new set of plates

We're big time now.

out with the old...

in with the new :D

woohoo!! 

2010 To Do's

Okay, so it's February, we have several feet of snow and I've got the itch! I just wanna get out in that garage and under my car! But, alas. Instead, I'm compiling my To Do's and planning. There's so much I'd love to do, so I need to start prioritizing!

First things first... gotta get those collector plates! Since it's been a year since I've had Ellie 2, I can go pick up my collector plates!! woo hoo. I'll definitely be posting pictures of that!!

Body work is on the agenda this summer.
I'm searching for an air compressor and a wire-feed welder, so we can be a little more self-sufficient. I'm also looking for the best deals on sheet metal.

Parts I need:
- New fenders: possibly a lower patch fender ($60 OPG) and full fender on the driver side ($260 OPG).
- Bed parts: Bed access panel under the rear window. My dream plan is to create a secret compartment to the access panel. We might need to brush up on our welding skills though.
- Hot Rod flat black primer paint... yep, you heard me.
- Air compressor, air tools and lots of sandpaper!

The plan:
- Start sanding! We're gonna strip all the paint off the whole car and see what we've got under there. Could be scary! I always say that it's 50/50 - could be beautiful hardwood or rotting linoleum!
- Prime 'er with that sexy hot rod matte primer. I chose to do this primer because it looks like paint and it allows us to keep the car in primer for years longer than any other primer while we're working on the body work... I'm sure it'll take us more than one summer!!
- Remove side chrome molding and fill the support holes.
- Remove tonneau cover rivets and fill holes.
- Repair those fenders!
- Attach new mirrors. Away with those trashy Dodge Neon junkyard mirrors!
- Realign tailgate brackets
- Install new bed access panel... perhaps we'll get to the secret compartment too ;) shh...

As far as engine work - I don't think we'll be doing a lot unless something emergent comes up (which it usually does), but we'll probably be doing a radiator flush, an oil change and some deep cleaning under the hood. I would also really like to chop my fan blade hood and repaint those old blades.

An ambitious list, I know. But I've got high expectations, lots of ambition and more excitement than I know what to do with.

As I stare out the window, it looks grim since I don't even think I could get the garage door open with all that snow. But, you can bet, the moment I can get in that garage with no snow blocking me out, I'll be under that car!

Prime Time!

The time has come. After days and weeks of laboring over this bed, it's clean, stripped and ready for primer! woo hoo. I'm so proud of us for finishing the scraping and sanding. I learned so much from this experience, we'll be so ready to do the rest of the car next summer.
But before then, we have to get this bed primed, so we set up our own make-shift paint booth in the driveway! I used Rustoleum Red Oxide Primer and did 2 coats (3 in some places).
I'm a pro at this now...

Setting up the "paint booth" we used drop clothes and painting tape. Ghetto, cheap, easy to setup and it worked great!! We had to use towels to keep the drop clothes down cause it was so windy this day... and corbin stood guard. 

All ready to go. Man, it looks great!

I'm so happy that we did it. Excited to get this baby primed and in the garage. Our first body big body work project. We do have some more work to do before it's good though - replacing the access panel behind the back window and fixing up the dented wheel wells. 

And... Here we go!

Full of paint and ready for a shower! Now to put Ellie to sleep for the winter :)

What a learning experience this has been...

Geez. Who would've known the can of worms I opened that day earlier this summer when I took an angry scrapper to the bed and started ripping up that annoying, ugly, chipping plastic bed liner... oh boy. This process took us about 6 weeks (!!) and lots of learning along the way... here we go...

Lots of Strip Fast and sandpaper later...

All suited up and ready to go. Safety first ;)

John is grinding off the gold braze that is holding down the bed's access panel. I've been dying to see what's under here. I hope it looks pretty good so we can make a secret compartment!

...

...

...

Oh Ellie, reveal your mysteries to me...

...

...

Ta-Da.... looks pretty good. Just really really dirty! And I mean REALLY dirty. sick. barf. gag.

We've done a lot but have lots more to go. I'm getting pretty good with this sander :)

Another day, another night in the garage.

Wheel wells done! I'm exhausted! Thank god. These were a ^$%#*&

Now, it's crunch time. let's get this done before winter! 

Another Saturday with Ellie, John baby and sidekick Corbin.

Yes! Looking good. We're pretty much there. Tons of StripFast and elbow grease. We feel great that we've accomplished all this! Now we need to do a little more scrapping, giver her a bath and then prime 'er up! Go us!

Car Craft 2009

Okay, so Craft Craft was OSM! we had a blast. I met some really great guys from Northstar Chevelle and El Camino Club and became a member of my first old guy car club!

I met SO many great car lovers and learned SO much! Definitely my favorite car show of the summer... I can't wait to go next year.

Ironically, I didn't take hardly any pictures! I did however catch this priceless moment on film. 

People of the world... and by that I mean, the two other people that read this blog... witness this once in a lifetime occurrence... A LINE TO THE MEN'S BATHROOM. That's right ladies... I walked right into the women's - no line, no waiting. I had my choice of stalls! And I waved, pointed and laughed in glorious revenge at all these poor saps.

Aw... it was a good day!

Muaw-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

Friday Night of Fun

After many days and nights of scraping with the grinder and the mallet, John picked up this StripFast. whoa! It was a miracle chemical although it burned through our gloves, was painful to even be around and probably gave us all cancer... It made the remaining plastic liner bubble up and we could just wipe it right off.

Jake came over to help realign the tailgate. Hooray.

Bath time before the Car Craft Nationals tomorrow.

We couldn't go in the bed while scraping cause the chemical was too dangerous and would burn holes in our clothes. ack. This was no fun.


Hey you! Put some of that muscle into scraping the bed!!
Corbin overseeing the work at hand.

A little engine cleanup and tightening those hose brackets.

And a little more...

Almost ready for Car Craft. Good thing we spruced her up a bit!! :)

Bed Liner Revisited

Meredith decided she would revisit the bed liner last weekend. It's been a lot of work scrapping out all the old liner but we're almost finished. Thanks to John's mom Julie, Jamie, and Joe for pitching in and giving us a hand.

Tailgate bodywork

Original tailgate. Peeling, flakey wood grain vinyl. Dented molding. dirty fixtures.... not for loooong

The tailgate had a few dents in it so John smoothed it out with a little Bondo. It took us a while to scrape off the original vinyl woodgrain sticker. We finally wised-up and used a heat gun.

This is the new wood grain sheet of vinyl.
Avoid bubbles at any cost!

Some of the posts that hold the molding clips obstructed the vinyl so we cut them a tiny bit.