Easy, eaaassssyyy… days just slip away.

I’m still beyond excited about the 444. Alas, I get so excited with these things that I just have to make them better. Brakes topped my list, as they rendered the car unsafe. Second on my list was to fix the driver side seat, which is in the ‘full back’ position due to a broken locking mechanism on the slide. A phone book behind the back would barely get me up to the position I need to be in. While the seat was out I figure I’d take out the ratty house carpeting and tend to the floors  a bit. Kiss of death right there. Floors. Jesus. Scraping 60 year old tar off a floor that has some rust is quite possibly the most un-exciting thing you can do to a car.

After a couple sessions and some help from my lady friend I got the floors to an acceptable condition. I decided to change my game plan from ‘restore’ to ‘touch up’. The floors weren’t that bad, but rust down there always bugs me. Using a new paint and method on these floors. My 122 go the POR15 treatment. Bomber, no complaints. But, I lost my left-overs. Budget road for me! Found some Valspar Rust paint. Not too expensive. Its probably the same as Rustoleum, but Valspar just sounds serious. So, I Ospho’d the rust on the floor, used some Valspar spray primer, and will lay down a coat or two of the top coat and see how it works. I’m only doing half right now as a test run, make sure its up to the task. Still have to get that topcoat on there… perhaps tomorrow morning.

The brakes parts have all arrived. Got a new master form a ‘57 445, and a set of wheel cylinders… under 90 bucks for the whole package from RockAuto. Have yet to really dig in there. Might need some Luigi guidance as he’s balls deep in drums right now. Wouldn’t mind knocking that off my list, but the floors have my attention at the moment.

Then, as if I didn’t have enough work, Luigi, in his sudden wisdom, whipped out some polishing compound, wax, and a rag and tested out a spot on my hood to see what it would look like. I have to admit, it looked really good. Shines the rust right up! I’ve decided to go that route for awhile, god knows its going to be a hard days work getting over the whole body. Thus far I’ve slowly done little patches of the hood… mostly when I’m bored and sick of working on the floors.

I’ve also attempted to get my shop space in acceptable order. Thats a task, but good progress there too.

Thats all for now. Nothing exciting.

Look for a post next week about my trip north in the ‘66 122 I sold awhile back. Playing delivery man w/ that one. Should be a good time. Pics and story coming soon.

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