Body Shop Update 2
By · CommentsWell that turtle has not gotten off those tranquilizers, but we are making progress, slowly but surely. Most of the body has been gone over with a fine tooth comb, all areas and panels have been taken down repaired where needed and then spot primed.
I don’t want to convey in any way shape or form that I am unhappy with either the speed or quality of this phase of the project so far, Joe Houghton and his crew over at Maaco Collision Repair have gone above and beyond in every way so far. I’m still very impressed, and those of you who know me know that if I wasn’t you sure would see it here. The right rear quarter was the last panel needing attention and was being worked on today, so when finished, that and the hood will be the last 2 areas to be spot primed.
Then after sanding she will be on her way over to the paint booth for another coat of primer, then will be blocked and sanded before going back to the booth for some color. I’m hoping that we may be ready for paint around the week of the 14th. Larry, the technician assigned to work on her has gone above and beyond. He has found areas we had no idea we had issues with and repaired them even though they were not included in the quote. I am confident we are doing the best job possible within my budget and have seen nothing that causes me concern.
Now I’m stressed about paint color, today I viewed a sample painted with the formula supplied and have to say it just is not going to work for me. Seems the original Prestwick Gray Poly finish was a metallic paint, though we could see no evidence of the metal in the original finish and when it was mixed with todays modern materials, it looked good in the garage but when taken out in the sun sparkled way to much. I just feel that when all of the trim is added back it really is going to look to flashy and won’t feel right. So on Monday we are going to shoot 2 more test panels with plain enamel and no metal added to them. Once that is done we’ll make a decision on how to proceed.
Until next time…
Weekend Jaunt To Chesterwood
By · CommentsIt was a beautiful weekend, Mary Lee and I took a trip up to Stockbridge, MA to visit Chesterwood, it opened this weekend for the season
and featured a classic car show on the grounds. Chesterwood is the country home, studio and gardens of America’s foremost sculptor of public monuments, Daniel Chester French (1850 – 1931). Situated on 122 acres in the idyllic hamlet of Glendale near Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the property and buildings were donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation
by French’s daughter, Margaret French Cresson (1889 – 1973). Inspired by the natural beauty of the Berkshire Hills, French purchased the Marshall Warner farm in 1896. During the month of May, he left his permanent home and studio in New York for six months and moved with his family to Chesterwood, where he continued to work on over 200 public and private commissions. Many of French’s plaster sketches including models of his Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial are on view today in his Studio as well as in the permanent exhibit, Daniel Chester French: Sculpting an American Vision, in the Barn Gallery. Visitors to Chesterwood are invited to explore the beautiful formal gardens and woodland paths created by French himself.
Chesterwood is a National Trust Historic Site
owned and operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and recognized as a National and Massachusetts Historic Landmark. The National Trust for Historic Preservation provides leadership, education, advocacy and resources to a national network of people, organizations and local communities committed to saving places, connecting us to our history and collectively shaping the future of America’s stories.
In April 2010. Mervin Richard, Director of Conservation at the National Gallery of Art, and Chesterwood’s Gerard Blache and Brian McElhiney put the finishing touches on Daniel Chester French’s six foot model of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial, which has returned to Chesterwood after being on display for over a year at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
We were able to tour the main house, studio and exhibits in the barn while there, along with seeing many fine example’s of the classic cars on display throughout the grounds. In my opinion the best of show were the 1950 Jaguar MK V, which was purchased new and is still owned by the same family. This car underwent a $92,000 restoration within the last decade. Also very impressive was the Packard Limo,
which I think was either a 1924 or 1925. My vote for the coolest hood ornament was the red devil adorning a 1947 MG.
Again I was a little disappointed to see only one lonely Cadillac parked on the grounds, a fine example of a 1955 sedan that is all original except for the paint. It was a wonderful day, with beautiful weather, in a very senic spot. Hopefully next year, the “Gray Lady” will occupy a spot on the lawn right outside of the main house.
If the weather cooperates our plan is to travel up to Saratoga Springs, NY next Saturday to visit the Saratoga Car Museum, where the Cadillac LaSalle Club is sponsoring a show on the grounds of the museum. The museum itself has a special showing of American Woodies, I think 13 of them are on display owned by the same person!
Body shop updates will follow this week.…
Body Shop Update
By · CommentsStopped by Maaco Auto Body in West Springfield this afternoon to check on progress. We’re moving like a turtle on tranquilizers, but that’s OK with me, I did not give them a deadline and knew that they would use it as a fill-in, I’m just not a patient guy and looking forward to actually putting parts back on her. So far everything is going great and everything I have seen says to me that they are going above and beyond what I expected of them. I am pleased and look forward to seeing color on her.
Driver’s side is done and primed along with the trunk deck and roof.
