Out comes the engine (day 5)

Yesterday Mike spent the day in the garage taking the engine out of the car. First he had to climb under the car and cut the exhaust pipes. He took a picture of the under side of the car where the weeds grew up into the car.

Mike unhooked a few things, cut a few bolts... then then started lifting out the engine.

It took a few hours, a couple thrown tools, and some colorful language... but the engine is out. This is the engine sitting on the engine stand. Notice the fluid all over the ground under the car? We had to use some of Lily's litter to soak it up. Removing an engine is dirty work.

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There were some interesting facts Mike spewed out. He could tell that the transmission has been out of the car before. He Also could tell the starter had been changed out at one point as well. It is interesting that he could look at the part numbers and know if they were original to the car or not. It is always fun being in the garage when he is working on the car. I never know what little fact I will learn about the car each day.

I am excited the engine is out. It seems like a milestone to me. Things are coming along nicely, but there is still tons left to do. Someday it will be all pretty and shiny new.

Interior (Day 4)

We were out in the garage again tonight for a little while. We tackled the interior of the car. Mike had me take off the door panel and the handles. After that Mike climbed under the car and took off the bolts holding the seats down and tore those out.

Under the passenger seat we found a parking pass for the Salt Palace. There is no date, but it was in really good shape.

Then under the Drivers seat we found the best item of all.... The keys to the car!!! Beverly had lost them so we thought they were never to be found... but they were under the drivers seat. We then pulled up the back seat and pulled up the carpet. There was the skeleton of a mouse that met its demise in the carpet. Anyways... it was an eventful night. I figured it would be good to show a before and after picture so you can get a better idea as to what was done tonight. It is always nice seeing progress made.

Rear end work (Day 3)

We managed to make it out to the garage last night and work on the car again. I was already exhausted from a full day of work. I spent all morning taking down the Halloween decorations. We then spent all afternoon bagging up the leaf pile in the back yard.

Mike headed out to the garage ahead of me. I told him I would join him in a half hour but got a bit busy on the computer and didn't make it out there until about an hour later. In that time he was able to get the headlights and grill off the front of the car.

We then decided it was time to start taking things apart on the back end of the car. I took off one of the tail lights while he took the other one out. Then I got the fun task of taking the lettering off of the car. I was good until I got to the side of the car and ended up breaking two letters and the horse decal. I got frustrated and told Mike he would have to take out the rest of them. I am annoyed that I broke them because I wanted to keep as much original stuff on the car as possible. Looks like we will have to replace a few letters though.

Next we went to work on taking out the back window. I unscrewed the trim and then let Mike remove it since the trim is very expensive to buy. He was able to get the trim off the window without too many problems. Once that was off... I went to town scrapping out the goop that holds the window into place. Soon we were able to take the window out. We will be keeping the window because it is still in really good shape.