principles that I have tried to follow while working on the car:

1: I generally work at home, so it is not too hard to do a couple of little 15-minute tasks during the course of the day.

2: I want to get the car able to move under its own power ASAP. That’s why I put the body back on the chassis as soon as the underside was refinished. I could have more easily refinished the body off the chassis, but that would have meant another 6 months or a year with the car disassembled all over the garage. Things like the final painting and the interior upholstery can be done last, after the gas tank and wiring are installed and functional.

3: I try to avoid buying spare parts until I am definitely ready to use them. It is a bad idea to buy a part, let it sit for a year, and then find that it is not usable. Even so, I sometimes get too optimistic. I had the roof wood sitting around for a year before I started doing anything with it.

Plans for Fall 2008

I want to:
Get the body filler work and block sanding done.
Get the gas tank (already in primer) installed.
Hopefully get the doors stripped and a first coat of epoxy primer applied to them.

Hello world!

I just set up this diary. I should have done it a couple of years ago, when I first got the car.

Here’s the current state of the car: The chassis, engine, drivetrain, and brakes are all restored and functional. The body has had all the rust and dent repair done, and has a first coat of primer. Most of the roof wood has been replaced. The doors, fenders, running boards, windshield haven’t been touched yet.

Look at the photo gallery to see what I have done up to now.