Wednesday had been pretty bad - both with the weather, and with all kinds of weird interruption. Thursday was even worse. At least weather-wise.
It wasn't the somewhat nasal-sounding buzzing of the alarm clock that woke up the pastel yellow mouse woman Michelle Frelang that Thursday morning. A massive thunderstorm was drifting over the southern half of Minnaluna, the cracking and booming of the thunder almost catapulting the vanilla-colored mousette out of bed with her large round ears twitching and folding and swiveling to the overload of sounds. Rain rumbling against the window, wind howling, the rumbling of the rain every now and then accompanied by sharp clatters as hail mixed in with the rain, sharp, piercing cracks and deep rolling booms of thunder following each other rapidly, and the phone on the nightstand wailing away with weather warnings. Blinking and rubbing her eyes, Missy looked at the window, smirked and shook her head and turned to the nightstand to pick up and silence her phone. She tapped one of the flashing warnings on the screen and was shown a radar image, which showed a band of deep red with large blotches of solid purple from Fandago all the way to Easton and from Beach Cove all the way up to Rainbow Falls.
Slipping out of bed, the naked mousette checked the window latch of her bedroom window before going downstairs and turning on the TV, cranking up the volume so she could actually hear it while she stepped into the open kitchen to fix her regular power breakfast. The sunny sand-yellow weather bunny Brandi Johnston was on with a special weather broadcast, standing in front of a screen that showed the entirety of the eastern part of Minnaluna, from the Fenn Desert eastwards, tracking the storm systems and continually repeating warnings and lists of items and suggestions people should follow. Her cheerful, sunny disposition made it all sound like an adventure rather than an emergency - and to be fair, it were just thunderstorms so there was no emergency yet. The primary suggestion however still was; don't travel on the freeways unless you really have to.
Missy sat on the sofa to munch her granola with fruit yogurt and watch the TV, pondering to herself on how much to heed of the warnings and suggestions. She didn't really have to travel, the Chevelle project was still well on course even if she would miss a full day of work - but then again her route from home to her garage didn't involve any of the freeways, and the weather bunny was not saying anything about staying off of local roads. Would it be worth it? With the incredibly loud thunderstorm, shooting footage was out of the question - unless it was footage that would be timelapsed in the editing, as that didn't need any spoken commentary. And the garage was safe; Missy'd had a company install lightning rods when she was bringing the place up to spec two years prior.
Yes, the vanilla-hued mousette decided; it would be worth it to undertake the drive to the garage and do some work on the Chevelle project. She had been planning to build up the chassis, and there was only a limited amount of work she could do on that anyway, as several of the suspension parts, the fuel tank, parts of the exhaust system and more things like that required the body to be installed on the frame. That was work she could do; it would be nice to show it with commentary, but the work had to be done either way to move forward with the project so she'd better just get it done. Besides, it would also be nice to be at the garage for Salmon, the floofy Maine Coon shop cat, to make sure she was alright with all the noise from the violent weather.
Her decision made and her breakfast finished, Missy turned off the TV and went back upstairs to have a quick shower and put on some simple clothes. With everything she needed to bring with her, the light yellow mousette got into her 1975 yellow Mini with the black and white checkered roof, started the engine, switched on the lights and the windshield wipers in their highest setting and got underway. She trusted the small car enough to keep the speed up at a decent rate, even if the car was buffeted by the wind and struggled a bit. As she approached the garage after a little over half an hour later, as she had driven a bit more carefully, Missy noticed flashing orange lights further up Shelter Valley Way. She parked the Mini under the roof over the old fuel pumps and walked to the side of the road to look in the direction of Shelter Valley and see what was going on; it were lights of a road crew's vehicles blocking the road as the crew were working on cutting up a section of one of the trees along the right side of Shelter Valley Way which had fallen over the road.
Before going inside, Missy did a quick walkaround across the premises to check for any damage herself. Everything seemed to be in order; Fanni had done quality work on the beautifying of the place. A few of the blue spruce trees planted on top of the berm behind the garage were sitting a bit crooked due to the wind, but that was all Missy could see. She quickly unlocked the far left regular door at the front of the main building and went inside, switching on the light in the Mountain Dew display refrigerator and the office, and several throughout the main building. Salmon was in the office rather than on the mezzanine, but didn't seem too disturbed by the noise and followed Missy up to the mezzanine when the vanilla-colored mousette climbed the simple staircase and took care of refreshing the water and filling the food bowl of the feeding station. And of course, the fluffy feral cat got plenty of pets as well, as that was always the most important job of the day.
Once Salmon was taken care of, Missy went into the personal room built into the stockroom to peel off her soaked clothes and dry herself a bit with a towel before walking back to the office fully naked. A check of the computer in the office showed no new messages, however a small blinking light indicated there was a message on the answering machine. It turned out to be from Fenlo Bowen, the silver-furred puma man who owned and ran the large salvage yard just outside the city border, inquiring whether there was any damage at the garage as he'd had some storage racks blown over at his yard. Missy shook her head with a smile over the message and took the phone to call Bowen Salvage, the line being answered after only one ring.
