IWF

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while, but the 3 days preceeding IWF were somewhat of a blur. I only remember certain things, so I won't try to list everything that was done. Monday night, Ben, Caroline and I stayed up until about 4am getting the chassis together and ready for the body. Tuesday, more sanding on the body, and Luke and I went to get the rental tow van. We added some stiffeners to the z-panel and steering column and brought the body in. The body went on the chassis that afternoon, and we started mounting the corner blocks inside the wheel wells to tie everything in. I climbed inside the car and fit the interior body panels one last time, and ground the edges of the butterfly panel. Hunt helped me mount the 2nd panel, and I ground its edge, too. Hunt worked all night on the running boards, and turned out some unreal results in the time we had. He also helped Luke get the front plywood chin glued onto the car. Aaron and Caroline ground the edges of the wheel wells, and I took the butterfly panels off to hit their inside edges with a power planer. The sun was coming up, and the guys went in to sleep for a couple of hours. Chris came by to check on the windows, and a gentleman from NBC17 came by to do a quick pre-trip interview with me. I was completely filthy, but he said it was cool because I was in my element. We got permission from the guys at the Georgia World Congress Center to move the car in early Wednesday morning instead of Tuesday night, which made all the difference in the world. I went inside to take a shower and fell asleep for about 20min. I came back outside ready to tackle the rest of the car. I had some more pieces to fit inside the car, and Hunt and Jean stained and sprayed the new running boards. Jason and his brother, Robbie, from Custom Refinishers came by and saved the day by spraying the car body with 40 gloss Becker Acroma 2-part polyurethane, finishing up at about 10:30pm. Chris and his buddy, Kenny, went to work putting the glass in the car after the clearcoat flashed off, and they successfully finished at about 11:15pm in front of the lights and pressure of the Discovery Channel cameras and a big audience. As soon as they finished, I mounted the butterfly panels, and we started loading the car into the trailer. We finished and hit the road at about 12:50am. My ability to drive didn't last long, and I passed off to Luke. He passed it back off to me before getting the honors of driving the rest of the way through Atlanta morning traffic. We got to the door of the World Congress Center at about 7:45am and were escorted to the appropriate door. We had the car in the booth by about 8:30am, safe and sound. We floated around the show that day and walked around Atlanta a little bit. After being entertained by Spencer Lancaster and his handtastic hands, we finally crashed hard at the Red Roof Inn that night around 11:00pm. We enjoyed several full days of show, including a party in the Delta/Porter-Cable booth with Norm Abrams and Scott Phillips, and came back to Durham after a day at the beach to unwind. The show was a big success, and we look forward to the months ahead as we set about getting the car on the road. Thanks for hanging in there with us, and keep checking us out.