Right front fender is done prepped and primed and there still is a little work to do on the passenger side doors and rear quarter before they are primed too. Then the body will be blocked and sanded before painting begins. Once started, door jambs and posts, along with the underside of the hood and trunk deck will be done first and then we will move to the body.
Larry is only working a half day tomorrow and off Friday and Monday so realistically we will probably not finish the prep until the end of next week at the earliest.
I borrowed a bench mounted buffer/polisher from a neighbor and have begun to buff and polish all of the trim work that has not been sent out to be re-finished, it’s probably going to take a couple weeks to get through all of it.
Until next time.…
Cruise Night
By · CommentsMary Lee and I breezed up to Amherst to ramble around the 1st cruise night of the season at Atkins Farm. There were about 70 cars there, made some new friends, met some old ones and generally had a good time. Disappointed to see only one Caddy there (a ’61 sedan), it was OK, but not my taste, interior was customized and had many body fit issues, especially where the bumpers met the body. I was shocked to learn it recently came out of the paint shop and the owner is now involved in a lawsuit with the shop (can’t say I blame him). Also saw a great ’57 wagon that too was re-done (last Fall) and been back to the shop several times for paint defects. Seems like the major complaints are for body and paint, I’m not involved here, so the guilty shall remain nameless, but you can bet I will steer a wide berth around those Companies. I’m confidant we are not going in that direction with our vendor, so far everything is going great, but only the final finish will tell the tale. I made a great connection with an upholsterer to work on the interior and have an appointment to meet with her tomorrow, also got a chance to see some of her work and it looked great.
Front bumper is all set and awaits installation
and the coming weeks will keep me busy polishing and buffing trim pieces that have not been refinished. We’ll be ready to go when she is back from body and paint and really look forward to putting her back together again.
Unfortunately, another family emergency will require Mary Lee and I to jet off to Dallas on very short notice, so we will again be away for a short while.
I’ll keep posting as able…
Still At The Beauty Shop
By · CommentsWe’re still at the shop, making progress bit by bit. Larry asked me to drop off the chrome moulding
for the front edge of the hood so that as he worked out the small dent at the front he could be sure he had the right contour and that there would be no gaps. Always happy to oblige I ran it over today, alas, Larry was playing hooky today so I left it in the car for him and he will be able to deal with it on Monday.
I’m psyched just seeing progress being made. The small bad areas on the doors have been cut out patched with metal and finished off.
The passenger side front fender has been cleaned up, aligned and the welded seam where we put on the new tab has been smoothed out and finished perfectly, even though it will be hidden by the rocker panel when it is installed.
Found another new issue Wednesday when we realized the top side of the hood had detached from the structural ribs underneath, seems like that has been taken care of and that’s a good thing. With the way the panel was springing it would have been all but impossible to block the hood without stabilizing it first.
I’m just a rookie but it looks to me that we are about 30% of the way through patching and prepping before paint.
We are still waiting for the upholstery materials to be delivered so we can get moving on getting the seats covered and when they called today they told me they were working on the headliner and just wanted to verify the number of ribs. Got that straightened out and asked them to please ship the fabrics and not wait for the whole order to be complete. They will get back to me with a ship date, hopefully soon.
back next week…
At The Beauty Shop
By · CommentsWork has begun on her make-over, the trunk lid
has been stripped, left rear quarter dent has been pulled and repaired
and work has begun to repair the rust thru on the driver’s door and the rear passenger door on the same side.
Larry, the technician assigned to work with her is very personable, knowledgable and sincerely interested in the car, and he always has the time and patience to answer any of my questions or concerns no matter how dopey they may be. I have to say that it is a pleasure to interact and work with people who are so obviously enjoying their jobs, to often today customer service is a lost art and employee’s go through the motions of getting the job done without ever really caring about the outcome.
Not so here, bluntly, I’m impressed and feel better about this choice more and more as each day passes. Ultimately, the end result will determine my satisfaction, but absolutely nothing so far leads me to believe I could have made a better choice.
From the front desk to the shop personel, everyone has acted in a very professional manner, the shop is modern and clean and so far it is apparent everyone of them takes pride in their work and reputation. Keep up the good work guys and gals, so far I’m a happy camper.
Later.….
It’s A Beautiful Day
By · CommentsBeautiful 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.….….….
