Isn't it just wonderful, when working on a big project, you get interrupted and have another, even bigger project dropped in your lap?
Yes, usually that's a royal pain in the rumpus. Unless you're a pastel yellow, daintily built mouse woman named Michelle Frelang. Missy always welcomed a challenge.
True, she had a major project going on, which really needed to get completed. The 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle was still sitting in parts, waiting for its final paint, the engine waiting to get fully reassembled, the whole car waiting to be reassembled. It had already been a lot of work, and there still was a lot of work yet to do. Especially since the whole process was also being filmed for the video series the pastel yellow mousette was making for her Youtube channel.
She was in fact right in the middle of making the next video. Explaining rocker geometry and how to set valve lash to the camera, with the aid of small drawings on a whiteboard. A voice ringing out in the secondary workroom of her garage drew her attention, and she shut off the cameras and stepped out of the clean-room.
"Hello?"
The voice belonged to a fairly burly and very ginger lion man, dressed in a pair of denim full-body coveralls and a hi-vis jacket.
"Good morning," Missy said with a friendly smile. "Sorry, I was making a video. Can I help you?"
"Ah, my apologies for interrupting you," the feline man said, checking a tablet. "You are miss Michelle Frelang?"
"That's me," Missy nodded. "What can I do for you?"
"I'm here to deliver a wrecked car," the lion man said after a swipe on his tablet.
Missy canted her head slightly.
"By who's behest? I haven't purchased any wrecked vehicles recently."
The lion man checked his tablet again.
"The job comes from a miss Julia Bowen in East Meadow."
"Oh! Oho! Okay," Missy nodded, a mild grin beginning to form around her lips. "So Jill is dropping something on my plate, is she? Alright then, let's have a look at what she sent over."
Julia Bowen was the sister of Fenlo Bowen, the silver-coloured puma man who owned and ran the huge salvage yard just outside of South Plains, and one of Missy's best friends. Living in what had become a district of the large city of South Plains, Julia operated a garage of her own where she followed the same line of work Missy used to do when still living in Wisconsin; buying up wrecked cars and insurance write-offs, fully disassembling them, refurbishing all the salvageable parts and selling them on - and every now and then restoring a vehicle if it was worth it. And she made videos of it as well, which she posted on her own Youtube channel called 'Just Junkyard Jill'. Over the past couple of years of living in Minnaluna, Missy had met Julia several times, had done a few collaborations with her, and they had become close friends as well.
Following the lion man out of her garage, Missy almost stopped dead when they stepped through the leftmost regular door and she caught sight of the rollback truck parked in the forecourt. On its deck was sitting something that any sane person would not even classify as a wrecked car anymore; 'pile of rust' was more apt. A large pile of rust that only vaguely retained the shape of a car, with bits and pieces that were only held on by a multitude of ratchet straps.
With a shake of her head, the vanilla-coloured mousette stepped closer to the rollback truck and around it to look at the heap of car-shaped rust from several angles. She could by and by make out that it was a nineteen fifties model car, a quite sizeable one too, and she had enough knowledge of classics to determine at least that it was most likely a Plymouth. Still, she sent the lion man a mild smirk.
"And just what in the blue blazes am I supposed to do with this?"
The feline man reached into the cab of the truck and handed Missy an envelope.
"Miss Bowen mentioned you might react like that, and she said to also give you this, as it would explain everything."
Quirking an eyebrow, Missy opened the envelope and pulled out a folded paper. She unfolded it and quickly scanned the lines of printed text, her quirked eyebrow slowly lowering back down while at the same time the corners of her lips moved up into a more cheerful grin.
"Allllllllrighty then," she eventually said, folding the paper and putting it in a pocket of her coveralls. "Well, that does clear it up." She stepped further towards the front of the premises and pointed up the road, towards the adjacent yard. "It's alright, you can unload this heap. See that small yellow building over there near the front? Please go there, I'll meet you there and we can put this heap in there for now."
"Alright, thank you," the lion man nodded.
While he got back behind the wheel of the rollback truck, Missy trotted into the garage and to the clean-room where she picked up her main camera and the tripod it was sitting on. With those, she trotted back out and down the gravel driveway that had been laid between the two yards to meet the lion man in the rollback truck by the small yellow workshop sitting by the front side of the second yard. He was already maneuvering the truck around to point its rear end at one of the garage doors in the yellow building. Missy quickly unlocked the side door and stepped into the building so she could also unlock and open the left garage door.
