Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Working in the Shop

Working in the Shop

Tomorrow I go to the Air Show in Oshkosh. I will keep everyone informed on what it was like. There was a lot of interest in my visit to the Iola car show and also a surprising amount on my Diet. This morning I weighed 180.4 and I swear I ate less yesterday than I did earlier in the week. They say that water and air are non caloric but sometimes I wonder.

I tried to get my wife to go with me tomorrow but she begged off. “You go Honey,” she told me, “and enjoy yourself.” She does have an appointment at the beauty shop and far be it for me to interfere with that.

Today I worked on smoothing the Bondo and spraying on the primer. Roger at the parts store has ordered me a couple of rattle cans with the original color of the S-10 inside. Actually the project turned out quite well and the little pick-up is respectable once more.

Here in Wisconsin the term “Respectability” is applied to vehicles that don’t show rust, corrosion or serious dents or rips or gouges in the sheet metal. A vehicle that has rusted out spots on the quarter-panels or along the lip of the front or rear wheel well are considered rightly or wrongly as a reflection on the owner… Its sort of like the guy in the Suburb who doesn’t mow his grass. On a farm it’s a homestead that looks like a dump or salvage yard. People are expected to keep their vehicles and domiciles maintained and picked up.

The struggle to maintain “Respectability” is a never ending task and some are much better at it than others. The front yard of our Homestead looks better than the barnyard and my wife is constantly on my case to keep things picked up and Respectable. Her standard is to have the place looking like the front page of “Country Living” and mine is to maintain respectability.

Respectability also applies to a person’s shop and I am ashamed to tell you that working in a shop and keeping it clean and up to standard is a very difficult undertaking. I try but it’s hard. If the work is particularly dirty I do it outside on the apron or under the walnut trees. I like the breeze to be working outdoors but in the winter that is not an option and by springtime the shop is in bad need of a cleaning.

I try and put my tools up because if I don’t I can never find them. Its always the one tool that is needed most that is the most elusive and I wish I had a nickel for every time I spent half an hour looking for something that was right under my nose.

The left front fender of my 1940 Ford Sedan had a serious corrosion and botched repair problem. It looks like someone tried to “Lead” it many years ago. Leading was a process that was used way back before body filling epoxies came along. Some purists still like to use it and you can buy the materials in several of the popular catalogues. Anyway I had to cut out a huge chunk under the headlight and used the sheet metal strip technique I described in an earlier blog. I must be getting better at it the more I do it. It really turned out well and captured the compound curve to perfection.

I think I will use the process on a Sedan body I have that has some serious roof issues.