"Lady mousie! You're alive and well at your garage! That is good news! I take it you found the message I left earlier?"
"I certainly am, and I certainly did, Fenlo. I appreciate the concern, and I can assure you there is no damage here on the premises, just a bit of flooding at the back because the drains of the washing station are a bit overwhelmed. There is a road crew a couple dozen yards up the road to remove part of one of those trees at the side of the road which is now laying across the road, but that's the only damage in the immediate surroundings here that I could find." A light chortle escaped the mousette's lips. "What exactly happened at your place with those storage racks you mentioned?"
"That's good to hear, I'm glad! Heh, it's the racks storing the sheets of metal, those sheets acted like a big sail. Wind got under them and tipped those racks right over. Made one hell of a racket, I can tell you that!"
"I believe that! Any damage?"
"Just some bends and creases in some of the sheets, nothing serious. We've decided to just let them lay where they are until this weather has passed. No use getting soaked trying to clean that up and have the wind blow the racks right back over five minutes later, after all."
"I see, that's good." Another chortle. "I'll be happy to take those bent sheets of metal off your hands for fifty percent off because they're damaged; I can always use extra sheetmetal to cut patches from, and for patches it doesn't matter if there's bends or creases because I have to hammer them into shape anyway."
"Hahaha! Very shrewd, lady mousie! Not sure if I'll take you up on that, we'll see. Do you actually need any extra metal for that Chevelle project you're working on?"
"Nah, I've done all the metalwork on it already, the body just needs skim-coating and smoothing."
"So you're almost done then?"
"I'm about halfway, feline. Actually, not even. Like I said, the body needs skim-coating and smoothing, then primer and paint, I still need to build up the chassis, I need to build the entire motor, and then I still have to put everything together."
"Right, of course. So plenty more videos to come yet for that series of yours, right?"
"Yep, second video will drop coming Monday, that's the first teardown, and I already have footage for the third, fourth and fifth video. I suggest turning on your notifications so you won't miss the third video; that's the engine teardown, and it's quite something, let me tell you."
"Rods hanging out and everything?"
"Not that bad, but close. Stewardson said he hit that signpost stub at seventy miles per hour, but if you see the inside of that motor, you wonder how he even got the car up to seventy. Thing was full of goop. So here's another suggestion; make sure not to eat or drink anything before or during the video, and you're not even gonna want to after."
"Ha ha! Oh man, that sounds epic! It's gonna be hard waiting for that video to drop Monday after next, lady mousie! And what are you gonna do today, if I may ask? It would be hard shooting a video with the noise of this weather, right?"
"Absolutely. Even with the lowered ceiling and the insulation in my disassembly and bodywork building, the noise is gonna peak the sound levels of the cameras, so I can't do any commentary or nothing. But I figured I might as well assemble what I can of the chassis so it'll be ready for the body to plop on, I can timelapse that, as well as the skim-coating of the body."
"Right, okay, I'll let you get to that, lady mousie. Good to hear you don't have any damage at your place, and good luck on your work."
"Thank you, feline. Like I said, I appreciate the concern. Talk to you later now."
Putting the horn back on the hook, Missy chortled softly while rubbing her ear with her free paw a bit. It was always fun talking to Fenlo and shooting some banter back and forth. And how nice of him to inform about any possible storm damage, and even to do it by leaving a message on the company number's answering machine rather than bothering Missy on her personal phone, which as good friends, they both had the numbers of as well.
Anyhoos and ways! It was about time to start the workday, storm or not. The cameras and lights were still in the disassembly hall, so Missy only had to bring the editing laptop with her as she made her way over to the frontmost of the two large buildings at the right side of the premises. Before setting up the cameras and the lights, she first cranked up the radio to get over the noise of the storm and took some time going through the mountain of boxes that were stacked in the racks to find and unbox all the parts she would be needing for rebuilding the chassis of the car. Only when everything had been checked and laid out did the vanilla-hued mousette set up the cameras and the lights, set them to record with sound disabled, and got to work.
The work was relatively simple, as well. The whole frame of the 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle had been cleaned up, patched and powdercoated and was laying on the arms of the two-post car lift, just high enough to be conveniently reached from a rolling stool, and all the parts that were going to get bolted to it were brand new and came with step-by-step instructions and all the needed hardware. Almost everything came from QA1 as Missy had simply ordered a full Level 3 Handling kit for the Chevelle which contained everything she needed; upper and lower tubular control arms, adjustable tubular upper trailing arms, boxed lower trailing arms, coil-over shock absorbers for both the front and the rear, both a front and a rear sway bar, adjustable frame braces, and she had even chosen to add the optional Wilwood front brake kit with drilled 11-inch rotors and black 4-piston calipers and the Wilwood Flexline brake line kit. Sure, that was a $9000 kit all in all, but Missy had shaved a few dollars off the price by opting for single adjustable shocks rather than the Pro Touring double-adjustable shocks - and besides, it was a personal project, she was not aiming to make any profit on selling the car once it was done, she just wanted a fun project that would make a very reliable and comfortable freeway cruiser, so it was fine to throw a bunch of money at it. Even if just the suspension kit alone cost more than the car would be worth.
