I took a few months off working on the Europa to finish up assembling Paul's Elan. Let me refresh your memory on the history of this car... a psychedelic Flashback to 1996 if you will. This was the blue Sunday morning cruising car that Paul was almost squished in while sitting in line at a tollbooth on the way back from a pleasant day of watching a race at Blackhawk farms. Paul had noticed a Ford truck approaching from behind with no intention of stopping so he turn the steering wheel to the right and readied himself for impact. The truck slammed hard into the back of the Elan, its bumper plowing easily through the fiberglass and stopping forward progress after impacting the roll hoop. Since Paul had the steering wheel turned, the impact caused the Elan to squirt off to the right through a hole in traffic. The truck continued forward and hit the next car in line hard enough to actually break the front seats off their runners! Luckily Paul's head is mostly concrete so when the bumper pushed the roll hoop into his head, he only needed a dozen stitches. The car was a total, basically flattened in the back but it could have been much worse. Next time you are in his Fiberglass shop, ask to see the old gas tank. It is pretty flat from the truck tire running over it!
So anyway, Paul had bought the car back from the insurance company after they settled things. Paul had spent lots of time over the years doing the majority of the restoration, straightening out the chassis, reinforcing it with steel tubes, glassing on a new back half of an Elan onto the old body, having the car re-painted and doing most of the mechanical restoration. But then Paul got busy with other projects and this Elan just sat for 3 years. He asked me to help finish it up for him and I did. 7 months/194 hours later and voila! Paul's got his Sunday morning ride back. I don't think he will be taking it back to Blackhawk however.
So Paul's got his Elan back, and I now had an open parking space in my garage. I cleaned things up and pushed my big rolling cart out to the porch to retrieve the Europa body that had spent most of the winter actively blowing off the milk crates it had been sitting on. We were now also in the middle of the unique Midwest experience called the 17 year Cicadas. I pulled off tarp number one of two and found about 50 of these big buggers. Most of them looked to be dead but some of them started crawling around. I don't know if they thought they were going to sleep there for the next 17 years or if they just crawled in there to die. Whatever, they got shaken out of the tarps and into the lawn. The Cicadas are kind of creepy but quite harmless. They make quite a symphonic noise when they are in full bloom, like a train rolling through town. They make quite a noise when you step on them as well. Crunch!
My older Son Mike came home from his new job and helped me pick the Europa body off the crates and place it on the cart which we then moved out into the alley for some leaf blower and garden hose cleansing action. Mike is home now, done with college. He graduated in 4 years from Northern Illinois University with a Mechanical Engineering degree. He landed himself a nice Mechanical Engineering job with full bennies and a nice paycheck. Got a new car - 2007 Saturn Aura with the 255 hp Caddy engine and paddle shifters! He's got the car payments to go with the car as well. He's engaged to be married to his High School sweetheart - Wow, how time flies! I remember when he used to ride his bike under this porch. Now, at 6'5", he has to stoop quite a bit just to get under the porch without a bike!
My first activity once the Europa settled into its new spot in the garage was to do a quick 220 it sand job on the previously primed surface. This was to take down some of the dirt that had accumulated over the winter and to identify any chips, scratches, shrunken spots or missed non-perfect spots. Things looked pretty good. There were a couple little spots down low where the body had impacted the ground during one of its winter flights from its perch on the milk crates out into the back yard. There were a couple little chips on some edges that would need a little Bondo. I found a tear in the fiberglass under the nose at the top of the front opening. It must have happened when we picked up the body and originally moved it into my neighbor's garage across the alley. I drilled a hole into the end of the tear to take out the stress, ground down the top and bottom of the tear and did a little fiberglass patchwork. A little follow up with some Bondo would make everything look just fine.
After some further reflection, I decided to spend a little more time making the doors and hood fit a little better than stock. Some of the shows you see on DISH TV revolve around some famous car restoration shops and how they restore a jalopy into a show car in just a few weeks. They cut corners by using gallons of Bondo, something I won't do, but their technique when applied sparingly is OK. To make the gaps just right, they basically smear Bondo between the door and its opening and then cut the door back out with a knife or hacksaw. They then build up and sand off things until they have a perfect gap and smooth line. The thing that applies to fiberglass bodies is that the old Europa and Elan bodies warp over time, so when you align on one corner of a door, another corner sticks out or is recessed. It's always a compromise to align things. But with a little bit-o-Bondo, you can make the Europa gaps and edges look like they came out of Japan (or at least Detroit!).
I've got a pretty good feel for the Bondo thing. Not quite like a pro, as it does take me a couple of applications to get things the way I want them. I duct taped the edge around the opening of the hood, put the hood back in the opening and applied a bit of Bondo over the edges of the hood that were a bit low and slopped it over the gap to the body. As the Bondo began to set up I took a hack saw blade (Hey, is that Herzog the hack holding a hack saw!) and hacked or sawed open the gap between the hood and the duct tape. I popped off the hood and let things set up a bit before sanding things down. I popped the hood back in the hole and repeated the Bondo process. After sanding I applied a coat of gray primer. I then used the foot long big block hand sander to find the high and low spots. One more real thin coat of Bondo in some spots and then it's sanding time again. Another coat of primer and things are getting real close. Once more with the big sander and then it's spot putty time. Just a little dab applied here and there followed by a little 220 grit sanding and a final coat of primer. This time it's 400 grit sanding outside in the sunshine so I could really see if there are any sand marks or pits that need a little more work. Everything looked good, so after one more coat of primer, I let things cook in the sun and then put the hood back on the car. About 8 hours total to get the hood just right. I'm not quite ready to work in a body shop but who's in a hurry?
Next - Europa Euphoria, Part 16
