Resto: Started Well - But Quickly Went To Shit

I am pissed with myself tonight, really bloody disappointed...

This wet saturday morning started off well with me out in the resto shed at 8.30am and I was straight into the timbers on the front seat supports as I wanted to get this whole front seat section finished today and within an hour I had the 3 x verticle timber slats, cut, screwed, glued and installed and I was all smiles.

 Next I was back in the kitchen as my son and his mate who had a sleepover were up and about and I always cook them bacon and eggs when they roll out of bed after a late night, plus I get a second breakfast or brunch so I can't complain.....

The two upper curved corner timber sections of the front seat frame were next it tick off the list of jobs and I had given this a bit of thought over the last couple of weeks, so with a plan in my head I set about getting to work by taking measurements and generally starting to shape one piece of timber up, and this is were I started to get flustered and after about two hours of stuffing around I was starting to realize that I was way out of my depth with this sort of timber work, the curves and angles were just doing my head as the timber that I had shaped and cut that I had in my hand was well rather embrassing and did not resemble the shape that i was trying make, so with a few nasty words out of the way I turned to the photo of dad up on the wall and said "Come on pop, can ya out my out here dad " ...... that normally works.

By now I am completely covered from head to toe with sawdust, my hair is white from the very fine sanding dust which had made its way into every bloody orifice in my body and the blustery strong easterly wind didn't help my cause either which had helped to cover everything in the shed with dust, even my dog was looking whiter....

After a quick lunch break and some inspirational words from my gorgeous wife I decided to give it another go by trying it from a different approach, well that was a waste of time and at 4.30pm I sat down in the remnants of my days work and felt just so defeated, why had some little pieces of timber beaten me, I looked back up at dads photo and just stared at it for a minute or two.... "Not this time dad".

7 hours I was out there for and I can say that this has been the most disappointing, most least rewarding day spent working on Monty out in the shed that I have had over the past 12 months and with that I said I am signing off and thinking about something else for the night..... Cheers

PS - If you have any photos or tips on these timbers can you please email me some suggestions.

SUNDAY

After a good nights sleep and also mumbling last night that I will not go out in the resto shed Sunday as I need a day away from it all, well when I returned from a trip to the rubbish dump where I dropped off a ute full of tree branches from one that I had cut down Friday night and after I washed and hosed out the ute, I found myself standing at the workbench again with those two bloody curved timbers in my hand, thinking and trying for the life of me how can I get them to fit in......so much for my day away form the Chevy, this project is addictive.

What to do now? How will I work this out? so I reached for the phone and I found myself calling "Pete the timber man" from the central coast of NSW for some much needed advice, Pete had made the 2 x main timber rails on Monty and also the timber steering wheel and has been a wealth of information over the past 12 months whenever I was stuck with a timber issue, Pete was only to happy to lend some advice, have a chat and point me in the right direction as over the years he has completed and re-fitted out many 1928 Chevrolet's bodies of all types with new timbers and he comes highly recommended from many involved in the vintage Chevrolet scene here in Oz..

"G'day Grant, yep I read your blog last night, in a bit of trouble I see"...... I quickly apologized for calling at midday on a Sunday and then we got talking about what I was trying to achieve..... "No problems Grant, I have a template already made up which I made years ago, so I can quickly knock you up a couple of corners with extra length on each end and then you can cut and fit them to suit.... Don't worry about it", we chatted for a while and then hung up.

Pete, thanks every much, your offer is very much appreciated mate and no doubt the workmanship will be of the highest standard when the sections arrive in the post..... Talk to you soon :)