It was a late night, about 1:00 am. But a few buddies and a couple of beers later we actually got the entire set up tacked in. I need to run over to BHR and pick up some new heims, the ones I had laying around look a little ragged, so we are going to put in new. We have now pulled the cage to be painted today and re-installed tomarrow. I have power, leather, heated seats from a Liberty to re mount with the new (to me) cage who's builder is unknown, but was aquired in the same fashion as most of my other jeep parts, With no budget and below the wife's radar.
As for the yellow truck, it is a 68 Chev Longbed (origionally), that has been in this guys family since it was new. He took it to a different shop and had the short bed put on, and paint job done with a single stage yellow. He had it picked up from them and delivered to me on a tow truck. The frame was cut 6 inches too short, and the body was mounted back on to a bent frame, so none of the body parts, panels or doors lined up. I took it with the understanding that we will salvage as much as we can, and fix everything neccessary. I am letting him round up as many parts as he can get, as we need to finish everything from the brakes and drivelines, to the interior and stereo system. Not to mention the frame repair, chopping the A pillars to re-replace them so the doors will close with the proper distance from the floor boards, and Stripping and repainting the exterior. I estimated we will be in this job 800 to 1200 man hours, (billed hourly by time and materials) so I am letting him shop for the best deal on parts. When we get rolling, anything we need will have to be ordered and used, and billed reguardless of the cost. Most likely the bill for this truck completed will be in the $70,000-$90,000 range. And that's not including the big block he has already had built and mounted in it that is expected to produce 605hp.
The red C-J belongs to a customer of the previous owner of this shop and I put it out back until someone pays up to the point it is done. We did a frame off on that one, and 2 stage Ford Red E4(alternate). It is ready to be wired and plumbed, but has a $$$ balance on it that either needs to be paid by the customer or previous owner. (I don't care which.) Hopefully they will figure it out before the storage bill exceeds the value of the vehicle. We actually just pulled the tarp off the other day to stack parts in the tub and get them out of the shop.
That Misc. Panel out back is off of the Tundra, which got into the paint shop this morning, will be painted today, reassembled, detailed and delivered tomarrow.
The silver Kia hatchback was a front end hit, had to be setup and measured on the frame rack, but sustained no framerail or unibody damage. Simply a new radiatior support. It also is in the paint shop this morning, and will see r/a, detail and delivery tomarrow.
The silver Subaru requires a new door shell, which will be delivered tomarrow morning, preppedand jambed in, and sent back to the body shop for assembly and installation, then back to the paint shop for the exterior paint.
All of our collision jobs carry a lifetime warranty for the paint and body work. All of them are repaired, and completely dry fitted before they see the paint shop, which insures that the finished product is factory specs. The yellow truck is a good example of a lack of attention to detail, which results in a bad end product. It's easy to make a good job look bad, but it's really hard to make a bad job look good.
I will post some progress pics shortly, and by the way, the jeep needs to be loaded on the trailer by 5:00 pm tomarrow. I think we can do it, after all, we did build that whole jeep body, paint it and do the 3 link for the rear in 9 days before EJS this year.
