This posting is one in a series. If you have not yet read the earlier postings in the series, you’ll need to, as this posting won’t make much sense without having done so! Just do a search using the word “SLURP”.
In my last posting, I described the wonderful outcomes from installing Red’s new mono composite leaf springs.
In this posting, I’m afraid the news is not nearly so good. First, Red’s body parts came back from the media blaster, with the results leading to shock and dismay. Second, my job, which is funding this whole grand experiment, and which has been a bit iffy since the beginning, took a nasty turn in its security last week, leading to MORE shock and dismay.
Let’s take them one at a time.
Recall that David Horner and his team at Restoration Specialties are handling the body work and paint for me on Red. David sent the parts out to a 3rd party media blaster – the best in the area – to remove the many layers of paint and to expose whatever body anomalies might be lurking underneath those disguising coats of paint. The media blaster uses special media, not sand, in order to limit heat buildup and consequential warping of body panels.
The first clue that there might be “issues” was when the media blaster called David midway through the blasting process, warning him that the process was “taking much longer” than expected, and bracing him for some surprises.
The first surprise was the bill for the media blasting – it was TWICE what David expected it to be, based not only on what is typical, but on the fact that Red’s body looked pretty decent with all that paint on it. Then, David’s guys picked up the parts and brought them back to the shop, whereupon David himself experienced the second surprise, and called me and tried to cushion the blow a bit via warning me in advance what I was going to see.
When I got to the shop, it was pretty sobering.
Here are photos of two fenders:
Here is a shot of the driver side cowl area of the cab:
Here’s the driver side door:
There were some pretty artistic creases:
Incredible.
It was hard to believe that even paint THAT thick could hide all these holes, creases, and amateurish bodywork. But, it did. It fooled me. It fooled Randy. And, it even fooled David. He told me that as a pro, his own assessment of Red had been less optimistic than mine, but he himself had not expected the disguised defects to be THAT pervasive and that pronounced. He noted that someone had done truly epic putty work to hide most of that before one (or more) of the repaints, and that the truck would now “weigh a lot less” without all that putty.
I was about ready to just bawl.
David reassured me that his guys could do the repairs PROPERLY - i.e. on the steel, via welding, spoons, dollies, and hammers, not using putty except as a skim coat – the way it is supposed to be used. I told him that to at least my amateur eye, anyone who could make THOSE parts look right had to be part magician, and if his team could do that, I am going to be mightily impressed. He again reassured me that they do this all the time, and that my truck is not nearly as bad as the GTO that previously fooled David, Mike C, AND its owner with its incredibly skilled putty and paint disguise of really bad body parts!
This is a bit like being told that your donkey is not quite as ugly as the neighbor’s ugly donkey . . ., but I do appreciate the kind thought.
David had his guys put a coat of epoxy primer onto everything asap, in order to protect against corrosion. His plan is to get the parts up to snuff one at a time. I sort of look at this as raising the dead – repeatedly.
Here’s how everything looks in epoxy primer. Notice the wonderful degree to which creases, holes, and wrinkles are highlighted and accentuated by the epoxy, when there is no body filler hiding things
Here’s proof that 4 men can easily lift an Advance-Design series cab:
They told me that 2 of them could have done it, but 4 looks more impressive to the clients . . .
Here guys and gals is what happens when you ignore a persistent heater core leak and just hope that it will somehow divinely seal itself (it doesn’t). Look at the “ventilated floor” on the passenger side, near the side of the cowl, that resulted:
And, here is what happens when you keep letting water off of wet boots accumulate in and under carpeting or rubber mats. The holes on the left of the photo, in the floor and firewall are “factory”, and the white spots on the right of the photo are reflections – not holes, but the tiny “pinholes” visible in the floor directly between the driver seat and pedal area are the result of good old fashioned neglect:
So, all in all, I am not happy with what the media blasting unfortunately uncovered for us to see in all its ugliness. Sigh . . .
But wait, there’s more . . .
My job security had been a question mark even when I began this project, but I had (foolishly) thought it had stabilized, even though I was painfully aware that the VERY aggressive corporate goals that the boss had agreed to were being missed rather significantly, and the new corporate accounting system with its byzantine margin splitting was hurting rather than helping productivity and teamwork. Working out of a remote home office, I don’t have direct contact with the daily corporate gossip mill, and consequently probably missed some alerts that others on-site in Virginia may have grasped.
That delusion of relative stability disappeared last week, when the boss finally (after months of motivational happy facing) basically admitted that not all was well. In fact, he made a point of mentioning that we would not be hurting his feelings if we looked elsewhere in the company or beyond for a better gig. This explained to me vividly why 10% of our team has disappeared in the past month, and why our key sales guy went to one of our competitors. Oops.
No, he has not yet actually said “it’s over”, but I’d have to be a bit optimistic to pretend that no proactive action is required on my part. This “permanent” position that my wife really insisted I take when it was offered, precisely because it was described as a “permanent position” versus a temporary assignment, and she really wanted the security, has lasted just 2 ½ years. Is this the new economic reality? Is 2 ½ years a good run nowadays?
So, overall, it was a tough week.
I have some decisions to make. One of them is whether to string out the remaining work on Red, in order to conserve cash for other things (like paying the mortgage after the job ends), or to actually expedite the remaining work because Red is not a toy – he is my ONLY long-term daily transportation. The 1952 Packard that provides temporary daily transportation is a project itself although it runs, and my wife drives daily to her work in the Honda Civic we own. If I have to accept a new temporary or perm job that requires either daily commuting (unlike my current job), or a temporary relocation to another state (typical in my line of work), I am going to NEED Red sooner rather than later.
I BELIEVE I have already bought and paid for most of what is needed to complete Red’s refurbishing, except for the body and paint work and Randy’s reassembly help, but those of you who are hotrodders know how THAT goes - there are surprises around every corner usually (like this body work fiasco). So, one school of thought would say “stop the cash outflow on Red”, wait, and then simply get another Honda Civic to commute when the new job actually requires it.
Lots to think about.
Do I regret starting the whole SLURP project? No, while I HAVE felt regret a few times over the past few days given the job situation (cash in the bank is always better than hotrod parts when the bills come due!), I can’t honestly say I wish I could undo it. Sure, it’s nasty finding myself partway through the project with the possibility of having to change my life dramatically again, with my truck sitting in a zillion pieces spread over two locations, but I think you have to stick with your dreams. I think that once you say dreams are too risky, you are ceasing to live, and settling for mere existence, and that has limited potential and limited future, and it’s not what God designed us for.
I’ll make this work out somehow.
Who knows – the next job might be lots better and might pay better too. Wouldn’t THAT be neat?
Jim G
