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Arrival
- November 27, 2001
I received a phone call in the morning from the
truck driver who told me that my car was to be delivered later that
day. He told me he’d call again when he had a better idea about
when. I got the second call around 6:30 and the truck arrived around
8:30. It was dark, so I couldn’t get a great fix on the car’s
condition, but judging by the look of things she is nicer than I
expected.
Getting the car off the truck is a story unto
itself. She now rests in my driveway. It was bloody cold outside
(yeah, I know this is LA and it
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doesn’t get cold, but when you are used to
hot and the thermo drops below 50 your body freezes),
and dark, so I didn’t spend too much time checking
over the car. Although, I do have the following to report:
The car came with no heater or defroster
from the factory, wild. At some point in the ‘50s,
someone had an aftermarket heater installed, which is
good, but there is still no
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 A Vision of Beauty
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not that I need one. The control for the heater lives under
the hood, so I’ll have to think ahead when I want it
on or off. There is a little electric switch mounted under
the dash for the fan. All of the gauges are in sweet shape.
The glass and faces are perfect. The radio isn’t factory
dodge. It looks early sixties. The seats are tired and the
stuffing is coming out, as expected. The floors are bare,
and there is a tiny amount of rust on the passenger’s
side floor near a body mounting bolt. Should be easy to
fix. All the glass is in great shape with the exception
of the windscreen, which is cracked badly. I’ve already
removed all the exterior trim in my head so I won’t
even mention that it is all there and in good shape. The
spare is missing. The jack is there. Under the hood, as
expected, there is no engine. There is also no radiator.
In fact, none of the engine parts whatsoever are there.
I was sort of hoping that there would be some external engine
parts/bolts, but whatever. I need to replace the radiator
anyhow as the bigger hemi is longer and will need a different
radiator to fit in the engine compartment. The body is super
sweet. There are only a couple of small dents and the rocker
& quarter panels are flawless. Amazing! I mean I will
literally need to sand this thing lightly, fix the couple
of dents and spray it. That should take no time. The interior
paint is a funky dark brown color, so I’ll need to
figure out what color to paint it to make it more interesting. |
Hmm...
Complicated
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As
an aside, I found an original owner’s manual in perfect
condition. Now I had hoped that I was getting an overdrive
car, and I hadn’t asked about it. When I saw the
illustration in the manual showing the location of the
operating lever, I checked out the only photo I had of
the dashboard. Where the lever should have been there
was nothing. Bummer. Well,
when I opened the driver’s side door, there it was,
the overdrive lever in the right place, it was
simply pulled out
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and blocked from view in the dash photo by the steering
wheel. Cool!
Incidentally,
my engine was shipped this morning and will be here
Friday. Soon enough I’ll be on my way to building
this thing. Tomorrow I’ll get some fresh pictures
and poke around some more.
December
1, 2001
Ok, so I lied. I have been so busy
working on customer cars, that I haven't taken the time
to take photographs or pay any physical attention to
the car (how's that for discipline boys!). Besides,
it really doesn't look too much different sitting in
my shop on four flat tires than it does in Utah sitting
on four flat tires. I have done some parts buying for
it though. I found a new windshield and it's getting
shipped. I also found a NOS gas cap, and some new front
brake hoses on ebay. I tracked down a sandblasting shop
who'll blast all four wheels for cheap. I figure this
week I'll be able to drop them off. By the end of the
week, I should have four freshly painted wheels with
new rubber mounted on them. Nothing like new shoes to
spice up a girl's life.
I neglected to mention that the brakes
go to the floor with no resistance. It's always a good
idea to have the option to stop your car, so I'll be
going through the brakes while the wheels are off. I'm
guessing that I'll be replacing all the wheel cylinders
and the master cylinder.
The engine arrived yesterday, and
I haven't even unwrapped it from the pallet. I did pull
a little of the wrap off, and looked in. It's going
to need some TLC to look sharp. I've already resigned
myself to tearing it down completely. I'll look forward
to it, as it will allow me to put this thing together
the way I want it and ensure that it's balanced and
blueprinted. I feel myself getting carried away... yeah
four Weber 48 IDA two barrel carbs... nasty solid lifter
cam... grrr...
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