[Nova_Cobra64]

My days off are coming to an end and I've made some good progress, seeing some of this stuff start coming together is really getting me pumped up.

My mom's fiancee took the frame to be sandblasted on Wednesday. I got off that afternoon and made the trek home and went with him to pick it up. I spent that evening fixing a couple minor issues and then Thursday prepping and setting everything up for epoxy. Friday was my first time spraying anything with an actual spray gun and it was a tad stressful. I misunderstood the packing nut adjustment and kept leaking epoxy everywhere when I was trying to set the gun up. I got that figured out and laid out a couple good coats on everything.

I spent Friday night painting the frame and Saturday on the control arms, springs, crossmember and brake shields. I'm using Tremclad Hammered paint in silver and black for a good contrast. The black is looking almost charcoal but I like it. This stuff goes on really heavy, if you use it I'd recommend a roller for any large smooth areas to help with the texture. It's also good to keep adding some thinner too.

I spent some time starting to tear the 6 lug diff apart so I can swap the posi and gears into the 5 lug unit from the parts truck. I was hoping to get it out this time around but we got a terrible snow storm Friday night and I didn't care to play in mud getting it out.

That was about the end of my progress this time around. I was a tad ancy to start putting parts on the frame but decided to be patient and let it cure good.

My transmission arrived on Friday, and I had the engine dropped off today. I welded up a frame with some casters that I plan to assemble the engine and tranny on for the time being.

I'm taking a pile of parts back to work with me to paint after hours to kill some time. It should help me get ahead a bit too. As it stands right now I think I am ahead of schedual on the frame and have my fingers crossed that I can have most of it done by mid-summer.

My plans for next trip home are:

- Swap engine oil pan out
- Put engine and tranny together
- Assemble the front end
- Set engine/tranny on the frame
- Put new seals in the power steering gear, paint and mount it
- Pull diff and trailing arms out of the parts truck
- Start swapping diff parts
- Depending on time work on insatalling the serpentine setup and running fuel lines

Edit: Forgot to mention that I have uploaded some pictures of the frame to my flickr!

Here is a shot of the engine and tranny. I think it was love at first sight......here's to the start of what will hopefully be a long and happy relationship............