Dashing Along!

I spent the weekend getting the steering column and the shifter back together and reinstalled. I got a little nervous when the key wouldn't turn in the lock cylinder when I got everything back together. I disassembled the other car's steering column to look for clues. It turns out there's a pindle that protrudes from the lock cylinder into the steering shaft to act as the locking column. I must've gotten some grit in this mechanism during media blasting (even though I had taped it off to prevent just this sort of thing). This pindle needs to move freely to allow the lock cylinder to turn. Once I pressed it into the lock housing, the cylinder turned freely. Of course, I won't have a locking column unless it eventually pops back out. Oh well, the locking column never was much of a theft-deterrent. I heaved a sigh of relief when I was able to get the two 39 year old natural rubber boots to stretch back over the shifter linkage without tearing. I also got to try my hand at wrinkle paint on the shifter bracket. I was skeptical at first, since it goes on heavy and very glossy. But, to my pleasant surprise, when I checked it this morning, it was exactly the finish I'd hoped for. I did learn that wrinkle paint takes at least 24 hours to harden, as some spots got damaged on reassembly. So now the dash is looking even better with the steering column and wheel, the gear-shift and the pedals all in place. Sadly, they are all only temporarily installed. The dash is resting right against the body at the windshield bed. We are most likely going to have to install the windshield, and its corresponding rubber gasket, before the dash, steering column and shifter can be tightened into permanent position.

Rare Parts

Since this is the first car I have ever restored, naturally a few things have come as a surprise. I knew going into this that finding parts would be a challenge. What surprised me was how easy and readily available parts are...if you are restoring a domestic car. My uncle sent me a copy of Hemmings Motor News' Collector Car Restoration Guide. The magazine is literally riddled with ads for parts and services for the (domestic) car restoration enthusiast. Turns out, if you wanted to build a '58 Chevy pickup from reproduction parts all you need is a credit card and a place to do it. I was lucky enough to procure what may be the last two new old stock (n.o.s.) lower ball joints known to man. Mike O'Connor put me onto the CMS (Consolidated Motor Sports) website. This is essentially a clearing house for unsold motorcycle parts in The Netherlands. Is sounds like they've had these ball joints sitting on their shelf since around the time I was born. It only took five days, well five days and $300, and they arrived at my doorstep. As you can see, the original joints are in pretty sad shape. I also scored a pretty good deal on a reproduction exhaust pipe that a guy in Missouri sold me on eBay. He's been parting out a few N600s, and while most if his stuff is used, this piece was made from new material to match an original. I got notification Saturday that the bushings for the sway bar have shipped, so the front end can go together when I get the CV axles come back from the shop. This is all contingent on what happens with the sub-frame. The rust issue is forcing me to replace it, or cut out the bad spot and weld in a patch. I think it's a lost cause since it's rusting from the inside out, as a result of having spent time in the Florida Keys. Hopefully, I won't have to go to The Netherlands to find another one.

Minor Setback

So, in the last post I had mentioned a potentially serious problem. Well, it was only serious if a solution didn't present itself, which fortunately, it has. As I was pondering what to do about our axle rubbing problem, it occurred to me: if you have a serious N-600 problem, who do you call? Why, the N-600 God, of course! Well my good buddy, Chad, is an avid follower of the Jalopnik website. A few years ago, they did an article on a fellow named Tim Mings, who is apparently the guru of all things N-600. So I gave him a call on Monday to see if he had ever heard of axles rubbing on sub-frames while up on blocks. Turns out he hadn't. He did want to see some photos, though, and had a few suggestions from there. So the engine cradle (a.k.a. subframe) mounts actually have a front and rear, and it matters how they are installed. Apparently, I have them all sorts of upside-down and front-to-back. Also, I need a new rear engine mount. I knew this already, but was willing to try to use the one I have for now. Tim has this particular mount in stock as a NOS part. Since I try to learn something new everyday (or have it thrust upon me), I discovered that NOS means, "New Old Stock". This is the greatest thing possible, because that means that this part is original Honda stock that never sold back in the day. Also, it looks like the boots on my newly rebuilt CV shafts are a little over-sized, which is contributing to them rubbing on the sub-frame. After a quick call to Oregon Axle, they agreed to re-boot them to a smaller size that will hopefully clear. So, long story short, after a new rear motor mount, a CV re-booting and the installation of the sway-bar, we should probably be clear for take-off. There is a minor rust issue on the engine cradle, but that's another story for another day...

