Pictures, Pictures

About a week after dropping of the car, I started getting pictures of the progress.  It's amazing how quickly they were able to fix the fender.

When I got the car the right fender was really damaged and scraped really good along the length of it.   They have been mending the tears and fixing all of the cracks.   

The car looks like Frankenstein, with all of the stitches. 

A few weeks later I received pictures of the car with primer.    It is going to be great when it's finished.

Off to the Body Shop

We are off to the body shop  -  Bundled up and ready to go. 

It's 12 miles to the body shop and since there is no top, I had to bundle up like I was going to the North Pole.    Gloves, hat, scarf, hood from coat, blanket on my legs.  It was quite a site.   I am sure people were thinking that I was nuts.   

Every time we stopped at a light, I tried to warm my face a little.  It seemed like it took forever, even though we made really good time. 


When we pulled in, I started removing some of my outerwear since I was not going to need it for the ride home.    We did the final walk around the car and headed back. 


When the guy went to shake my hand, it was still freezing.    But, the car is ready for it's face lift.

Getting Ready for the Body Shop

We decided to take off as much as we could, before taking the Bearcat to the body shop.    Since there was so many rusted pieces, we were hoping we could save some money by removing some of the larger pieces. 

With screwdrivers and pliers in hand, we started working on the car.    Some of the parts came off without a lot of trouble but others, well they just wouldn't budge. 

Joe had to help me with some of the screws on the luggage rack.  They were rusted and I just could not get them started.   Some of the other bolts were so rusted, it took both of us to get them out. 

The headlights would not come off.  We are going to ask the body shop to cut them off.   There were a couple of other pieces we had them to remove too. 

We took off the parts that were glued on, which we are going to replace.  The running boards left a little residue but with a little sanding that came off.  


Well - 4 hours later, we had a lot of pieces off.  

New Brakes and Transmission Leak

The brakes were spongy and I wanted to be able to stop.   So - we took the car in and had the brakes replacement.   Since it's an older car, it took a couple of days to get it back. 

When we were at the brake shop, we discovered a transmission leak.  

After the brake shop, we headed over to the transmission shop.   We got an estimate of under $100 so, we left the car. 

The next day we got a call that it wasn't as easy as they first thought.   Since it was a custom frame, it was difficult to get to the leak.   They had to drop the frame to work on the car.   Out $100 estimate turned into $1500. 


$1800 later - The Bearcat had new brakes and one of the leaks fixed.

Can't Reach the Pedals

Remember in one of my previous posts that I couldn't reach the pedals.    Kind of a problem when you are trying to stop the car.  

I could not get the seat to move so, I went into the house and brought out different types of pillows.  Big ones, small ones, combination of pillows.   I tried a little bit a everything.    I just need a way for my back to be supported enough that I could reach the pedals.

All very experimental and at times really, really frustrating.  

I tried a small 10x10 pillow - It was not big enough or solid enough to keep me sitting forward.    Then I tried the 10x10 with a neck pillow.  The neck pillow kept sliding so, that didn't work either.

So - I tried the big green pillow, which used to be on my bed.   It's a 20x20 and did the trick.   Picture this, every time I got into the car I had to adjust the pillow just right so, that I could reach the pedals and not have an aching back by the time I got to where I was going.   If I followed Joe, he had to wait for me to get situated.  (He was very patient)  Half the time I was readjusted it at the next light.   Should I say trying to get it readjusted before the light turned green. 

BTW - The brakes are a little squishy and the steering wheel shakes.  That is a conversation for another post.  

I did this for awhile, with an aching back and standing on the break pedal to get it to stop.   I decided to start looking for a seat slider on the Internet.   There had to be something out there because the pillow is just ridiculous.     The Bearcat was at one of the shops, getting one of it's things repaired so, we couldn't measure the seat.  

When it got back - I had Joe take the seat out of the car so, I could scrape off some of the rust and mildew off the seat.    Do you know what I found.....A seat slider.   It must not have been used in years because it would not slide, no matter how much pounding we did.

Joe took it off the bottom and used some de-greaser.   We let it sit and did a bit more pounding and it finally started to move.   A little more de-greaser and more pounding, it finally came off.       We cleaned the heck out of it and sprayed it with a bunch of WD-40 (great stuff).    It will finally slide, with a lot of coaxing.   

When we put the seat back in the car, it will not slide with someone sitting on the seat.   I think it's just too far gone.  You have to adjust the seat outside of the car then climb in.     Climbing out is a little tougher and pretty funny to watch.

I can finally reach the pedals.   I put the green pillow behind the seat to keep the back up because it rocks back when you hit the gas.       (The joy of older cars).

I am still going to order a new seat slider.....







