Stripping the Chrome

We visited RMS on Yale street, the location of their body shop. The car had already been stripped of a lot of its external chrome. We had a good, long conversation with Stephen over at the shop. He had some good ideas for securing the vehicle when it is all done and possibly putting in a mp3 player at some point in the future.


So far Blake confirms that the car looks good, the floor is not even rusted out (very uncommon, especially here in this humidity). No surprises, as Jimmy says. So we are on target to finish getting the chrome off and out the door and getting the body and interior metal ready to paint.


Please note that everything on this car is metal, no plastic. Which makes it a solid beast and extremely heavy (remember the story of Jimmy and the neighbor pushing it into the drive way!?).




Items to remember later on in the project:

-Take out old lining from inside the doors and replace it

-Consider at the end of the project the following: tinted windows, mp3 player, visor for top of car, etc.

-Get the gas tank fixed and installed

-Back at the mechanics, fix the starter button for the engine

To the Body Shop

Today the Chevy is moving from the garage to the body shop. It was supposed to go almost two weeks ago but the car kept stalling. They took it back over to the shop and found little particles throughout the fuel system. They cleaned the carburetor and changed out the fuel pump and filter (something that the first mechanic had already done). They discovered all sorts of debris in the gas tank and found holes as well. This means the gas tank has to be replaced.

For the last two weeks they have been looking for a gas tank! With none to be found the decided to move the car to the body shop and let them get started on the project, basically buying them a few months to find one while the body shop begins their work.

PROJECT PLAN

Month 1

The first thing the body shop will do is take everything apart, carefully marking and bagging everything to keep all the parts straight. All parts will be labeled and sent to the chrome shop.

Step two, the actual preparation of the interior begins. then they start on body work stripping the paint and getting all the rust of everything. Blake uses a self-etching primer at this point.

Month 2
Step three, the body work begins as they take it apart section by section and remove the hood, doors, etc and check alignment on all doors, trunk, etc.

Step four, they begin stripping, sanding, primer, and painting.

Month 3
Step five, paint the interior and install new seats, carpet, etc.

Month 4
Step six, she goes back to the body to be put all back together, fresh chrome added and make sure everything is perfected.

Somewhere in this last stage we will also have to be sure the oil tank gets put back in!

If I messed up on the order it was my poor note taking and not Blake's skill!