I was surprised to see this post still was around and hadn't faded away into Moparts history!
Some odds and ends were happening with the project later in '09 into '10 but not a lot.
The car went off to the media blaster in the summer of 2009. Not long after that, a former customer of Scott's, Mike, started working on the front end. Mike's in the Coast Guard and likes doing restoration projects in his free time. The '68 Charger him and Scott restored in the '90's was quite impressive.
In early January, I was talking to Mike on the phone about some details of the front suspension, and he mentioned he'd been by Scott's Shop to have Scott paint the K member. I asked how my car looked after the media blasting and etching primer. Mike told me the car wasn't there. I started to panic, the car went to the media blasters over 6 months earlier and I figured it was back a long time ago.
I talked to Scott, and he said he thought the stripper (Sid) hadn't finished it because I hadn't paid him. WTH, I'd paid him up front.
So Scott checked into it, and found the car was almost finished, he was not happy with Sid. Sid is well known in the area and used by restorers like Scott and Vance Cummins, but he has some serious health issue that is slowly killing him. After Scott got on him, he finished up his work on the car but my car may be the last car he ever does, as he isn't healthy enough to do the work any more. The car finally came back to the shop in February or early March, 8 or 9 months after it went to the strippers!
Over the next few months, Mike finished up the front end work, mounted everything on the restored K member, and the pictures looked great.
I finally got a full time job offer in June, and talked to Scott about coming over to drop off parts as I was going to be sent out to work in North Carolina for the summer and would be unable to get parts to him for a while. The soap opera continued, his wife had hooked up with an old beau she'd reunited with on Facebook, and now they were going through a messy divorce, which put him out of action again for the time. So he told me no hurry to bring over parts!
I got a call in November from Ron Mack, an engine guy whose shop is near Scott's place. He tells me he has my engine and plans to get working on it soon. Of course, I have half the engine stuff at my house, so I told him I'd try to make a trip over there when I was on furlough in late December.
So yesterday I packed a bunch of stuff in my Focus, darn trunklock was froze so I had to pack it all in the front and back seats instead of the trunk! Time for a road trip.