Cool Desert Nights 2010 - We Won our Category!

Cool Desert Nights - 2010 Show & Shine was a great success. For us, it started Saturday morning about 5:30 am. We're just setting up in this photo. That's our tent in the background. We propped the hood up and showcased the motor all day long. We received lots of comments... all good!

Dennis and Annette K. brought their 33 Chevy. Dennis is the one that purchased the 1975 Corvette engine that was originally in our 63. That motor rebuild is going very well.

Cool Desert Nights - 2010 was their largest car show yet. Well over 700 vehicles were registered.

There was a wide variety of vehicles...

including this Rat Rod truck. Double click on the photo and check out the size of that exhaust pipe.

Strawberry slush's (adult version) were available for our guests. Tim and Melinda M. said they were very good. .

Annette K. said they were very good too. Annette is Dennis K. better half.

We won Work in Progress! The judges even remembered us from last year and they remembered the Harley from the year before.

This plaque couldn't have been won without the help of all our friends over the last year. Especially Ty T. and his wife Bonnie (for letting him play). You too Wilson (Lester H.)

This is a video be sure to push the play button (triangle).

This is a video too. Push the play button to watch.

Cool Desert Nights 2010 - Preperation

Cool Desert Nights is 5 days away which means it's time to put the body on the rolling chassis. Dennis K. and Ty T. came by to help with the assembly.

A body harness and an electric winch were used to lift the body.

Touchdown! Everything lined up perfectly.

This is the first time the air cleaner has been installed and it looks great. The following is a video. Be sure to push the play button (triangle). Check out the comments as well.

Engine Compartment

This picture was taken a little over a year ago shortly after the firewall was power washed for the first time. Note the hole between the heater access panel and the fresh air intake on the left side of the picture, the hole above and to the left of the transmission tunnel, and the hole between the two fresh air vents above and just outside the engine compartment. Not visible in this picture is another hole located in the passenger side foot well. This picture was taken about a week ago. All the holes have been repaired and the firewall received it's first coat of primer then it was sanded as shown.

Another coat of primer was applied to all areas in the engine compartment.

The firewall looks great and it only took a few hundred hours. Ty recommended we paint the engine compartment black to showcase the engine for Cool Desert Nights. So....

Por 15 Chassis Black paint was applied in all the hard to reach places using a paint roller. This is a very durable paint that is UV tolerant, dries matt black, and was developed for engine compartments as well as frames.

The rest of the engine compartment was painted using a spray gun. Lots of masking tape and masking paper were used.

The paint is still wet and glossy in these last two pictures.

The final results are awesome. We have about 10 days before Cool Desert Nights. The next posting should be setting the body on the chassis. Stay tuned!

More Primer

We were finally able to put more primer on the car. As a reminder, the primer only signifies that the fiberglass resin and mat work is complete. Most all the primer you see will be removed when we start the body work for real. The most recent paint was applied above the center line of the car only. Additional primer will be applied below the center line once the body is put back on the tall dolly. That will occur after Cool Deserts Nights.

All issues with the 67 hood have been fixed and it too received a full coat of primer.

The car looks great from 10 feet away but, once the primer was applied it became even more obvious there is a lot of body work to do.

You can see clearly in this photo that Wilson still has work to do on his section of the car. Wilson... come back...

Thankfully most of the fiberglass blemishes look like this.

Period Correct/Era Modified

Period Correct - In the beginning of this build we decided this car would be built period correct. For me, this means the driving experience would be the same as you would get back in 1963. This would be achieved by making sure the drive train and major components were manufactured in 1963 and they would also be date coded appropriate for the day and month the car was manufactured. Exceptions would be allowed only if they supported the fact that the car would be driven often. Some exceptions we have taken include neoprene bushings, stainless steel fasteners and shims, and the engine has valves and valve seats that tolerate unleaded gas. This is an example of a period correct car:

Era Modified - We are considering 1960’s era modifications simply because if you had a car like this back in the 60’s chances are it would have been modified. Era modifications for our build would be limited to bolt on modifications only, no cutting allowed, and the original part would be retained. Era modifications under consideration include: · American Torq Thrust D wheels · Side exhaust · 1967 Big Block Stinger hood · Other modifications you might recommend

This is an example of an era modified car:

So, do you prefer period correct only or do you also like era modified? There is a poll at the top of this posting. Please be sure to vote. Thanks.