It took quite a bit of doing to unload the pile of car-shaped rust. Provisions had been made to make it as easy as possible; the pile of rust was sitting on old trailer tires that held plenty of air, but even though the brake drums had been stripped of all their internal parts, two of the wheels still refused to roll. Missy had to eventually bring her larger forklift with a set of very long forks to pick up the pile of rust from the back of the truck, swing it around and carefully maneuver it into the small workshop and between the posts of a two-post car lift. In the meantime, the lion man reached into the cab of his truck again, through the passenger side door this time, and took out a couple of boxes which he set in the small workshop.
With everything finally done, Missy signed the work order and shook paws with the lion man. He got back into his truck and drove off, and Missy switched on the lights in the small workshop, closed the garage door, set up her camera in front of it and greeted the camera as if shooting fresh footage for a new video, leaning into frame from the side and from very close by as if to check whether the camera was working.
"Alright, we live? We-e-e're live. Hey ho all you lovely people out there in Youtube land! Missy here from Mousie Motorworks, bringing you some breaking news! Don't you just love it when you're hard at work on a big project, and you suddenly get interrupted, by something that turns out to be another and even bigger project? Well, that very thing happened just today. I am in fact in the middle of shooting the next video for the Chevelle series, finishing the build on the engine, but something came up! So here is a quick in-between video for y'all to bring you up to date, because the something that came up is actually quite big. Now, those of you who have been following my channel and watched my videos for a while, may remember that I have made several quite bold statements over time. For instance, I have once said this..."
She pointed at a random spot to her right, where a small video window would be edited into the main video, showing part of a video she had done on the vintage tour bus of the large nudist resort 'Sunkissed Forest', where she told the camera "this is going to be a huge project, but while I may be small, no project is too big for me!"
"And in that same series of videos, I have also once said this..." the light yellow mousette continued, pointing to a random spot to her left, where another small video window would be edited in, showing part of another video of her work on the resort's tour bus where she said "it's gonna be an incredible challenge, but I love a good challenge."
"And you may even remember the first personal project I did on my channel," she continued again. "The Hellcat Demon, where I made the boldest statement of all by saying this..."
She pointed slightly above and to the left of her, where yet another video window would be edited in, showing part of a video on the work she had done on her 2018 Dodge Demon Hellcat SRT, showing the severe, seemingly irrepairable damage to the passenger side of the car, where she told the camera in no uncertain terms that "I can make anything look good!"
"Yes, quite a thing to say, isn't it?" the vanilla-hued mousette grinned at the camera. "And if you have been following those series of videos, you also know that I didn't just say those things, I proved my statements were the truth. Also, in more recent videos, you may have also seen that I have every now and then done a collaboration with Jill Bowen of the Just Junkyard Jill channel. We are in fact very good friends as well, but of course, because she's a feline, she apparently couldn't handle the fact I, as a mouse, said such big things and then actually did them as well. So, she's calling me out. While I was working on the Chevelle's engine, a fellow showed up at my garage with a rollback truck, telling me he came to deliver a wrecked vehicle, being hired to do that by Jill. And he also gave me a letter Jill had told him to give me." She pulled the folded paper from a pocket of her coveralls and held it up. "Here is that letter, in which miss kitty calls me out. Listen to what she has to say, folks."
With a cheery grin, Missy slowly unfolded the paper and held it up in front of her, making quite a show of reading out the words to the camera.
"Hey there, miss squeaky. So you think you're a big shot, do you? You think you're oh so talented. I will admit you have a good bit of talent, but squeaky squeaky squeaky do you have a big mouth as well. It's almost embarrassing how full you are of yourself and how brazenly you show that in your videos. I think it's about time you were taught a bit of humbleness, squeaky." She looked up across the top of the paper and grinned at the camera again. "Typical feline, they think they're better than us mousies and can't stand it when they're proven wrong. They'll do just about anything to assert their superiority. It's sad, really. Anyhoos, back to what miss kitty is writing me." She lowered her eyes back down to the paper. "So no project is too big for you, is it now? So you love a big challenge, do you? So you can make anything look good, can you now? Ha! You could try and polish a turd, squeaky, but it would still be a turd. So let's just put you in your place a bit here. Yes, that's right; I'm calling you out on your big mouth, squeaky!" Missy sent a quick wink at the camera. "Ooo, I'm quaking in my coveralls, miss mewy. Anyhoos, here's the rest of what she's written. Do you know those plots of land to the south of the city, about a mile behind the Grand Station? My brother whom you're so chummy with