Not to mention that in the two years she had been running her high-end restoration garage now, the light yellow mousette had more than proven her capacities and the quality of her work, and she was such a shrewd talker, that larger automotive parts companies saw value in sponsoring some of her builds. The Mousie Motorworks Chevelle was such a project; American Powertrain had sponsored the rear axle assembly, QA1 had sponsored the suspension kit, and both Summit Racing, ATP Autoteile and Halfords had sponsored the engine build. The only costs Missy had to pay for were the transmission, the powdercoating of the frame and rims, and the interior, and she had opted to pay for the replacement body panels and a full trim and emblem set, and new RetroBright lights and lenses front and rear. Plus there was of course the body filler and the paint and her own time put into the project, but she didn't even count those costs.
With everything laid out that she would need and a tool chest rolled near, the radio blasting over the noise of the storm and a comfortable rolling stool under her bare butt, Missy got to work. The preparation she had done over the past couple of weeks paid off; there were parts of the original suspension she had to re-use, such as the front steering knuckles and spindles, but all those old parts had been thoroughly cleaned and powdercoated where needed. All she had to do was grab them and bolt them into place. On went the front lower and upper control arms, with the knuckles and spindles in between them, plus the coil-over shocks even if she could not secure them at the top as that required the rest of the car to be present. A new steering box was bolted onto the frame, with pitman arm, center link, idler arm, inner and outer tie rods and tie rod tubes and bumpstops connecting it and both the steering knuckles. The front swaybar also went into place, followed by the knuckle covers, wheel hubs and brake discs, brake calipers and even brake pads, although those were just set loosely in place to not lose them.
Some time was taken to bolt a proportioning valve block to the left frame-rail, flare some copper-coated metal brake lines, connect them and run one all the way to the rear of the frame, tucked neatly on the inside of the left frame-rail, even though Missy left the ends of the brake lines as large coils to cut to length later. She also did the same with stainless steel fuel lines, running both a feed and a return line tucked in the right frame-rail from the back all the way to the front and leaving the ends as coils so she could cut them to the proper length later once the fuel tank and the engine were in the car. It was just so much easier to run the lines that had to go all the way to the rear with the body off the car, as everything was much easier reachable. The rear axle assembly also was bolted to the frame, with as much of the suspension components attached as possible to keep it in place and secured so Missy could put some uni-lug trailer wheels with old tires on all four corners so the frame could be easily rolled from place to place rather than needing a forklift to move it around.
For a few moments, Missy pondered on whether to also install most of the exhaust system as everything could be so easily reached from the top, but she decided against it. The engine and the transmission needed to be in the car to get the proper measurements and spacing, and most of the exhaust hangers had to be welded to the underside of the car's floor. She did bolt on the brake distribution block in the rear and connected the hard-lines that already were on the rear axle running to both rear brakes, using an actual miniature pipe bending machine to put very neat curves and bends in the metal line running the length of the car where it had to twist up and around to meet the distribution block.
All in all, it only took a few hours to bolt what parts she could onto the frame and make it a roller. Very content, the vanilla-hued mousette rolled the frame over to a corner of the assembly hall, shut off the cameras and the lights and walked back to the main building to clean herself up a bit, which was rather easy as she was still stark naked and the drenching rain washed away a lot of the grime she had accumulated in her sleek fur. Clean and dry again, Missy checked the time, took a set of keys from the small cabinet full of rows of little hooks on the office wall and quickly darted into the warehouse building behind the garage's main building. One half of that building was filled with rows of metal shelving racks holding boxes and larger car parts, in the other half a number of project cars and finished projects were parked. When Missy had inherited the garage, there were already a good dozen project cars sitting in the building, and she had added a few she had brought over with her from Wisconsin. She had collected quite a few cars over the years when she lived in Wisconsin, mostly for parting out, but there were a few she had been aiming to restore from the start; a 1969 Series II Mazda Cosmo 110S because her mother used to have one, a 1964 Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt because that was just a super rare factory drag race car, a 1988 GMC Jimmy that had been partly disassembled but now at least had all the missing body panels replaced, and a heavily T-boned 2018 Dodge Demon Hellcat, which had in fact been the very first personal project she had restored and done a video series of for her new Youtube channel.
