May 2005 - A friend of a friend put me in touch with the owner of this 1966 convertible hiding in a field northwest of Houston, Texas. Yeah, that's s it hiding under the piece of tin roofing. Yeah, and that apparently was poison ivy growing all around it.

After six months of negotiations I finally found the right price and on November 11, 2005 retrieved it from the field it was in, loaded it on a trailer and hauled it 100 miles home. Okay, loading it on a trailer is an understatement. The car only had 3 wheels attached and it was sitting in dirt. After a couple of failed attempts, it took a wrecker and a winch to extract it from the field. To get it off the trailer I placed wheel dollies under the 3 tires and built a cradle for the fourth one to sit the frame on. We were able to use a come-along to slide it off the trailer and into the garage. Yeah, we towed it with the hood up, the hinged are frozen open.

November 13 - In the garage, ready for disassembly. The goal is to have the engine and transmission pulled on Monday the 21st. So, there are a few things that need removing.

November 19th, so far so good. There sure is a lot of rust. It doesn't look that bad yet, but wait until the fenders are pulled and the torque boxes (or at least the rust flake that resembles it) is revealed. Other than the mounts, the engine is basically ready to be pulled.

November 21, 2005- Success! I borrowed a friend and his hoist and yanked the engine and transmission out as one unit. The leveler attachment is worth the $25 he paid for it. It probably took about 2 hours since I still had to disconnect the engine mounts and the transmission mount.

Oh, and the poison ivy has stopped itching and started healing.

November 27 - Just call it a patina. As bad as the picture looks it is better than expected. The frame is in better shape than was expected as is the outside rocker panel. Maybe the car won't break in half after all. Next stop - Harbor Freight for more cheap jackstands. I have four, I need four more.
Nov. 28th side note - the city will haul away car fenders in the regular trash pick up, yea!

On to December ...