It..Is...ALIVE!

Completely defying my expectations for this weekend, we actually started the engine. This had been my hope for the past few weeks, but as time ran short, I had accepted the reality that turning this thing over was probably not going to happen. Well, I had my dad work on rebuilding the carb while I started getting the front end put together. Luckily, the old man was "The Carb Guy" at his auto shop before he retired, and he made short order of the little beast. We did run into what has the potential to be a major problem. For some reason, the drive axles are hitting the sub-frame. Normally this wouldn't be too big an issue, since they should straighten out once the car is sitting on its tires. The problem is, when we used a floor jack to compress the struts, the CV boot was still in such solid contact with the frame, that it would have destroyed itself had it turned under power. So far I've checked with a couple of N600 savants, and a few of the more mechanically inclined fellows I know, and we're baffled. Clearly, the car will never move unless we correct this issue, so I have to figure this one out. On the bright side, We got the dash and wiring harness installed, oh, and we STARTED THE ENGINE!

New Finishes.

I've been spending a bit of quality time with the blast cabinet and the spray can. Just about every surface on, in and under this car needs refurbishment. I recently re-did the front suspension, brake calipers and dash. As it turns out, the guys at Oregon Axle had just enough parts to do our CV shafts. Three of the four joints were pretty much destroyed, so they completely replaced those, and cleaned, lubed and re-booted the fourth. I've also been pretty concerned about what to do for struts. As luck would have it, once disassembled and blasted, I discovered I had a pair of Tokico struts that are actually in pretty good shape. Now freshly painted and reassembled, they look brand new! I've turned my attention to the dash, which will need to go in before I can even think about the day we fire this baby up. I've had a pretty good time bringing the dash back to life. Naturally, after a lifetime of exposure to the sun's life-giving radiation, the dash pad was cracked and discolored. Vic at Chuck's Upholstery, here in Corvallis, recovered the pad with a thin, pliable vinyl used for ATV seats. Between our impending need for a headliner, door panels and original looking vinyl seats, I see a lot of work in Vic's future. After I had cleaned the rest of the dash, repainted the forward trim piece and re-affixed the VIN plate, I reinstalled the pad. I also hand-painted the raised lettering and border with the touch-up paint from Carley's '04 Accord. While taking the paint off of a dash piece, I discovered that if one intends to commit suicide, I do NOT recommend using an angle grinder to slash one's wrists. I got the shifter disassembled and painted, which was a challenge as it was not made to be taken apart. Now I need to concentrate on pedals, wiring and cables for clutch, choke and whatever else presents itself. My dad will be back next weekend to lend a hand. I need to try to get as much of this accomplished as I can so I can make good use of his talents. I got a carb kit for a '75 Honda Goldwing, which apparently has a number of usable parts. No one actually makes a kit for this car, so this is what people use to rebuild the carbs. Mike O'Connor (the guy who built our engine) let me know these have a tendency to have trouble with accelerator pump diaphragms drying out and going bad. Of course this part is also unavailable, but he happens to have a guy who makes them for him, so he sent me one. Heck of a guy.

Big Doin's.

Well, things have really been happening. I haven't kept up with my blogging, so I'm going to do a little retroactive post...

The Canary Has Landed!

At long last, the engine has arrived. Carley picked it up after work one evening, and brought the crate home, leaving me wondering how I was going to get it out of the truck. My dad had the suggestion of using the lift as an engine hoist, which worked very well. Mike O'Connor appears to have done a nice job. I, of course, wanted the engine to look brand new for my restoration, but as I could tell he was a serious mechanic, I didn't want to insult him by asking him for visual perfection. It did come out very clean and will hopefully look good in the car. He told me he has the cranks for his engines built by a guy in Germany, which accounts for some of the expense of having him do an engine. He also only uses synchro-mesh transmissions, which is nice since Honda had both synchro, and non-syncro trannies. Part of the reason I wanted to buy an engine was so I could save time and money looking for parts like a starter, clutch, carburetor and various gaskets, bearings and seals. Unfortunately, his engines don't come with a carb, but since I have three of them, hopefully I can make something work.



