FIRST BLOOD
My wife told me that this project would be full of blood, sweat and tears. Well this week, I got the blood out of the way. My misstion during the week was to remove the body from the vehicle and place it on the body buck (see previous post). Before I could get the body off the frame, the manual instructs you to temporarily install the windshield as you have to drill some mounting holes in the frame. This is much easier to do without a dash full instruments, wiring harness, etc. After I had finished mounting the windshield and drilling holes, I invited my relatives over again to assist in moving the body onto the buck. My mother in law (always the conserned greek mother) told me to put on my work gloves. I didn't listen and as soon as we were moving the body, my pinky finger was inpaled by a cotter pin on the hood hinge. Actually, I think the technical term is pierced as the pin went into the top of the pinky and out of the bottom of the first pad. Needless to say, typing has been a chore this week. Pictures are below. This weekend, I will be cleaning up and planning the rear suspension build. Wish me luck in keeping all my blood.

DELIVERY DAY: Saturday was a great day (6-3-2006). Doug from Rich's Classic Transport made good on the delivery with his 52 foot trailor filled with my Hurricane, some fiberglass jeep bodies from Shell Valley and a VERY nice, all aluminium Kirkham cobra. My cobra was deliverd on a very clever body dolly that allowed us to wheel the kit down the street (since mine is not what is called a "roller" chassis...I have to build it from ground up).

We easily rolled the car into my garage down the back driveway and into it's new home. Doug was filled with great stories of delivery timeless autmotive classics around the country. He is truly proud of he and his brother's business. Dough understands what a big occasion this is for the new owner and he has the best bedside manner. Truly a pleasure to do business with.

My in-laws, Steve and Katie Papoutsakis were very helpful during the day. Nothing like having some Greeks around to help move all those heavy boxes....They sure do know how to get the job done!Now was the hard part of figuring out how to get the body and frame off the dolly. We decided to use my engine hoist and connect it to the cross member in the front. This way, we would only have to lift 1/2 the weight when removing the car from the dolly. We had jack stands in the waiting. Thank god I have this engine hoist. It is worth it's weight in gold

With the car on jack stands, I start to hope, pray and wish that with the body off, it will fit under the body buck. My "eyeball" of the situation tells me that the it might not fit under. The jack stands are at their lowest level. There are some higher subframe components that I can use with the jackstands to get the whole frame down closer to the ground. Need to get my head around this one. Other option are raising the body buck height (but don't think I have much more room above without hitting the body on ceiling) or cutting out a clearance at the bottom. Just have to work it out.

Now I sit and enjoy the work of the day....day dreaming about that 428 shoe horned into this little roadster. Next up will be prepping the body for the body buck.