The New Project: Part Deux!

[Grant Didmon]

Steve
It sure is a small world ,when we have a person on the site that remembers the exact car cruising the streets of London Ontario.I emailed the widow of the formula that I bought it from,and she will not give me the time of day,too bad.
Grant

[njsteve]

Grant, you are required to participate in this restoration process. It's the law. Didn't you read the fine print on the bill of sale? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

In regards to the previous owner, I do feel for her loss and understand her sensitivity on the subject of the car. Maybe once the car is done we can reintroduce her and her family to it.

Did you have any luck running out that lead on the engine builder?

[Grant Didmon]

Steve
I have had no time yet to do anything like that,it is about 1 1/2 hour return drive and a toll bridge both ways,so I will tie in seeing my brother one day at the same time,as he is about only 15 minutes away from Port Moody where the shop/shops are.I will &quot;get er done&quot; though,and see what transpires.
Grant

[njsteve]

The car is slowly making its way to the East Coast. While waiting I needed something to do so I started tinkering with the extra set of grills I have for a 72. I used my tried and true plastic paint stripping method of soaking the parts in &quot;purple stuff&quot; degreaser. It is the best thing I have found for removing paint from plastic without harming the plastic.

Here is one of the grills outside the vat while the other one is soaking:



And the results after about a day of soaking, scrubbing gently with a plastic bristle brush and fine scotchbrite pad and then resoaking. Kind of like the &quot;Lather, Rinse, Repeat&quot; directions on your shampoo bottle.

[njsteve]

And here is the reason for using the other grills. It seems that the second owner, in an effort to stop the car thieves in his area, used fiberglass to seal the hood latch access opening in the driver's side grill. He then installed an inside-the-car hood release cable. It requires two people to open the hood, one pulling and holding the release cable and the other lifting the hood. I think this is where the Strategic Air Command got the idea for the &quot;two key&quot; missle launch system.
[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/flag.gif[/img]



He was not paranoid, as the car was victimized twice while he owned it. Once in the late 1980s when the seats (and sadly, the broadcast sheet along with them) were stolen, and another time in the 1990s when the ignition was popped and they tried to take the car.

[njsteve]

Got the spare grills refinished. It took a while to mask off the black grates and then paint the argent without getting any on the grates. Very tedious process, indeed. I need to find some better chrome trim rings. Hopefully the ones on the car are better than these.

The car made it through customs fine and the delivery truck is supposedly coming here tonight. I will update you all as soon as I have the car.....

[Xplantdad]

Nice!