I have floors!!!

So I can't believe I've had Mr. Bad for over a year now, since July 14, 2011. I forgot to celebrate the date, but I don't think he minds much since I have really been working my butt off on getting him done. He has floors! I canned the diamond plate idea since I was getting in over my head for my first restore so I decided to use metal fill, bondo hair, por-15 patching material, and a top coating of undercoating spray can stuff. This stuff looks so cool I love how it came out and it has really given me a boost to keep fixing him up since I have actually accomplished something big. The nest thing I have also been working on is the body work. He was sadly in an accident prior to living with me and I have been doing my first attempt at bondo work on his back right corner and where the truck lid locks with the car. I have also finished the dash which looks amazing in my opinion. The flat black and chrome is so cool. Anyways pics tell it all.

It's Been A While...

Unfortunately, I haven't been keeping up with my progress as well as my restoration as much as I would like due to work and school, and now the weather. I did a lot in the past few months. I bought some bullets to mount on his face :) in August at the Good Guys car show in Pleasanton, CA. I also have all my tools and supplies. My friend helped me pick up a 4' x 10' piece of 12 gauge diamond plate for the new floor pan. Yay! I bought my rat rod paint, ahhm Rustoleum in rusty brown primer and flat black, and I have my plasma and arch welders ready to go. Not to mention I have the upholstery fabric, black vinyl with some skull buttons that I will find somewhere to place.

Today I found out that I can put headlight visors on him! I'm so excited I love the look of them and thought that they could only be used for other cars excluding mine. Well, being that I like cars and just decided one day to get a classic and restore him with no other classic car knowledge, I know it seems dumb that I didn't know that I could add headlight visors to Mr. Bad, but I'm happy to know I can, and please excuse my ignorance since this is a learning process for me. :)

Well today I got my January Street Rodder issue and was pleasantly amazed to find that there are DIY panel board kits! I was somewhat stuck in that area as to how I was going to make new door panels. Another lesson learned!

So up to now, Mr. Bad has all his side panels removed and almost all the engine compartment besides the engine has been removed, the seats are out, as well as the trunk door. I still need to take the engine apart, take off the doors, the dash, and the shell off of the chassis so I can start from the bottom up. Here are all the pictures....

I just want to say yay Me! And that I have no idea why there is an engine oil bottle in the engine compartment it was like that when I bought him. Also, that the black widows aren't as scary as I thought they would be since I have learned to be an expert exterminator with my shoe! I think the black widow eggs maybe scarier that the spider itself, good thing I've been wearing my welder gloves to smush them. Ick!

Gathering My Supplies

This weekend has been great so far. I purchased some white walls from Chris off of craigslist, thanks! I picked up my 4x10 diamond plate for my floor pan (thanks Glen at Martinez Sheet Metal for placing my order), my plasma 3-in-1 arc and tig welder came in the mail, bought a compressor, a grinder, and a multi-purpose sander. Harbor Freight is one of my best friends right now, not to mention the 20% off coupon that I get from the hot rodding magazines! I am one happy gal! So far I'm under $2K and I have just about everything to start taking him apart efficiently and make the partial restoration go fast.

Hopefully I can finish finding some parts tomorrow at the Good-Guys West Coast Nationals at the swap meet.

So far I've purchased NOS parts from RockAuto. Today I received my partial order of Spark Plugs, Fuel Filter, and Oil Filter. I'm still waiting to receive my left hand rocker panel, oil pan gasket, master cylinder repair kit, and my spark plug wire set.

I also want to thank SpellCaster from craigslist auto forum for referring me to Big M Automotive, I can't wait to go check it out and see what goodies I can find! I'm crossing my fingers for a sun visor.

The start of it all...

Hi there internet world. So this is my first attempt to blog, and really it's only because I want to keep track of the restoration of my 1950 Plymouth Special Deluxe P20 4 door 6 cylinder sedan. I call him Mr. Bad, Henry Bad. First lets start with me. I'm a 25 and a student. I have never restored a car before, but I have been helping my dad fix our family cars since I was a little girl. My dad totally wanted boys, but he got stuck with my sis and I. Anyways I took an auto shop class in high school and that was a joke, I already knew everything, besides arc welding, and I was hooked ever since. I also took a welding class at my junior college where I learned oxy-acetylene and how to work with steel.

 I love classics. Nuff said. I've always dreamt of owning one. Although I like show cars, I really love the rats. There's something about a rat rod that calls to me, maybe cause I'm like them, nice to look at yet rough around the edges! Hahahaha, yeah right! My small attempt at comedy. :) Anyways, after a car show I attended recently I just couldn't stop thinking about having my own. In fact I kept dreaming of my car, and then I'd wake up. Darn! So onto craigslist, periodically for the past three years I have been checking the classifieds to look at the beauties, so this wasn't my first time, nor did I think I would actually purchase something within two weeks from my search.

Cutting to the chase: After searching the bay area craigslist ads, I searched sacramento craigslist and stumbled upon three classics. Two I was excited about and one I was maybe going to look at just because I was already going into the area. The first one was out in the country, I don't even remember what it was, but this was my first choice and it was a rust bucket. Second was a Dodge Dart, this one was just wrong. Of course none of these ran, but the Dart had bucket seats that were taken out of a saturn and screwed into the car on 2X4s. Just sad. As I finished seeing them I looked at the ad I had printed out for the last one. I wasn't too impressed, and was thinking of just going home since it was already past twilight, but I decided to call and see if I could take a look at it anyways. Juan answered and after apologizing for it being dark and late, I asked if I could swing by and come take a look, and to my surprise he said yes.

When I got there I could see him (Mr. Bad) sitting out on the driveway. Missing right back fender, trim, and bumper was the first thing I saw. Juan came out and he walked me over to get a better look. I peeked inside and saw seat covers, the car was on inflated tires, and there wasn't that much rust on the exterior. Then I came around front and this is where he got me. His grill, he was smiling back at me. It's when I changed my mind from "ok/maybe" to "I can't stop thinking about him." I took a few pictures and not realizing I was falling hard, I said my good byes and that I'd let Juan know and left back home.

So the travel time between my home and sacramento is about 1.5 hours. During the time I was driving home I called my "friend" and told him about the car. The closer I got to my house the more excited I got. I was like I'm going to make an offer, he was like sleep on it, wait till tomorrow. When I got home I pulled up his add and just stared at him. I tried to sleep but couldn't, I went back online and at 12:25am on July 13th (my lucky #13) I emailed Juan and made my offer, and went to bed.

Mid day and no response. :( I was sitting in class just thinking I need to call during break, I did, made the offer over the phone, and he was soon to be mine with a pick up date of July 14.

Next challenge: bringing him home. At first I was going to rent a truck and a tow dolly from u-haul, it was going to be around $250 (half of my car). Then I got back on craigslist, my search for towwers was first in the sfbay area, placed some calls, all of which was going to be the price of the rental, not worth it. Then I tried sacramento, found an ad that was $40 tow in sac, placed a call and spoke to Kenny. Me: Hi how much would it cost to tow from sacramento to vallejo? Him: "I'll do it for a hundred." I was is disbelief and very happy.

Well the day finally came and I was ecstatic! Ended up talking to Juan about body work since I've never done it, while we waited for the tow. Very helpful conversation. Well to wrap this up, tow truck came, and Kenny was probably thinking I'm hauling that rust bucket, how'd I get myself into this one.

As I followed them home, I felt so proud to own this piece of American history. I was even more elated when I watched people stare at Mr. Bad as they drove by.