Let's Try This Again

I mentioned last week that I would provide some updates on multiple hobby fronts soon. It's been quiet, but not completely quiet. For instance, the Mustang project has finally started to awake from it's slumber.

Slumber may not be quite the right word. More like I was so irritated and frustrated with the whole thing, I pretty much ignored it for a while and secretly hoped it would maybe just go away. I seriously considered putting a number on Craigslist - you haul it away.

But, after months of searching and talking to various candidates, I finally found someone who I think will be able to do the necessary body work I can't do. Believe it or not, I found him on Craigslist, which gave me pause, and I was a bit hesitant at first to contact him after my last experience with that. But I did, he came out and looked at it, and said he could do everything but paint at a reasonable hourly rate, and a reasonable hourly estimate. If you remember, the last guy gave a number that was too good to be true, and it was. This guy's number was more in line with what I was expecting. Some other guys gave some numbers over the last few months that were just too much for what I wanted to get out of the car.

Plus he is the service manager at the local RV dealer near where I work and have had service done on my camper in the past, and a few people I talked to vouched for him. So I went for it.

Anyway, he lives about 35 miles away, so that necessitated some creative transport once again. I recruited the same assistant from before (who must be getting sick of hauling this stupid thing around), and off we went. No snow storm this time. :) Just a beautiful early fall day. The good part is he works about five minutes from my work, so we can exchange parts and things easily.

We dropped it off with no problems, and he said he's anxious to get started on it. He looked at what the previous guy did (basically some light sanding on the quarters) and couldn't figure out what he was even trying to do. He knows the story, and all he can say is it's a big shame. He couldn't make any promises on when he would be done, but I don't really care if he keeps it until April.

Oh, and it's not a big deal that he can't paint, as one of the other candidates was interested in doing that, but not the actual body work. So it should all work out. Everything just costs money! In fact, I already ordered $200 more in inner aprons and cowl sides last night, with more sure to come...

I'll post specifics on what is happening as events warrant.