Saturday went mostly as planned-with the trip out to pick up
the new car-with the exception of a snow storm that slowed our progress
considerably. The four hour drive took
nearly five with dragging a trailer and driving on unfamiliar roads, not to mention
people who thought nothing of the drastic change in driving requirements. There were no less than 20 cars off the road
in the ditch in our journey-most of them simply driving too fast for the
conditions-and it made the otherwise non-scenic drive a little more
interesting.
I'm always intrigued by the fact that people will spend
hours, if not days, figuring out how to use the features of a newly acquired
cell phone-but they won't spend more than an hour getting used to a new car or
learning how to drive in different conditions...preferring to 'take it as it
comes'. I used to think there was this
thing called 'common sense' but the older I get and the more I see, the less I
believe in its existence. Technology has
taken place of this 'common sense' and it's not nearly intuitive enough to
completely replace it. But I digress...
The car is in very good shape-80% of the body work is done
and it has a fresh layer of paint. There
are a few cosmetic areas that need to be addressed but it's definitely 'doable'
in a short period of time. The car came
with quite a few parts and most of them are usable. I wound up throwing out the original panels
for the interior because they were not properly stored and have been seriously
damaged. The floors are clean and
straight, the roof is straight, front end and engine are good. The car came with several boxes of parts that
have been taken off the car-most of which are not cleaned but in good
condition-so I can use them for the car.
I have about five boxes that came with the car to sort
through and get organized before I can get a complete picture of what I have
and what I'll need. I've now got three
transmissions, two engines and three front suspension beams to work with to get
the final parts required. I have three
or four steering boxes, more than enough window glass, two windshields, etc. I don't imagine I'm going to need much after
sorting through the parts. It'll be nice
to be able to not have to hunt down parts for a while and spend some time
cleaning and rebuilding the parts that I already have...sometimes being 'anal'
can backfire-this might be one of those times.
This car has cut a substantial amount of time out of my restoration
project because some key things are already finished.
This new car is a 65 "N" model and I'm going to
convert it to an "S" model-meaning more chrome on the body. I've got some great panels to start with...I
can't wait to fire this thing up and drive it!
Not much is going to happen through the winter...I am going
to focus on getting extra parts sold and making sure I have everything I need
to prepare for warmer weather when I can start back up on this project once
again.
In the meantime, I'm going to finish my formal educational
process in February 2011, and work on reaching some other goals that I have set
in front of myself.
