Friday, November 18, 2011

Why do I blog about this?

  There are several reasons, actually. One is certainly so that my friends and family can follow along with the progress. I am also doing it selfishly, to serve as a build journal for myself. Since I am a member of a few message boards that deal with old cars like this one, I do the blog so that as I make progress, I write a new entry for the blog, and then just put up a link on the message boards instead of writing it out three times.

  And the other reason. There are many people with the skills (or potential skills) to take on a project along these lines. But, they lack a huge budget, or a big, well-equipped shop to do it in, and soon find themselves overwhelmed at the prospect, and never do it. I know that feeling very well, as it held me back for a long time. The blog is to show people that it CAN be done on limited resources.

  Anyhow, when I last left you, I had just begun to make the center body brace for the driver's side. A bit more cutting, bending and fitting, and I had the shell of the brace tacked together


  There are two bolts that screw into this brace from underneath that fasten the body to the frame. I drilled out the holes, and made these two blocks


  Screwed bolts into them through the holes to ensure that everything will line up, and then tacked them to the brace


  Once tacked, I removed it from the car, and, it was ready to finish off.


Finish welded


ground smooth


  And a coat of weld through primer.

  It's almost ready to install, but before I do, I'll use it as a pattern to go ahead and make one for the passenger side, so I'll have it ready when I get to it.

  I originally planned to make my rockers from scratch, but I decided to spend a little of the money that I got for the Fairlane, and order up some new ones. After I install them, I'll modify them to Improve the car's styling.


  The bag with them is a complete set of body mounting rubber.

  During the time since my last entry, We passed the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chevrolet Motor Car company. While out picking up some primer for the Chevy, 51Kid and I made a slight detour to pay some respects


  Co-founder of the company. He had left the company within 5 years of its' founding, but it still retains his name.

  It's getting colder. I'll freely admit that cold weather adversely affects my motivation to go out to the shop, but I want to keep pushing forward, as I really want to get to the next milestone in the build by the end of next Summer, if not before.