Chapter 194: Lovin' Summer!

For starters, congratulations to Jenna and Kyle for a job well done. They welcomed little Carter Hall into the world, on schedule, Tuesday morning. Parents and grandparents are all doing fine.

This week while we were running around, we saw this thing. It looked like it  might be an RV, there was a window in the front, but it's a really strange thing to go camping in. But, who am I to comment when we camp in our teardrop trailer which isn't that much smaller than this,

 I have had people tell me they had this EXACT same car…except it was two-door…or it was one only one color…or a different color...or it was a station wagon…or it didn't have the chrome on the sides...or it was the exact same colors (I chose the non-standard colors)…but I have never had anyone ARGUE that it’s a Chevy and I had the wrong badging on the fenders and the front license plate. While I was at Lowe's this week a man continued to argue despite my re-stating it was a Ford. I couldn't get away from him because I was loading my truck with bags. Eventually my polite nod & smile failed me and I could only stare at him with an undisguised “Are you really that stupid?” face.

Since we haven't really done much this week except work on the Jag I was afraid I didn't have much for my loyal readers. Of course, what does that say about your life if you are spending time reading about mine? So, I went in search of blog-filler since I know for sure the Blog Stalker and my parents look forward to something each week. 

This is my coleus. It has enormous colorful leaves. It must have come from a nursery over by the  Hanford Nuclear Plant where things can grow huge in the super-charged, glow-in-the-dark water that has recently been reported in the news. 

And one of my dalias. They are so pretty and are also getting super-huge. Maybe our water is super-charged, glow-in-the-dark water that has not yet been reported in the news. 

We decided to take a break from the restoration as well as pick up a couple of items we needed. We hopped into the convertible and hit the road. It was an uber-beautiful day to be cruising around in a cool car while Mt. Rainier watched over us. Notice how much snow has melted off of it already. (Insert gratuitous Mt. Rainier picture here.)

When we were out the other day getting into the convertible, a man was loading his children's stroller and all their accompanying stuff into a plain vanilla SUV and gave the Jag a longing look. Clearly he had a massive case of freedom envy. Give it time, fella. You'll have your life back some day.

Bob is using a lot of Griot's Garage products during his restoration project so we had to make another trip down to their flagship store in Tacoma for some even-though-it's-expensive-super-duper-it's-so-good-we-didn't-have-to-send-some-of-the-chrome-out-to-get-rechromed chrome polish. They have this cute little car buried in their front flowerbed. It's always super-shiny to advertise their products. That's a good deal since they only had to restore half the car.

Then we went continued on to the Narrows Marina to check out a brewery we had seen under construction there. Sure enough, the Narrows Brewery and Taproom had just opened July 12th. It was nicely done taproom compared to most freshly opened breweries that nestle plastic chairs among the brewing tanks, call themselves a taproom and open the doors. The view was clear and beautiful today with the Narrows Bridges, and our beers, sparkling in the sunlight.

As we were leaving the marina, we passed this old building. It must have been and original general store or something, but this building has always fascinated me. I wonder what the history of it is. I should ask Scott, he knows all that kind of stuff. 

I hope that was enough fluff to satisfy my Blog Stalker and not so much that you are all bored stiff.     If you have the stomach for it, read on to see what we've really been up to this week.

 I got the seats stuffed this week and I put them on the bar stool to try them out. Right now they look the same as they did when I just draped the covers over the bar stool so there's not much to see but it was hard work and I wanted to document it. 

Bob's coming into the downhill side of this restoration. He's only got a few more bags of parts to figure out where they go and put them in place. The only thing that makes any sense to me here is the steering wheel. 

Hump? What hump? I recovered the transmission hump piece and painted it to match the new seats.

 Since I was afraid to do the visors, I took them down to Foam Rubber City to have the nice man there do them for me. He told me he doesn't do visors. Visors are not only a nightmare to do but a night AND daymare to do and they never look quite right. Sadly, that only left one person to do the visors. Me. And to me they were not a day AND nightmare, but an entire weekmare. Creativity can be a curse because this happens while I create:

 And rising from the pile of bits and pieces like the Phoenix rises from the ashes, a pair of visors appear.  They almost look like I knew what I was doing. Saved $150 by not having to order new ones!

Now this. I'm not sure there is a literary correlation for this. Bob is installing the new headliner. There is fabric, spray adhesive, and cussing involved in his creative process.

Bob's got the windows taped off to keep the adhesive off the new paint and the headliner under the brackets in the rear. This probably reminds Bob of his childhood when he built forts to play in. However, I'm thinking the atmosphere isn't as carefree in this "fort" as in the olden days since, once again, I'm being told to take my camera, and myself, elsewhere.

The actual adhering of the headliner. The "low VOC" (fumes) adhesive turned out to be not so low VOC so Bob and RestoCat had to both put their gas masks on to get the job done and to save what brain cells they had.

More wrestling, more spraying, more cussing, and the headliner is slowly getting put into place. 

 Ok, maybe not. 

The seat belts and furry little window strips arrived today. It's going to be dull around here without a box arriving on the porch every few days. I get all excited and wonder what fun stuff I've ordered and forgotten about, only to find that I never ordered anything. It's just another box of car parts.  

Collateral damage of taking pictures with a snoopy cat following me around all the time. Ever heard of the phrase "Curiosity killed the cat", Nitro?

The upholstery that wasn't replaced was painted to match the new seat covers. Since it was over $1,600 for the portion we did buy, redoing the parts that weren't necessary is out of the question. It must be furniture painting day since I had also painted the plastic chairs earlier in the day. I have a nice new set of outdoor chairs for just $3.58 in plastic chair paint.

To help Bob out once in a while, I cherry pick some of the stuff I want to do. This time I put the rubber into the chrome of the back luggage area and seat. After Bob chipped out the old hardened rubber, I had to stuff this new rubber molding into the chrome strip where it really didn't want to go. This was made even more difficult since the rubber was all twisted up and wouldn't lay flat.

I finally perfected a system using my stained glass fid, the screen spline tool, my "pressing block" (aka 2 x 4), a dinner knife, duckbilled scissors, lamp, the TV remote, and my awesome rubber stuffing skills. Well, actually, the remote is actually to use on the tv to keep me occupied while I did the rest, but it's still a very important tool.

Bob's putting the dash back together since it had to come out to install the windshield and other stuff. 

The painted upholstery and parts ready for the big install. Hopefully it will go together fast once we get all the groundwork laid.

G'bye!