Go west, young man.

Hello, again.

I apologize for such a huge lapse between entries. The months between these posts have been hectic, joyful, painful, and adventurous. We've lost close friends, had major financial set backs with pet emergencies, and traveled across the country - again! So, let me welcome you to be a part of our newest adventure or at least thanks for hanging in there while waiting for another update.

 We had been saving up spare change for a year.

 Final day of yard work with the ladies.

 Last sunset in New York

 Helping me load the truck.

 Secured and good to go.

 California or Bust! 

We had a lot of cars honk and wave along the way.

 Taking it easy in Illinois

 Another major watering in Illinois

 Wind field on I-80

 @ the Red Fox Steak House in Nebraska

 On I-80 W

 Great Platte River Road Archway

 Storms in Nebraska

 Wyoming State Line

 Wyoming is one of the most beautiful states.

 Great Salt Lake Scenic View

 Bonneville Salt Flats

 Itchin' to take her off the trailer and out for a spin.

 The middle of nowhere, Nevada

 Elko, NV

 Elko, NV

 I-80W

 Carlin Tunnel

 Another middle of nowhere shot.

 Reno!

 California State Line

 Almost home.

 Bay Bridge

 View of the Bay from the Oakland Ferry

Home sweet home.

Floor Repair: Part 1

 Floor repair part 1 starts with fixing that hole underneath the driver side bench seat. With every pothole I felt my butt sink closer to the asphalt. This was the number 1 metal work repair on my list. Thank goodness for good friends with good tools who are willing to teach on the fly. That being said, I take no credit for any labor on this repair, but I learned a lot along the way and am ready to try my hand at it on the next job. (oh, there will be a few learning experiences along the way.)

 Removing the bench seat was no problem. Turns out, there were only 2 of the 8 bolts holding the thing down. That being said, I'm very very lucky to not have had any sort of fender bender between buying this car and now.

 The driver's side mount was obviously falling through the floor. After removing the seat, we saw that the majority of the "patch" job had consisted of the PO putting some thin tin over a bunch of rotted through floor pans. Not only that, but a lot of the "repair" jobs had cut through body mounts and structural support. If I wasn't looking for an educational experience, it probably be faster and cheaper to find a solid body and just swap the motor and trans, but where's the fun in that?

 After cutting out the rusted out bits and welding a support brace to the frame (you can see a hockey puck used as a bushing in this picture) everything is painted in enamel to help resist rust formation in between this metal and the repair patch.

 Luckily, Jr has a well stocked garage and his metal brake came in handy for forming that slight bend between the seat mount and the rocker panel. A lot of hammer work and smaller piece metal welds created the dips for the bench to mount in. It's basically a replica of the stock passenger side. I witnessed some excellent metal work and learned some tips for future work. Metal patch is just tack welded in on the rocker since we're going to be replacing those and the floor pan in the near future.

 Repair patch is installed and sprayed with enamel rattle can. I figured we might as well install the seat belts while we had the tools at hand and the bench seat out. Now, I'll feel a lot more comfortable when the wife wants to go for a ride with me.

 

Finished product. Edges temporarily sealed with duct tape until the next metal repair job. Both rocker panels are botched jobs. Someone decided to replace the stock panels with rockers from a different vehicle, cutting out structural supports in the process. That's all for another day...I'm stoked with where she's at now.

April Showers

It always seems to be raining whenever I have some spare time to work on the Chevy. I don't have a garage or carport of any sort, so right now I just need to wait out the weather. I managed to catch a break in the weather over the weekend and was able to degrease and repaint the valve cover and replaced the cork gasket seal while I was at it.

slowly, but surely.

Spring Clean!

Hooray! It's warm and sunny on my day off and I have a long list of work I want to get done on the Chevy. I spent a relaxing morning locating and cleaning all the zerk fittings so I could lube up the front end. The ol' girl is rusted out a bit more than I thought. I sure am going to get a lot of body work education before this car is in the shape I really want it to be in. Since it's such a nice day out, I was thinking it would be a good time to repaint some stuff.

I've been tossing around some ideas for paint and finally decided on orange as the accent color. Rims and visor will be painted orange and possibly some orange scallops? That's the plan so far.

Removed visor scuffed up for paint

Underneath of visor previously left in maroon primer

Underneath is now flat black enamel

Top in orange, chrome is still taped off

Rims in orange

Testing the look of a white roof

Now, everything is drying and I have some more daylight to burn. Time to work on those seat-belts! Next project will be new gaskets and paint on the engine. Possibly a tune up, or just new points.

Time to get dirty

I have a few projects lined up and now that the weather is a bit warmer than freezing, I'm ready to get the ball rolling. The first thing I wanted to do was pull down the headliner. The previous owner had glued some terrible looking felt onto what I thought was the original headliner. Who knows what was up there? Better to just rip it out and start fresh since this car is my first build and a learning tool.

 

 There were at least two old nests made out of old insulation, one having a half eaten peanut in it.  I'd like to double check all wiring and then put up some foil-lined insulation before installing a new headliner. All the bows are there, so I just need to pick up a headliner and at least one bow clip. Should be less than 200 bucks.

I also pulled up all the carpeting. I'm planning on welding in a new floor pan since the driver's side floor has been patched many many many times by previous owners. Some of these patches are okay, but the majority of them are half-assed and I'd rather get the welding practice in anyway. The main reason for replacement is that the bench seat is starting to fall through the floor (second pic).

Also, notice the piece chopped out by the door post. I'd like to weld in a new pan and install lap seat belts on the same weekend. We'll see how far I get.

I picked up some Eagle One Never Dull chrome polish. Amazing what a difference it made. All the little rust puckers wiped right out.

 

Hopefully, I'll have more to update soon!