Ghost in the Shell

Restoring a car is a lot of work. I was expecting to turn some wrenches, pry off some trims, dip it in a puddle o paint, and then slap it all back together. That's still the gist of the effort, but the sheer number of wrench turns and trim prying boggles the mind. That, and apparently I'm terrible at time estimation (I'll have it done, five, ten minutes tops!). In any case, after gutting the interior, I sent the Vovorine off to my good friends at Classic Restorations (in Verdi!!!) to deal with that problematic bump in the trunk.

Ew, gross!

Much Better

It's All In The Details

The trunk work is just the teaser. Now it's time to get nekkid for the paint work. Every conceivable piece of rubber, glass, plastic and steel on the outside of the car comes off. I budgeted a weekend and an extra after work day or two to do this project. I spent two weekends and the majority of the week in between doing it. Oy.

Don't Bend It!

The car is trimmed out in stainless steel. For the most part it's a thin and delicate metal, to be treated with the same care and precision as you would the Queen's new grandson. I of course ripped it out like The Hulk - except for where The Hulk is green and supremely strong, I am not. Speaking of supremely strong, though, the front grill is a mesh of fairly substantial stainless steel rods.

Solid.

Blinkety Blink

With the windows and stainless bits off, it's time to get down to the electrical bits. Being Lucas, I expected to find barrel plugs with mismatched metals all over the place. Alas, it was not to be. Instead I found a solid wire from inside the headlamp bucket all the way back to the source, and of course no way to pull out the buckets (or hide them inside the fender) without removing the cable. Curses. Sounds like something Future John will be able to take care of. We'll just snip it apart with some tree loppers and try to catch the blinker fluid before it all evaporates. Oddly enough, the tail lights and signals did have convenient barrel plugs...

Ow! My eye!

Finishing Touches

Finally, remove the door seals, kick plates, wiper posts, washer nozzles.. The old rusty trunk lid gets replaced with a slightly less rusty trunk lid picked up at the Davis VCOA meet and we're all ready for the paint shop!

...Goodbye cruel world

See you in a few weeks!