Now we've come to the part of the build where my photo documenting becomes a bit spotty. With the ridiculous state of affairs in the world, I lost my bartending gig on the Vegas strip when the restaurants were all forced to shut down & reopen with limited capacities. Now there's a silver lining as it gave me more time to work on this project, but my girlfriend who works for the airlines was also affected. Plus we have a personal situation with her elderly grandmother who is dealing with some dementia & bipolar issues, so we're deciding on out best course of action to help her. With that said, I've had less time to admire my work & take pics as I was in the process of relocating out of that god awful city.
After the under carriage was all painted & squared away, I was trying to decide on a paint color. I had a few GM 60s silver colors as options, but none of them really stood out. I thought I was set on Corvette Sebring Silver from a '63 split window, and I even bought a quart to start jambing the car. Once I saw it on the cowl sides, I wasn't sold.
It was kind of blah & really did nothing for me. The search resumes. After looking at 1000s of photos, I happened to be on the Yenko site & came across a pic of this random '66 Mustang GT Fastback. For some reason the color just struck a nerve instantly. Unfortunately there was no info on the car, so I dragged the pic into a google image search. Bingo, found it on a Bring a Trailer auction. I read the article, but there's no mention of the color code. I google '66 Ford colors, but the silver I see doesn't match this car. I reread the article & then I scroll the comments, and by some stroke of luck, the owner replied to a question of what the paint code was. Toyota Atomic Silver.
Seeing a color in pics is one thing, but I head to a Toyota dealer & try to view it in person. When I do, I'm sold. It's not to light & not too dark. It will look great with the stock 300 red interior.
This time I bought less paint & sprayed the inside of the fuel door. Enough to validate my decision...
With that, we've reached the part of the build where the next pic tells the story...
After 19 months together, it was time to bid adieu to our old friend, the rotisserie. Moving out of town & uncertain of where I'm ending up next in the world, she was put on CL & sent on her way to serve another restoration. Fare thee well! The best part of the deal was actually selling it for more money than I paid for it. What's not to like?
The empty rotisserie can only mean one thing, we have a body reunited with a chassis. Cue the "Reunited & it feels so good" background melody...
Sorry for the lack of pics from the day, but the frame was pulled on my trailer & the body was flat bedded on the rotisserie back to my buddies shop to use his lift.
Once home in my garage, it was time to start jambing ...
If you notice through the rear window, you can see I've sprayed the red in the interior, but all of that took place while we were dealing with everything. I'll have pics of everything at some point.
Now there's many ways to skin a cat, & when it comes to installing the side window moldings of this car, I've chosen to jamb the back of them & install the rear stationary windows before the entire body gets sprayed. I'm going to mask the glass & snap the moldings on. I'm not risking trying to get those moldings in place AFTER the car is painted.
Well I installed the first side window with no problem, but then I unwrapped the passenger side & there is a giant 7" deep scratch right in the center of the glass. Great.
I ordered the 10 piece set from Auto City Classics, 4 months before I went to unwrap them. Call them the next day & its been too long they say. I should've inspected all 10 pieces the day I got them. Yeah because nobody ever orders parts before they need to install them. I figured leaving them wrapped tight in their bubble wrap was the safest choice. They do agree to sell me a replacement at a 50% discount, so for that I'm grateful...except when they ship it to me, they send me the wrong side. They send out the correct side replacement a week later & guess what...same giant 7" scratch in almost the exact spot as the first one. AAARGH.
6 weeks later & I finally receive one that is the correct side & scratch free. The joys of working on old cars.....