Summer Internship Objective:

Every year LeMay Restorations has at least one feature car restored for their annual car show in Tacoma, WA. This year we have two 1956 Powell's. Our goal is to have these cars restored and driven onto the show field on car show day, August 28th 2010. Will we complete these cars on time? ...

Keep checking this blog to find out!

Quick Note:

LeMay Restorations is a completely separate entity from the LeMay-America's Car Museum. The two Powell's are family owned and restored at their private shop. The museum is a not for profit organization.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Saturday- Car Show!


What a great day!

Friday

First of all, deadline to have the cars at Marymount is 10pm, and I think you've all been waiting on the edge of your seats long enough.

We got the upholstery and we painted everything else and everyone came together and started to throw stuff together onto the cars. Not literally, most of the stuff was already done and awaiting the body to be done. The tires and hubcaps were put on the cars and Chad and I touched up the rims with some paint and made the tires look pretty. Dave and Tye got the glass and window tracks installed on both rigs. Merryl got the dashes and steering wheels installed. The oak bed and metal hold downs got installed on the truck and the plywood with oak trim got installed in the wagon....Basically everything else got done.

The engines and transmissions were so nice once they were rebuilt and painted that we decided to have them on display next to the Powell's instead in the engine compartment.

We did not make the 10pm deadline but they were on the turn tables around 2 or 3 am.

Don Mettler bringing the upholstery he just finished.


Finished interior

Thursday

Today was a huge day! The Powell family came to visit our shop and I was so surprised to see how many of them showed up to our show to see their cars getting restored. It was such a treat to meet them and hear their stories of the Powell's and it was great telling them what was going on with the restoration. They all knew me since one of the volunteers gave them the blog address so they could keep up with what was happening.

On a more technical note, Dave, Wayne, and I were working on the taillights and noticed that the license plate light had to have a smaller bezel. So we had to do some searching to find smaller bezels. We ended up cabbaging onto one of them which was on the wagon parts car. I don't remember how we got the other one.

The tailgate that I painted earlier in the week got its glass, rubber, and some special trim pieces to make it stand out. I also put the stainless steel trim on the grill and Tom got some Coat M on the body of the wagon. By the end of the day Alicia got the sign lettering done on the wagon and it looks great!
Tailgate looking beautiful


Some pretty sign lettering

1 more day...and a long night

Wednesday

Today I sprayed the whole body of the Ultravan except the roof, since I wasn't tall enough even with the ladder. Tom started spraying the aqua on the wagon. The roof of the Powell was made with some sort of plastic or vinyl so the difference with the truck and wagon was another row of seats in the wagon, the the exo-skeleton to make the covering for the wagon. Today was a lot of painting and last minute details. I also got some doors painted after I worked on them with primer and a skim coat of body filler.

They look like vehicles!



2 more days...