"I’ve got a 'to-do' list that’s longer than a fucking Leonard Cohen song."

I bought a pair of NOS rear brake drums from Germany and they showed up-about two weeks earlier than I expected.

A nice surprise, of course, and I can take rear brakes off of my list of stuff to hoard.

I've been slowly going through the boxes and bins of parts in an effort (half-assed, mind you) to gather up and determine what to keep and what to eliminate from the storage for the final assembly.  There's a lot of stuff to keep but there's a lot of stuff that I just need to get rid of...and that day will arrive soon.

When I think about the sheer magnitude of assemblies that need to be addressed in the future, it's a bit intimidating-I have to be honest...but I'm navigating choppy waters in the hope that I reach each of these shores with more experience and a sense of accomplishment.

I will, no doubt, farm out some of the work due to time or capability constraints...but there's still a lot to do.  There are a myriad of ways to approach this massive list of things to accomplish for a fully functional, almost original car.  I've considered printing out each section of the parts book and checking off the parts I have on hand in acceptable condition and creating a list of 'wanted' parts.  I started to do this a few months ago but it lost steam because it seemed to be an ominous project (and it's not really the 'real' project, is it?) and the outcome would lead to another, larger project (assembly).

For now, I'm going to try to focus on the pan and the underlying body work...get the pan perfect and the body work completed and ready for paint.  Fortunately for me, that's already underway and doesn't rely on me for much of anything.  I will continue to seek out the parts for the final assembly and build up the front beam and rear suspension.  There is anticipation for the completion of these two components but I've been stalling on doing much with them while I wait for the pan to return to me.  It'd be nice to have them done and ready to go but I'm not 100% sure about the direction I'm going to take sometimes.

The front brakes have been a large question mark in my head for months.  Part of me wants to go the frugal route and use the AC industries/EMPI kit to convert the wide 5 drums to disc since there are a lot of 'common parts' used (Ghia calipers, parts are easy to find, etc.) but it requires modification to later disc spindles and I'd rather not go this route for a few reasons.  One is aesthetics-it just looks like shit when it's done.  The second reason should actually be the first:  I would be drilling two holes in a 40 year old spindle.  One of those holes has very little meat on the edge-it looks like it's just asking for a failure.  If failure can be avoided, it should be avoided, especially at a cost differential that's this low.

I'm now considering the more expensive Airkewld wide 5 kit (the price is double that of the ACindustries/EMPI solution)...but then I figure if I'm going to spend the money, I should just pony up and buy the CSP brake kit which is TUV certified, has a stainless steel backing plate and is cleaner looking overall.

Keeping the drum spindles will allow me to sell off two complete sets of disc spindles currently collecting dust in my garage.

I should just do it...and depending on how much I spend in California, I just might...