RSchnell

That's how we say it down here! Just like we say "oil" a bit differently LOL. Dave gave me hell about that the whole time I was out there and even after I left LOL!

The '55 convertible made it to FL and in true FL fashion, it started raining as we were doing the offload. I stuffed it into a storage unit for now until my relocation is complete. No sense starting a project until I get the shop set up.

I told him the same thing! I'm tentatively headed back out there in Feb or Mar, working a deal on another car I found while I was out there. This time I'm going to take a few days and play tourist along with car stuff.

After dealing with one transporter that never showed & going through another broker, the '55 Ford Convertible I bought in California was loaded up this morning and is finally headed to FL. Quite likely the first time the car has ever left the state! Working a deal on another car out there, so likely headed back first of the year!

I'd go with 600 or 800 if you're attempting to remove all the white paint. That 400 is way too aggressive! The paper wrapped around a block and some soapy water will make short work of that white! Your hands will appreciate the block too. I like how your project is coming along! I'm a dyed in the wool Ford guy, but I've always liked these mid to late 50s Chev & GMC pickups.

That's exactly why I posted them! I'm in FL and there's nothing left like this here. Everything got crushed out & the land sold off for more transplants to move down here. I'm headed back out there after first of the year and plan to get more photos of this yard and another one that's nearby that has some vintage iron. I give guy's that run these places credit. It's certainly not the easiest way to make a living, but it can be fun!

Here's a few more as I finish sorting all the photos I took on this trip...

I'm still plugging away in my 2019 VW Jetta. Bought the car with 7 miles, now has 114K and other than a set of plugs and pad/rotor change, I haven't had to do a thing to it repair wise other than routine maintenance. I'll probably drive it until it dies. It does everything I expect it to do while getting 40+ mpg on the highway with the cruise set at 75 and the A/C on.

Spotted this 1957 Chevy big truck still earning it's keep in rural North California earlier this week.

The right quarter needs to be replaced. When this car sat in a field, someone got sassy with it using a front end loader! LOL There's a full original rust free convertible quarter stuffed inside the car. This is my next to last full all out resto project and wanted to use my metal working skills one last time! While I was out here I picked up the front end, a nice rust free tail pan, rust free decklid & other stuff that is hard to find in FL.

That hood is actually pretty rough, We just threw it on the car to keep help keep water off the motor.

While in the area we shot up to Big M Junkyard in Williams, CA. I picked up a few things for the '55 Ford Convertible project. The owner was gracious enough to allow me to take the Nikon out in the yard while I was hunting parts. Here's some selected photos.

Dave is a cool dude. A fun week of messing around with old Fords, trading ribald jokes, and eating at all the hole in the wall restaurants in the area!

Thanks to fellow forum member @Rodent I'm now the owner of one of my bucket list cars. What started out as a simple "hey a friend of mine has a car or two you may interested in", resulted in me flying out to California from Florida this past Monday and spending the past week getting it ready to bring back to Florida. I'd been looking for a factory yellow/black '55 Ford convertible project. It's a project but it has all the right stuff- power windows, power seat, V-8, automatic but I will convert it to manual transmission. A big thanks to Steve and our mutual friend Dave for providing some great California hospitality to this old Southern boy.

It was a pleasure to meet you as well Steve! Nice to put a face with the person responsible for me dropping copious amounts of cash and getting not just one, but two cars across the country. LOL. Like I told you earlier, you can now claim the award for being the first forum member I've met in person.

Punching Out by Paul Clemens. I'm finishing this one up now. Dude hangs around the closed Budd stamping plant in Detroit and documents the going ons of the plant liquidation. I found it a good read. The American Icon book I have read a few pages so far and looks good. It's out of my wheelhouse of Ford history which is why I thought it'd be a good one to read. I hope to finish it on my flight out to CA first of the week.

That damn one part putty is BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH. Those of us who worked in body shops back in the day will recall it's equally BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH sibling.

I bought one of the Harbor Freight mini tool boxes for my airbrushes, I liked it so much I bought one for my work desk to keep pens, sticky notes etc in and another for the table beside my chair in the living room.

One thing I would add, the bearing supports on the rear axle are one of the most neglected parts of a C2/C3 chassis. There's no way to grease the bearings except for disassembly and then you need a press to R&I the spindle & make sure you get the endplay right during reassembly. It's one of those things that's not a problem until it is. Unless you know the history of the chassis this is something I'd look into getting done if you plan to drive the car a lot.

I said I wasn't going to buy anymore kits, and have done well for 3 months, but couldn't resist the 1/16 VW van.

That dude sets up at all the model swaps too. I've gotten some really good deals from him.

My interest in collecting books is pretty much limited to Ford & Ford Motor Company History 1903-1965. Also collect books on Henry Ford with emphasis on books about him written during the era. Some are easy to find, some not so easy. But that's what makes it fun!

Ford did a book/brochure similar to that in 1938. It was called "X-ray Ford" or something along that line. It had several pages that were clear an laid on top of each other to build the engine, body etc.