[Hray]

Jan 1, update;

338 hours. 41 days down, 49 to go;

upon sitting the black valve covers on the engine it was quickly apparent the colors did not work together. went and bought some light gray, and also new ford gray, the ford gray might have worked but not what I wanted. Craig has some other brand cast gray, tried it and it worked, repainted the entire motor and bell housing again, got a few accessories bolted back on the motor. Criag spent 4 hours working on the roll bar, grinding welds and using body filler to smooth it out, he got another hour in on block sanding the underneath side of hood and trunk.

PS: Bob i think we are much more ready to see it done that you are.

I went back to check on first phase hours, that was 175 for preassembly and trial drives. We are now at 513 hours in the total build and a good ways from being done. We will go over the 500 estimate. But, at the onset I was really only planning on building 'just a nice driver'. The Autorama entry was going to be just for fun and not really expecting to be competitive, just a good reason to get it finished by a specific date. I really had no idea that Craig was going to come get this involved and take the build up a couple notches higher. I also did not anticipate building new hinges, and I did not figure on doing a roll bar at all. The car should still be done by the autorama date however, it will be between 700 and 800 hours for the total build. When you really get serious about detail of every last little detail the time goes straight out the window. Until a person has built a quality show car, and not even a custom, you better look at a thousand hours invested from out of the gate. if you start fabricatiing stuff, and modifying roofs, and body lines look at two thousand hours real quick.

If you ask me this car hobby stuff has gotten way out of hand, maybe this is why rat rods, and retro rods are becoming so popular again, they are much more reasonable to build.


Even with all this attention I do not expect to trophy at autorama, we are not spending enough money on bling and fatman suspensions, and all those other name brand bolt on items. But that will be fine I will have a very very nice car to drive around. it will do ok in competition at smaller local shows.

Ray