[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Have a good 4th Vic! Give Russ a call, he’d be more than happy to tow it back for you. Try and talk him out of the GTO while your at it, I’d love to see that car done by you.

Thanks, Scott. If I drag home another project, I may have to move in with you and Katina.

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Have a great 4th in your lawn chair. I have the same plan.....

Thanks, Dale. We watched from the deck until the skeeters ran us back inside.

Originally Posted by swamp rat

I know what you mean, i haven't spent a penny on fireworks since i was in my 20’s, besides the rest of the neighborhood spends money on them for me 😏

Hey Mike, hope all is well with you. We enjoyed watching the show but knew the front yard would be full of cardboard detritus the next morning. However, much to my surprise, one of our neighbors was out early with a leaf blower cleaning the yards and driveways near his house. I was impressed by his display of responsibility. The news showed some area parks where people just walked away and left huge amounts of trash. But at least we didn't suffer the same fate.

So, a couple of developments... First, as I was getting ready to call HRE about the (lack of) progress on the wagon, their FB page had an update. They'd lifted the body back off the chassis, moved the notch in the firewall over 2" and welded in a patch. Looked great, but I was worried whether I still had room to hang the a/c evaporator. So I made a quick trip down there with my parts to take some measurements. Much to my relief, it looked like I still have plenty of clearance (1/2" - 1") for the bracket. There's now plenty of room for the passenger side coil cover and even better access for the trans dipstick. The body is back down on the chassis and they're shimming all the body mounts before tightening them. Once that's done, they'll hang the front clip and turn it over to the body man. There were at least four cars gone from the shop, so for the time being at least, they have some working space. Don't know how long that will last, but I'm hopeful they'll continue to forge ahead on mine.

The other thing that happened is, that after four months, I finally received the grille bar from the outfit that does the spray chrome. To be honest, I was underwhelmed. I know that once it gets on the car, the part that people see when they walk by will look okay from 5 or 10 feet. However, up close, it's not what I was hoping for. The upper surface above the horizontal body line had a lot of orange peel and dust nibs. There was also some light scuffs that probably came from shipping. But the real horror show was below the body line. Much of that surface has a distinct "frosted" appearance. That area doesn't really show unless you squat down and look at it head on, right in front of the car, but it's still pretty rude looking. I called him today after emailing a photo of the problem. He told me right away it was caused by high humidity and the various remedies each have drawbacks. He offered to have me send it back and he would redo it, but that it would be best to wait until the fall when the humidity was much lower.

So now I have to decide what to do. I'll probably install it when the time comes and see how it looks and go from there. I was able to polish out the scuff marks so it looks a little better. When I showed it to Kathy, she said, "You have that sign in your shop that says Good, Fast, Cheap - Pick Two, but you didn't even get one for this deal."