Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.

On Thursday, I went to get the oil changed in the Speed3, and started reading through a free car newspaper while I waited. I came across an ad for a body shop that does soda blasting...so I checked out their website, found out that they were a couple of miles from Craig's house and decided to pay them a visit.

I gathered up the five crates of parts that have been sitting in the garage and took them to the shop this morning. When I got there, I met the owner, Tom, and we discussed my project and how they might be able to help out, came to some pricing for the things I brought along and then I went on a mini tour of the place with one of the employees who walked me around their shop-showing me the GTO being restored to factory specs, the Gran Torino that was being brought back from the dead (lots of patch panels riveted to the original metal and covered with bondo), the Austin Healey 3000 that came from another body shop because they couldn't work on it, an early StingRay Corvette that was soda blasted...I also spied a couple of state vehicles being repainted in the paint booth. Tom offered to pick up the pan and body from the house and transport them to his shop for a small fee (cheaper than I could rent a trailer), where he'd weld in the pans and make sure the pan fit the body before powder coating it. He also offered up a really good price to soda blast the body to make sure it's ready for paint.

But something in me hesitated so I told Tom that I'd hit a few areas with my wire wheel on the grinder before committing to a full blown soda blast. I didn't want to spend the money only to find that there was substantial additional work required. Nice place to be when you're the body shop, not so great if you're me.

After stopping by Craig's place, I came home moved a bunch of stuff to the driveway, set up a fan and fired up the grinder. First place I hit was the A pillar down near the rocker on the driver's side. I panicked for a second as the wire wheel dug into the side of the car by 1/2"...but I quickly realized that it was bondo...wait, really?

It wasn't just 'bondo', it was a shit load of bondo. As I went through the entire driver's side with the wire wheel, some other things started to fall into place in my mind...I suddenly realized why the doors didn't seem to fit right and why the front fenders I recently bought didn't rest up against the car correctly. Bondo.

The guy that was working on the car when I bought it had put the fenders on the car and made everything else fit...with bondo. The guy seemed proud of his work replacing the rockers and how well they looked.

This is the photo I took right before I fired up the grinder:

The driver's side front of the rocker:

What are the slots for? Did he make these in the basement with a Playskool hammer? I admittedly know jack shit about fabrication but I'm pretty sure I could scrounge up the brain power to make something better than this...or at least be smart enough to find someone who can.

I took A LOT of bondo off the car...the blocks that show in the lower right side of the picture are 5/16" deep. I briefly entertained the idea of carving the state of Hawaii out of the bondo, but I screwed up one of the islands so I scrapped the idea.

You can also see that the rear of the right rocker has a giant hole in it because the guy had enough bondo to do it "his way". The patch panels at the rear also highlight his stellar welding skills. Kids in high school welding class do a better job.

I had two grinders fail in one day and after a short trip to Home Depot, I bought a third to replace them. I swept up half of the garage floor and dumped two large dustpans full of bondo / paint dust into the trash and it's going to take me another week to get the dust off of the rest of the stuff in the garage.

This is the driver's side front rocker with more stellar welding and bondo...the only thing missing was rivets!

Early rocker / heater channels are non-existent so it looks like I'll wind up buying some later pieces and have them fabbed up to the body and incorporate the early heater channel vents. I'm going to need some metal to finish this car...and I haven't even touched the rear of the car where, I fear, there is more damaged metal that has been "touched".

...and Kelly took this photo of me with the new grinder, discovering the wonderful things that were done to the interior with bondo.

Tomorrow, I'm taking the 8 remaining wheels to be checked for 'round' and 'true'. Those that are not will be scrapped. I'm hoping to get at least 6 good wheels out of them. I want five for the car and I have a guy looking for one...then the 5 will get added to the next pile of strip and coat.

In two weeks, I'll be putting the steering column back together (it's getting painted) and I should be able to put the front beam back together (it's also getting painted) sans brakes (I haven't bought them yet).

All of these new 'discoveries' have me a little gun shy about completely restoring the pan...but I'm frustrated by the search for suitable parts within the state, so it must continue.

There is a possible parts car deal being worked out (the car is in Tennessee) but nothing is finalized yet. The 64 I cut up two years ago was in pretty bad shape...but I'm starting to regret it because this car is more hacked than that one was. I'm realizing that I'd rather have a car in bad shape than hacked...but I'll learn to deal with what I have and make it what I want.

At least the pan will get done this year...