February 5, 2023 update

Been a bit over a month since my last update and I think my mojo is coming back! Last time I had crawled under the ole girl right after New Years to better evaluate what I was facing to get her back to looking like she did when she rolled out to the first "shop" that totally screwed up the work and detailing I had done to the underside of the car.

Well I got the ole girl back down on the ground so she's drivable. Purchased an undercarriage washer attachment as well as a foam cannon to attach to my pressure washer to try and knock off the majority of the crud off the underside and the engine/firewall area in an attempt to get her back to the state she was three years ago when I sent her off to the first "shop". Thought I could modify the foam cannon a bit so it would attach to the undercarriage washer and foam up the underside and let it soak for a bit before hitting it with clean water but was going to be more work that I wanted to put into a device to use once... but I may still modify it so I can foam and clean the underside of my daily driver.

One of my high points every weekend is lighting off the engine and enjoying the sound of the 460 rumbling thru the open headers....

So I loaded up all the sheetmetal I had at the house along with my pressure washer and attachments and took it all to the dealership to try it all out on those bits. I filled the foam cannon with a 10:1 mix of Super Clean and went to work. After letting the Super Clean soak a few minutes then hitting the parts with the washer, the majority of the crud accumulated during it's abandonment for over a year in Salt Rock covered in sanding dust and other crap washed away. Now I'm hopeful the undercarriage, engine and front suspension will clean up as nicely! A few of the parts will need to be redone, but all in all I'm very happy with the results!

Now if the city or whomever will get the alley behind the dealership wrapped up so I can bring the Tomato down and have a go at cleaner her up!!

Until next installment.....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

New Year 2023 update

Been a while since my last update, so while I was off a few days for the New Year holiday, I thought I'd take a minute and update the blog....

Got the Tomato moved back into position, up on jack stands and pulled the front fenders back off to gain access to the firewall and front suspension....

Looking at the back side of the front fenders, I realized the difference between a bodyshop and a custom car shop... ATTENTION TO DETAIL!!! There were several areas on the back side of the fenders that got very little to no paint....

and overspray onto finished surfaces....

but what really knocked the wind outta my sails was the condition of the underside of the car when I crawled under it! The countless hours I had spent blasting, cleaning, painting, detailing and carefully reassembling the car wasted because of a lying, underhanded, cheating POS "bodyman" whom I trusted and believed when he said he would protect all the meticulous work I had already done. Then to pick up my car (which he had quit working on a year earlier and left sitting in an unheated/cooled garage) for delivery to a different shop and discover it looked like a barn find!

I am soooooooooooooooo discouraged when I look at the condition of the car I want to walk away from it! I'm hopeful after the holidays I can rediscover my mojo, my passion, my drive to restore her AGAIN to the condition she was when she rolled out of the dealership in January 2020 and then get her moved on to the final phase of bodywork and paint.

On a positive note though, the bodywork is about 95% complete so it should be fairly straight forward for the shop that accepts the challenge of adding her final colors!

HAPPY 2023 TO ALL

ZEBRA 3 OUT