I see that the last post (from six years ago, meh!) was on pulling the tranny. Obviously more happened after that. I roped a fellow who lives nearby into bringing over his engine hoist, and we got the engine out and onto a stand, and then not long later, with the help of neighbor Frank, I got the front subframe detached. And then... nothing. Nothing for five years but dust. I had hit the point where it was time to start spending some serious funds, but worse for me, I had hit the point where I had to start making real decisions - what shops to use, what people to trust.
Fortunately, about a year and a half ago, I met a gal at a happy hour, who I kinda took up with for a good while, and along with meeting her that night, I met a friend of hers she'd came with, Paul, who has an auto repair/resto shop. Seems to know his stuff pretty well. That's Paul's trailer that the Mercedes is on - he took the time yesterday to roll over and get the body and various parts transported down to Golden (about a half hour or so south) to a paint stripping shop, the same one neighbor Frank used years ago on his Karmann Ghia project. Once everything's cleaned up, it'll all go over to Paul's shop where he's going to handle the body work - cutting out the rusted areas and patching, and pounding out some spots on three of the four fenders, then the paint.
Thanks to the recommendation of a former neighbor, I've got a fellow in mind for the engine rebuild. He quoted me $4k-$8k for that, gah! It'll depend on the severity of the project. I'm expecting more on the high end.
For the first time since late 2009, I can actually park my truck in my garage! Though I still have to deal with the front subframe and rear axle assembly, tearing those down and starting the cleanup and rebuild. Not sure if I'm going to have the square footage for both truck and those parts of the car, we'll see.
I'm going to try and start keeping this blog updated more regularly again, now that I've finally gotten off my ass and back on this project. I'm sure all two of you will be thrilled. :)
