This is the Self-Preservation Society

So, it's been a while since the last update, but work has been slowly progressing.  Mostly I've been pulling parts off Matilda to try to get her ready to go to a body shop.  Haven't located a body shop yet, though.  I keep thinking that there's just a couple more things to pull off, but once I have those couple things off, I'll notice just a couple more.  But, every little bit is progress, I guess.

I did get the dash removed, which was cool, because seeing how it goes together gives me some ideas for a few things I could do to customize it.

 

I also pulled out most of what was left of the rear interior, which was pretty much just the sail panel boards, and they were pretty much shot.  In fact, pretty much all of what was left of the interior was pretty well shot.

One thing I forgot to mention in an earlier post was that I found what appears to be an interesting suspension modification in the rear.  As far as I know, there's only supposed to be two springs in back, one on each side.  But when I got under there, I found four springs.

In the photo, the front of the car is to the right.  The spring closer to the front of the car, which seats in a pocket in the frame and extends down to the trailing arm, is the stock spring.  The spring closer to the rear of the car sits on a base that is attached to the axle housing with a U-bolt clamp and apparently contacts the bottom of the frame around the rubber block above it.

When I saw the extra springs, I remembered that I had read that moonshiners, back in the 1930s, used to bolster the rear suspensions of their cars so that when they were loaded with gallons and gallons of moonshine, the police wouldn't notice that the car was sitting low in the back and arouse suspicion.  This stiffening of the rear suspension turned out to be a benefit for handling, as well, when moonshiners started racing their cars in the contemporary version of what would eventually turn into modern day's "stock car" racing.

I don't know if that type of modification was still in practice by the time Matilda was built, and I've never thought of Texas as a hotbed of moonshining, although I suppose I could be wrong.  If I took the time to ask a Texan, they would probably assure me that Texas invented moonshining, and also springs, cars, police, and the unit of measure known as the "gallon" (derived from the volume of one tenth of a Texan's hat, no doubt).

I thought maybe the springs were added as part of a "tow package," but I don't see any evidence that Matilda ever sported a hitch.  The car was originally an SS, so I suppose the springs might have been added as some kind of performance modification by an amateur drag racer in the car's past.  I don't know.

But then I remembered The Italian Job--the original The Italian Job, that is, of course--when Michael Caine, as Charlie Croker, explains that the rear suspensions of his gang's Mini Coopers have been reinforced to support the weight of the solid gold bricks that they plan to steal from the FIAT payroll convoy.  This not only culminates in the most absurdly gratuitous car chase in the history of cinema, it also dovetails perfectly with my theory from an earlier entry about a bank robbery gone bad resulting in Matilda being run through a field during an off-road car chase, and giving her undercarriage its distinct "farm-fresh" scent.

Yes, I am now 92% sure that Matilda was used in an elaborate plot to steal millions of dollars of solid gold from a Mexican government payroll convoy, and that this crime was later developed into the screenplay for the major motion picture "The Italian Job."

Get your skates on, mate!