Tony & Joe's Excellent Adventure...

[caropepe]

Part I:

More details to follow, but here's some proof from yesterday morning:



Tony still has an un-natural, and un-healthy attachment to that truck, so I'm posting this as a way for him to ease back into normal life.

-Joe

[caropepe]

As some of you know, Tony & I are taking advantage of Ken's (streetrodpainter) Roadster Paint and Body sale.

Phase I of our plan included:

• Modify my body buck so another (2-piece) body would fit under it in a truck.
• Rent a 16' moving truck.
• Load the cars.
• Drive to Yuba City Sunday night (12 hour drive).
• Drop off the body's at SRP's
• Drop off the truck in Woodland.
• Taxi to Sacramento International Airport.
• Southwest flight from SMF-SEA

Phase I is now complete. Here's the buck:



Loading in:



Tony's Car at Ken's:



Saying goodbye to The Truck in Woodland:



Total Elapsed Time (Seattle-Yuba City-Seattle): 29 Hours
Total Miles: 777.3
Food Stops (3): Quizno's, Two Bits (Yuba City), Sports Bar @ SMF
Fuel Stops (3): Eugene, OR/Redding, CA/Woodland, CA

Ken's just getting moved into his new building, but everything there went smooth nonetheless.

We'll be reversing the procedure in November and bringing them back home.

Personally, I'm most excited that it looks like my body work (with a little help from Ken's guys) is going to be good enough to support jet black (!)

I'll let Tony fill in the detail of his plans.

I think I'm going to bed early tonight...

-Joe

[UrQ]

Joe, was a fun trip. I think that you got the best complement when Ken said that the body work that you did was pretty good and that he did not need but half of the allocated time. So now I know where to get pointers on my body work (which I hope I never have to do)! Nice job!

I can't wait for the drive back, through the fog and construction on I-5 with a truck that has no well defined steering and shocks that seem to be welded shut.

And I sure hope that we don't have to fly Southwest back down to Sacremento as I can't take the boarding system that Southwest has.

[CobraDVM]

What?? No blizzards, no snow plows, no road closures???

You guys are amateurs!!!



Seriously though, glad it was an uneventful trip.

[Stinson Pilot]

Awesome Joe, can't wait to see the finished product. Congrats on the body work, coming from SRP, that's impressive. Hope mine comes out that good.
Just drove by Yuba City on I-5 today. Should have dropped my car off.

[UrQ]

Joe's and my (car) bodies are now primed and ready to paint, so should only be a few more weeks !

[Steve Powell]

Tony......look'in good. Don't get that body so nice you can't go racing. I'm counting on you next season to give me some competition. (Wouldn't want to spay that new paint with rocks and old rubber when you're behind me).

PS: I'm going to be coming to Seattle again next week. Want me to bring those heads and crank? Let me know via PM.

[caropepe]

Just received word that our cars are done. We're flying to Sacramento tomorrow morning at 'o-dark-thirty, renting a truck and bringing them back here to the rain.

Ken's pic of my car in the booth:


Jet Black - Body by caropepe

I'll let Tony post pics of his car if he wants (I don't have them handy, but have seen them, and it looks great!).

Joe

[Gale K]

Very nice!

[UrQ]

Body damage fixed and paint done.

[Arch F]

Fantastic, can't wait to see them in person. Let us (me) know if either of you need help unloading or mounting.
Arch

[mattbrowne]

Both look great. UrQ is it just the picture or are the stripes off on the trunk by the trunk latch? It is probably just the picture. The color looks great.

[caropepe]

The body's are back where they belong - in our respective garages - after a long couple of days.

It started yesterday, getting up at 4:30 AM and meeting Tony at SEATAC for our 6:45 flight to Sacramento. From there we took a taxi to Woodland and picked up our 16' Budget truck, before heading up to Yuba City.

After a quick breakfast at the 2 Bits Cafe we headed over to Ken's. His guys were putting the finishing polish on the small bits for my car, but Tony's was ready to go.

So we loaded my body on the buck and started packing. Here's my view of Tony wrapping blankets around stuff:


2010-11-18 12.03.05 by caropepe, on Flickr

Once we got everything tucked in, we took care of the paperwork, and headed out around 12:30 PM. Here's the truck right before closing the door:


2010-11-18 12.26.19 by caropepe, on Flickr

Good news Howard! We found your snow:


2010-11-18 16.53.53 by caropepe, on Flickr

We arrived back to Seattle around 1:45 AM and unloaded Tony's car. I got home around 2:30.

Continued....

[caropepe]

This morning I had a group of extremely nice neighbors come over at 9:00 this morning and help unload:


YubaCity-Seattle 005 by caropepe, on Flickr

It's kind of tricky - I re-built the body buck according to Budget's truck dimensions, and it's a tight fit:


YubaCity-Seattle 008 by caropepe, on Flickr

Then into the garage:


YubaCity-Seattle 011 by caropepe, on Flickr

Everything's almost right with the world again:


YubaCity-Seattle 014 by caropepe, on Flickr

Just have to finalize a few things before the body goes back on. A huge thanks to Tony, Lou, Mike, Barney, Clark, Lance and, of course, Karen. We're getting close...

-Joe

[CobraDVM]

Congrats guys - glad you made it back in one piece. The bodies look great. Ken does good work. Hope everything is to your satisfaction and I look forward to seeing them soon.

[caropepe]

As soon as it stops raining...I'm thinking the 3rd week of May. At least for seeing them on the road.

Of course we could have garage parties in the mean time - but every time we go to Howard's his engine gets installed or pulled...

Joe

Originally Posted by CobraDVM

...I look forward to seeing them soon.

[CobraDVM]

Originally Posted by caropepe

Of course we could have garage parties in the mean time - but every time we go to Howard's his engine gets installed or pulled...<<insert rimshot here!>>

Oh everyone's a comedian now! Hoping to get it done soon - only problem is it's getting too cold to really want to spend much time in the garage - especially when I can't drive it anyway. Plus I just got a new toy - a 2002 M3 - dang this thing is fun! Now I have to sell my mustang - wife is giving me grief about accumulating too many cars! I think I'm up to four!

[UrQ]

Originally Posted by mattbrowne

Both look great. UrQ is it just the picture or are the stripes off on the trunk by the trunk latch? It is probably just the picture. The color looks great.

The stripes are centered, the "pre-cut" hole from Factory Five is off center by 1/16". So the picture makes it look more srewed up than it realy is. Ken called me on this before he put the stripes on and I made the choice to center the stripes on the body not to center the stipes around the off center trunk lock hole.

[UrQ]

As Joe indicated we had a fun filled trip back, Ken does great work and could not beat the deal that he was offering. My body is safely resting on the car (thanks to Joe helping yesterday). Now the winter mods begin !

[Gale K]

Looks great! Both of them. Love the pics. Nice snow shot!