The Rebuilding Begins

Well, its official. All the fun demolition work is done. The engine has been marooned at the machine shop for 10 days, the transmission is still leaking oil on my garage floor, and the car generally looks ridiculous with no weight on its front wheels.

REBUILDING
STEP 1 - CREATE AN ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITION

Given that everything on this car is covered in a thick coat of oil (fresh oil at least, since it wasn't in the engine very long). We decided that the car needed a good bath.



In my driveway.



Which really is kind of dumb, given the environmental condition I now have in my backyard. Its now becoming very clear why no one wanted this car at their house. Here is a picture of the Slaab getting a good cleansing.















STEP 2 - HIRE RATTLE CAN GOGH

Well, at least Dave thinks he's the Van Gogh of rattle-can paint jobs. We tend to spend more time thinking of more complicated ways to paint this car than actually painting. This year, we're starting with the white stripe, then painting the blue stripe, then painting the car red. The predictions are in - when we pull the tape off the white outline stripe, the stripe is coming up with the tape. You heard it here first.

Below is a picture of the blue stripe (with the white stripe covered up). You'll notice that we began putting the red paint on, and uh, well, it looks like crap. Its thin, and we'll need probably 25 cans of spray paint to get Dave Can Gogh's required sheen and color consistency.




























STEP 3 - RED ALERT!

OK - so Dave Can Gogh had a brilliant idea. Buy a gallon of red enamel paint (same brand as the rattle can stuff), and, cough cough....ROLL IT ON. Commence laughter here.

You done? OK - it actually worked pretty well. We painted 2 coats of 95% of the red in about 60 minutes, only had 47 runs, added 40 lbs of weight to the car, and it looks pretty good. It still needs another 2 coats for the required coloring, but you get the idea. From 15' away, this car looks amazing. From 1' away, well, it looks value engineered. Notice the windshield wiper. Yes - the stripes will be reflected on the wiper. Take that Pimp My Ride.


















Here is a quick comparison of how the car is being transformed from a Swedish Meatball into the Norwegian Rocket.

NEXT UP - The engine rebuilding beings. We think. Well, actually...we're praying at this point.