Gettin' This Puppy In.

When my dad retired, I hoped we would be able to spend some more time together. Well, even thought he's at least as busy as he was when he was working, he came to spend the weekend and help give the project a push. I had managed to get the steering rack cleaned up, painted and reinstalled before he got here, if not much else. We got a reasonably early start Saturday morning, and quickly made great progress. The engine needed a little attention to details such as locating the engine mounting bracket and related hardware, and getting them bolted on. After two and a half years the body finally came off the rotisserie when we installed the rear end and set the car on it's first pair of new tires in decades. As I worked on various items, Dad got to rebuilding the brake calipers. These are a strange design with an inner and outer piston in each caliper, which took some figuring to get reassembled. I sand-blasted the caliper brackets, and got them painted. I've been using a high quality paint from Eastwood Co. that leaves a great finish, but takes a long time to dry, so we couldn't get the calipers fully reassembled yet. There are, of course, quite a few small things that need to be done, but I'm very excited to be at this point. This weekend I hope to get the front end parts blasted and painted, and finish the calipers. I also sent the drive shafts to Oregon Axle in Portland today to see if they can refurbish them for me. So hopefully things will continue to come along as nicely as they have this weekend.

Matilda's New Heart is on It's Way!

Okay, so the five to six week time frame turned into fifteen weeks, but that's what you get when you are dealing with an artist. Mike O'Connor has had a pretty busy summer, but haven't we all? I got a call from him a few weeks ago to let me know that the engine was done, had good compression, and that he had installed it into his car to run for a couple of days to make sure there were no problems. It took a bit of time to uninstall it, crate it up, and have the shipping company pick it up, but it is now officially on it's way. He even threw in an exhaust system he had laying around. Heck of a nice guy. So now I need to get the steering rack painted, and have the drive-shafts rebuilt (and do about 250 other small things), and we should be able to drop Matilda off of the rotisserie.

The Ball is Rolling!

So a few areas of the project have been coming together nicely. I've been trying to get the rear-end done so that I may drop the body off the rotisserie in preparation for the engine's arrival. Prepping the rear-end involved doing the rear brakes, and re-bending related brake lines. There was also a little challenge finding a replacement brake hose to feed those lines, bearings and related oil seals for the hubs, and rebuild kits for the wheel cylinders. Ah, the joys of restoring a car that is not only old, but had very little value even when it was brand new... Well it turns out that asking the guys that do only these cars has a lot of value. Bill Colford happened to have the rear brake hose on the shelf of his eBay store, and had a few words of wisdom regarding wheel cylinder kits. Turns out that they are a direct match for the '93 Geo Metro. As for the rest of it, Honda used sealed bearings on the rear hubs that fortunately were still in good shape, as were the oil seals. I had my twentieth high school reunion a few weekends ago, which afforded me the chance to mooch a favor off of my dad, who though recently retired after a thirty plus year career as a mechanic, still had access to a brake lathe. The drums turned out fine, while the rotors were about a millimeter under the nine millimeter recommended minimum. With as rusty as they were, I count myself lucky to be that close. So today, I was able to finally get the fuel tank back onto its mounts. I had to get the e-brake cable and its related guides into place as well as the gas tank vent hose attached before the tank could go in. Thank God I have a parts car to pull from and see how things go together just a few feet away!

The refurbished fuel tank and rear end.

Pulling The Trigger On The Engine!

Well, we've had some sad news lately. Our beloved dog, Simone, was recently diagnosed with bone cancer. Last week we had her left rear leg amputated, and yesterday she began her first course of chemotherapy. With this course of treatment, we've been told we can hope for another year with our girl. With that knowledge, we decided it was time to light a fire under this project. So, this morning I ordered the engine/transmission from Mike O'Connor in North Carolina. I thought I remembered him saying he needed a year lead-time. Turns out, he'll start work on our engine next week, and we should see it in five or six weeks time! I have a serious amount of work to do before we can drop it in (or in this car's case under), but we need to be able to take Simone for at least one ride in her car.

