Aug 6, 1998- I finished wire brushing the hood tonight. I cleaned up the wiper motor, and I accidentally burned a hole in the plastic because I thought it was metal. I patched it with hot glue and painted it with Rustoleum black spray paint. (This makes it look a little like it’s metal because that piece looks tack welded.) I also finished wire brushing the horn and made it work. It’s only a 6-volt instead of 12-volt, made in the USA by the Electric Auto-Lite Company. The wiper motor has Mitsu written on it, and it is made in Japan. Oh, well. I painted the horn Rustoleum black.
Aug 9, 1998- “In sort of a mystical way a mechanical man rode upon the rain to perform the nearly impossible with ease.” - John Younkin (that's me) - This Saturday we worked on the body tub to spray the bolts that were rusted fast, to hammer the bolts that didn’t turn off, and to grind off the bolts that rounded off. Last night, Mark Millen, Mike Friedline, and Danny Stripp helped me. We worked until 5:30 in the morning and were stopped for an hour and a half on a steering wheel nut, (Bill Stripp pulled off effortlessly, which was a bit frustrating after the way we had worked). It went quite well last night. We removed the gauges, the brake, the clutch, the gas pedals, the air cleaner and started to remove everything else from the firewall but alas, we didn’t meet our goal of removing the body tub. "Tomorrow is another day." I had my first experience welding with a torch by myself. It took a long time to figure out grandpa’s torch and tighten all the clamps to make them safe.
Aug 10, 1988- I worked on stripping the leftover paint off the hood. I used Aircraft remover, "Evil in a can." The can showed it to be wicked stuff (what an understatement), but I was careful, used gloves, and stayed back. I only caught an occasional whiff. It smells like finger nail polish remover. It’s REALLY strong. The paint bubbled; then it was easily scraped off with a putty knife. Sometimes two coats were necessary to remove it all. Also in between waiting, I Rustoleumed the rings around the shift levers, the steering wheel, and the hand break catch. I removed the steering wheel tonight.
Aug 11, 1998 – I stripped paint. It is a long, slow, patient process. [Note: Paint remover burns skin. It feels like a bee sting.]
