Back From Paint — But Far From Finished!

Well we picked up the car from One Day Paint and Body this morning and all we can say is….Wow!  Although they didn’t quite live up to their name (One Day), we won’t hold them to it as the body work was quite extensive and wouldn’t wish this job on our worst enemy!  It was a big job, and our expectations were well surpassed what we thought was possible on a twenty year old car that has lived a very rough life.  As we pulled up at 8am ready to pick up the car, there it sat in the middle of their parking lot, glistening in the sun with its shiny new Bright Red paint job.  We loaded it on the trailer, grabbed a bite to eat for breakfast, and then headed home to get back to work.  It was going to be a long day ahead of us, and we planned for it.

Car Loaded and Ready to go!

Before and After Shots

Suede Dash and Sparco Competition Wheel

Headway was made today…we still have to interior to finish, and the motor to fire up for the first time.  With a shiny new paint job, and new interior parts to install thanks to Buddy Club USA and Sparco, the old cracked dashboard just wasn’t up to par with the rest of the car.  Rather than repair the dash or purchase a new one, we decided to join the Craftswomen of America and made the trip down to Joann’s Fabric to pick up some Black Suede.  We had a 40% coupon which they didn’t let us use because the Suede we had chosen was already on sale and not valid with coupon.  That’s a whole new story, and we can discuss this later in another blog.  With a lot of stretching and a can of Spray Adhesive, we were able to wrap our dash to bring out a clean look that goes perfectly with the Sparco Suede Steering Wheel and Black Suede Buddy Club P1 Racing Seats.  Take notice of the White Buddy Club Shift Knob as well…we love these types of little touches.  Next step is adding the Sparco Pedal Set, Sparco 6 pt Pull Down Harnesses, and mounting the Buddy Club P1 Racing seats.  It looks like we are going to have to fabricate new seat mounts since the existing holes do not match up with the new seats.

As for the Motor, we also made some headway with that too.  We confirmed the starter worked, finished installing the motor/tranny mounts, test-fitted the CSF Racing Radiator, and started on the wiring.  We plan to make the motor come alive tomorrow…crossing our fingers nothing unexpected arises.  Special thanks to Fontana Nissan’s Master Technician, Chris Heimburg for heading up this build along with his countless hours, blood, sweat, and tears to make all of this happen!

Fontana Nissan’s Master Technician, Chris Heimburg

Stay tuned as we prepare for our Maiden Voyage in the MotoIQ Pacific Tuner Car Championship at Auto Club Speedway on May 28-29!!!