Back in October a friend had contacted me about a model A coupe he found on some random estate sale website.
I wasn't in any position financially or time-wise for any new project,
so it was conveniently forgotten,
until the sale date weeks later when Mario reminded me.
Since neither of us could afford it whether it was $500 or $5000,
I told another friend about it and we hit the road.
The 2 pics on the website were of a partial body on a rolling frame.
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By the time we arrived,
a potential buyer had uncovered the shed full of all the missing pieces,
and a bunch of repop stuff for a planned restoration.
I'm gonna classify this as the barn!
They asking price was way high,
but they were doing a semi-silent auction type deal.
Which meant telling us the highest offer so we could beat it!
Later that night we found out it was ours.
At the time the deal was I'd help assemble it and fix it up,
and then we'd flip it or continue on depending on time and money.
We found this bitchin single axle car hauler for really cheap.
I've always wanted a tilt one like this.
Most of the next months time was spent fixing up this clapped out trailer.
All I did was change out the tires to some with air and put on the doors.
The engine was stuck,
and I was imagining the spark plug holes acting like a water funnel.
It was amazing to see almost new 10 over pistons.
The engine was still stuck,
so I was imagining the transmission a rusty mess.
Nope just as clean with no chipped teeth.
Focuses changed a bit,
and I pushed more on the rusty 40 before the rains hit,
so the 30 was brought home.
Something more quiet to work on with our dickhead neighbors.
Unfortunately our business partner ship also was at risk.
Aaron has a serious disease called cystic lymphoma,
and was on the lung transplant list.
Somehow he was changed to the San Francisco area list,
and the plan was to move to Sacramento.
Not much to say when a friends life is at risk!
I was hoping to buy off the trailer,
but things changed when he wanted the trailer,
as he bought my old BMW 2002 and it was the perfect fit.
So guess what,
I got the coupe!
This changed things as space was at a premium,
parts scattered either at the shop space,
and then in my garage.
The past two sundays the kids and I have slowly put the coupe back together.
This thing had parts wrapped in newspaper from 1975!
The newest repop stuff was from about 1986!
The other cool thing is the guy had kept almost every fastener,
even if it was broken or sawed off.
Most of our time was spent sorting out the correct bolts chasing threads.
I didn't realize how specialized the fasteners were for this puzzle.
Typical late starts ended up with our one bulb night light!
This weekend the fenders and running boards were all mounted up.
I'm not used to having a project that doesn't require a ton of hammering!
There was a ton of dirt caught in the catch spots that created the rusty holes on the lower panels.
Now this is about how it looks.
There are 3 boxes of all the miscellaneous little parts,
and a small pile of bumpers, hood and some other sheetmetal.
I'll try to get some time into getting the motor figured out.
I hope it just takes some muscle to get it to turn.
Anyway don't be surprised if you see it on the classifieds!
The bummer is the time I'd have spent on the rusty 40 went to this,
and I still haven't made a tranny hump for the green 40!
Still its a good project to work on with the kids,
so no complaints here!
TP