Up until recently I had not set any kind of date or deadline for the wagon project. For me, I did not want to put myself under the gun to get the project done. As things progressed along and the pieces all started to fall together last December when we were headed home with the hood that Charles had painted Bettie Page on for me I decided that the time had come to set a deadline for getting the wagon down to Lui Contras at Country Auto Interiors in Phoenix. On April 6, 2013 Judy & Paul Nolte were having a ’43 Party for all of the OTHG-Phoenix Club members that were born in 1943 – note both Paul and I were born within weeks of one another in that year and I believe that we now have around 13 club members from the same year, so it seemed like as good a time as any to get the old girl out of the shop.
The good news was that the deadline worked! I was not without my share of issues to work out, but we did end up getting the wagon put together enough to where I could drive it to the valley. As luck would have it my son in law, Brandon was off work on the final Thursday and he lent me a welcome hand by installing all of the window moldings and interior trim, which gave me time to fuss with the door seals.
On Easter I was able to drive the wagon for the 1st time, no windows, no mufflers, no door seals etc. From Easter on it has been a real thrash getting things done, so much so that I really fell down on documenting my work with photos. That being said, I was able to finish up the brakes although they arent quite like I want them, but workable for now. The power steering isnt providing either enough pressure or volume at low RPM to really work decently, so it needs some looking at. Toby and the guys over at Performance Automotive and 4×4 here in Show Low did a great job with the front end alignment and installing the Flowmaster 50s and the rest of the exhaust plumbing. Black Diamond Glass got the windshield and rear window in, but both will require some tweaking when I get the wagon back from Lui. With all the long hours and all the pushing I ran short of time and didnt get the side windows installed nor did I get the rest of the hood trim on, but that will be easy to take care of after the interior is done. I also wasnt able to do the final alignment of the hood and fenders either. After all the details are handled, I will go around the car and touch up all the oppses that I did to the paint finish while trashing to get done.
Check Out the Photo of Paul Driving Bettie! I think he likes her!
On Friday, April 5th, even though the wagon only had about 20 miles on it, I headed down to the valley, with Michelle and Bluebell our cat in the Rav4 in hot pursuit, on a 180 mile trip to deliver the wagon to Lui. Although the brakes and steering aren’t what I want them to be yet, I had a nice trip down the hill. The wagon drives straight, rides smooth, corners flat and holds the road like a champ. The 5.7 Hemi and 545RFE transmission is a total joy. No muss no fuss, gobs of torque on demand and power to spare. The Flowmaster 50s have a very deep solid sound that only gets better when you put your foot down. All the new parts in the Ford 9″ are still fairly tight but by the time I got to Phoenix they were beginning to break-in.
Michelle and I decided on using a very dark brown color for the carpet, Sand colored ultra leather for the seat bolsters and lower trim areas and Champagne colored ultra leather for the headliner and seat inserts. Lui told me that he should be done in two months, so I now have some time to catch up on my websites, photo projects and to do some mechanical work on the ’39 Ford that I have been holding off on until the wagon was out of the shop bay.
For the rest of the year, my plans are to enjoy the wagon by taking a couple of good trips around the country and to work on freshening up the ’39 Ford Tudor sedan which has done yeoman service (about 75-80K miles) over the last 10 years. I am planning on starting the ’40 Ford next year.
Again, thanks to all of my friends and family that have put up with this grumpy old hermit for the last 5 months! I hold you all close to my heart.