During her first year of living in South Plains, the light yellow mousette had collected a few more cars as well which had gotten added to the warehouse. Three more Mazda Cosmos she had bought at her very first visit to Bowen Metal Salvage when she was not even yet living in South Plains, a 1979 Renault 5 she had bought off a young girl she had helped buy a new car that was actually reliable, two cars she had pulled from one of the huge polebarn sheds full of old cars on the adjacent farmyard she had bought - a 1961 International Travelall station wagon to serve as a towing rig for smaller trailers and a 1963 Studebaker Lark respectively - and one of the four cars she had pulled out of the workshop building she had bought from a defunct farm in Northwood; the Starlight Blue 1962 Ford Falcon that she had kept after selling the other three cars. It was that car she got into to drive it out of the building and into town after closing and locking the warehouse and the garage, as the much larger and heavier car could deal with the stormy weather a lot better than her Mini could. Plus, it just was a good thing for the cars to be taken out and driven every now and then.
It wasn't long before Missy parked the car in the small parking area next to The Patty Place, her steady diner. A quick trot brought her around the side of the building to the front, where she could trot right through the front door which was held open for her by a dachshund man who was about to leave.
"Thank you," Missy smiled at the man, brushing her wet hair out of her face with the fingers of one paw and using her other paw to wave at the chubby Pinyon mouse woman who greeted her cheerfully from behind the glass counter.
"Hiya Missy luv! Some weather, ain't it?"
"Hi Patty," Missy said with another smile, stepping up to the counter and accepting the cup of tea Patty had already poured for her. "You can say that again, there was a crew on Shelter Valley Way cutting up part of a tree that had blown over the road, and Fenlo left a message asking if I had any damage because he had some racks blow over."
"Yeah, it's been turbulent!" Patty nodded. "We've seen some fences blown crooked in our neighborhood. Didya have any damage at yer place?"
"Some of the trees on the berm are not entirely upright anymore, but that's all," Missy smiled, stirring a stick of sugar through her tea. "Guess I've been lucky, but it does also prove Fanni did an awesome job both at my garage and in my backyard because everything is still as it should be."
"She knows what she's doing!" Patty nodded with a smile. "And ya made it here, too! So ya didn't take a day off because of the weather? And I'm guessing ya want lunch?"
"I have too much work to do to take days off," Missy chortled between sips of tea. "Even if I can't shoot much footage with this weather, the Chevelle project still has to get finished as soon as possible so I have to keep working on it. And yes, I did brave the storm to come all the way here so I can enjoy your sparkling company and some of your husband's amazing food for lunch," she added with a short laugh.
"Hee! Well, that's certainly always lovely to hear!" Patty giggled. "So what'll it be, luv? Yer usual, or are ya in the mood for something else?"
"I'm in the mood for something else," Missy chortled. "What's the soup of the day?"
"Mulligatawny today, luv, with a two inch thick slice of home-baked sourdough bread!" Patty smiled.
"I'm definitely in the mood for that," Missy smiled. "I'll have that, please, with a glass of buttermilk if you please."
"You got it, luv!" Patty nodded with a smile, turning to the open hatch behind her. "Harv! One soup de shoor!"
"Can do, five minutes!" sounded the voice of the hamster man from the other side of the hatch, with a light chuckle at the intentionally butchered pronunciation.
"I'll be over there then," Missy chortled, nodding at the small table by the side window while picking up the teacup.
She sat down at her steady table and calmly sipped the tea, looking out the window at the rain still clattering down hard - although the flashes of lightning and claps of thunder did not follow each other as rapidly anymore. Only a few minutes later, Patty sashayed over to the table with a tray holding a bowl of soup on an oversized plate that also had a very thick slice of kind of rough bread laying on it, and a tall glass of milk. After setting down the glass and the plate and reaching into the front pocket of her apron to pull out a spoon rolled in a napkin, Patty tucked the tray under her arm and sashayed back to the glass counter with the empty teacup, and Missy sniffed appreciatively at the soup. Smelled delicious, a bit spicy, and the thick mustard-yellow soup was dotted with shredded fresh spinach and sprinkled with chopped parsley as well.
Digging in, Missy took her time to savor and enjoy the soup, breaking chunks off the thick slice of bread and dipping them in the soup. There was no need to hurry, and with the weather as it was, it was even favorable to take her time. The thunder and lightning was very slowly dying down a bit, however, so by the time Missy finished her lunch and hanging around an hour later, it was clear the main body of the storm had drifted past the city limits of South Plains and was on its way to Beach Cove, even though the rain was still coming down in buckets. Still, it seemed to have settled down enough to make it possible to shoot some footage with commentary, so Missy eventually got up and sauntered over to the glass counter to pay. A few more moments of cheerful smalltalk with Patty were added as well before the vanilla-colored mousette stepped out of the diner and darted around it to the parking spaces to get into the Ford Falcon.