A Little Brake Work, A Little Body Work

As usual, it's been quite a while since I've posted anything. I have actually made a little progress lately. I use the term, "little" in its literal sense. I recently picked up a media blasting cabinet, and a small parts tumbler. This allowed me to re-finish the power brake booster before reinstalling it. I've bent new brake lines for most of the brake system, and with the booster in place, have started installing them as well. While I was doing that, Chad got going on straightening out the header panel. That's a tough one, since we haven't got a straight one to match it to on any one of the three bodies we're working with. Considering the damage to the thin metal of the header, Chad did a great job getting it where it needed to be. It should just need a skim-coat of Bondo, which is way less than it had when we started! We even got to use the stud-welder for more than just practice. A few rare parts have also presented themselves. I've had a few conversations with a fellow named Bill Colford, who is very well known in N600 circles, and he let me know that he is offering side-marker lens replacements. I bought back-up light lenses from him a few months ago, and was glad to hear he had a line on these units. During the process of ordering a pair of side-markers from him, I inquired about shocks and struts. Bill was very helpful with a quick recommendation for a KYB rear shock that was a direct replacement. Unfortunately, front struts are going to be a bit more of a challenge. Apparently, Bilstein made a replacement back in the day, but no longer. It sounds like they will rebuild them if you can find a pair, but they are of course rare. I'm glad to have found shocks, as it will allow the rear axle to be installed when I get to that point. There's really not a ton of work to do before the body could come off the rotisserie, so that's what I'm shooting for.

Fuel System Work Begins

I was excited to get to this part of the process, not only to get rid of the vinegary rotten-gas smell in the garage, but it was a quick way to see a big difference. I also knew that there would be a bunch of varnish and rust in the fuel tank that would have to come out, or we'd never get this baby running. The Eastwood Company is an online shop for auto restoration that specializes in coatings that resemble OEM finishes. They carry a gas tank sealing kit that allows you to revitalize your old tank in twelve easy steps! It was a pretty filthy and environmentally questionable process, but it turned out pretty well in the end. The final photo shows the pristine coating in the filler neck that is supposed to be uniform throughout the gas tank's interior. Unfortunately, it was no where near that coated for most of the tank, but it should pretty much keep all the crap out of the rest of the fuel system, so I figure I got my money's worth. One major hurtle was that the 18", or so, of fuel line that act as an intake within the tank itself, was completely varnished shut. After trying to figure out how to clean a piece of tubing that has an inside diameter of less than 1/4" and also has two 90 degree bends in it, I settled on using a frayed piece of bicycle brake cable in a drill motor to ream it out. This, mixed with a little Zippo fuel as a solvent, worked remarkably well. Last thing was to spend a little quality time with my old friend the angle-grinder to clean off the outside of the tank, and shoot it with a special zinc coating for gas tanks from Eastwood's.

UNDERCOATING!

Well, it finally happened. After over a year of prepping, pondering and a little painting, Matilda actually made it into Line-X for undercoating. My original plan was to load the body on the cheesy folding Harbor Freight utility trailer that I bought especially for this purpose, stuff the rotisserie into the back of my truck, and attempt to set up this contraption by myself. Thankfully Chad decided not only to help, but to rope his dad, Jim, into the adventure as well. Turns out, that three guys can just pick the body up, and put it wherever it needs to go. The fact that Jim also has a fourteen foot car hauler that allowed us to put the whole setup on a moving platform, didn't hurt either. I had envisioned the need for all sorts of elaborate cribbing to hold the car in place during the trip to Salem, but since we were able to simply lift it into place when attaching it to the rotisserie, we just let it ride on the trailer deck, which it did like a champ. I noticed a number of people on I-5 trying to get a closer look at the strange little car on that trailer.

