21 Jul 08

I pulled a rough and dirty test vacuum on the side of the body using polyethylene and duct tape this morning. Even the small diaphragm pump held the vacuum, so we now feel pretty confident in our ability to put the outer skin down. Zach and Zac cleaned up and made a run to the dump this morning, and Ben attacked the weeds and tall grass around the place. Caroline, Zac, and Zach wove 1/8" this morning, while Ben worked on the trailer. I did more work on the body, and Luke investigated the seat weave and took inventory on all of our wheel parts. After lunch, I mounted the driver's side brake duct to the body. Ben continued on the trailer, while DP, Zac and Zach wove. Luke made a trip to a small furniture factory to ask about caning the seats but didn't find out too much. We got a visit from our good buddy, Archie, and it was good to see him. I worked on the body for the rest of the afternoon, and Hunt worked on salvaging the butterfly panel with the skin discoloration. Luke measured the seat frames, laid them out in Rhino, and printed out a hole pattern for each one. Zach, Zac and DP got all the splices pulled through on the 1/8" weave and should be able to move with great speed tomorrow. I finished with the body filler on the front of the car and rolled some epoxy on the surface to help to seal it for vacuuming purposes. I finished at about 9:30pm and went inside to eat. We plan to start putting the skin down on the shell tomorrow, which will be a huge step for us. Everything has to go pretty well with this stage for us to make our Atlanta show deadline. Keep your fingers crossed.