Ready to Seal

I am probably going to regret this in the morning, but I spent the whole day with the DA and a grinder and got the ENTIRE car knocked down with 80-grit. Have I mentioned before how freakin' huge this thing is? WOW. I guess I should be glad it doesn't have a roof.
I included some pics of the pristine NOS hood that Kevin sent down. All I had to do was scuff it up and its ready to prime.
Got some nice pics of it in the sun too.
Hopefully Brian has some time one night this week so we can wipe it down and shoot some sealer on everything. Then I get to put it all back together, throw some guide coat on it, and get to blocking.

Burnout Complete

Last night we rigged up some piping to get boost to the motor so that I could cruise it around the parking lot a little. Of course that required a mandatory first Burnout to..ahem..verify that the Posi works..yeah, that's it...
It works. And the motor is pretty snappy given it still has stock injectors and no tuning. It made boost fast enough to blast one of the boots in half.

OK, back to real work now. Getting some of the panels in primer this weekend.

Body Work...ARGGGG

OK, so over the past ten days, we managed to get the hood, doors, decklid and the bulk of the shell taken down to metal. The shell is actually really great-better than expected.
The hood had some obvious bondo in it, but it was pretty hammered when we got it stripped. The AWESOME news is that a guy named Kevin contacted me and had an NOS hood in his rafters that he was willing to GIVE to me--if I could get it down here from Washington state. I started asking around and one of Bay Auto Body's old partners was headed down from Seattle, so I was able to make a deal and get that hood coming.
The other crappy spot was the driver's door. It looked good in primer, but MAN it was hammered. I found a bullet hole, several creases and tons of poorly executed bodywork. Turner's Auto Wrecking in Fresno had a driver's door, so that's on the way now. Everything else looks salvageable.
The intake piping got started last weekend, but I ran out of time and this week has been nuts at the shop, so it will be this weekend before I can get back to it.

Its Driving! Check out the first video!

Finally got an hour to get the other axle cut and installed.  Got it going late yesterday.  Now I can get the exhaust done so it doesn't look like I have a BBQ going under the hood.

Bodywork Has Begun!

OK, I have corrected my axle issue and moved on to the next large, daunting task.  The Body.  If you have never seen a Newport, or any other C-Body Chrysler, let me clarify one thing: They are HUGE.  Like, aircraft carrier huge.  This becomes painfully apparent when you set out to sand off 43 years of paint and previous repair work.
Brian Jennings, the future painter of Rattlerod, hooked me up with an 8" DA and an 8" electric buffer/sander.  I managed to get the driver's quarter and most of the passenger's quarter done today.  I will probably be bedridden for a couple of days, but I got it done.  On the plus side, I found no appreciable rust anywhere, and just one poorly repaired crease on the driver's side.  Brian assures me that he can make quick work of the crease with the stinger.
Check out the pics of the sweet patch panel that Bob made also.  Inner and outer fit like a charm and are tacked in, awaiting final welding.
I also got my coolant lines finalized and Danny is working on a custom, sheetmetal intake setup so that we can complete the piping for the intake.  Since we missed Redding, I am now hoping to get it to the GoodGuys show at the end of August.  I'll take it, even if it has to go on a trailer.  I should at least be able to cruise it around the event.

Quick update..

OK, so the brakes fought me for 2 days.  Turns out the Wilwood Prop Valve wasn't allowing any fluid to the rear brakes.  I bypassed it for now and the brakes are good.  Wiring is pretty much done until I get the light harnesses and stereo stuff in.
We keep digging in to the bodywork and everything still looks great.  Bob got one of the quarters tacked in, and I'll have pics of the work on Saturday when he gets the other one done.
Had a minor setback with the transmission, we must have nicked the front seal and it was leaking, so we pulled it and resealed it.
You know the adage "Measure twice, cut once"...well, I did that, unfortunately, my math skills must have been off that day, because I managed to cut one of the axles 1/2" too short..DOH!  The car won't motivate very well with one side of the diff spinning free.  Randy's Ring and Pinion is sending out another on for me today, so by tomorrow night (providing I can measure it correctly) the car will be moving under its own power.