When we arrived at Line-X, we were greeted by the owner, Wade Starbuck and his crew. They were great to work with, as they were both professional and helpful. I was asked about use of the vehicle, placement of the material, and to what thickness I wanted it applied. Wade even went so far as to call me after the masking was complete to see if I wanted to get some pictures of the process! He explained that the material is a two part chemical blend that is kept separate as it is heated and pressurized to 2500 psi, before it is mixed by the spray gun during application. The amazing thing to me, is that after ten seconds it is set up well enough that you can walk on it! Another surprise is that Line-X is also practically non-toxic. I thought that any material that had all of these properties would definitely be adding to the hole in the ozone layer, but I guess we'll have to look to our other pursuits for that.








Needless to say, I couldn't be happier with the finished product. This is exactly what I've had in mind for the last year. We have a surface that is practically bullet-proof, let alone rust-proof and will cut down on road noise. The best part is, now we have a great base on which to build a beautiful little car.

There's Color in the Air...

Fans line the bottom of the garage door, transforming our garage into a makeshift spray booth.

I realize it's been a long six months since my last post. For the past five and a half months, a lot of the same tedious tasks were taking place, and I knew few people would want to hear about the seemingly never-ending grinding off of paint down to bare metal. So I decided to wait and spare you the boring details. There was a lot of grinding, a lot of dust, and a lot of vacuuming and cleaning in between. I finished up grinding in mid-February, about a year after I began. I was ecstatic to finally be able to cross that task off the restoration checklist.

Down to bare metal

So, at long last, I finally got to shoot some paint on the body. This turned out to be a good way to figure out how to apply a few different types of primer and see how my garage spray-booth would perform.

Mixing the etching primer

Since I had taken most of the body to bare metal, it was necessary to dust it with an etching primer before proceeding to a catalyzed primer, and finally a single-stage body color. I was a little unsure as to when in the process I should seal the body seams. My Uncle Joe suggested etching, then sealing. I was leaning that way since it made sense, but it also added a bit of extra work. There's a window of time that you can shoot the next type of paint without having to re-sand and re-clean, and since I took the time to caulk seams, I missed that window. This meant that not only would I have to scuff the entire body with 100-grit paper, I would also have to re-shoot the etching primer before proceeding to the other two paint types. I didn't mind too much, after I had finished sanding, since it really seemed like the way to get the best bond.

Caulking the seams/Primer coat on

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I would be supremely disappointed if this were in any way supposed to resemble the finished product, because it does not! There are places that look like textured drywall, a few landslide runs, and I actually ran out of body color! If I'm reading the data sheets correctly, I should be able to pick up a quart of paint tomorrow, and still be within the window for re-coating, so that part should be okay. As for the blemishes, this only really needs to look decent in the engine compartment and interior. The rest of it will either fall within the tiny unnoticeable spaces around window glass and doors, or be covered completely.

First coat of Matilda purple!

The best part about having cleared this hurdle is that the next chance I get, I can finally get this thing in for undercoating, and then start making some real progress!

—GP

Today's the Day!

Believe it or not....Matilda will be mostly all purple by the end of the day!
Check back for a longer blog post this evening with photos. Major advancements have been made in the last six months. More soon!

Scalping Matilda

It's been part of the original vision of the car to cut out most of the top and install a sliding ragtop similar to those found on original Mini Coopers. Around six weeks ago, I ordered just such a top from a company in Arizona called, Street Beat Customs. They told me it would take six to eight weeks to receive, as they would have to custom make it to the 35x37" dimension that I wanted. It actually only took about a month, and with a few weeks for me to get around to it, I finally fired up the jigsaw. The original sheet metal that makes up the roof is very thin and has almost no integrity. I'm hoping that adding the aluminum frame of the slider will add a considerable amount of rigidity, because it would be impossible to straighten anything on the top of this little car as it is.

