Those were the first words of the body shop owner as he looked Matilda over when she arrived at his shop. I was glad to hear that, because the more I'd looked at her after getting her home, the worse and worse I thought she looked. Lots of evidence of bondo, and lots of rust that I hadn't noticed at first.
I dropped her off and talked to the guy about what I wanted done, but it sounded like he probably wouldn't be able to get to it for a couple weeks, at least, maybe longer. I dropped her off on a Friday, and then the following Monday afternoon I got a text: "Stop by the shop when you can." This immediately set me to worrying that something had gone wrong. My best guess was that they had found out that the car was stolen, then they had accidentally dropped a helicopter on it, and they also wanted to know if I knew anything about the ten pounds of heroin they'd found in the frame rails. But then, you know me: I'm an optimist.
So I drove up there Tuesday morning before work, and it turned out that they had just had some floor space open up sooner than expected, so they were starting to disassemble the car, and the guy wanted to show me all the rust they were finding as it came apart. It turns out that his first impression wasn't quite right, but it at least made me feel better that I wasn't the only person who couldn't tell it was a rust bucket at first glance.
So far, though, he says it can all be fixed, and he and his guys are already hard at work on that. I went in this morning before work to see how it's coming along, and they've already got the body off of the frame and on a rotisserie. The hood and trunk lid and fenders and doors have already been blasted and primed, and the front fenders have already been worked over. There was a guy working on block sanding the doors when I was there, and they are already lining up replacement parts for other items. They are actually moving along on it so fast, I'm starting to worry that I won't be able to keep up on my end, and I may end up paying them storage fees or something. I don't think the guy makes a habit of charging storage fees, but I guess we'll see how it goes.
Today when I was there the body was up on the rotisserie, and the guy was pointing out all the rust areas to me again. It's pretty bad around the base of the windshield, sides of the windshield, around the back window, around the trunk, etc., etc.
Next to the rotisserie was the frame and suspension. Looks like they haven't stripped that down yet. A guy was supposed to be coming today to blast the body, not sure if they were planning to have him do the frame at the same time.
And here is one of the front fenders that they have already made good progress on. I asked them to go ahead and fill most of the holes for mounting badges. I'm planning to keep the emblem on the front of the car, and the one on the rear of the trunk lid, but I decided to just get rid of the side badges. Getting rid of the hood spear, too.
So, things are moving along, actually much more quickly than I expected. I think things will slow down when they start getting into repairing the rust on the body, but then again, they are already moving along faster than I expected, so maybe they will continue to do so...? I guess we'll see how it goes.
It would be time to start building my engine, but right now the Corvair is keeping me busy with its own problems. Hopefully I'll get those squared away this weekend, and I guess I probably ought to start that engine assembly in the mean time while I'm waiting for Corvair parts.
Better get to work....
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