The Kaiser body work is coming along slowly, I started with the roof where it had been walked on with 8 dents and scallops and 10 small holes where something had been mounted (maybe a Taxi cab sign). It took about 4 days using the hammer and dolly along with welding the holes (that had been covered up with lead) and the shrinking disc from Sunchaser Tools to get the roof back to original shape. The shrinking disc is fantastic once you learn how to use it properly. The rear fenders were next with both sides damaged from curbs and other objects that caused long creases along with some severe dents. Most of the damage was not accessible from back due to the inner wheel well. The bottom of the fender at the wheel opening and the bottom of the inner wheel well were badly rusted with very little metal left. I removed a section of the inner wheel well to gain access to the back side of the fender where I was able to straighten most of the damage with a hammer and dolly. The bottom of the rear

Went to Los Angeles on Friday morning Nov. 16th and stopped to visit with Brad Masterson who is openning a custom shop in Lynwood at the same location where George Barris was. He has 4 project cars he is working on that are "old School" style as he worked as an apprentice for George Barris Kustom, Bill Hines and their contemporaries learning customizing the way it was done in the 50's and 60's. Brad is in the February 2008 Issue of Rod & Custom Magazine page 22. Brad was introduced to me by my friend Fred in Northern California (he supplied the Kaisers and T-Birds). My visit with Brad was to see if he may be interested in doing some of the metal forming and installation of the replacement panels on the Kaiser. I enjoyed meeting Brad and the shop tour. Then it was off to California Car Cover to pick up parts and a paint store for PPG Metal Prep and finally to the hotel where I would stay for 4 nights while attending "The Art of Metal Working" School

On Sunday, November 4th. we took the Starliner to Fort Mohave (about an 81 mile drive) for a fund raiser car show for the Mohave County Sheriff K-9 Unit. There were over 100 cars at the event Including a 1953 Kaiser Manhattan With an EFI 302 Engine similar to the Kaiser I am building except this one is mostly stock. The engine of the 1953 Kaiser Manhattan. A Beautiful 1949 Merc got Best of Show And our Starliner won "Sheriff's Pick" that we were thrilled to receive. In my younger days I had been picked by the Sheriff but not for an award. Have not had much time to work on the Kaiser other than to finish cleaning up the body and all the parts for Priming, I will use the PPG "metal prep" to seal the metal and prevent rust starting while the body work is being completed. The gas tank had the fuel pump flange welded in, and now is at the powder coater. It is scheduled to go back to Cave Radiator for the internal tank coating.

Went to the Route 66 Car Show in Seligman Arizona on October 13. The weather had the fall coolness, but warmed up in the afternoon and turned out to be a good day. Met a group of car owners from Big Bear Lake, CA that know my uncle that lives there, small world sometimes. On Friday Morning October 19,I left for a 2 day show and shine car show and stayed Friday night at London Bridge Resort. It is a big event with over 1,000 cars in the show & shine and over 100 vendors. There were only 2 1960 Ford Starliners. Mine and a restored one from Utah. Had a good time but it was a long 2 days. Saturday night went to visit with friends that have a vacation house at Lake Havasu and drove home Sunday morning. Tuesday, I went to pick up the Kaiser body and all its parts from Redi-Strip in Tempe. Most of the parts turned out good but parts of the body, fenders and hood needed to be stripped by hand to finish the paint removal. That took me a day with a grinder and stripping pad. Next, I have to

We took the Starliner to the Kingman Air & Auto Show www.kingmanairshow.com on Saturday and Sunday October 6 & 7 and had a good time. There was a great airshow with aerobatics, war planes, and a jet powered sail plane. The 1/8 mile drag races had some fast alcohol burning funny cars, roadsters and altered cars along with hot rods and there was about 200 cars in the show & shine. 1929 Ford 53 Chevy 1929 De Soto 57 Ford 1934 Strudebaker Next Saturday Oct 13Th there is a run to Seligman Route 66, then October 19 - 21 the Starliner will be at Lake Havasu City for the Run to the Sun Car Show www.relicsandrods.com and finally a show in Fort Mohave Nov. 4Th. The run to Los Angeles and Ramona CA. in September was successful. I picked up some hard to find Kaiser parts at Rudy's KF Parts, dropped off the rear end and picked up brake parts. On September 25th I delivered the Kaiser body, hood, fenders, trunk, doors and misc. body parts to Redi Strip of Phoenix for chemical dip to