Slow but Sure

Alright, so the body restoration process has become long, slow and boring. Hence the lack of meaningful posts. Currently the undercarriage has been completely stripped of undercoating and original paint. The engine compartment and interior have a bit of grinding left to be done, and I decided to take all of the door jambs and visible interior surfaces to bare metal. The next step will involve caulking all open body seams. Once that's done, I'll finally be ready for primer and paint. Then, the rotisserie can be disassembled and the body can be trailered to Salem to be undercoated. Once back from Line-X, I will begin the process of bending fuel and brake lines from new tubing, and sand blasting and painting all of the undercarriage parts before reassembly.
—GP

Happy Birthday Matilda!

Hard to believe, but one year ago today, Matilda arrived at our address after being hauled nearly 1000 miles from the greater Los Angeles area. In the last year, we've made significant progress on our project. We found Fred, another rusty parts car, in July and a month later, Monique, the rust-free body. We worked on the project off and on through the fall and winter, and picked up speed again this spring.

The past several months have been devoted to stripping Monique's undercarriage in preparation for new undercoating. This has been a somewhat long and arduous process, but we are nearing the end and hope to be transporting the unibody shell to Salem in the next 4-6 weeks for the application of Linex. As soon as that has been accomplished, the meticulous restoration of all the undercarriage parts will begin before reassembly. Although the Matilda project will likely turn two (38 in car years) before she is running again, she will be better than new in the end. We look forward to the day when we can take her out for a weekend drive on a back road to find the perfect spot for a picnic, Simone's head sticking out the top.

Chad's Tornado

The following post has nothing to do with Matilda. For that we apologize. But an amazing thing happened to Chad, friend and Matilda co-conspirator, in the past two weeks that we felt needed some recognition.

As you may know from reading this blog, Chad has an amazing eye for cars. He is the one that spotted Fred (our Matilda body #3) some 100 feet off the road covered in a pile of boxes while flying down Highway 20 last summer. A few months ago, Chad was out driving near Lacomb (southeast of Albany), when his radar went off and alerted him to a white car obscured in the distant corner of a pasture. He had an inkling this was a special car, but didn't see the car's owner and so drove off with the intention of coming back another day to get a closer look.

Fast forward to a Monday afternoon about two weeks ago. Chad again drove out to the pasture, and ogled the vehicle through his friend Eyela's binoculars. He was taken aback by the view of a car he had never seen before. He then spotted a man walking around the property and quickly jumped out to meet him.

The man agreed to let Chad take a look at the car, and they walked over to it. The man explained that it was an old British kit car, chassis and window glass long gone, but had a complete body that is in fair condition. Chad persuaded the man to sell him the car, and then set off for home to wait for its delivery and do a little research.

It turns out the car is a Tornado Typhoon Sportsbreak, made by the Tornado company in Hertsfordshire, England around 1959-60. Very few Sportsbreaks were made, and there are only six known Tornados left in the world. Only one photo of the Sportsbreak is known to exist, and it is pasted here.

Chad sent the photo out to friends to show his new find. When Eyela saw the picture, she noted the license plate looked similar—if not the same—to the one Chad had just acquired. Turns out the car pictured above IS the actual car that Chad bought. He is now the proud owner of the car bearing the British FXU392 license plate! The photo that was taken nearly 50 years ago in a field in Hertsfordshire, England, is of the exact car that somehow made it all the way to Albany, Oregon.

That story in itself is amazing, and we were blown away by it. But it gets even more interesting. Chad came across contact information for folks who are Tornado aficionados, and sent them all emails discussing his find. He was informed that there were only TWO Sportsbreaks produced, a factory prototype, and one other. His car, the one with the FXU392 license plate is the factory prototype. Turns out the car belonged to the Tornado company's founder, and it was his wife's daily driver. The man in England who writes the newsletter for the Tornado enthusiast's club, has notified the owner of the car's existence, and is planning on making this the lead story in the next issue.

We can't wait to hear what happens next!

To learn more about the Tornado car company, visit: http://www.toddmizener.com/Beadyeye/hist1.htm
http://www.astruc.s.easynet.co.uk/tornado_register/frame.htm

Matilda gets a pick-me-up

Life has gotten crazy again with the onset of the busy summer season. Matilda's progress has been held up temporarily as the undercoating removal did not go as well as planned. It took a few weekends to clean up the dust that was created by the wire wheel and offset grinder I was using. I might try a heat gun and solvent to finish it up.

