<VV> The great re-assembly of 2005 is finally underway

[Bob & Kathy Gilbert]

Hi all,

After much procrastination, mostly in the form of going over and over the
car that I haven't worked on for more than 7 years I finally started to put
things back onto the beast on Sunday.

In doing so I ended up re-learning some of the things that I had forgotten
over those years.

Rule #1
Whatever you estimate for a piece of work, it will take anywhere from 2 - 4
times that much to get it done on a 40 or so year old car!

Rule #2
Tools have legs. A tool put down 2 inches away will mysteriously be
completely on the other side of the car when you next look at it. And that's
usually after you have contorted your body in just that certain way that
shouldn't be done outside of circuses and all you need is that one, now
unreachable tool.

Rule #3
Trouble lights always roll to a) shine directly in your eyes or b) leave you
completely in the dark. They never shine on the work space.

Rule #4
Electricals don't work on a freshly painted car! Can you say "no grounds
anywhere"!

Rule #5
When soldering wires to make new grounds don't pick up the item you just
finished soldering. Oh, well. I guess I didn't need that fingerprint anyway!


Rule #6
Fixing old cars demands a blood sacrifice. In this case, the sharp edged
chrome trim ring on a headlight was my undoing.

Rule #7
You can have 2,000 assorted Corvair screws from many years yet you can't
find one more to make the set you need to attach a given widget(BTW,just WHY
oh WHY did GM use so many different fasteners?)

Rule #8 (A Canadian "special")
Automotive chemicals have the odd habit of freezing when left in an unheated
garage at about -20 overnight. I now have an interesting chrome
polish-sicle!

Rule #9
Cars shrink when painted thus explaining why parts that were removed a mere
10 or so years ago somehow don't fit now.

Rule #10
Working on Corvairs even with rules 1-9 sure beats "reality TV" (so-called)!

Bob