Side note.

Progress on my car has always been slower that I thought. I tend to take my time and try to do things right. I've made plenty of mistakes along the way. There is a steep learning curve when you've never attempted anything of this nature before. It seems that every stage of my build I've been very cautious and also messed up here and there (luckily nothing was critical). As I continue this blog and look at the pictures I've taken, I'm surprised at how little it seems I have done. I would say that most of my time has been spent beating 38 years of rust, grime, and paint off my old parts. Once again my cheap side outweighed my lazy side when I didn't invest in a bead blaster to clean parts. I've used a combination of my ever present die grinder and a two dollar drill with a wire wheel I bought at the flea market to clean my stuff. Nothing is untouched. I've replaced every bushing, sanded the tunnel, cleaned and treated every part, torqued every bolt, replaced every lock washer, and changed all the seals. It seems that every time I've tried to take a short cut it's come back to bite me in the butt. So keep in mind, as you read this, that I'm leaving out a great deal of the boring stuff that is an absolute requirement when you're building a car.

Two very important things to keep in mind as you do something like this are...
1.) Everything always takes longer than you think it will.
2.) Take the amount of money you think it'll cost to do the job, multiply it by three, and you will still be a little short.

It must also be a labor of love. If you can't curse the car lovingly, just buy a finished product and save yourself the aggravation.