Its the joy of discovery that makes the journey interesting.

Let's get to the important part: What color will you paint it?

If we paint it would most likely be semi gloss black.

Progress is slow, but is happening. The fatman subframe will ship tomorrow, I am told so will arrive next week early probably. I changed the spindles from 2" drop to standard after much deliberation.

Michael is working on the floor today. I may go down later this week and run brake lines.

I may have mentioned it but we got the rear disc brakes installed. The kit I bought is workign with a slight modification and the change to 12.25" d. rotors from a 95 Dodge dakota.

FAtman front axle assembly came yesterday. ; Michael has the floor of the cab all repaired and painted on the bottom side. I worked on the rear brake lines today for a while and most important got a mess of pictures to share!

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I am still having some difficulties with my rear shocks mounted at quite an angle. I think a rear stabilizer bar is needed as well in my case. Thirty nine buicks did not have one. First introduced in buicks for forty.

.Have a gm axle tucked in back there. feels really strange over railroad tracks at an angle at any sort of speed. The current suspension setup is just not able to totally deal with all the power a fairly hot 327 gives it.

Are your shocks similarly angled to mine?

I just talked to michael and he welded in the fatman subframe yesterday. I am hoping to get over there tomorrow to see it sitting on its own wheels again with the new axles.

I went over to have a look and talk to Michael about details. He has the front end nearly completely installed with springs, a arms rotors calipers and steering rack installed. The main stuff is painted with black por 15. The stainless a arms are forged and polished. I expected them to be tubular steel welded and felt a little uneasy about that but these look plenty strong! the fatman parts are all first rate and it all went together like a charm. The only thing is the caliper brackets had one slightly inaccurate welding which required a shim between the bolt and caliper on the bottom to correct. (We felt that was a very minor issue). The instructions were clear and precise too.

We then looked at the Mercedes donor car and considered the pedal cluster and accelerator assembly and the shifter. We also looked at the Mercedes radiator and oil cooler, which look as if they might be usable. We're planning to use the Mercedes steering column too. Having the commander there (which is complete) for reference is very handy too.

We are making progress!

Think you'll be on the road by Labor Day?

It will prolly run and drive by then but the interior and glazing will prolly not be done.

I enjoy reading your updates Tom.

Keep 'em coming. :)