During my break from grinding, something caught my eye in the Northern Tool catalog. After some semi-precise measuring, I came to the conclusion that our garage actually could accommodate a four-post lift! So, after a few weeks of plotting and planning, not to mention calling in favors from most of the guys I know in the area, Matilda now has a cozy little perch above Carley's Accord. In the next few weekends I'll get the body back on the rotisserie and finally get it ready for Line-X.
—GP

1971: A Race Oddity

Click the play button to see Matilda's successful ride on the auto rotisserie.

Sunday we had Chad over for breakfast, and a little "car-listhenics". That's getting exercise by lifting a small car off of a motorcycle trailer. We then unloaded the rotisserie and started setting it up. I had already read the instructions, and watched a video on the proper way to rig the Whirly Gig Body Handler, but that didn't stop us from figuring it out anyway. Actually, Chad had to get to work, and even though I didn't really expect to have it up and running in one day, I had it horizontal by lunchtime! I must say the little car looks pretty cool rigged as it is, and it's going to make the undercarriage work a snap.

Light as a feather, stiff as a board....RISE!

In preparation for loading onto the auto rotisserie, Matilda's body was lifted off the trailer and onto the floor.

Rotisserie Retrieval

So, this morning, we got up early (for a Sunday) and got after it. Carley had a study date with another X-ray student in Lebanon (the town, not the country), and I met Chad for a quick trip to Cottage Grove to see his parents and pick up the auto-rotisserie. It was my first trip to the folks' place, and what a place it is! Right after crossing the river that they refer to as "the creek", you're immediately greeted by a very quaint Tudor-style home nestled in the woods, and a full professional grade auto shop that would make any mechanic's mouth water. Chad's dad, Jim had the larger pieces of the rig suspended by chain from the cable crane of his heavy equipment service truck, making load-up a snap. I was treated to a tour of his shop, which included a look at a few of the cars he's restored over the years. I see where Chad gets his knowledge of, and his love for cars. After a nice visit with his mom, Nancy, we were back on the road, stopping only to save the life of a wayward salamander. We transferred everything to my truck where it was parked, and now await the opportunity to set this puppy up! —GP

Breaking the Logjam

Our nephew Brendan came down again to help us with a little auto-restoration fun. I'd been saving the tear-down of the passenger door for him, and since we're in sort of a holding pattern on the undercoating, we finally got back to the engine. I'd hit a road block several months ago, when I was unable to remove the clutch plate. It was supposed to just slide right off the shaft with minimal effort, but hadn't budged since bell-bottoms were in style. My buddy Noah was over to help and hang out, so between the three of us, we were eventually able to come up with a suitably dangerous solution to the problem. Turns out that all it took was grinding down two of the adapters for the slide hammer, holding a torch on the hub until it released the requisite noxious fumes, a little cursing, a lot of hammering, and we were home! After that is was practically no effort at all to open the drive chain housing, and remove the drive gears and sprocket. By this point we were all pretty pleased with the weekend's progress and didn't want to push our luck.

For a short introduction to the project, click the play button to watch our first Matilda video log:

—GP

Body Work Begins

Even though we are blessed enough to have an almost completely rust-free body, there were a few little spots that needed some attention. Fortunately, they are in places that will never be seen, but since we are doing this thing all the way, I figured it'd be a good chance to remind myself how to do this body work stuff. The worst of the two places that had actually rusted through, was under the driver-side door sill plate. I remembered taking care of some similar holes in a car when I worked for Tom Brown at Coachworks Autobody when I was nineteen. It involved tapping the rusty spot with a pointed hammer until you've broken out anything that isn't solid metal. This has the effect of bending the surrounding area down slightly which makes the body filler portion of the repair work better. Then you cut some light-gauge sheet metal into shapes that will fill the hole, while sitting into the recess created by the hammering. Next, you apply a coat of Duraglas (fiberglass body filler) to the hole, insert your metal plates, and cover the whole works with another layer of Duraglas. After sanding, and re-filling any low spots with regular Bondo, it's ready for primer. —GP