I made a mad dash to try and get the Ranch in paint before the trip.  I got close.  Primer was good enough…  I found a single axle car trailer in Kansas, Kev went and picked it up…   I left from Northern Minnesota and Picked up Kevin, the trailer and his coupe and we left for Austin Speed Shop.  The plan was to work on it for a week… and thats what happened…  We have the whole story in a thread on the Jalopy Journal.  Link below…  its a good read… with some great pics! 

Heres the LINK to pics and coverage of the trip…  it was pretty rad: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=383829

Heres a clip from Jesse that kinda shows the shop- most of the guys in this vid are my pals that work and live in Austin… Its a great place to visit… but 110 degrees on a average summer day… thats a little hot for my Minnesota blood…

Work’n our ASS off. from Franky Luckman on Vimeo.

 

Big Mess = Big Succes  as Moriairty would say it…

I welded new lower Quarters on the Ranch… and now started to skim coat to make it super straight- (pictured above)

I’m pretty sure one of my favorite body shop smells is that of Body Filler…  next to kandy paint… 

The Quarters came with the car but they were missing a chunk about 12 inchs long, the back part of the wheel lip, the worst part.  I had to fab them.  I started with new rockers and then finished the rear quarters.   They turned out pretty nice… but I need to finish the job and get some paint on the quarters so this thing can LEAVE the shop. 

I can’t wait.  I’m going to sand blast the inside of the box and paint that as well.  I’ll paint the quarters below the stainless and blend the doors… if the color is too far off I’ll paint the doors and blend the fender.  The color looks pretty close but its not perfect, it has a tint more of yellow to it in the sun.  The color is called Colonial White.  It looks great with the whitewalls and chrome-

Once I’m done with the paint its off to the upholstry shop to get a headliner and some repair work to the seat.  Then… a new gear set.  3.10′s will replace the 4.11′s… and maybe I can actually drive 75 without running 4800RPM haha…

After that- Its done as far as I’m concerned.  Its just a car-truck. 

It kinda sucks I have to work on this- but I need to get it out of the way so I can get back to work on my roadster.  Besides it needs to be ready to haul parts… and the roadster.

Here are some pics of the metal work-

    

 

Its all about perspective…  at least getting the right one.  I had the chance to meet a talented photographer named Josh Kurpius…  He snapped this shot at Titus’s place…  I’ve seen a lot of Josh’s work and I don’t think there is any of it that I don’t like.  He has a knack for catching the coolest candid shots and in turn capturing history-   Josh road with Bobby and KC from Chicago to hang out in Kanada for a weekend.  I’m glad he came with- and that we all got to know him-  Josh is pretty RAD—->  Check out his website http://www.joshkurpius.com/