Now that the holiday season has passed and things are calming down I gave Ken a ring today to see how things are looking.  The doors are pretty much done. The nose is almost done – tomorrow they will be glassing in the headlight buckets and getting it ready for priming. Ken expects the hatch and  body to be primed, or ready for priming by end of next week.

Things seem to be coming along smoothly, and I should have some pics from Ken to post soon.

The drama at Ken’s is hopefully all in the past now. Ken sent some pics tonight of what has been done since my last post.  The doors are almost done. One is assembled and mounted, the other needs to be mounted yet. The door and door-glass fitment is one of the toughest parts of the build on the body-work side of things, so I’m glad to see this is almost done with. The work on the nose has been started and Ken said the work on the top of the nose starts Monday. It’s nice to see pics to see that the GTM still exists

Just when I thought this part of the build couldn’t drag out any longer, it has. Growing a bit impatient, I asked a friend from the FFR forums that has a GTM at Ken’s shop to snap a pic of my car. I got the picture yesterday and my GTM looked exactly how it did when I shipped it out in May – except that it now had a thick layer of dust on it. I was speechless (and irate).

I called Ken up and he told me he was working on my car as we were speaking. It was primed and reassembled, getting ready for paint, etc. Long story short, I brought up the picture and wondered aloud how that was strange since I just got the picture of it with the doors still taped on and boxes sitting in the passenger seat. He said I must have a pic of the wrong car, and I assured him it was the right one. I heard much confusion in Ken’s voice after this and he said he would get me some pics in a few days and have it straightened out.  My theory was that he started on the wrong GTM, thinking it was mine all this time, and it really wasn’t.

I called Ken again today since this was still bothering me a lot and asked for a no bullshit explanation. Basically, my theory was correct. The car got mislabeled by a worker and my car went untouched because of it. Ken was very apologetic, and I can tell he feels like a horses’s ass over it.  He’s busting his ass now to get it done, considering the time it has sat without being touched, but assured me it wouldn’t be a rush job and wouldn’t leave until it was perfect.

There it is…not going to have the GTM ready for spring as planned most likely. Unfortunate, but at least I know it’s FINALLY being worked on.

Do I sound impatient? Yeah, a bit! Another “2-3 weeks” have passed and there hasn’t been any progress.

Ken is swamped with collision work and has fallen behind on the “custom projects”. While I understand how body shops work,and why collision work takes priority, it annoys me regardless. At this point I am hoping to have the car back before the end of the year so I can at least spend the coldest part of winter killing time working on this thing.

Well, it’s slowly getting there? Talked to Ken today he said he has fallen behind a bit due to collision work that came in and needed to be done, but expects to have it painted in 2-3 weeks. As long as I get it back sometime this winter I will be happy

The majority of the remaining aluminum panels have been powder-coated and are ready for install. I got all the intake components and have test assembled them so that will drop right in. Just waiting now…

Talked to Ken today and he guesstimates 5 weeks left before the body work is done. Goes for priming next week and he said he would send some pics along then once that is done. After that is done the body gets painted, then reassembled, glass installed, etc. I am starting to get excited!

In other news, the wheels arrived from iForged and they look great. I have been doing miscellaneous prep work, like installing the air ducts into the dash pieces,  prepping the wiper motor, and sending the rest of the visible aluminum pieces off for powdercoating.

Talked to Ken (StreetRodPainter.com) this afternoon. Body is fit, doors are assembled, and he was working on fitting the doors when I called. The car will go to body-work shortly, which Ken says takes about 10 days, after which he will then prime and paint it. All in all, it sounds like things are getting close!

I am hoping to see the car in October sometime. Not expecting to drive it (legally) before winter, but I am looking forward to having all winter to put in the finishing touches and get everything ‘perfected’.

I really, really hate rivnuts. Tonight I drilled the dash face, and the driver’s dash pod in order to mount the face to the pod. The pod needs 4 rivnuts to be installed so the face can be screwed down. This should be easy enough…except that the Marson rivnut tool stripped the mandrel used for the 10-32 rivnuts needed on the very first rivnut I tried to put in. It took forever to get the wrecked mandrel out of the rivnut (and out of the dash pod without wrecking it), and then I had to use a die on the mandrel so I could coax the rivnuts on it again. After a few hours of frustration I managed to get all of the rivnuts set and the face screwed down.  I think it turned out great!

Continuing on with dragging out the dash work…

Finished wiring up the gauges today. Everything nice and neat. Only thing left to do is get, and connect up, a weatherpack connector for easy removal of the dash. After I finished the wiring I mounted the turn signals and brights indicators.

Painted the back of the carbon fiber dash face last night and mounted the gauges today.  Looks nice!