March 22nd, 2010
Bad Weather Weekend
Was that some crappy weather a few weekends ago or what - March 22nd? It really wasn’t that great for going to the lake or working outside. Who prescribed a late snow storm in March anyway? Didn’t we just change the clocks to spring forward? I think Mother Nature isn’t paying attention. Oh well, it was definitely perfect weather to be in the Demon Speed Shop working on some cars.
The whole family was working this weekend and the shop was full of people, cars and energy all day Saturday and Sunday. At one point, we had 8 of us in the shop with 5 cars – just a little crowded.
We even squeezed in the brother-in-law’s Mini Cooper to install an XM radio. Yea, yea - whatever! You have to do what you have to do. XM installed, the mini was rolled out and hot rod work resumed.
A lot of blood, sweat and tears were put into the Wagon, the Cadillac, and the Mercury this weekend. Some of us shed a few more drops of blood than others.
This weekend, the blood shedder was me! I decided when I purchased the wagon, that any work done on her, would be by me(with instructions by Charley) and others who knew what they were doing. Hey, what better way to learn. I didn’t realize that I would actually have to do more than detailing on her, but so far, it hasn’t been too difficult, and I am learning a not as we go.
We had a new front window shield seal installed this past week - she had a little bit of a leak. Can’t have daily driver in Tornado Alley that leaks! After the deal was installed, the glass company tested it our real well. Great news, the seal worked! The windshield didn’t leak, however, the busted firewall plate leaked and the carpet (front and back) was nice and soaked. Ouch.
- Water damage on floor pan
No problem. Now it is time to learn how to pull up carpet, dry it out, knock off surface rust and prep the floor and toe pans to re-lay the carpet. DONE! I was very proud of that accomplishment.
- Fixed up floor and toe panel
What? You want me to put that kick panel back in place – are you serious? Those things are stubborn, tight fitting SOB’s! Fine! No, no. I can do it. After all, I did say I wanted to do everything on my wagon. After forever and a day – I got that damn thing in place. Yes sir – and I have a busted knuckle to prove it. Damn thing bled forever. And no, my kick panel isn’t a flimsy piece of cardboard, it is a custom made piece of hard ass plastic. Thank you very much.
Major task for the wagon accomplished. Next big task on the list is swapping out the radio - we want to put the original radio back in it. We will let you know how that works out. In the meantime, I spent the rest of the weekend detailing the inside of Dixie Bell. She is HUGE … been cleaning for days!
Cody spent some time at the shop working on Darlene, otherwise known as the 1958 Cadillac Sedan Deville. His “little” project car. Majority of his time was spent on the trunk area where a new seal will be installed. When he wasn’t working on the trunk, he was over at the wagon installing Demon Speed Shop logos and showing his mom how to operate the kick ass stereo hidden in the glove box of the wagon.
With that all set up and ready to operate, he had to return to the grunt work of removing damaged trunk sealant and cleaning up the area for paint and a new seal. After a lot of scraping, grinding and vacuuming, he could finally paint the area. The Cadi is now ready for a new seal on her trunk. The easily escapable trunk is transforming back to a solid gangster escape proof hideaway once again.
Now the impressive work was happening over on Doc, the 1950 Mercury. Charley and his Dad, Dale were working on the Flathead engine changing out the original intake and carburetor.
Flathead before modifications
After eloquently calling it a do-hicky, I have learned that they installed a polished Edmunds 2×2 intake and two Stromberg 97s. Words don’t do the work justice – but the pictures sure do.
Now that is some impressive work right there. And neither one of them busted a knuckle. That ain’t right!
While that was going on, Nick was working inside the car with Charley’s help also (for a one arm bandit, Lefty was all over that shop) to install a new gas pedal to work with new intake and carburetor being installed. Doc has some pep in his step now. Good thing the snow was all melted away. The test drive went well and the Merc is ready to go.
With our planned work done for the day, we cleaned up the shop and headed home.
To top off the weekend - we enjoyed some BBQ, some ice cold beer (or two) and a classic movie! Christine! Oh yes, what a movie. It makes you think twice about naming your cars and becoming obsessively attached to them. Watch those odometers, radios and car locks folks!
Stay tuned - next weekend we take the cars out for a mini photo shoot in Downtown Duncan. Check back to see how that goes!
