After an entire year of having good communications via telephone and email, the communication seemed to have dropped off in 2010. As evident with the last two emails I have to show, which are from October and November of 2009. The earlier part of the 2010 year was mostly waiting and waiting for updates and giving Rick the time he needs without any pressure to get all the details planned out and ready. Although I did speak on the telephone with John and Rick. The paint seemed to be the biggest issue. Once they had painted the Olds in the early part of 2010, they noticed, over time there were “sinking” spots at various parts of the body. It seems that has to do with not letting the paint properly cure. The net result was that the paint would have to be completely removed and redone.
With that said, the repainting was to be completed outside the shop by a good friend of MMC that does painting on many of the local race cars and show cars. After months of removing the old paint, Z-Chroming the body all over again, the car was ready for paint. The day before the car was to be sent to him for painting, the gentleman committed suicide. I was very saddened that someone could take their own life and always wondering what could have been so wrong for someone to do this. After the funeral, it was back to business for John and Rick.
They took on the task of finding a first class paint shop to get this Olds painted properly.
In between all this time, Rick was steadily working on the engine rebuild. Although the first attempt looked incredible, I wanted March serpentine on the front. As Rick started this process, we quickly realized that the serpentine system would stick out too much for the traditional fan and shroud. Besides, the normal fan attached to the engine would take away from the beautiful March system. I then gave the green light to equip the radiator with electric fans. Rick also changed out the air cleaner housing to a more traditional Olds 4-4-2 housing that accommodated the W-30 OAI setup.
Rick was also working on the dash setup, fabrication or a lot of little things here and there.
Here is the original email exchange:
