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The car has been assembled and everything fitted, so
it’s time to take everything apart for the last time. It’s important that all
of the welding has been done before it goes out for paint. Every weld joint has
to be carefully checked. You also need to make sure that all attachment points
are fitted correctly because after the paint goes on you don’t want to have to
clearance or rethread bolt holes. All of the wiring harness and brake lines
have been made up and fitted to the frame so that when the car is reassembling
there is very little risk of scratching the paint. You want to make sure that
you have thought of things such as, brake hose tabs, oil filter and cooler
mounts and things of that sort so that after paint you have not created a
problem for yourself.
I have finished the rough bodywork on the body
parts, and sanded all of the welds and brackets on the frame. It’s very
important that all of the corners and edges are smooth and rounded. This is not
only to make things look nicer but also so you don’t get hurt working around
the car.
When you’re rushing a project like I am, it’s very
easy to overlook details. I am just trying to keep that sort of thing to a
minimum.
Well I took everything to the chrome shop, he said
it would take two weeks before he would be finished with the plating work, (in
fact it took 6 months to get some of the pieces back), welcome to the plating
world.
I took all of the parts that needed to be
painted, to my buddies Perry Sparkman and Jeff
Moehlenbrock at Sparky’s Garage. I told them not to get too carried away
with the paint job because the car had to be finished by the 15th,
but they went way out of their way to do a great job for me. Perry filled and
molded all of the welds on the frame sanding until his fingers were bloody,
(you just can’t find friends like that) and Jeff did a fabulous job on the
Nissan Solar Yellow base coat, clear coat paint job. When I got the parts back
everything was beautiful. I was thrilled.
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