Catching up

The weather is beautiful, and though I’m itching to work on the car, I’m probably stuck with the Christmas decoration detail today. I’m not going to put up as many lights as usual, but it will still take four or five hours…and then there is the tree. I’m not quite at the “bah…humbug!” stage, but I can see it from here. In the meantime, I’ll catch up the news on this week’s progress.

Received an email notification this morning that New Vintage had shipped my gauges, but for some unknown reason they shipped to my old address. I called and he said he thought the box had not been picked up yet and that they would try to stop shipment. Fortunately they did, and now the delivery date is 12-9.

I finally got the body lifting rig set up and tested, so I’m ready to roll the frame under the body. Now if I can find someone to help get everything lined up and body mounts installed I’ll have a reason to get excited about progress again. However, when I need help, friends always seem to have something better to do. I’ll probably end up doing everything alone, just as I did with the truck. Because the floor and mounting points were so badly rusted, placing the new mounts accurately was  difficult, and it sure would be nice to have a second set of eyes and hands during the mating operation.

I received a few more parts yesterday, including the new Chrysler Power intake manifold and a set of their finned aluminum valve covers. They really look nice, and I’m trying to decide how to paint them to give them a stock appearance. All gold would look closer to stock, but the fins are begging to be trimmed in black.

Got email notification that the touch screen Nav/Radio has been shipped. It’s a Kenwood with a Garmin GPS and the usual media capabilities. It’s not top of the line, but I tried it out at Best Buy and liked the features for the price. It also has provisions for a backup camera, and after having it on my van, I’ll never own another car without one. It’s scheduled to arrive between 12-9 and 12-12 .

Prepped some more parts for paint, and since the temps are supposed to warm up to near 70 next week, I’ll try to get them painted before cold, windy and wet weather returns.

The upholstery shop called wanting me to clarify a couple of things, and said it was going to be tight getting everything done by Christmas, so I let him off the hook and said the middle of January is fine. Until I get the body bolted down, the engine assembly complete, and more sheet metal installed, I really don’t want any more parts to take up space in the shop, so I really don’t need the seats until February.