Moving right along now. Since I now have the fuel and brake lines installed and there is no issues with the engine or rest of the mechanicals, it is now time to finish putting the front clip on. The passenger fender went fairly well, until I went  to put the outside mirror on and found that the internal screw assembly that holds the mirror head(s) on was missing. I had sent both mirrors to the plater and they had taken them apart, but didn’t keep the hardware with the rest of the mirror assembly. So, off to Ebay! Luckily, I found two mirrors that had good glass and reasonable finishes on the outside of the mirror cup. Bid on two, won two! They will be here this coming week.

Next up the driver side fender, which did not go well at all. Long story short, I had left the 12 V battery in the battery box mounted to the inner fender panel. Michelle gave me a hand putting the fender on and getting it aligned and loosely bolted into place. After snugging up the bolt that holds the fender to the A pillar, I closed the door, perhaps a little to strongly? And the front of the fender slide down, due to the weight of the battery, of course the rear of the fender went up and the next result was that the fender was jammed into the front of the door…. the bad news was that I had to open the door to get the bolt out of the rear of the fender. After a lot of pulling and tugging I got the fender somewhat free, but not enough to clear the door unless I loosened the A pillar bolt, which meant that I had to open the door … arrrrgh! Well, needless to say I got the door open, and in the process chipped the paint on the rear of the fender and on the front of the door… fixable but a PITA.

Once I figured out that the real problem was the damn battery, I took it out, and loosened everything up and started over. Gee it fit nice this time! Once the fender follies were done I put in the grill bars, teeth and parking/turn signal lights without any major problems. I was really getting enthused now! So I found the headlight buckets which had been resting on a shelf for 4 years, with the intent of installing them and the head light doors. Not so fast big guy… some parts are missing on the driver side bucket, oh and there is a note written on the back of the bucket that reads “Needs Repair!” damn I wish I had seen that awhile ago. Back before it had come to me, someone had borrowed a few parts, namely all the adjusting mechanism from the bucket. So there now is no way to aim the headlight… Looks like I will be on the phone to Desert Valley Auto Parts on Monday…. sigh!

Doing the Dodge shuffle… two steps forward, one step back.

Fenders and Grille Install

While I am trying to locate a headlight bucket, now that the driver side fender is in place, I will reinstall the battery, and finish up wiring the front of the car. The plan is to then put the glass in and  then pull the calipers from the front axles and try the wheels and tires from my ’39 to get a feeling for what the stance of the wagon is before finalizing buying the tires. Once I have that done, I can put the calipers back on and bleed/check the brake system. Then repair the paint damage and also paint the front lip of the hood, which I had forgot to do. Actually, I had painted it but had neglected to remove the masking tape prior to painting. Duh… Then the hood can go back on the wagon completing the rest of the body assembly.

I am now planning on borrowing a friends trailer next week to haul the wagon up to Taylor for its new tires and a front end alignment, followed by a trip to have its mufflers installed along with new tail pipes.