Blasted off

Five years ago, I had a local heavy duty mechanic-John come over to take a look at Fillmore to help give me some direction on how to proceed. The conversation started with the usual...

"Wow this is really cool!"

Which was quickly followed by a look at me sideways...

"Have you ever done anything like this before?...This is a BIG project!"

But ignorance was bliss, and I nervously laughed it off and replied

"No but I'm up for the challenge!"

Ever since that day, I have thought back to that conversation, and thought 'little did I know!' It seems with each new chapter a whole new plot line is introduced, many mini plots which,hopefully, are all resolved together at the finale. For now the newest twist is that Fillmore has been stripped down and is standing naked in a public space (recurring nightmare of mine). The good news is that things went exceptionally well, and aside from some areas that had some minor damage and covered with Bondo, things were in really god shape. You can see on the entrance door where someone had run some lead...I guess that would make Fillmore a lead sled...and then a few areas with bondo from different decades.

The only negative was some oil drumming( I think that is the proper term for it) that happened during the blasting....too much heat generated and the metal popped in on itself. It can be fixed but requires some time with a hammer and dolly. The rear passenger side at the very back has some bigger damage where it had  backed up into something. Some hammer and dollie work will be needed, then some stud welds and pulling as well.

After the blast, the face and tail will get extra attention, and we can see here where the guys at PET have been working away. Still a long ways to go....but we are making progress and things are moving forward!