Finally a 2022 UPDATE......

Well after months of trying to get the car back together enough to get it moved to a new body shop, the impossible HAS BEEN COMPLETED!

First I want to thank my brutha Jim Conley for lending a hand getting the Torino ready to move. We got the hood strapped down and the car off the skates just as the rollback arrived for the move. Winching her up on the deck, transmission fluid started leaking out of the transmission. At first we thought the rear yoke seal was the culprit but once the car was up on the truck, we discovered the speedometer cable plug was gone and the B&M transmission fluid was coming from there (looks like I may have lost a couple quarts??).

Once she was choked down on the rollback...

off she went on her journey to the new shop. Luckily it was a beautiful day so we didn't have to worry about rain/snow/salt/etc and the trip was uneventful.

Once at the new shop, she was offloaded and we pushed her into her temporary position awaiting her turn for resurrection.

After seeing the car close up after over a year, I was shocked by her appearance! When the car was originally delivered to the first shop, you could have eaten off of it, but now it looks like a 20 year old abandoned barn find project! She's covered in sanding dust (expected), cob webs and surface rust has started on the raw metal surfaces where the phosphorus protectant coating was scuffed (?) away. Also the interior is covered in sanding dust as well and appears to have gotten wet as the dust is spotted as if misted with water, so the climate in the garages wasn't maintained very well!

With the car now at Moore's Body Shop, I will stop in one evening next week and we'll discuss what the plan of attack will be. I'm sure ALL the previous work will need to be stripped back down to bare metal to insure all the new work will be in flawless. Bill Moore, the shop owner, said it would be OK for me to go in whenever they are there and initially do an inventory of what is present to insure everything is there and then begin cleaning up the ole girl so she's not quite as nasty looking!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GLAD THE NEXT PHASE IS UNDERWAY!!

Keep watching!

ZEBRA 3 OUT

October 26, 2021 UPDATE

Had a meeting with a new shop yesterday and it went very well.... he had a few vehicles in his shop undergoing repair/restoration and was pleased with the quality of his work. We had spoken a couple years ago about him doing my car when he was in the planning stages of his new shop, so he was aware of what I was wanting and had been following along on my Facebook page so he had an idea of the progress Nick had made before things kinda fell apart.

He will have an opening in a couple weeks, so the plan is to get the Tomato stuck back together and moved to his shop right after Thanksgiving. Once the car is there, we can better assess the time line. Looking forward to getting the project back on track!!! 👍👍

September 18, 2021 UPDATE

 I'll bet everyone thinks I've died or something since it's been about 6 months since my last update! Still alive and still kicking but the progress on the Tomato has been reduced to a snails pace, but let me bring things up to date...

Nick stopped by my place of employment back in May to drop off my tail lights so I can get them changed over to the NOS lenses and trim and picked up the door latching mechanisms so he could start working the door alignment and gaps, but on Saturday September 4th, '21, he was in a pretty serious motorcycle accident and fractured 8 vertebrae and cracked 2 ribs swerving to avoid a deer in the road. As soon as he's able to move around a bit better, we plan on getting together and putting together a punch list of thing remaining to be done prior to putting the final prime coat on the car and deciding where we g from there.

I too have been a bit neglectful on doing the things I need to be getting done on the Torino that I can only attribute to being bummed out because of the lack of progress on the body shop front, but I have gotten a few things almost done....

After letting the turn signal housings cure out for a good while, I finally did the final paint clean-up and then cleaned the lenses really well...

Once they were finished, I reinstalled them into the refinished grille along with the NOS grille emblem and touched up a few areas that needed some attention....

I still need to polish the vertical chrome strips and get some new stamped steel clips to install them back onto the grille and then all that remains is getting the restored grille surround back from my buddy Joe Wright and putting them back on to complete the grille assembly.

This weekend, I set about prepping the "burp tube" I got from another Torinoite, John Steady, to install in my new Spectrum fuel tank....

I drug out my old fuel tank and located the spot welds to insure the locations were the same as on the new one and they were, so after taking a few pics,

I removed the tank vent and gasket, the filler tube gasket and the sending unit. WOW, the sending unit looks like it has seen better days...

so I’ll look into having it rebuilt since they aren’t available new any longer. I’ll reuse the tank vent since I replaced it along with the rubber gaskets back when I first had my tank cleaned and sealed after getting the car years ago.

I drilled out the spot welds holding the tube to the remnants of the old tank and then dressed down the spot welds so it will be ready to reinstall.

Need to determine what to put on the tube flanges to prevent future rust but still allow the bracket to be spot welded into my new tank.

I'll also use the remnant of the old tank as a template to locate and drill the holes in my new tank to weld the burp tube in side.

With everything out of the way and about ready for reinstallation, I looked down into the old tank and was surprised how crusty it was since it was supposedly “sealed” years ago when I had it cleaned.

Perhaps it’s the alcohol in the modern gasoline? JEEZE

Until next time....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

UPDATE March 22, 2021

 Holy mackerel, it's been almost three months since my last update! Sadly has not ben a lot to report due to the pandemic and Mother Nature. My bodyman has been working a LOT out of town so he hasn't been home much to work on the Torino and then we had an ice storm that knocked his power out for almost two weeks but hopefully things can get moving again now the Spring has sprung! (fingers crossed!!)

I did do a bit of Tomato work this past week. I took my Dynamax siren bracket to work and had my extensions welded on....

so I could mount tandem sirens to get both siren sound effects at once like was used on the show.

I then dressed down the welds.....

need to drill the mounting holes for the second siren and then blast and paint the bracket and finish detailing the Dynamaxs and they will be ready awaiting installation.

Hopefully will have an actual update on the progress of the body next installment!

Until next time.....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

First update of 2021.....

Wow, been over a month since my last update! Wish I could say there has been major accomplishments made during that time but sadly that's not the case.

After painting the grille, I set about cleaning and then masking off the turn signal housings....

and then shot them first with VHT Ford Argent Wheel Paint, but it was slightly off in color, so I ordered another can of Ford Argent spray paint from NPD to match them to the grille....

I also cleaned up the plate and nuts for mounting my NOS grille emblem.

On the body shop front, The guys now have the hood and both front fenders worked....

and are now working the doors.....

Hopefully have a few more update photos this weekend....

Stay tuned!

ZEBRA 3 OUT