Busy day today. I finalized the divorce and I took custody of my kid. They towed it to their shop for free when this whole thing started, but I had to pay to take it home; classy,
One of the few things that got done, probably not coincidentally because another shop did it for them, the engine bay and radiator support were gone through, repaired and painted a fresh coat of gloss black. That's something, I guess.
I gave it a quick scrubbing to get the, what, seven months of crud off from it sitting and pushed it back in the yard for now. You might be a redneck if you mow your grass and find a car. Well, Jeff, I ain't got no grass, so nyaaa!
Back to their shop with my little van to pick up the parts. They tried wheeling the transmission out on a jack. It fell off and crashed onto the shop floor. At this point, with these guys, I just thought "yeah, of course, why wouldn't that happen?"
We got everything piled into my little truck: the transmission, the short block and a box of miscellaneous stuff.
The deck of the short block is starting to show the slightest hint of rust from being exposed to the humidity of their shop.
Whatever. That's not why this block is shit. look at that sealant smearing in the water jacket like it's a legitimate fix for the spiderweb of cracks running through the casting.
Nope, it's nothing but a carrying case for my stroker kit. It will sit in my truck till it's time to pull the kit out and put it in a new block. Then, I will likely destroy it with a sledgehammer.
A bit of good news and it really recharged my battery. I went to the body shop that was recommended to me. The guy was super cool, the shop was pretty clean and organized and he had a long line of resto projects coming through. He was in the middle of working on a 56' Ford, and had a Skyline Japan coming in next. The bad news, he's busy and can't get to my car until April at the earliest. The good news, he seems solid and I get a good vibe that he will be worth the wait. There is plenty I can do in the interim and he can pull my car in, possibly next month and do some quick repairs on any rust he finds, basically to stabilize the car until it can come in for a real going through and repaint.
I'll start gutting the interior in preparation for the checkup so he doesn't have to do it and I can plan out and acquire the rest of the parts for the car. I need to spend some time zeroing in on a vision for the build to keep me on task. It's been all over the place, ups and downs, dead ends, direction changes, well, chaos. I own my part of that. I think I've wasted a lot of time and a lot of money, but today really made me feel like I've regained control of the spinning project, kept it off the tire wall and while I am sitting in the grass, I can get this thing back on the track and finish. It's a great feeling.
