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The big push right now was to get the body back together so the car can be moved to the upholstery area of the shop. Then, they’ll work on the floorboard. It won’t take much as it is a pretty simple piece. The only welds on the original were two tack welds. This is just the piece that was used to extend the 120 floorboard for the 138 wheelbase.

Another big day for Birdie….

First, I picked up the manifolds from being coated with Cerakote. They look great!








Then, I got the manifolds, carburetor, and air cleaner re-installed.




Then, Clarance came and got me to see the progress on the center divider. He got the seatback attached and is working on the front seat bottom.




Next, the guys worked on getting the new hood louvers installed, followed by installing the hood, and then went through the iterative process to get everything lined up. After that, they installed the stainless steel trim between the fenders and radiator shell and I installed the front bumper grommets, brackets, and bumper. They also got the headlight buckets installed.

Again, the paint on the bumper guards will be corrected to reveal the chrome ring around the hex emblem bolt.

Tomorrow morning, the guys will pull the running boards back off and I’ll pick them up and take them to be sprayed. I’m using urethane spray liner since no one makes rubber for my boards.

Then on Friday, I’m off to Dallas to see my daughter, pick up my freshly wood-grained trim from Ron, and make a delivery to Flackmaster.

Here’s a before and after….no more evidence of the push-start gone bad!😜

Another update on Birdie. I went to the shop to pick up the running boards so I could take them to be sprayed. The running boards should be ready early next week.

Birdie’s eyes are open again….that is, she has headlights again,

We also decided to see if she would start so it could be driven over to the upholstery side of the shop. She fired right up without hesitation after six months of sitting. I have to say, Birdie is by far the quietest car in the Hot Rod Express shop!!

The shop just posted some more pictures for me of the upholstery work that has started.