03/01/20 Update.......

While not a lot to show progress wise, things are none the less moving forward. The guys are blocking the roof and it's proving to be a bit time consuming because not a lot of pressure can be put on the sanding block because of the flexing of the roof skin. but it's slowing coming around.

After the roof is all blocked out, they will move the car a bit to gain more room to work the lower driver side quarter and once it's wrapped up, the first coat of epoxy primer will be applied to the A pillars, roof, rear quarters and deck lid. Then the car will be turned around in the shop and the work on the doors, hood and front fenders will get underway.

Stopped in last weekend and test fit the rear seat arm rest panel and it slid into position nicely.....

I then went on into the dealership and pulled out my wheel lip molding to get it ready for shipping out for repair and refinishing then helped m y buddy purge and relight the oil burner furnace in the shop area.

This weekend, I filled the weight bags with sand for use in weighting the doors for alignment with the quarters....

and then bubble wrapped the wheel lip trim and found a box to ship them in.

Next weekend I'll get the box padded and ready to ship.

Hang in there....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

02/16/20 Update.....

I headed to the dealership Saturday and finished making the rear seat armrest brace and then sandblasted it. Learned that 16ga stainless steel is a bit tougher to bend than regular carbon steel but I think I did OK blacksmithing it!

On the Torino front, the guys ran into some surface rust on the roof skin that had gotten under the primer, so they are in the process of addressing and eliminating it prior to applying the skim coat.

Slow but sure progress none the less.

Until next time....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Update 02/09/20

Saturday, I stopped at the dealership to bend up the arm rest brace...

but ran into an obstacle that prevented me from completing the task, so I need to get a couple pieces of heavy steel stock that will allow me to finish forming the last two bends and then straighten and tighten up all the bends so I can pass it along to Nick and Daniel for installing in the Tomato!

Speaking of the Tomato progress, the guys got the second coat of mud on the rear sail panels...

the A pillar seams filled with All Metal...

the passenger side sail panel blocked and ready for primer...

and started the body work on the lower passenger side rear quarter.

They are moving right along....

DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL!

ZEBRA 3 OUT

February 2 update

Well not to much to show for myself this weekend. I blasted the better of the trunk gutter patch panels

hoping it would work to repair mine but evidently the seam sealer the factory used held moisture because both patches I got were rusted away just like mine had.

I believe there's enough good material there that it can be sectioned and used to make mine look like new again. Have it now soaking in EvapoRust

to kill the remaining corrosion that might be hiding in areas the sand blaster didn't hit.

The guys however made a bit more progress than me this week as the All Metal filler arrived and they got the roof seams filled, mudded and ready for blocking.

Eager to see what they got accomplished this weekend!!

Stay tuned....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Body restoration now underway......

The play area looks empty with the Tomato gone! Today, I policed my area a bit...

and then helped my buddy Jim move some benches around in the service area making room for a new mechanic, but the big news is coming from the body shop....

The guys have addressed the poor '70's build quality by aligning the rear tail panel correctly,

filled the cb antenna hole in the decklid,

and sanded the decklid and surrounding sheet metal back down to bare metal and started applying the first layer mud in preparation of doing a bit of panel blocking.

They also welded up several trim holes down the driver side quarter panel.

LOVE SEEING HER FINALLY ON THE ROAD TO FINAL BODY AND PAINT WORK!

More to come....

ZEBRA 3 OIUT