may have shown you sometimes, and he may even have told you about some of the history. Yes, I owned one of those plots of land, it's where I had my first workshop, where I first started out when I went into business for myself. And I'm so totally not afraid to admit that is was a bit of a mistake, because due to the geography, those plains usually flood during the hurricane season. I can't even remember anymore how much work and money I sank into drainage and stuff, and I still had flooding issues every year. Anyway, during that time, almost twenty years ago now, I bought a..." Missy paused for a moment, looking up at the camera again. "Ah, you know, I almost said the make and model of the car she mentioned, but I'm actually not gonna do that yet. So... I bought a specific car. My plan with it was to build a... clone of the car in the movie. The car I bought was very suitable for that, it had some rust, but it was salvageable. I actually got quite well into the project, but then opportunity knocked on my door and I had the chance to buy an old garage and move my whole operation to East Meadow. So the project went on the backburner, and I actually had to leave the car in my original workshop because I didn't have space for it in my new garage. It's been sitting there for at least twelve years, and every year, the place flooded. A few times even up to four feet deep. The final nail in the coffin was three years ago, when a lightning strike nearby set the place on fire. Despite the fire brigade's best effort, the place burnt down to the ground. Now, why am I telling you all this? Well, just two weeks ago, the city council of South Plains got in touch with me; they want to buy that plot of land, which is actually still in my possession. I don't know why, I've heard rumours of a big freeway project, but anyway, they expressed interest in buying the land. I figured, since I had pretty much forgotten about it, I might as well sell it. There was a provision, though; it had to be cleared of everything that's on it. So I got on that, I went there with a demolition company, and it was only then that I found my old project car was still sitting in there. Flooded twelve times, burnt to a crisp and smooshed in from the building falling in on it. And you know what my first thought was, squeaky? Aha, perfect! The perfect candidate to put miss squeaky in her place after all those big words coming from her big mouth! Haha! So here we are, squeaky! I'm giving you my old project car, and you will use it to prove yourself, or eat a great big slice of humble pie. Here's the deal; you love a good challenge so much, do you? No project is to big for you, is it? And you can make anything look good, can you? Alright then. I'm giving you this big project, and I challenge you to make it look good again. I don't care how you do it, you can follow up on my plan and make it into a C... a clone of the movie car, or just restore it, or whatever, so long as it ends up looking like new again. But there's rules, squeaky! You have to use as much of the original parts as possible! Just using all replacement body panels is cheating! You have to fix what's fixable. And no putting in a crate motor either; the original motor was good when I got the car, so you gotta use that one. I know, after seeing the car again, that there's not a whole lot on it that can still be used, but you still have to use whatever is still salvageable. And you have to make a video series on the whole project in which you show all the work you do. If, and this is a great big IF, you succeed, if you complete this project, if you accept and finish this challenge and you make the car look good and as new again, I will openly admit that you are a better car restorer than I am. But if you fail, squeaky, you have to make a video in which you openly admit that you're a loudmouth braggart, and you openly and humbly apologize for saying things you can't follow up on, post that video on your channel and make it the featured video. Deal? Deal!"
Slowly folding the paper back up and sticking it back into a pocket of her coveralls, Missy grinned at the camera again and pointed a finger at the lens.
"Well, there you have it, folks. I've been called out. Gosh, miss mewy, you felines are pathetic! You always have to feel so superior! But you are so on, Jill! Challenge accepted! And when, not if but when, I succeed, you will post a video on your channel in which you openly and humbly apologize for casting any doubts upon my skills and talent and openly admit to all your viewers that I'm much better than you are, haha!" She shook her head with a cheerful laugh. "So there it is, folks. I have been given a challenge. Let's have a look at just what miss mewy Jill has sent me, shall we?" She turned to the workshop behind her and opened the garage door, taking the camera inside with her to pan over the pile of rust sitting between the posts of the car lift. "And here it is! This is the... well, car, that Jill has sent me. Some of you might be able to recognize what kind of car this is. Put it down in the comments, what make and model of car is this? I'll give you some time to look at it."
Slowly walking around the pile of rust, Missy panned along the few features that still showed; large front fenders ending in wide eyebrows with a straight upper edge, two doors and a sharply sloping roof, a pair of sizeable fins at the rear, meanwhile quietly humming and singing random words.
"Hmmm mmmh mmh hmmm, stu-u-uff and thinnnnngs, la de da de dom, rust and fire da-a-amage... tee dee dee da dom..."
Eventually, she set the camera on the tripod in front of the car lift and faced it with a cheery smile.
