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It's getting sumptuous!

I’m happy to say that these two are celebrating 62 years together, today. I’m even more grateful for the time we all had together last weekend.

This week has been a challenge and Mom’s anniversary present that she got this morning was pacemaker.

We went to the shop today and met with the pinstripe guy. We looked at several shades for “ivory”. The straight ivory he had was a little too yellow. I decided on a 50/50 mix of his ivory paint and white. I had to leave before he was done but, he sent me some pictures.

The body lines on the driver’s side where the hood meets the cowl lines up really well. On the passenger side, not so much. He was able to do the striping in a way where the stripes are continues and end up really “hiding” where the hood/cowl don’t line up perfectly. Basically, the stripe is what catches your eye. If you look close in the second picture, you can see what I’m talking about.

It looks great and if anything is off it’s not apparent. Keep in mind that you’re looking specifically at the pin-striping but for anyone looking at the car, they will be seeing the overall picture and not notice anything off.

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Exactly. It’s like the upholstery guy (Clarence) told me today….”there are a few things that didn’t turn out quite like I wanted”. But, if he hadn’t pointed to them, no one would ever know. In fact, I have a hard time finding his “flaws” even after he showed me!

The body and hood stripes look just like my original ones, both pattern and color. The wheel striping also looks just like mine.

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Yeah, I did a bit of research and found some good pictures to give to the painter. He did a great job.

Even from the factory nothing was ever perfect. These were all hand painted, as such there are always little variations. Too perfect is not original.

beaming with excitement....I went to the shop to day to go through the very short punch list. We're looking at Birdie being done this week, just in time to take her to the local cruise night on Friday.

The only thing that may not be done is the seat belts that I'm adding. They've been ordered, but haven't arrived yet.

I just got a call from the shop…They are done with the punch list items for Birdie, so she’ll be coming home tomorrow. There are actually two items still to be done, so I’ll take the car back in mid-September. We are still waiting for the seat belts to come in so they can be installed. Also, when they went to work on the right side king pin, they found that I really need to replace the knuckle and spindle. With that, I immediately reached out to the Dallas Zone Office and have them lined up.

Anyway, I’ll be able to enjoy the car for the weekend and then she’ll sit for three weeks waiting for us to get back from a little excursion to Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. Then, when we’re back, I’ll take Birdie back to the shop to install the seat belts and take care of of the knuckle, spindle, and king pin

As luck would have it, tomorrow also happens to be our local cruise night. We really get a great turn-out, generally about 100 cars of all eras, types, and styles. Tomorrow should be a fund day!