Beautiful sunny and warm is a great start to “Phase Two“of our restoration of the “Gray Lady”. At this point, all of the mechanicals are finished, she’s drivable, starts easily and reliably. The paint saga is behind us and she has made the move this morning over to the body and paint shop. It was relatively painless, just had to leave her there along with about a 3/4″ stack of $100.00 bills for a deposit and of course we will deposit at least another 3/4″ stack of hundreds when she is finished and we pick her up. Our friends over at Interstate Towing 
did another superb job arriving right on time, were considerate and careful loading and transporting her over to West Springfield. A new day has dawned and now we are ready to begin the minimal amount of body work required prior to her being prepped, primed, base coated and finally clear coated before returning home sometime around the 1st of June.
She was in nice shape when we found her, but there are some minor body issues that need to be resolved. 
Earlier I described how we found the front fender tabs rotted off at the bottom when we removed the rocker panels and how we repaired them by welding on new tabs, 
they will smooth out those repairs along with fixing the two small spots of rust through on two of the doors, this will be accomplished by cutting them out and patching with metal not plastic. 
The front edge of the hood was pushed in slightly by a small accident many decades ago and will be straightened and then finished with a piece of NOS chrome trim when she’s back. The driver’s side rear quarter also has a small dent that will need to be fixed right along the trim line 
and because that piece of trim was squashed I will be busy trying to find a replacement (I don’t think it can be hammered out and repaired).
This past week has seen a flurry of activity as we got ready for today’s move, Joe over at the body shop asked me to remove the back seat, which we did and while in the midst of that project figured what the heck, seeing as we were that far the front seat and headliner came out too! 
We then removed the rest of the rubber seals which will all be replaced and so we are stripped about as far as we can go, all we have left is the car body with a dashboard, steering wheel (so they can move it around) and a milk crate to sit on. I had not planned on doing the interior until next year, but with it all out I really do not see the point of putting it all back together again and then pulling it apart a second time for upholstery. I had to bite the bullet and ordered all of the materials to finish the inside while it’s apart. SMS Auto Fabricsout in Canby, Oregon was very helpful in tracking down the materials we would need, they were able to supply the original Black and White Moroccan Cloth and the White Vinyl needed to upholster the seats and door panels, original trunk lining material, are manufacturing a new headliner from the original gray material and will also deliver a complete new carpet set in black plush nylon, all to be installed when she is back from the shop.
This sure is getting to be an expensive project, more than I had estimated and MaMa probably would have preferred another diamond or two or three, but what the heck, she will be a jewel in her own right when this project is finished. We will follow the “Gray Lady” through her paint and body shop adventure over the next couple of weeks and will post photos here when we have them.…
Back at ya soon.….….….
