Matthew Taylor's Journal

11-15-2015
After getting her home, I unloaded her from the dolly. She really didn't want to come. When she did, it was clear the header was what was dragging. There was a bit more of an exhaust leak now than before. The first order of business was to inventory parts, and clean up the car. I put Cole to work washing and polishing the car - not that I had any hope the paint was salvageable, I just wanted a better look - and I didn't know how long it would be before Jerry could give me a hand on the body work. I will say Cole did a great job, it polished up well. Unfortunately, if you polish a turd, its still a turd. I was all proud "look Jerry, its shiny! Maybe its not so bad after all". Jerry "...fish eyes....a$$holes...orange peal....dent...dent....dent...dent...dent...dent..dent...dent..." So, the verdict was as swift as it was harsh - paint has to come off. He gave me a list of materials, and we laid out a plan. In the mean time, Cole went to work on all the chrome with some WD-40, and steel wool. The shiny bits came out well, with most being usable on the finished car. A class on electrical took us through a diagram, tracing out why the horn didn't work. With Cole driving the meter, we found a bad horn, missing push brush, and no ground wire on the ring in the steering wheel. Ordered the brush, along with the supplies we would need to de-paint the car in our garage. Cole got a class on soldering, and we added back the missing wire to the steering wheel.

Meanwhile, I changed out the distributor, went for a few more "test drives", and took stock of all the parts that came with the car, vs what I knew we were missing. Then went shopping. They didn't say it, but I could tell - TRF and Moss had missed me. I added a couple new friends too - Spitbits and Rimmers.