|
**The sound of STARTUP**
Brent and I worked every night last week for the goal of startup on Friday night. We finished the heater and AC hoses, some critical wiring, transmission cooler, fuel gauge sender and fuel filter, power steering hoses and
a bunch of other little details.
Friday night, December 4, we gassed her up, and she started on the first try! With just 1 foot of straight pipe out of the headers, it was a
massive sound: like a dragster. Virginia called the kids and Lawana: all enjoyed except Tina who was not home.
**Click on The sound of STARTUP**
above to download 10 seconds of audio, it is
almost 900KBytes. I have tested this with Netscape and the Java/Netscape automatically downloads it and plays the file.
We got pretty excited; Andreas had gone out earlier to get cigars, and Virg had a bottle of Asti Spumante cooled off. Brent called his wife
Rose, and she and their two girls arrived. So we drank some Spumante, started her up again, smoked cigars and ate Key Lime Pie sent by Bruce Jones from Ft. Lauderdale. Thanks Bruce!
O, by the way, we got so excited that I bolted the grill and headlights back on, and Andreas and I took her for a little drive thru the
neighborhood (8:00pm). Lots of noise, and some tire squeaks later, we came back home. We then decided that we needed to celebrate more, so we went to Casa Mexico in Eagle for Tacos Picadillo, Cocteles de
Camarones and two pitchers of Margaritas. Big headache next day.
At 8:00 am, Brent arrived with the trailer and we loaded up OW for her trip back to Caldwell; to "Sonic Mufflers and
Welding" for the Flowmasters. At about 1:00pm, Danny Villegas started his work. He really enjoyed working on OW, and was so enthusiastic to be able to contribute at the high level of craftsmanship already evident. Danny had a lot of visitors, including a bunch from Tom's next door and there was a lot of oohing and aahing over the old gal. I'll tell you, there was some excitement in Danny's new shop (since September). Danny worked the 2 1/2 inch aluminized pipe from straight sections; measured, bent, welded and checked until 7:00pm. He had a lot of help...(I don't know how he has gotten this far in business without all of that help!)
The matching of the bends and twists, left and right was a work of art. Normally, any way that the pipe gets to the rear end is OK, but not for Danny. At all times there were 4 pairs of eyes checking the alignment and matching left to right. At the end, we all agreed that the installation was about as perfect as it could get. With the final bends to give the exhaust exit a nasty little 50 degree downturn, exiting just behind the rear tires, we turned her on again.The unmistakable sound of Flowmasters filled the shop, with a LOT of oohs and aahs.
On Monday morning, I was back at Danny's with the camera. I shot about 30. I took some closeups of the headers that Steve Kioukis (Q-Kiss)
modified. The number 2 left pipe looks like a corkscrew as it winds its way around the Borgeson U-joints on its way to the collector.
She made her way, under her own power for a drive next door to Tom's where we trial fit the bed and hood. There were more spectators. It seems that OW has had a lot of publicity, and her progress is
constantly checked by a surprising number of enthusiasts.
This week Tom will finish a lot of body detail: door alignment, rocker/fender matching, gas door installation, fix to eliminate interferences
with the gas tank, more primer, tailgate, hood, gaskets and seals...
Then back home to fix leaks in the power steering box and rear brake cylinders, timing and carburetor tuning, camshaft break-in, turn signal
wiring, etc, etc..
Following that, to CJ Auto Body for final block sanding (3 blockings already), wipe down, blow-off, tacking and the 3-stage Cadillac Pearl
White. CJ (Jeff Holley) is an expert in multi-stage paint and does a lot of special stuff on sprint cars and dragsters. He will finish the paint by hand sanding with 2000 grit wet-or-dry and
"diamond" polish.
Following will be the door gaskets, glass installation, window "wiskers", vent window gasket installation, door bumpers, air
conditioning vents and wiring, glove box/light, dome light, under hood light. United Auto Upholstery will install the carpet and door sill trim (they did the seats, door panels and sun visor).
Then a few more details...wheel alignment, license plate (only one needed on antiques), heat and rock shields, oak bed wood and stainless trim,
tail lights, bumpers and grill (final), headlight adjustment (these are Xenons), door panel trim, rear view mirrors, radio antenna, emergency brake cable.
Today I did an estimate of labor: Tom, Brent and I put in about equal time, between 150 and 200 EACH, for a grand total close to 600 hours
(that's over 70 8 hour days). All of that time has been put in since about the middle of June.
So, you want to build a hot rod?
|
