After doing some research (talking to Carl Sarro and Rich Cwik), I found out that the color of the wheels were not really truly straight black. They are supposed to be a little bit more of a real dark gun metal color. My wheels were all sandblasted, so I went and got the spare out of the attic to have a look at the original color. Sure enough, not quite black (kind of like Tiger Woods, Louis Hamilton, and Barack Obama?). After doing some analytical reflection (a couple of beers) and noticing that I had a quart of black enamel on the shelf, I decided that straight black was good enough. So one sunny afternoon I put the wheels out on a table in the back yard and painted them with black enamel. As I was mixing what little black paint I had left I also found I had even less hardener left. I took a little enamel reducer and swished it around in the hardener can and got every last drop I could out of it. It's just that a one pint can of hardener costs about $30.
A couple days later I got the D/A sander out and sanded off the black on the parts I wanted to remain shiny aluminum colored. Unfortunately it was night time and rainy out so it made quite a mess in the garage. Enough that I had to get the leaf blower out again and blow out the whole garage. Next chance I got I moved the cars and bikes out of the garage and shot some clear coat on the wheels - turned out pretty nice.
I had pulled a marathon up at the lake, working on the Europa chassis to get everything all set up to travel back to Des Plaines to mate with the finished body. On a Friday in early November 2007, I finished up bolting in the engine and trans. The chassis was still up on top of the dresser with the rear end supported by the cherry picker and a small step ladder. Now how do I get this down to the ground WITHOUT dropping it? After a couple of thinking suds, I got my big A-frame ladder out and a come-a-long. I straddled the front end of the chassis with the ladder, stuck an aluminum bar across the middle of it and hung the come-a-long down and around the frame. I lifted the back end of the chassis/engine/trans up with the cherry picker and picked up the much lighter front end with the come-a-long. Once clear of the dresser, I pulled that out and then slowly lowered the chassis to the ground. I didn't drop it - Whew!
I drove my Elan out of the garage and drove it down the hill, through the double doors and into it's hibernation area - the basement. Next up I pushed my freshly restored 30-year old trailer into the garage and winched the chassis/engine/trans onto it and tied everything down. That's enough for a Friday. I grabbed a couple cold ones and walked out onto the pier to enjoy the peaceful solace of the early fall evening falling onto an empty lake. Empty of boats, but still busy with geese, ducks and a couple swans moving about. I relaxed as I planed out the next couple days. Saturday would be spent pulling out the boat, cleaning it and squeezing it into the garage. Sunday would be "take out the piers and boat lift" day. Monday would be "boy my back sure is sore" day.
Next - Europa Euphoria, Part 20
