Hey guys, what’s up.
Sorry for the lack of replies and updates lately, I’ve just continuing to keep really busy in The Skunkworks. I haven’t updated recently because I was getting the feeling y’all are getting tired of reading the same ‘ol thing every time, “masked and primed this, and block sanded that” over and over again.
I get it, it’s dull to read and dull to do too some days, I can assure you. However part of me wants to continue to do it just so you get an idea of just how much work goes into a quality job, how labor intensive it is, and how long it takes.
And before y’all start asking, no the car is not painted yet, in fact all the little areas haven’t even been finish repaired yet. But I’m still hammering away at it, night after night, week after week.
The booth situation is still up in the air too, but I’ll sort something out there as far as that’s concerned.
Starting to finally make some headway, in fact the list of what’s been addressed is actually shorter than what’s left to go.
The list of the panels that have been completed and are good to go now in 220 are:
Hood
Trunk lid
Trunk to back window filler panel
Header panel
Both front fenders
Sail panels
AstroRoof panel
Most of the roof
Most of the quarters
Most of the passenger door
Rocker panels
I’m currently in the midst of working on the driver’s door, the repairs there have been done and tonight I got it masked up for spot priming more high build:
I’ll just be hitting the repaired areas, there’s no real need to re-prime the whole door.
After the door is done and good to go, the list of what’s left is down to:
Both quarters around the marker lights
Both quarter extensions
Two small spots on the passenger door
And a couple minor spots on the roof
Not bad compared to what I started with!
In other news, the fallout from the Corona virus situation has finally impacted my tiny little corner of the world. As a really horrible April fools day joke that wasn’t a joke, my small family run employer announced that we’re reducing business hours, gave all the office staff substantial wage cuts, and laid off our outside sales and parts people. They originally wanted to also lay off 2 of our 4 technicians (me), but they finally decided to keep us all on but pursue job sharing.
For those of you unfamiliar with job sharing, it’s essentially that we’ll work “x” number of days a week, and unemployment insurance pays the rest. At only 55% of our regular wage however.
As an air compressor service company, we’re considered an essential service, but with so many companies closing down, laying off staff, working from home, and watching every penny, there just isn’t enough work to sustain us at our current level.
What this all amounts to is that my income will be substantially reduced, but I’ll have more time to work on the car. Catch-22. In all reality, I’m just extremely grateful to still have my job.
I’ve since imposed a “no non-essential spending” policy on myself (give or take a garage supply or two 😉) but if the current situation doesn’t improve soon, the $$$ I have earmarked for painting the car may need to go towards more important things.
Like keeping the lights on and a roof over my head.
This is the one thing that could prevent me from getting the car painted this year.
😕
Anyways, here’s a couple pictures of the progress I’ve been making lately, hope y’all enjoy.
Driver’s fender and header panel side:
And wetted down with a little wax and grease remover so you get an idea of what it’ll look like with gloss on it:
Aaaaand the header panel:
It’s pretty cool to see the entire front end of the car looking clean and straight now!
That’s it for now guys, as always thanks for checking in on the build.
D.
