I talked to my friend Phil again today and he showed me how to get the stainless trim to shine like chrome. So I stopped by the store, grabbed some sandpaper and headed home. Since I already grabbed the buffing wheel I started with sanding the scratches out. After a couple hours of hand sanding the trim, I turned on the buffer and proceeded to polish out the light scratches. Just as Phil said, itKeats shining like new (or at least reconditioned stainless).

Two pieces down, so many more to go. I’m sure there will be more down time in the future so I’ll be able to get more of the stainless trim finished.

I arrived at the body shop today right after they pulled the windshield out. I’m glad for that, now I can grab the stainless from the top if the windshield and clean that up while they are cutting and welding the a-pillar outer skins on. No big rush, just want it done right.

The clips and brackets that I’ve been waiting for from East Coast Chevy finally came today. hopefully this is all that I need for now to get working on the A-Pillars.

While I’m waiting for the parts from East Coast Chevy, I decided to take some more parts off the Chevy. Today it was the stainless trim on the rocker panels. When I got the trim off, the driver side rocker panel looked a bit rough with the paint peeling off so I scraped it down. The passenger side looked pretty good so I just wiped it down. Soon I will sand them down and prime them out like the rest of the car. Eventually it will be all the same color!

I got tired of having the front bumper rattling around because I tried to take the bolts out and because they were rusted, only came halfway out. So, I grabbed the die grinder and proceeded to cut the bolts off.

The A-Pillar outers I’ve been waiting for arrived today. I am so excited! I opened the box and held them up to the car to see how they looked (pretty good).

Can’t wait to get them welded on to the car. Hopefully having the parts hand fabricated by someone who is familiar with this kind of stuff will help cut down on the installation time and money too.

So, While I’m waiting for the A-Pillar skins to show up, I figured I would prepare the car a little bit more for when they arrive and get ready to have them welded on.

Have to keep busy somehow, so I’m going to go back to stripping the paint off the rest of My 55 Chevy Bel Air. Unless I miraculously find a sand blaster someone put out for the trash man, I’ll continue stripping by hand sander.

So after a long drawn out search for someone local to fix my A-pillars, I opted for a guy I found on the Internet who hand fabricates parts out of sheet metal. He came recommended by a couple other people so I called and spoke with him to get all the details. After having my questions answered, I went ahead and placed my request to have some made. (ordered) He told me it would be a couple weeks. Guess I’ve been waiting this long, what’s a couple more weeks right? I am ready to get back on track with this restoration.

Let’s hope not. One of my favorite cruise nights is the Main Street Saturday Night Cruise in Zephyrhills. I was told by one of the members who has been running the cruise night that tonight was their last night hosting it and they were unsure if it was going to continue. They gave me a paper with pretty much the same information they told me plus a number to call in April to get more information as to the future of the cruise night. When I find out, I’ll be sure and pass the info along as this is a cruise night I really think should not fade away.

You can always check the website Car Show Cruisin’ as well for car show and cruise-in dates and information.