She made a few stops in town to replenish some of the things she needed at her garage - like tubs of tire grease for instance - but relatively quickly made her way back to her garage. Having decided that she could shoot some footage with commentary, Missy figured she might as well start on the body filler stage of the work on the car's body so that it could set overnight and be ready for sanding the next day. Back at the garage, she did take a moment or two to park her yellow Mini in the warehouse building as she had also decided to keep driving the Ford Falcon for a few more days, and she went around putting away all the things she had bought in town. Once she was done with all that, she went into the disassembly hall, switched on the cameras and the lights and double-checked to make sure she had enabled the sound on the cameras again - that was a mistake she was not going to make again after it had happened once and she had ended up needing to voice-over an entire video because no sound had been recorded.
A final check to make sure everything was good, and the light yellow mousette leaned into frame sideways from the side very close to the camera, then stepping back.
"Alright, we live? We-e-e're live. Hey ho all you wonderful folks out there in Youtube land! Missy here from Mousie Motorworks, with yet another exciting episode! I had to cheat a bit, the weather's been very turbulent here and I couldn't record any video with sound earlier, so a bunch of work has already been done! But no worries, I will show you and take you through what I have done, right after the intro, right here at Mousie Motorworks!"
She counted to three for an editing point, then took the camera from its tripod and turned to walk over to the Chevelle's frame sitting in a corner of the building.
"Work's been going on steadily, and as you can see, I've built up the frame already so it's now a roller and I can move it around more easily. And those of you with eagle eyes can already see; that's no stock Chevelle parts I bolted on there. Since this is a personal project and I want it to ride comfortably, I decided I'm allowed to throw some extra money at it. What you see here is a full suspension kit by QA-One; it is in fact their Level Three Handling kit, although I did opt for single-adjustable shocks instead of the double-adjustable ones this kit usually comes with. That's a bit cheaper, and honestly, I don't need all the extra adjustability for just cruising this car around. I mean, it's not like I'm gonna do any circuit races or autocross with this thing and need super sharp cornering and super planted handling, I just want this thing to be comfortable, and I don't mean in that floaty boat manner big American cars became known for." She shot a light grin at the camera. "And I'm allowed to say American cars are crap, because I was born and grew up in America. But anyhoos and way, the Mousie Motorworks Chevelle now has a full QA-One suspension kit, which QA-One has very generally sponsored for this project. As you can see, it has tubular control arms, adjustable coil-overs, boxed trailing arms, even frame braces and everything. The kit also had options to add Wilwood brakes and brake lines, so I chose those as well, which gives this thing eleven inch front disc brakes with four-piston calipers, and I chose the black-coated ones rather than the red ones, because red is just gaudy." Another grin was shot at the camera. "I don't like red, folks, I'll tell you that much. In my previous career, I've had to lay down way too much red on all those stupid Ferraris I had to work on, and it's a stupid tricky color to lay down, plus it weathers way too quick. And red brakes just looks dumb and flashy in my opinion. You're free to disagree with me, put red brake calipers on your rides all you want if you like that, but I don't like it so I won't do it. Anyways again! All-new steering components as well, that's actually a full kit from Chevelle Depot that included everything down to the tie rods and bump stops, plus a sway bar, but the QA-One kit also came with front and rear sway bars so I used those. At the back here, that's the axle assembly built and sponsored by American Powertrain, and as I mentioned before, that came as a full, ready to bolt in package complete with three point thirty-one dif gears, bolt-in thirty-three spline alloy axles, and both hubs, all the bearings which are heavy-duty, and also eleven inch disc brakes. The tabs on the axle housing are suitable for four-link as well as regular suspension, so those trailing arms and the coil-over shocks bolted right up without any problems. Of course, they're hanging loose in the air right now because there's nothing else of the car here to attach them to, but at least this frame is now sitting on wheels so I can roll it around. Just some uni-lug trailer wheels that I use as rollers, the actual wheels that will go on the car are laying right there in that rack. Now, have another look, and give me a second here and I'll be right back with you in a moment!"
She panned along the frame again and stepped back over to the car lift to put the camera back on the tripod. After shutting off the cameras and the lights, she moved all of them over to the secondary hall in the building, the blasting and bodywork hall where the body of the Chevelle was sitting, and set up all the cameras and lights again and switched them back on.
"TV magic! Now we're over here! This is the area where I do all the body filler work, because this space is outfitted with a bunch of extraction fans for all the dust. You may remember from the timelapse in the previous video that I put the main body on a rotisserie and that I modified those front fenders, the upper valance and the hood, and I have also modified the grille and the core support already. The body is now basically ready for body filler, but I'm first gonna media-blast it to get all the rest of the old paint and primer and any remnants of old body filler off of there and then give it another once-over to see if I missed any dings or small dents. So you guys will be all the way over here in the corner out of the way, and try to hold your breath against the dust, okay?"
Leaving the cameras running, Missy took a few moments to change her still damp clothes for one of her thin full-body paint suits, set up the large media blaster machine and fill the hopper with plastic grit. Also putting on the full helmet with ear protection, eye protection and air supply, she lifted the front of the helmet up to grin at the camera.
