HEY! knock it off with the excellent build thread, will ya? you're really making the rest of us looks bad here!!! oh man if my wife sees this thread im so screwed. there goes my alibi!! this is a build for the record book. getting to rub elbows with gene like that is an honor and you get to work with him on YOUR car...how freaking cool is that. this is gonna be a story for the grandkids!!
Yep, two weeks, I was hoping you guys hadn't noticed.... Long story short, I got out to Winfield's and the car wasn't ready for paint. The bodywork wasn't up to par and the "bodyman" who was working on my car had quit the week prior. Gene was busy getting ready for El Mirage and didn't take the time to look the car over thoroughly. I was pretty bummed and my friends and I tried to bust ass to get the car ready anyways but in the end I threw in the towel on Monday and drove home. I refuse to paint over bad bodywork because it will turn the paint job from something I should love into something I'll despise and probably end up making me sell the car. I have too many years into this build to throw it away trying to rush a paint job. The other issue is that I have a hard time doing work myself that I already paid for. So, frustrating....yes. Gene said he'll make sure its "perfect" and I'm heading back out there the first week in July.
Here are some pics from the trip. The car was guidecoated when we got there and we planned on doing the blocking so I could thoroughly go over the car and save a few bucks too. Here's an example of the bodywork I wasn't happy with. The vertical edges should be straight, not rounded off. We also planned on undercoating the front fenders and hood using canned truck bed liner. We also pulled the hood hinges and sand blasted them, then painted them black. We got about half of the wetsanding done. Here's the roof. We were leaving the shop about 10:00 PM on Saturday night when Gene showed up from El Mirage. He told us that if we wanted to go racing with him to be at the shop at 6:00 AM sharp and we could follow him out there. We couldn't turn down the chance to see Gene run The Thing and his new blue 32 roadster so we tagged along. I got to help change the gears in the 32's quickchange, and my buddy Travis got to fire The Thing while they tuned the carb. It was pretty fun. The pics from El Mirage are on my friend's camera so I'll get those up ASAP.
Sounds frustrating, but it's sure looking encouraging. It's worth reading from the start of the thread to see what a POS you started with. Amazing (and admirable) transformation...such a sweet profile... Is the color still top secret?
No secret, it will be lots of shades of House of Kolor blues. Gene made up the paint list and it included several candies, pearls and metal flakes.
A few pics from El Mirage, more of the car coming also.. This one is a little tough to see, but it's Gene in 'The Thing' at about 105MPH..
Another couple pictures: First one is Gene getting prepped to run in the line with the German film crew that was filming a documentary about him that weekend at the races and around the shop. Second one is pretty self explanatory.
I got a special delivery in the mail yesterday, CHROME PARTS! They look amazing, literally not a single flaw on any of the parts. I will be bringing some of the parts to Winfield's for a final fit-check before paint, so Josh went ahead and shipped me what was ready. I want to make sure that the taillights, trunk handle, door handles, etc fit up to the bodywork one last time. It would be a shame to have paint on the car and then find out that there is a funny gap around the taillight or something like that. Pics to follow.
I just wanted to say thanks. You posted how you did your guages and I was able to do close to the same. I stripped my new guages and painted them gold with black needles. Look pretty cool Thanks again.
I snuck up to Winfield's last week while on vacation to test fit the chrome parts that Josh sent me. Here are a few pics. The parts came very nicely wrapped and everything arrived in good condition. It was important to test fit the tail-lights because this is an area where the bodywork has to match or it will look like crap. The bodywork needs to be flush all around, and the gaps also need to be consistent. I left behind the nice parts, but will also be mailing a junk set of tails this week so they can make them fit perfectly. The grille ends fit nicely. Front turn signals. The fenders need a little more bodywork around the signals. The horn bar fit the steering wheel nicely too. Here's the trunk handle, probably one of the nicest chrome parts on the car, although I haven't seen the bumpers yet and I know Josh has a ton of work into em. And a couple more details from my visit. Rob at Winfield's whipped up these nice fender braces while I was there. It's one of those things I just never got around to doing. They have a machine called a Pexto that punches different sizes and shapes of holes. They can make parts much faster than I can using step drills and hole saws. It's now one of those tools on my "gotta have" list. And a parting shot of the bodywork being done on the insides of the door frames. Even the bottoms of the doors are getting smoothed out, this is why its taking so long but the end result will be so worth it.
Talked to Gene at El Mirage yesterday...he's sure excited about the way it's coming along. Had a little twinke in his eye when I asked about it...
Man he's back out there already? He was just running The Thing and the 32 roadster out there 3 weeks ago! Which car did he run and how did he do?
The Jalopy Journal
