"Out & About in the Fairlane..."
This past Tuesday afternoon I decided to take the Fairlane out for a spin. I had not had the car out on the road since my last post about buffing the fenders - what a difference and a nice shine the buff job gave the old 55! Would you believe there is quite a bit of dust on the car in the above photo? (mostly due to my son's go kart project that we both have been rebuilding but more on that in a later post) Before I left the garage I made sure I had the smartphone out and the new speedometer app up and running. My son had downloaded this free app last week when we were testing the top speed of the go kart. The app keeps track of mileage, current speed, time elapsed, average speed, and of course - top speed! If you want to see the results of the first half hour run of the 55 Ford Fairlane on the interstate then take a look at the screenshot I took of the app when I turned off the car at the office. From the top speed recorded I was reminded that my speedometer is 10 miles per hour too slow. I guess I need the Thunderbird face plate that goes up to 150 mph!
Now, how about this photo? Isn't this indicative of the times in which we live?
I wore a mask while dropping off some Y Block parts I sold over the weekend and I thought it weird to be looking like a bandit while at the post office. My mom in North Carolina is an excellent seamstress and decided to make each one of our family members a custom mask to wear while whenever we are out and about in public. I must say, it is hard to get used to even if you see so many others wearing one.
Our culture during this pandemic finds some who are a part of "essential" businesses working as hard as they can and dealing with overtime in many cases. Others are out of work, period. Some, like myself, have had much of their travel schedule canceled and now have much more time at home than ever before. In between chores, time with my son either on the go kart project or Geometry, or brief trips to the home office, my schedule has allowed me some time to accomplish different projects I have had sitting on the back burner that I thought would not be tackled until summer.
The first project was beginning a YouTube channel. If you are wondering why I would ever do such a thing when I already have my own website, post many videos to a Vimeo account, etc, I believe my main reason would be their SEARCH ENGINE. If you have followed this blog any length of time then you know there are well over a hundred videos and over a thousand photos. This can be very hard to navigate if you are trying to find a specific video you have seen before or if you are trying to locate material on build details in which you are interested. You can visit, explore the videos, make comments, and subscribe by using the link to this video:
I do plan to upload all of my videos that have been posted here to the blog, and of course the videos we produce in the future will be uploaded to the channel as well. Stop by today, subscribe, and leave a comment or two would you?
The next project would be sanding and re-priming those original wheels. In my previous post I published a video that included an endorsement of a particular brand of paint from a small business in Wakefield, Virginia. The name is TAMCO, and the family run operation is top notch in quality and customer service. Their prices are not bad either! As you may recall, I ran into some problems when I opened the box that was shipped to me. The gallon can was dented and leaking, and the can of hardener was dented up pretty good.
After the supplier made a phone call to the company I had another gallon can and replacement can of hardener within 3 days! These people are the best, and I really love their products.
The new cans from TAMCO arrived within a few days...
After the paint arrived, I shot another coat or two on my steel wheels. And I broke out the set of original fender skirts to shoot their first coat of DTM primer in the process of getting them ready for the arrival of the wide whitewall tires later this year. There is some heavy pitting in the areas underneath the chrome trim pieces, but these will not show. Thankfully, the metal was blasted clean of paint and rust before spraying the primer.
Lawnmowers from the scrap metal pile made for impromptu paint racks!
Another project concerned a bus for our church ministry. I was asked to repair a fiberglass fender from the rear wheel well on the passenger side. After a lot of cutting, massaging, fiberglass matting and epoxy, and Evercoat Ultra body filler, I sprayed a fresh coat of TAMCO 5310 for this project as well.
Online sales of Y Block parts, working on projects around the house, getting ready for Turkey hunting season, tinkering on this go kart project with my son, and all the rest has made for busy times even in what seems to be the slowdown of the century. Here is a little teaser on the go kart - enjoy these brief clips put together into one video. The first clip is of the night we finally put an engine on it and after a few trips down the street my son asked me if I wanted to ride it. The other clips are some of the reasons I am called "The Hot Rod Reverend!"
Keeping the FaYth,
The Hot Rod Reverend
aka Daniel Jessup