Can only count to 9

May 2, 2009

Well it started as a great weekend.  We got all the floor pans welded in.

Nice job Donald

They looked really good so it was just a matter of cleaning them up a little before putting some seam sealer on them.  That's when I was attacked by a run away cut off tool.  I cut my right index finger to the bone and rushed to the emergency room to get it stitched back together.  I decided not to put any pictures of the damage as it was pretty gross. Needless to say my Dad and Donald continued on without me with Dad telling me "I've had worse cuts on the end of my..." well I won't say what he said as this is PG rated.  They did get some nice stuff done while I was laid up recovering the rest of the weekend.

Driver side front pan welded in nicely

Sealing it up

Primed and ready for HushMat

This isn't even my car, why am I here working so hard?

So we called it a weekend with all the floors welded in and all the front sheet metal completely disassembled.  Somehow I made it back to Dallas on a lot of pain medication and later that week had some "cosmetic surgery" to make my finger look like a finger again.  I almost ended up with 9 but thankfully I have full use of all 10 fingers once again.

Not so fast

April 11, 2009

The second trip down was put on hold due to the annual "March Madness".  That's not the NCAA tournament mind you but rather the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.  As Nick Nolte famously said in DC Cab, "I don't work on January 8th cuz that's Elvis' birthday", so goes for all Wilson's as "they don't work in March cuz that's rodeo time".

Chad, Christina, Patti and Dad

At this point we were really cooking along.  We already had all the floor pans cut out and we were thinking this was all the cutting and welding we had to do...boy was that way off!

We knew the floor would need repair

Here Katherine is joining in the fun and deciding what she wants to cut with that saws-all.  Little did she know at that time that this 6 month project was going to be oh so much longer.  She probably would have cut me if she knew then what she knows now, hehe.

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt...some foreshadowing here

Back then it was a family affair and even Donald was helping wrench on some things.  He's fighting the driver side headers at this point so we can pull the motor.

I have to stick my hand up in there??

We had our share of funny moments too.

Have to protect those bony legs

Katherine getting a dirty look for taking a picture

He's saying "If this was my car, I'd slap some paint on it as is and be racing already"

There were also things that took more than one person.

Just loosen this one bolt and get this fender off

How many bolts ARE there holding this fender on?

Finally got it off but no where to put it

If I push and you pull maybe it will fit

Why are there so many holes in it?

You can hold it, I'll stand over here when he is cutting

More standing and watching

Almost a plumber

So with that we wrapped up the weekend and I headed back to Dallas.  We had the front end partially disassembled and the floors cut and fitted.  Moving right along.

Let the fun begin

February 1, 2009.

This is what we started with.

Of course it looks great, that's what we thought too.  I little sanding here, little welding there, and we were off to the races...literally.  You can see the smile on my face as I'm looking at that big block 396 under the hood.  I was already thinking about that first drive.

Nothing like big block power in a mid sized sports car.

The first order of business was the tear down to truly know what we had.  You know, the stuff you just can't see when you don't know what you are looking for.  All the parts were there we just needed to clean it up a little before we put it back together.  Of course we had to clean out the floor to see how much would have to be cut out.

Huh, that was surprising.

So we just decided to jump right in and cut the rust out.  At this point we thought this was our major rust area and we would replace the 4 floor pans and get to some body work.  My dad is saying "no turning back now".

So at that point we decided to call it a weekend and pick it back up in a few weeks when I came back to town.  Oh I couldn't wait to get back and get dirty.

How it all started...

I have always been a fan of the 1st Gen Camaro.  I grew up loving Chevy's, probably because my dad always had some type of Chevy he was restoring.  These are the 3 I have pictures of but there were definitely more.  They were always top notch on a budget and he always paid special attention to detail.  He likes to give me a hard time for being so picky about my car but he fails to acknowledge he made me this way :).

This 57 Chevy was immaculate.  I don't remember as much about the build of this one but I do remember he always wished it was a 4-speed instead of an automatic.  I also remember how much he hated having to sell it.

This '55 was always my favorite.  I remember "working" on it with him in our one car garage when I was a kid.  By working on it, I mean handing him the wrong wrenches, getting in his way, asking too many questions...pretty much the same stuff I do today except I am actually wanting to learn this time.  I always loved when he would take me for a ride and how first and second gear would fill the cabin full of tire smoke.  As with most of his builds, it was sold shortly after he finished it and I never had the pleasure of driving it.

This '72 was a daily driver for many years after he restored it.  You could jump right in, fire it up and cruise on down the road.  I borrowed it many weekends when I was 16 before I got my own truck and put all my friends brand new '89-'91 pickups to shame.  Well, all except 'ol blue.

That same summer we embarked on building my first truck, an '81 GMC Stepside.  We spent every night and weekend working on it and by the end of the summer we had completed a frame off rebuild.  It also went from a GMC to a Chevy because all the logo parts were cheaper.  It was my pride and joy for 8 years.  I drove it all through high school and college and only sold it because I got my first job and realized a single cab truck getting 8-10 miles/gallon wasn't the best choice.  At the time I was so infatuated with having my first new vehicle that the emotional attachment wouldn't hit me until years later.  Man I wish I still had that truck.  Every time I hear the Montgomery Gentry song that says "a stepside truck, can't jump a ditch" it brings back some pretty cool memories.  I am one to learn from my mistakes and I can say with certainty, I won't make that mistake again.

Fast forward 10 years.  After watching a couple episodes of "Pinks" (when it was lose the race, lose your ride) I naively asked my dad if he wanted to "do a little hot rod project car".  That was January 2009.  The expectation was that we would find something cheap, do a little resto-mod and be driving it  by the end of the summer.  I knew I wanted a 1st Gen Camaro so it would be simple right?  We did a little eBay searching, found a nice 1968 SS project in Bryan, TX and after a short in person visit from my dad, it was sitting in his driveway February 1, 2009.  Did I mention I live in Prosper, TX just north of Dallas?  And that my friends was the start of a very long and winding road that I will detail here over the coming weeks, months and years.  If I only knew then what I know now...