Beginning Final Assembly

We positioned the door on the body (protected by a little tape) to make sure the color was a perfect match. Since we painted the doors on a different day from the rest of the body, there was a small chance that the color match wouldn't be right. No problem here!

We broke down the paint booth and cleaned up the garage. That was too much fun to stop and take pictures, so no pics to share. ;-)

We uncovered the chassis and moved it back into the garage.

We expected a few issues due to the car being out in the elements under a tarp for 6 months, but we were pleasantly surprised to find just a little bit of surface rust on a few pieces.

Throughout the build we have been fitting and temporarily installing countless items on the car to help us get some other step completed. We've applied and removed some parts several times. There is still plenty to do, but it feels different to be putting something on the car for the last time.

In these pictures you can see that we have the trunk floor and sides mounted. We had to fabricate the "shock houses" on the sides of thtrunk to seal the trunk from the shock mounting brackets. We also cut a hole in the trunk floor and created a hatch cover so that we can access the battery. Two small holes in the trunk floor on the left side provide a place to mount a button to pop the driver's door open (in case the remote fails to do it), and another hole to reset the fuel pump cutoff switch. That hole will be filled with a removable plastic plug once the carpet goes in.

Carpet? In a race car?!? :-)

Until next time!

We Have Paint!

The weather broke for us just enough over the weekend to paint the car. We had 2 nights in the mid-50's and two days of above 70, so we began a marathon that culminated in a shiny new paint job.

We extended the paint booth, scuffed the nose up with Scotchbrite pads, sprayed sealer on the body, and sanded a couple of runs in the sealer. That took us until dinner Sunday night. After that, we sprayed three coats of white paint on parts of the car and let it sit for an hour or so.

Then it was time to tape off the stripes. Over the course of 7 hours, my wife and I measured, marked, and taped the stripes and the back of the car.

By morning, we started spraying blue paint. It took three coats of blue to get proper coverage. Did I mention the 25mph winds or the rain that started just as we finished spraying the blue paint? Fearing that the booth roof would leak, I sprayed sealer only on the part of the body that was actually inside the garage. Once that part of the body was dry, we moved it outside and sprayed the other piece. By 8:30 Monday evening, we had everything sprayed and cured enough to start cleaning up.

I finally fell into bed at 9:30, just 39-1/2 hours after getting up Sunday morning. With all of the stooping, kneeling, reaching, lifting, etc, I felt like I'd been hit by a car.

But it was worth it!

Cloudy day:

Sunny day:

Now we just need to re-assemble everything and get this thing on the road. We think we will have it registered by the end of January.