3-13-10   She ran today for the first time in 8 years! It sounds great and no leaks!! Yep, nothing on the floor or shooting out of anywhere.  There is still much to do but this was a major hurdle.

  I just don't know why I do some things, This is the original fan as seen in the teardown pictures. I polished and cleared the blades and the repainted the hub. This was one of those things that I screamed, "Who's idea was this"?? I spent about 6 hours all told.

Having the driveshaft cut this week and hopefully to the muffler and alignment shops next week!

3-20-10 A BIG Thanks to Al and the guys at Driveline Service of Sacramento for trimming down the driveshaft for our project. She moved under her own power on Friday!  I spent most of the day Friday just getting it ready to go to the muffler shop in the morning.

Saturday I was awake at 4 AM, all excited and apprehensive about the day ahead of me.  I picked up a car trailer from U Haul and headed home.

Our other black car! It turned 4 years old on St. Patrick's Day.

  First time she has EVER been on a trailer ... long enough to go to the muffler shop and home.  This is NOT a trailer queen!  She starts on the first crank then straight out of the garage and right up on the trailer, no messing around.  It's like she knew there were good things coming. My thanks to the crew at Marco Muffler in Orangevale for the beautiful exhaust work. I had a crossover tube installed to help balance out the pressure. It sounds great!

Back at home, her trailer riding is over.

  Now that she's quiet, all I can hear is the alternator belt screaming. I can see the pulleys are not aligned correctly. So one by one I removed the chrome pulleys and then the aftermarket alternator bracket. I installed the old (UGLY) unpainted original parts and the belt has finally calmed down.

JEEZ, late in the day and now another issue, I think I cooked a plug wire. There's a dead miss in it. I packed it in on Saturday, thoroughly disgusted with it all. The header bolts are already loose again, I got ugly parts on it, it's missing bad. UGH!! I'm thinking that I will leave it alone today but I know that won't happen........

3-24-10 The engine finally runs well. Thanks to Mark at Pace Performance for sending me in the right direction.  It seems that all of the lifters were set too tight when it was assembled. So, it runs really well, idles in gear without shaking, oh my gosh, it's a docile beast! WHAT a relief!!

 I've been puttering with small things, doing some housekeeping (reads) removing fingerprints from everything on it!! I found a new original crank pulley, it's black but it fits correctly! Bled the brakes once more just because..........

While doing the front part of the car, I also did (and had) some things for the rear of the car. This picture is of a brand new tailgate top trim just out of the package! I also painted a decent set of side bumper fillers, this car hasn't had fillers for 20 years or so!  Those will go on in a week or 2. I have an excellent tailgate but that is a later project.

3-25-10 Another banner day! Insured by Haggarty's and licensed too. I just couldn't resist, around the block we went!

3-26-10 I pulled the fenders out of the shop this morning, took them out front and gave them a good bath. They had some nasty rub marks from the cardboard boxes stacked against them. I removed the emblems and lights then did some color sanding. I forgot that I had some NOS fender emblems for them too! The marks came off after about 3 hours of rubbing................

3-29-10  She went to the alignment shop this morning. After a little brutal work, I got it outta there. I am sooo glad that no one will be putting their greasy hands and clothes all over it. Some folks just don't understand..... just gotta put their mitts all over everything. So, I see an hour or two of cleaning and some paint work to cover his tracks.

And now the final cleaning, painting and sorting things out begins. I'd like to have the hood on it by the end of April but who knows.

4-7-10  First complete wax job in a LONG time, I forgot how much work it was!

4-29-10  She made it to the first show of the season and was well received even though it was the newest car allowed in (74 and earlier only). A lot of folks were enamored with the swivel buckets and many thought the driveway paint job was a pro shop job even though it's 15 yr old paint.

The car is disassembled again and I'm paying homage to the paint gods by sanding my fingerprints off every couple of days. I have all of the brackets and things ready for this spray session and I only need to finish the fenderwells before I can prime. I'm trying to have it back together to attend a display at the AF Base (closed) museum on the 15th of May. It should be very cool parked around the aircraft. I was an aircraft mechanic for 25 years so I gotta make this one!

5-7-10 I finally got all the parts painted! It was not without it's trials and tribulations though! I had everything primed and ready so Wednesday, I set out to paint. First I knocked over my detail gun and broke the trigger. I figured out how to work it broken. By the time I got all set up, the wind started. And wouldn't you know, just as I got a nice tack coat of paint on everything, the wind blew a bunch of junk down off the roof. So I got to spend all day yesterday sanding all 22 small parts and the fenderwells. Everything seems to have worked out, just a couple of easy runs to deal with.      

Starting today I'll be taking everything off the car needed to install all of this stuff this week. I'm pulling the right fender to align the door again.

5-16-10  We got the car all back together enough to make it to the Armed Forces Day Event at the McClellan Air Force Museum, 5-15-10. There were 20 cars invited to be on display inside the museum. We met at a local restaurant after most of these guys were in a local parade. We loosely made it to another parking lot just down the road from the museum and then formed up and pulled in together. It was well planned and executed by all involved.

The Douglas DC3 "Gooney Bird" in the background actually pulled 3 gliders on D day. It was (much) later confiscated by the DEA for hauling recreational pharmaceuticals and then donated to the museum. There are many very special aircraft here. It's a different feeling being around these aircraft, it's like there were hero's all around us, and each with it's own story. Inside the building is also a treasure trove of old engines large and small, early jet engines, drones, small airplanes, a Mars lander spacecraft replica, just a bunch of different aviation displays and dioramas. And an HO train exhibit too!

The C119 was a good old workhorse in the 50's and 60's. Great shot Sue!

I love the end spot! Quite by accident, not planned at all!

The fenderwells really make a huge difference in the look of completeness of the car. I managed to get them color sanded last week so they looked really nice too!.

5-31-10 Made it up the hill to Mom and Dads, the farthest trip yet!!

      Still no hood or A/C and the interior isn't complete. But the AM FM 8 track is in there!

more to come..................