Life is just moving from one source of anxiety to another

It finally happened...the car and all of its related pieces are at the body shop.  The floor pans will be swapped out, the whole thing will get powder coated and I'll get it back.  After that's done, I'll work with Tom to figure out the cost of the body work and paint.  Once those two things are done, it should all be down hill/assembly.  It's still going to be super expensive and take several months but it's in process and, for some reason, that was a large step for me.

A photo from inside the house by my wife.  My friend Craig came over to help out.  Every time Craig and I tackle a project, something goes wrong-it's usually the weather causing problems.  It's raining or super windy or snowing.  Today was no different.  It hasn't really snowed all year, until today.  We waited for about an hour before getting started-just long enough for it to stop snowing.  Then, we started figuring out a ramp, I cut the wood and then we realized that it was taking too long and probably wouldn't be strong enough.  It was 1pm and it starts to get dark around 3:30pm and the shop is 45 minutes away.  So we went back to basics.

Bolted the body to the body dolly/cart, added two cross members for strength and just picked it up and put it in the truck-1/2 at a time.  The front of the car is light so that was easy.  The back was a little more difficult - we used the truck's ramp as a support for the rear and it worked out pretty well.  The only obstacle was the wheel wells inside the truck.

The truck was huge (26' inside) and I could have fit two of these cars inside.  It was the only size available and it was the same price as the smaller truck.

A shot of the car now that it's actually in the truck.  It took less time to 'just do it' than it did to try to figure out a way to get the ramp thing going.  That is definitely one nice thing about the car being completely stripped and also being small and light.

Once the car was in the truck, we attached the fenders and hood...strapped the doors and the hatch to the wall of the truck, slid the pans under the body, tied everything down and off we went.

There's a good 4-5 feet behind the car and about 10 feet open in front of it.

The pan is going to take 6-8 weeks to be completed, the body another 2 months after that...the shop is super busy now and Ferris is at the end of the line.  

It actually works out well-the garage will get cleaned up (again) and we can probably park both cars in the garage for the first time since we bought the house.  I should have the car back in the late Spring with finished body work and a new pan.

Craig is super happy that this adventure was easy...and so am I.  It's funny how you get all of this stuff out of a garage and into a shop and it doesn't look like much.

Building this body dolly was one of the best things I did for this project.











Tomorrow I return to working on the house to finish up demo/prep for final work on Monday.  Now I have a complete 2 car garage for a work space.  I hope to end one set of projects just as the other returns.

I managed to find replacement bumper brackets and sold the seat belts-so things on that side have turned around.  I'm shooting for a goal of posting up more 'for sale' ads in The Samba classifieds in the next day or two.  It's time to clean house while Ferris is gone.

Background Tune: "Euphoria" by School of Fish (weird timing...)