"Yes, I look like an alien now. Strap in folks, this is gonna be loud and dusty! But don't worry, after a few passes to show the result, I will timelapse most of this work. So here we go!"
The helmet was lowered back down, the media blasting machine was switched on, and with the two hoses clipped to the belt around the suit, Missy started slowly stepping between the metal sawhorses on which the loose body panels were resting, such as the front fenders, the hood, the doors and the trunk lid. Once all the black coating had been blasted off the hood and front fenders and the last bits of paint and primer were blasted off the doors and trunk lid, Missy stepped over to the main body of the car and continued her loud and dusty work. The rotisserie was of great help as it allowed the vanilla-hued mousette to turn the body of the car on its side so she could blast the entire inside as well, and easily reach tricky areas in the trunk and around the wheel tubs.
A good two and a half hours later, she shut off the machine, unclipped the hoses and hung them back on the machine, emptied out the hopper and blew the last bits of media out of the feed hose and the nozzle. Also taking off the helmet and hanging it on the machine, Missy stepped over to the main camera, checked it from close by, chortled lightly and took a rag to wipe a thin layer of dust off the lens.
"Wow, that must have stung your eyes, folks. But now you can see all clear and proper again. And I can already hear some of you; Missy Missy! Why did you blast those front fenders and that hood and the quarter panels? They were already black and ready! Well, yes, they were indeed black, but that black is not paint nor primer, folks, it's just a thin coating to prevent the metal from flash-rusting. Whenever you buy a replacement body panel, it comes with that black coating, and you always should at least sand it with eight hundred grit at least before you apply your first layer of primer. That coating alone is by far not enough to protect the panel and give a good finish. Heckity, in fact I have been lucky with these large panels, because more often than not you even have to bodywork them a bit before applying primer because they may have gotten dinged or creased in transport. But fortunately, that hasn't happened to these, even those large full quarters, so after all this mediablasting, they are now in fact ready for primer. But first! I'll have to give the whole car another once-over to see if I missed anything, and then I'll have to put on a skim-coat of body filler to smooth everything out perfectly. And I can hear some of you again right now. But Missy, you claimed you are such a perfectionistic bodyworker, surely you don't need to use body filler? And you said you hate the stuff in that other video, too! How do you explain that?" She chortled softly and shook her head. "You always need some body filler, folks. There's seams that need filled to get smooth. Think back to the lead sleds of olden days; they were called lead sleds because those seams between the sail panels and the roof skin, for instance, were filled with lead. Of course nowadays we don't use lead anymore... well, actually, that's not quite true. I know of some bodyworkers who use lead on specific classic cars, to be as true to factory spec as possible. But those are rare exceptions. In almost all other cases, we use regular body filler. It's a myth that we bodyworkers hate the stuff, folks; every bodyworker uses it to a degree. What we hate is when amateuristic handymen slop in pounds of the stuff; that's utterly unnecessary. Remember, you just use it to fully smooth out seams and such, and the more you put on, the more you'll have to sand back off. So just don't put on too much to begin with, okay? Light coats, people, light coats, that is the key."
Stepping over to a cabinet against the dividing wall, Missy took out and set out a few cans and utensils. She also took several minutes with an air gun to blow all the dust off the car's body and loose panels and out of every nook and cranny. Eventually, she set the cameras and lights back up near the rotisserie, and took the main camera on its tripod over to the workbench where she had set down the cans.
"Alright, so here we have the materials. Personally, I use different kinds of body filler, even on the same project. And a quick note here; don't call it bondo. Bondo is a brand name, and calling every type of body filler bondo is the same as calling every paper tissue a Kleenex or something like that. Sure, everyone will know what you're talking about, but more than half of the time, someone won't even be using actual bondo. I myself usually use this here Three-M Platinum Plus for the first coat, as it tends to fill deeper seams very well and it sets up pretty quick, plus it just spreads real nice. Then for the second coat, which is usually also the final skim-coat, I tend to use this Evercoat Rage Ultra, and this type can also be used on fiberglass panels which is a bonus."
She panned the camera along the workbench with one paw and picked up a few of the things she had set out with her other paw.