 

Where to Start - New Plexiglass

Now that we have gone through the car, it's deciding where to start.    We got out our gloves, buckets and cleaning supplies.  Joe started on the engine bay and I started on the interior.

Joe showed me the finer art of using a SOS pad to remove surface rust.   Since it came from the mid-west, there was a bit of surface rust here and there.    As we took off pieces we cleaned the screws, nuts and bolts.  Can you say "Fun Times".   It was needed and maybe it was not all that fun but the pieces look nice.

While taking breaks from cleaning, we started shopping around for plexiglass to replace the sunvisors and side windows.

Did I mention how expensive it is to buy replacements??   One sunvisor is $35,   We were able to get the tinted glass for $10 and the clear glass for $15.  All 4 windows where less than one sunvisor. 

Joe cut each of the pieces, using the originals as templates.    There were a few mishaps with pieces cracking or just as one was about done, it broke.   But, Joe kept at it and the Bearcat has some new windows.  He did a nice job and they look good on the car.    

It's Here - Now What?

The Bearcat was delivered on 9/2.  It started right up, for the transportation guy and came out of the truck under it's own power.

The paint and interior is about what I expected.   We were working when it was delivered so, I took a quick spin down the block and parked it for later.

As we started to go through it, we made many new discoveries.  

1. Remember the car came from Chicago. When we opened the trunk it was damp.  It was damp behind the seats and the carpet was damp.  Being from Colorado, we usually don't have that because we are in the single digits when it comes to humidity.   
2. There were cobwebs and leaves throughout the car, including the engine bay.   We knew we were going to have some cleaning to do.
3. I couldn't reach the petals.    I couldn't get the seat to slide and I was practically laying down.   
4. The sunvisors were broken and the side windows were yellowed that you could not see through them.
5. We have no where to park it.   It's going in the garage and my Prius will have to sit outside.

  But you know what - It's still cute as can be and I really like it.

Getting the Bearcat Home

The next step is getting the Bearcat from Chicago to Denver.    We started out contracting with one shipping company.  That was painful.   They take your information, tell you that you are in the queue, then nothing. 

We kept calling because the seller had not heard from them.  He was going out of town and I am sure he wanted it out of there too.   Another week and more phone calls.   

Finally, we got a pickup date.  They called the seller and made arrangements for pickup.   
Pickup date - Nothing happened.  No calls, no pickup.     
So - More phone calls to the transportation company.   The truck had broken down and they could not pick it up.    (Wow, Thanks for telling us)   We were told that maybe tomorrow the truck will be running.   You probably guess it - the next day no pick up, no calls.  

What tops it off is they tell us we missed the pickup window and it will be another 2 to 3 weeks before they can pick it up.    What - We missed the window??  Wasn't it your truck that broken down?

Yup - We cancelled the contract and contacted someone.  

They picked it up the next morning and it was delivered to the house it 3 days.  

Thank you Reliable Shipping for being there and getting the car safely to Denver. 

Buying the Bearcat

It was a whim that I purchased the Bearcat.   Saturday afternoon, to Monday afternoon and I had purchased a car.

It all started with a list of cars which were being sold by the Forney Museum.    A Bradley GT was listed and I talked my husband into stopping on the way home, to check it out.

Well, it needed a lot of work and had not be started since 1977.     The cost to fix the car just wasn't something I wanted to do.   It was a cool little car but it didn't really "speak" to me.

But, it did get me in the mood to look for a car.   You see, my husband Joe, has always had bigger classic cars.  A 1970 Olds Cutlass and now a 1974 Ford Gran Torino.   I like small cars and kind of wanted one of my own. 

Between the 2 of us, we started looking at E-Bay and Craig's List to see what was out there under Kit Cars.   We found a few local and many around the country.    The Bearcat caught my eye and kept an eye on the auction.    There was an MG TD Kit about 50 miles from us and a Bradley GT about 50 miles away, in a different location. 

On Sunday, we took at test drive of the MG.   Again, it needed alot of work from the engine to the interior/exterior.    So, we drove the Bradley GT on Monday.      It also needed a lot of work.   Both of these cars needed to find the right person and I was just not it.

On the way back home, I asked Joe what he thought of the Bearcat.   I just couldn't stop thinking about it and it was the one that spoke to me.       We stopped at a coffee shop, sent the seller a few questions  and placed our bid.  

The seller answered all of our questions.  We knew the body and interior needed some work but I really liked this car.   Then - It was just the wait to see if we won.   There was another person bidding but we must have hit their maximum because I won the auction.


Then the panic set in - What in the world have I done??    I never do anything on a whim.  I research and research and research before making any decisions.  Joe just kept telling me it was going to be all right.   He said that if I had researched, that I would have talked myself out of it.   And, he was right.


The next few days it was - How are we going to get it here and where are we going to put it?