An Ode to higher skilled family members

An Ode to higher skilled family members.

My Brother In Law - Louie is awesome beyond words. He's much better working on cars than I am and he's very giving of his time. He and my sister live about an hour away. During the summer - he came and helped us pull the drive train. After body shop estimates came in too high for us to afford - he said he was willing to power wash the entire thing, wire wheel and rattle can the rust spots in the interior and engine bay all in exchange for a small sum. He's a great guy.

Pictures of the man himself (and his truck):

Power washing like a Baws!

Showing Orion how to use the lift

Towing Lady off for body work

A few days later - Lewis calls - he has a friend that has a full body shop that can do the media blasting, prime, and paint for a reasonable fee (way less than our other estimates). I figure they'll mask off what we didn't remove from Lady and go to town. We gladly take him up on the offer.

I found out today that Louie has spent the last 2 months getting the body ready for the sand blaster and paint. He is doing this up right. I can't thank him enough. The small sum is, of course, going to go up :)

Left: Small parts he blasted in his shop. 

Center: Glass, window cranks, wiper motors, etc. 

Right: Lady almost ready for the body

8/2019 - Wow I suck at keeping a blog.

Wow! I suck at keeping this blog up to date. Previous post we had the engine out. This post has pictures from August when Uncle Louis came and took the body off to do the power washing, some wire wheel & sand blasting. Paint coming soon.

After a bit of power washing. There is a lot more rust on that back wall than I thought. Thank God for generous and skilled family members

Some of the smaller bits sand blasted. Looking forward to seeing the painted version

7/15 - !ENGINE OUT!

Special thanks to our Uncle Louis who came out, brought his engine lift, and helped us get the engine out.

We had most everything disconnected except the transmission cross member and mounts. We made quick work of those and were done in no time.

Right: I swear Louis and the kids look like they are on the cover of an album.

Left: Orion got to run the hoist for almost the entire time.

Left: Completely out.

Who is doing the rebuild

We loaded the engine, transmission, and carburetors into Louis' truck and took them out to http://autosportseattle.com/. They're going to get me a quote on rebuilding it all and boring the cylinders out so we can get a 10:1 compression. they are thinking they are 4 to 6 weeks out on having it done.

Left: AJ took a picture with me in it. 

We've been getting a lot done lately

• Pulled the dashboard but left all the switches and gauges attached to their wires
• Heater box and vents are all out.
• Electrical harness is completely out (with switches and gauges still attached)
• AJ Pulled all the interior trim panels this afternoon
• I pulled the clutch "Sub" Cylinder
• Hydraulic lines aplenty are completely free of the car.
• I'm ready to have body shops take a look at the shell.

Next to do:

• Drop the gas tank and find a radiator shop that will clean it and the radiator up.
• Get a couple of estimates on the body work
• Take the panels and the seats to an upholstery shop
• Take delivery of a scissor lift in the next week or two.

Progress report June 22, 2019

Small progress update.

I'm getting out to work on "Lady" every few days sometimes with the kids, sometimes on my own. I'm enjoying this time.

In the last several days, we've dropped the exhaust line and pulled out the exhaust header.

This morning we shipped the calipers and a new set of brake drums off to https://www.goldlinebrakes.com/ - a local shop that will rebuild the calipers and bake on a finish.

Today we spent time pulling out the hydraulic lines, brake light switch, starter solenoid, fuse block, and electrical block. My eldest son, AJ, pulled the front grill. I've decided to replace the entire electrical harness. We want the engine bay to be gorgeous. I'm shopping for a four post lift.

This time with 4 part harmony and feeling??

So I keep trying to start on the car and failing utterly, but you know - if at first you don't succeed...


This most recent spurt of effort was initiated by my, now 16 year old son, AJ talking smack about me in front of my brother in law, Louis. AJ was saying that the car was covered in dust and we never worked on it and could Louis come fix it. Instead of letting Louis fix it, he and I set a date in June for him to come help me pull the engine & transmission. Since then, I've been cleaning out the garage again & "puttering" on the car (small bits of work here and there).

To the left are 2 pictures. The first is one of my youngest, Orion, pulling one of the spark plugs (he wanted to help). The other is me pulling back the exhaust manifold. to show that it's at least loose. I can't get it off the engine due to how close it is to the steering shaft.

Today the two older brothers and I went out and drained the transmission, and removed the front brake calipers so I can ship them off to get them rebuilt and painted. I'm thinking gloss black on the coat.