"Now, you see some other things here. First off, an aerosol spraycan. Ohmigosh Missy, such a professional painter as you are, how can you even have spraycans? Well, news flash, sometimes spraycans are just handier, for when you only need to do a small patch, or you don't want to mix up a full batch of paint or have to clean out your paint gun. And it's just like using a paint gun, people; professional painters like myself can very well utilize spraycans and get just as good results as when using a paint gun. Plus, this is a very specific spraycan. See that lettering on there? Guide coat. That's right, this stuff is what you spray over your patches of filler and your primer after the first round of sanding so you can find all the high and low spots when you do your second round of sanding. Then there's this jar here that looks like a powder box. It actually has one of those round poofy brushes on the inside of that lid, like a make-up thing for applying blush, but don't put this stuff on your face, folks! Because look here, see, this stuff is actually dry guide coat powder. This is what I use after the second round of sanding, because it's so fine that it easily goes into all the sanding scratches and I can find the last few high and low spots during the third round of sanding. And here we have some simple tools for the filler; you need a flat board, and I actually got me a paint palette from a hobby store because it's much easier to hold, and I put a sheet of paper over it on which I mix my batches of filler. Much easier to clean that way; I don't have to meticulously scrape off the board but just remove and replace the sheet of paper. Some applicators here, I use the wood one to mix the filler, and there's a few different sizes of plastic ones here because sometimes you just need a smaller one to get into tricky corners or hard to reach spots. Big tube of baseline hardener, because I hardly ever use the hardener that comes with the filler itself. This tube is very firm plastic, so I can knead it and make sure the hardener is well mixed before squirting it out. Have you ever mixed a batch of filler, taken that little tube of hardener that comes with it, squeezed it over the clump of filler and then all that came out was some drops of water? Yeah, me too; it separates after sitting for a while, folks, and just shaking the little tube doesn't always work, plus who even thinks of shaking a small tube? So I get my hardener separately and in a big tube I can squeeze and knead a bunch. Now, let me set you folks over there, and I'll mix up a batch so we can get to work!"
She set the camera back on the tripod and brought the tripod back over to the rotisserie with the body of the Chevelle on it. Back at the work bench, the vanilla-hued mousette folded a fresh sheet of paper over the paint palette, taped it on the backside and punched a hole in the paper at the hole where her thumb went through. Opening one of the large cans of body filler, she scooped out a glob of the grayish goop and put it on the palette, kneaded the large tube of hardener a bunch and squirted some of the red goop into the blob of filler, stuck some of the plastic applicators in a pocket of her paint suit and took the palette and the wood applicator over to the rotisserie, facing the main camera.
"Right, here we go. And top tip of the day; do not stir this stuff! Many of you already know, and many of you may have seen instructions on how to mix the filler and the hardener, but for those of you unfamiliar with the process; this is how you do it. Scoop and smear, scoop and smear, over and over, back onto itself, back and forth, until all these streaks of red have disappeared and the whole glob of filler looks faintly pink. Or blue, if you have blue hardener. But don't stir it! Stirring it created a bunch of tiny little air bubbles in the filler, and once you have applied it, it has set and you sand it, those tiny bubbles create a bunch of little pinholes in your patch of filler that will show up in the final paint layers so you have to go over all of them with some glaze. Extra work, extra material, so just don't give yourself that bother from the get-go and mix this stuff the way you're supposed to, without stirring. Alright, there, this is ready now. And you can see here, the stuff looks a bit like mud, so that's why we in the profession tend to call applying this stuff 'mudding a car'. Of course, from the moment you mix in your hardener, the chemical process begins and you have a limited time-frame to apply the hardener before it, well, goes hard. I use a bit less hardener than what is usually suggested on the tin, because that gives me a little bit more time to work it. But be careful not to use too little of it, because then it just won't set up right and you're left with soft spots which means you have to dig it out and start all over again. So unless you're a talented professional with years and years of experience, just stick to the amount of hardener that is recommended on the tin, okay?"
Turning to the body of the car, which was still tilted on its side on the rotisserie, Missy turned it further so one of the sides was facing her. She also repositioned the main camera, switched on the one that was attached to the front strap of her paint suit, and adjusted a couple of the lights.
"Right, here we go. First pass, and the most obvious spot on this side of the car is of course that seam where the sail panel meets the roof skin. So we take some of our filler and just squish it in there to make sure it fills the entire seam down to the bottom. Pick up the excess, and squish again. At this first pass, it's fine to use a good deal of pressure because you really have to fill up any seams or low areas. But as you can see, I'm just using little bits of it. Spread it out like this, pick up the excess, make another pass. Now that the whole seam is done, make a pass over it like this, from one side to the other. You'll notice I'm scraping some of the filler back off that way; that's fine, that's supposed to happen. As I said; the less you put on, the less you have to sand back off once it's set. You can also see I don't have all that much mixed on my board here, but I will still do this entire quarter with it; that's how little I use, because it's all I need. Down over this long seam here where I welded the replacement panel near the drip rail, press firmly and scra-a-ape the applicator down it. The low spots will pass under the edge of it and pick up the filler, all the rest of the filler just keeps getting pushed down by the applicator, and that means it was not needed on that part of the panel. But just to make sure, little bits on the applicator, and smoosh it onto the seam perpendicular to the length of it, swoop, swoop, swoop, just like that. And then another full pass along the length of the seam with some good pressure, scraping away the excess like this. Look at this, that's all filler I won't have to sand off the body later, and better yet, it's all filler I can apply in other spots. Like here where I welded along the edge of the window, smoosh smoosh smoosh, scraaape, and down here where I welded along the door aperture, smoosh smoosh smoosh smoosh smoosh, scraaape." Standing upright and turning a bit, Missy sent a smile at the camera. "So that's how it's done, I've shown you the technique now, so I won't bore you with the whole rest of the car. I'll do that in a timelapse, so sit back, relax, and watch this blob of filler on my board quickly disappear as it gets spread all over this side of the car!"
