The New Project: Part Deux!

[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 "purple stuff" 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 "Lather, Rinse, Repeat" 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 "two key" 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!

[njsteve]

She arrived at 9:30 tonight!

Great job by TFX International in Canada. Very professional people. They kept me updated whenever I asked what the status was. They never promised the impossible - they gave me an accurate assessment of how long it takes to get from one end of the continent to the other, and through two countries.

And she arrived a day early, (Though, of course I would have preferred it arriving 10 minutes after I purchased it but without a Star Trek transporter, that was a bit impossible at this point in time). It was picked up on 04/16 and arrived on 04/29 which is around 2 weeks for the 3,500 mile trip.

[Xplantdad]

Looks great Steve...congrats! Are you gonna sleep in the garage tonight? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

LOL. I dragged the wife out to the garage to see the car a few minutes ago. She was sleeping at the time. While she didn't appreciate the wake up call, she actually loves the car, especially the color.