The Paint Saga
By · CommentsOK I know earlier I had said that this whole situation was driving me out of my mind, and the saga continues sort of.… In today’s economy you would think that people would be tripping over themselves trying to get business, but in this situation I have spent the last 8 weeks trying to find someone to paint this car so we could begin to move forward. Being a businessman, I cannot imagine running my business like those that I have dealt with over the last 8 weeks. My first contact was with High Velocity Body Shop who while a very small operation thought they would be interested, they made an appointment the following week to inspect the car, were one of the few who actually did what they said they would, but blew my doors off with an estimate in the stratosphere! I’m sure they would have done a quality job but if I paid that number to paint the car it would be nothing but garage furniture, as I would be afraid to drive it anywhere, so I had to toss that estimate and move on (we blew 9 days here).…
Next up comes Orchard Auto who says they are interested and to call them the following Saturday and they will come out to look at it, Saturday arrives, I call them and they are to busy to come that day and blow me off, telling me to call the following Saturday, I don’t know about you, but I’m not chasing anybody to give them my money, and if that’s the way they treat me before the car arrives what will it be like when it is actually there, ho hum, another 9 days wasted.…
Next Bozo in line is Western Mass Collision, Andre who owns the joint lives about 2 blocks from where the “Gray Lady” lives, says he is interested, will come over and look at her, jerks me around for another 9 days, calls to say he will be over, never comes and the worst part about this one is that his son-in law is a very good friend of mine, but alas it is not to be and as of today he still has not looked at the car, nuff said here, just stay away, another 9 wasted days…
Now I go to John’s Auto Body, right here in South Hadley, stopped in because there was a classic sitting right in front, of course the owner is not in and he is the one I need to talk to… Two days later I go back again and again I’m told the owner is not there, but this time I speak to his brother who assures me that he probably will be the one to come look at it, takes my name and number and lo and behold the phone never rings.… Another one for the Bozo list, scratch 7 more days.
Now I try DMS Auto Body in Chicopee and personally speak with Wesley who owns the place and he assures me he will call and come see the car probably over the weekend.… Tic Toc Tic Toc, yep you guessed it no call, how the hell do these people actually stay in business?
Well, here we are eight weeks later, I’m disgusted and have a real bad taste in my mouth and figure at this stage I’ve got nothing to lose, so I take a ride over to MAACO. I meet with Joe Houghton who owns the shop, he spends 30 minutes with me, gives me a tour of the shop, is very thorough investigating my expectations and very clear about what he can and cannot do for me, he promises to call me no later than Wednesday. I leave with a pretty good feeling thinking I may have found the right guy, but only time will tell. Wednesday comes and Joe calls exactly like he said he would, meets me right on time, looks over the car, tells me he will go over the numbers and call me by Friday. I speak with him on Friday and he is not quite ready with the numbers, asks me to give him until Saturday morning and he in fact does call as promised with what I believe is a realistic estimate for what I want, more than what I want to pay, but fair to both he and I. Joe has the job! The “Gray Lady” travels by flatbed to his shop this coming Saturday and will be there for approximately 3 weeks. All I can say is that if Joe delivers what he promised at the price he quoted, I’ll be a happy camper and glad to have this phase of the project over with. Joe is the only person I’ve dealt with in this mess who actually did what he said he would do, when he said he would do it.… A breath of fresh air in this crappy situation. Joe has agreed to allow me access to his shop so that we can document his efforts through this site. Based on what I have seen so far I would not hesitate to recommend Joe or his Company, we will see how this ultimately plays out but I have high expectations that he will in fact do everything he said he would.…
Till next time.
Hi Honey I’m Home
By · CommentsMary Lee and I are back from the grand voyage! We had a wonderful time in New Orleans and quite by accident bumped into what is the second largest festival behind Mardi Gras while there. The French Quarter Festival was in full swing Friday, Saturday and Sunday prior to our sailing. We spent days sampling local cuisine, great music and beautiful weather. There were more than a dozen stages set up throughout the area with so much musical talent you could not possibly take it all in.… At the same time many local restaurants had food tents set up so that you could sample many different offerings at a very reasonable price. I’m told the city was expecting as many as a million visitors over the weekend. Saturday afternoon the Riverfront was so crowded that we were not able to walk through the park, we actually had to walk down the trolley tracks to move from one stage to the next. I’ve never seen more people in one place in all my life.
Saturday evening, walking down Bourbon Street on our way back to the hotel, the people were wall to wall, music blaring, police on horseback and beads raining down from the balconies above, we were amazed. As we sailed away late Sunday Afternoon the party was still in full swing, but we were actually ready for a rest. Spent the next 2 days at sea before docking first in Costa Maya, Mexico and the following day in Santo Tomas de Castillo, Guatemala. Then 2 more relaxing days at sea before docking first in Aruba and then the following day in Curacao, where we actually docked in town right next to the floating bridge! Another 2 restful days at sea and we arrived at our final port stop in Hamilton, Bermuda, then it was 2 more days at sea before we arrived home in Boston. It was a great trip, met lots of new friends, saw many beautiful sights but it really was nice to be back home after 19 days away and traveling more than 7000 miles by car, plane and ship. With that behind us we can now get back to the “Gray Lady” and move forward some more.….……



