Progress on the '68

August 4th is our anniversary, so we considered this our anniversary weekend. Guess what we did? We worked on the car. Believe it or not, this was my idea, not Paul's. So here are some pics of our progress this weekend. First, Paul cut out all the floor metal that was rusted through.

Then he welded in new sheet metal.

Jelly woke up a little earlier than expected from her nap, so here she is hanging out in the shop. Don't worry, this picture was from Sunday, when there was no grinding, welding, or painting going on.

Then it was time to install the FatMat, which is an "acoustical sound dampening material and space age heat shielding material." We really liked how it went on and its pretty easy to install. Should be nice and quiet in there now!

In the pic above you can just see the front end of my car. That's my new bumper that I got for Mother's Day. I also got a brand new left front fender, console, tail light cover, and I'm sure there's something I forgot. We found a good parts car, but got the fender new. Someday it will be my cars turn for getting finished, but right now it's a ways down the list!

Here's the FatMat. Not done yet, but have a lot in the car.

Oh yeah- Paul also finished the exhaust on Saturday, so we are making good headway! We still have about a month and a half before the car show, and we are basically only working on weekends, when the kids are napping. We are trying to work on it together, so that limits are time. Anyone want to babysit?

What we do when the kids nap!

Paul checking clearance around the exhaust on the Corona. (The Corona is going to the car show too, but it's almost done, just needs brakes!)

Removing the steering column in the '68.

Deadline Sept 19th for carshow

Here is our 68 Cadillac Calais. We have had it for about 3 years and have slowly been making progress on it. Only we decided we wanted to take it to the street deacons car show in Sept. We have a lot of work to do! Currently it runs, but does not drive, has no interior (we have the new interior, but the floor needs work first) and the whole thing clearly needs to be sanded and painted! This is the first car that Paul and I have done pretty much all the work together, so it has been really fun. We have high hopes of this becoming our family road trip car.

We ripped out all the interior, it was so gross!

These were taken with a camera phone sorry! Here's what the body looks like now.

Kinda looks like rainbow brite!

Winter Weather

Here's the Dodge window when the snow started again Saturday morning. A couple of hours later and the whole window was covered.

My New Ride

Well these aren't the best pictures, but I got a '94 4Runner over the weekend. We've had our eye on it for a while the body and interior are in great condition but it has a NASTY rod knock. That's where being married to a mechanic is a wonderful thing. And my husband can fix ANYTHING so it will be up and running in no time! Also for those of you who haven't seen our place, (like certain persons in Michigan- hello Aunt Trish!) here is the front of our shop and you can see a bit of one window in the house. I'll get better pics of the whole thing someday soon.

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For Sale

This is my '83 z28 Camaro that I am selling to buy an SUV. I guess its time to act like a mom now and buy a vehicle that I can actually get the carseat, stoller, multiple diaper bags, and kid in and out of without ending up at the chiropractor every other day. Although I haven't driven this car much, its been in the garage as its even worse than my truck for baby hauling. So if you know of anyone looking, pass the word. Its got about 135K on it, new brakes, water pump, and something else (ask Paul) its super clean inside, runs and drives well. We're asking $1500 OBO.

The 4Runner

Here is the Runner on the Whipsaw trail in early August 07. The trail was pretty lame according to the boys, but they did find this big puddle that didn't appear to be this deep. The 4Runner was drowned, barely made it home and now has been in pieces in the shop for the last two months awaiting a new motor, a Toyota Supra Turbo 7M something or other, you'll have to ask Paul for details! but we finally got one that came from Japan, and its almost done, just fitting the radiator!

Her is the 4Runner at Walker Valley, I think it was January of 06. The driver window was broken and that door smashed in, then when we got winched up the hill, there was some pretty serious body damage done to the right front fender and door, it was amazing it closed at all. After this trip, the 4Runner got new front fenders and doors. It was a great day for carnage!!

If you look VERY closely, you can see my hand sticking out the passenger window at the top!

The Corona (car-not beer)

This is my husbands little car. It is a rare 1966 Corona. Since I am not a fan of midget cars, it is not my favorite. But he has put a lot of work into it and I must say my respect for this car grew once he took me for a ride in it. It is crazy fast! Its got some turbo-blah-blah-I don't know what kind of motor, but its fast! (Sorry honey, I'm just a girl!)