"So, have you figured it out yet?" She canted her head and perked one of her large round ears, pointing at the camera. "What was that? Yes, you there in the back... and you... and you over there. Yes, very good, this is, or well, this used to be, a Plymouth. To be specific, a nineteen fifty-eight Plymouth Belvedere. You can still see the double headlight buckets under the eyebrows, and while quad headlights were available on the fifty-seven, I can tell this is a fifty-eight because of what's left of that lower front valance. That was very different in fifty-seven, and they had a different front bumper as well. And in fifty-nine, those eyebrows also changed; these have a straight top edge, the fifty-nine eyebrows got a little dip in them so they formed two curves over the double headlights, so this is clearly a fifty-eight. This is also the two-door hardtop, so it's immediately apparent what Jill's plan was with this car. Indeed, she was aiming to build this into a Christine clone. Now..!" She raised a finger and grinned. "That is not what I'm going to do. There's not very many fifty-eight Belvederes left, because so many were used to build Christine clones. That's done to death! And the original Belvedere was actually a very pretty and attractive car, even if they only came in Buckskin Beige. But that will be my plan, folks; I will restore this car back to original. And as you can see..."
She panned along the car again, leaning over every now and then to show all the damage. Having sat in floodwater for a couple of months out of the year for twelve years in a row had eaten up a lot of the sheetmetal. Just moving the car into the workshop had left a trail and small piles of rust and crunchy chunks on the floor of the building. The lower front valance of the car was almost completely missing, and the front bumper was held onto the remnants of the bumper fill panel with metal wire; the bottoms of the front fenders had rusted away up to the top of the wheel arch, the rocker panels were gone, the bottoms of the doors were eaten away, there wasn't even a wheel arch visible anymore in what was left of the rear fenders. The hood lay loose over the engine compartment and was eaten away along all the edges, the hood hinges were gone, the headlight eyebrows had large holes in them, all the windows were missing because all the window channels had rotted away. The roof skin was loose because the rain channels had rotted away, the decklid was laying loose on the back as well, missing hinges, and it was well eaten up along the edges, there was no trunk floor left and only a hint of a fuel tank, and while the rear fins still retained their shape, Missy could look right through several large holes in them.
There were no more floors left. The only remnants of the floor pans were chunks of rusty metal attached to the crossbeams. Naturally, there also no longer was even a shred of interior left. The roof was also caved in from heavy objects having fallen on it, and the rotted decklid had a long crease right down the middle from top to bottom. There still was an engine in the engine compartment, but it was sitting crooked as one of the motor mounts and the part of the frame rail where the mount used to be had rotted away. It once had two carburetors, but one was missing and the intake manifold showed a gaping rot hole where the second carburetor used to be. All the pulleys were rotted, some were missing, and the ones that were left weren't even circular anymore. The only parts left of the exhaust manifolds were the flanges bolted against the sides of the cylinder heads. There was no radiator; there wasn't even much of a radiator and core support left, and the water pump was missing the radiator fan, even though a few rusty sticks poking out showed the center hub of the fan was still attached to the water pump pulley. The transmission was a large chunk of rust, with a rusty pipe sticking out of it that used to be the driveshaft, which drooped down as the transmission crossmember had rotted in half. The front suspension still showed vague shapes of control arms and springs, but shock absorbers were no longer present. The steering rod was missing from the rag joint down and just dangled in the breeze. In the rear, the rear axle was held in with metal wire as well as there were no more shock absorbers and both leaf springs had their hangers and shackles rotted out of the frame, and the crossmember was nowhere to be found. Similarly, the dual exhaust piping had long since left the chat.
Finally standing back upright, Missy put the camera back in the tripod and sent it a cheerful wink.
"As you can see, it will be a tremendous challenge. I'll basically have to build this car back up from scratch, because there's hardly anything left of it." Her cheerful grin grew even wider and cheerier. "But hey! As I have said before, which miss mewy was so keen to point out; I love me a good challenge! And this is gonna be a huge project, but no project is too big for me! I will make this car a beautiful car again, because I can make anything look good! And I'll show that to all of you, but most of all to miss mewy Jill, haha!" She raised a finger again. "Now, of course, I'm not gonna jump into this project right away. The Chevelle is still not finished, so that project is going to get finished first. Only when the Chevelle is fully done and looks beautiful, I will deem that project finished and start on a new project. But now at least I know what the next project is going to be, folks! It's going to be this challenge right here! So keep your eyes pealed, subscribe to the channel if you haven't yet, it's free and only takes a second to click that button, and I would also advise to click that notification bell so you'll be informed when the new video series will start!" She giggled softly. "Thank you all so much for watching and sticking with me to the end here, and if you want to do me a favour; hop on over to Jill's channel, the link will be down there in the description, and go chide her for doubting my abilities and my skill and my talent. But be nice about it, we are actually friends, haha! Anyhoos, again, thank you for watching, folks, and tata for now!"
One, two, three... ending point. Missy shut off the camera, turned off the lights in the smaller workshop, closed and locked the doors and brought the camera and tripod back to the main garage building to set it back up in the clean-room. There was still a lot of work to do and a lot of footage to shoot on the completing of the engine build for the Chevelle after all!