href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kcCoapMd4x0/RvKEI9zGkAI/AAAAAAAAAKE/dbGX-M3SZeo/s1600-h/100_0806.jpg"> For those of you who have never seen a 1953 Kaiser here she is front and back. September 20, 2007 The body of the Kaiser is ready to go to the chemical strippers (Redy Strip in Phoenix) but the rest of the parts still had to be cleaned up, underseal scraped off and fit to the altered body and frame. The trunk and doors fit ok but the radiator/fender "u" support that bolts to the front cross member had to be altered as the frame of the new front clip is deeper than original and new inner fender splash guard panels around the upper A arms were made. The passenger side front fender support bracket that bolts the top of the fender to the cowl was broken and a new bracket was fabricated and welded in place. The bottom fender bolts on the body were rusted in and broken off and had to be drilled out and tapped for new threads. The driver side inner fender is so badl

What a wonderful week. On Saturday evening September 8th went to a charity car show in Kingman for the Hospice. the show was put on by a local group called the Drifters. Nice set up, lots of nice looking cars, and friendly people. It rained for most of the show which didn't thrill us at all, but in the end we won another plaque for the Starliner Spent another day on door hinges and latches had to inset the latch pins on the door posts and make shims to make them adjustable as the latch assemblies are not adjustable. With the engine, dash, and drivers seat bolted back in the car I had Karen sit in the seat and adjusted the new Flaming River Tilt steering Column to its permanent position and check the clearance for the u joints and shaft to the rack & pinion with the exhaust header and motor mount. I marked the location of the column, removed it then cut, fit and welded new plates in the firewall to accept the new I-Ball floor column mount. After grinding, with a rotary fil

We took a break and went to a car show with th e Starliner on 9/1 saturday to the small town of Dolan Springs AZ 50 miles north of Kingman. Had a good time, met some nice people but did not win anything. This Truck won the modified division awards. The car ran good on the 160 mile round trip and we tried out the new A/C system that cooled us down but since the car is not insulated it could not keep the car cool enough. We took our shade canopy this time and Karen did not get sunburned. There is another car show today (9/8) that we will try to go to in Kingman

Hinge before Install was Started The left side hinge installation was a little easier because I knew what to expect but, still it took 3 tries to get the hinge pin as far back and to the outside of the car as possible. Next, I patched around the hinge openings in the door post and the doors. Finished fabricating and welding of the support plates inside the doors. Rehung and adjusted the doors allowing for the rubber door seals and scuff plates. The latches turned out to be as challenging as the hinges. First the rear door handles had to be placed so they look right with the front door handles. With the help of my wife holding the handle at different spots we decided to put them level with the front handle and the same distance from the edge of the the door. I removed the door handle backing plates from the front doors of the parts car, as the front is different from the back and have a bracket on them that hold the handle in place where as the back door the handle bolt is through

The suicide door hinges arrived from Electric-life and after several unsuccessful tries at mocking up the rear doors on the car I decided to just cut it and get it over with. An opening in the rear of the door frame where the latch use to be was cut. When the new hinge was tried in the hole it hit the inside of the wheel well, that also had to be cut. The mounting plate was trimmed down and fit into the opening then leveled vertically, and horizontally (be sure to set the car up level on stands before starting) and clamped into place. I made templates for the support plates that fit to the door frame on one side and to the inner fender support on the other side, cut and fitted support plates the tack welded it all in place. The hinge was bolted into place keeping it centered in the mounting holes to allow maximum adjustment and double checked that the hinge arm was level in both open and closed position. A hole was cut in the end of the door then slide the hinge over and into the door