one man. two cars.

zero cash.

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Actual progress

Aug
25

After a looong period where my build seemed to be going nowhere, I have inched closer to my October deadline. It's still looking optimistic, but not impossible.

The hold-ups and let-downs since my Easter  success just seemed to keep coming, and I must admit there were a couple of weekends there where I just thought "fuck it" after spending two hours in the shed and making zero progress.

I took two weeks off over Easter,  and I got the rear-end completely rebuilt including brakes, diff, and suspension. First Monday back at work I was given my marching orders. Not retrenched, not laid off, but a good-old fashioned firing. I have never been fired in my life, but I'll be honest... it wasn't a complete shock. I was glad not to have to be owned by a narcissist who wanted to call me at all hours of the night and weekends, and not to have to spend 8 hours a day in a small office with the most boring, humourless man in the galaxy. But the upshot was cash became very tight for a few weeks there, and zero was spent on the car for about 7 weeks. I did line up work after a nice 4 week extended holiday, a 12 month contract for nicer people who wanted to pay me more money. "Sure", I said. :D 

I tore off all the body work over the enforced break because I knew there were a lot of hours involved, and I had time. So I sanded, I grinded, I rust treated, I bogged, I primed, and I puttied. By the end of it I'd tidied up both gaurds, the rear hatch, and the lower skins on both doors. I'm in the process of fitting all of those back onto the car now, and I'm close to done.

I got a batch of paint mixed up and sprayed on of the guards, but the match was pretty awful. I'd used rattle cans to paint the engine bay, and I knew that while not perfect, Dupli Color DST 41 ( Toyota Red Mica )  was * reasonably close. I told the paint shop this the first time but I don't think the message quite got through. To their credit, the second corrected batch was a lot closer. The eagle-eyed will spot the "more redder" red of the respray in the right light , you can see it in the pic above where the inspection door has the original color and the guard has been resprayed. It's less obvious in the pic below, where the lower section of the door has been sprayed in DST41, merged at the crease line and clear coated  multiple times. Reds are hard :/.

It's Sunday today, and I still have some small bits and pieces to do on the driver-side guard, but I might get it in the car today - or at least have it ready to mount next weekend.

I am getting to the stage where I have to start thinking about serious things like insurance and registration. 

Slightly nervous, but just a little excited by the thought of driving again.

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