The main camera was repositioned again, as well as a couple of the lights, and Missy quickly returned to spreading the filler across the side of the car's main body, as she did of course only have limited time before the filler would turn hard. She concentrated on all the welds she had made to attach the new quarter panel to the side of the car, filled in the seams of the rocker panels, covered all the patches she had welded into the places where rust had been cut out. Even the welded seams around the little panel with the opening for the fuel filler neck got a little coat of filler. A new batch was mixed, and the light yellow mousette repeated the process of applying a thin coat of filler over the other side of the car's body, from the trunk lid channel all the way to the firewall, with a bit of extra concentrated on the seams by the roof skin, along the back and bottom of the side window and along the back of the door aperture where the new panel was welded, as well as along the drip rail of the roof and down the windshield pillars where rotten spots had been patched.
Mixing a larger batch of fresh filler, Missy turned to the loose panels and worked her magic on the modified front fenders, upper valance panel and the hood. Yet some more fresh filler was mixed up to make a pass over the edges and bottoms of the doors and the deck lid. Moving this way and that, back and forth, Missy danced an intricate dance around the body and loose panels of the car, taking her time to do everything right, yet working quickly to stay within the time window of how long the filler would be workable. It was a delicate balance, but the vanilla-colored mousette had lots and lots of experience and a finely honed sense of balance.
It was close to nine o'clock when Missy finally hammered the lid back onto the can of filler, removed and balled up the sheet of paper on her palette and leaned against one of the arms of the four-post car lift to send a smile at the main camera.
"Alright, it's almost nine, but we're all done for now! This stuff sets up in about fifteen to twenty minutes so basically, it's ready for the first round of sanding now, but I'm gonna call it for tonight. It's been a long day, folks, and the sanding is hard and dusty work so I'm gonna save that for tomorrow, and the next video, too! So keep an eye out, there will be one more video on the bodywork, maybe two as I will also need to do a pass or two of sanding after shooting primer, but then we will finally be getting on to shooting some color onto this thing! Exciting times ahead! And hopefully, while I'm doing the sanding tomorrow, the rest of the parts for the engine that I'm still waiting on will come in so then we can get into building the motor as well! Whoo! But that is for next time, so until then, thank you all so much for following along, I really appreciate all of you so very much, and I'll see y'all next time, right here on Mousie Motorworks! Tata now, see ya!"
One, two, three... cameras off, lights off. Missy stretched while hollowing her back and pressing her paws into the small of her back, pulling in a deep breath and letting it go in a light groaning puff. Mudding wasn't all too hard work in itself, but the strange positions one had to bend into sure made themselves felt at the end of the day. Missy gave her back a few rubs and stretched again before taking some time to clean her utensils and put away the cans and tubes and tools she had used. At least the whole car now had its first layer of filler applied, and by the next day it would have set up perfectly and be ready for the first round of sanding. That was hard work, but quite rewarding. And bonus; the next day Fanni would also come to the garage to do some work, so it was promising to become a very pleasant day indeed.
But for now, it was time to end the day. Missy peeled off her paint suit, turned it inside out and hung it from one of the posts of the car lift, left the cameras and lights where they were, switched off the lights and locked the doors and walked back to the garage's main building calmly to let the still quite heavy rain soak her naked form down and rinse away dust and sweat. She shook herself a bit before stepping into the main building and went around turning off lights while making her way over to the personal room. Her regular clothes were still a bit damp, but dry enough to put back on so she could close up shop and drive home.
As The Patty Place closed at eight o'clock, Missy just made a stop in the commercial district in town to pick up a meal at one of the many restaurants before making her way to her house. The damp clothes immediately came off again as soon as she was past the front door and dropped on the sofa as she walked into the open kitchen, setting the bag of food on the kitchen table and grabbing a plate and some cutlery. Dinner was finished calmly, with a glass of juice taken into the living room so Missy could sit on the sofa and watch the weather reports on the TV again. The radar image showed the band of red and purple was already past Beach Cove and well on its way away from the south coast and out over the ocean, and the forecast promised calm and sunny weather for the next day. Perfect!
Bringing her damp clothes upstairs to drop them in the hamper, Missy took a short, quick shower to rinse the last grime and sweat off herself, dried herself in the dryer booth and decided to have an early night, going to bed even though it was only nearing half past ten. There was still rain clattering against the window, providing a steady and calming background sound that soon sang the light yellow mousette to sleep. Despite the stormy weather, it had been another very productive day!
