My wife loses her patience with me because I'm a detail nut. A highschool buddy got philosophical one day working on a team physics project with another group and asked the profound question: "If you don't have the time to do it right the first time, when will you have the time to do it over?" I took it to heart. That's why I aced my University bills, I got bursaries and scholarships and never paid a dime! I aced my Engineering and Business grad diplomas too. But that's not the point. I hate doing stuff over again. I had to fix the plug on the coffee maker and went right back into the circuit to desolder the old wire from inside and put a new wire and plug from a dead kettle in. Too dangerous to splice a chunk in. My wife's always making some concoction, pushing stuff around, spilling or splashing ingredients and we love this old Phillips Filterless coffee machine. Well the car restoration has gone the same way. Down to the bare, naked lady's sheetmetal - inside and out. Now that I'm down to about 3 or 5 days more of Roller Painting, Blowing off the bubbles, wetsanding 4 more times, I figured I better get a plan together to reassemble her. The main post and description is here: http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3723&postcount=107 But the long and short of it is this spreadsheet 41 KB small in Excel 2000: View attachment FairmontAssembly.xls If you don't have Excel, Microsoft has a free viewer you can download: http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/downloads/CD010225201033.aspx
dude thats funny,,,,,my wife thinks i,m too anal sometimes,,,a couple of years ago we painted inside our house (and were still married) we actually do quite well on the house remodel projects,,, but anyways we started on a weekend when i worked weekends and i would come home and see how much she got done (lots) and could not complain about the little things that needed touching up,,,and actually we got more done with her taking the point on the project than her waiting on me to get one room ready for paint,,,so she tolerated my analness and i overlooked the minor touch ups along the way
Yeah, its funny to hear my wife complain about how loosey-goosy some women are, when she's doing the same thing. Throws it here, there, anywhere, but when she's watching a detective movie, she's trying to figure out the next scene rather than just 'watch the friggin' flick'. I'd rather be anal/detailed and build the next stage right! I thought it was only artsies that were analog, but women do rule that roost! We're still married, but 'Alice, one of these days, Alice!' No! She's alright, generally, and she's outstanding when it comes to construction messes! Like a trooper, not a peep or whimper until the job is done! Mother Nature and His Worship are having a tug of war here. We're going through some god-awful weather here, colder than a brass-monkey's cajones, wind all over the place (N, the E, then W, then none, then up to 30 MPH) and cold. Did I say cold? I feel like the Coyote chasing the Road Runner, man! If I get that mother, he's gonna be my Turkey!
Mother Nature is so predictable. She's got me in her cross-hairs. I'm way behind on my schedule, but at least it helps me remember the order that things have to go back in. I can't put the headliner back in without reinstalling the dome light and vanity light in the visor (wiring). Can't do the door locks and bars without getting the window regulators and glass back in, and I can't do that without installing the window seals and belt-line seals, etc. The manuals don't give you an sequential overview order of whether the Chicken, the Egg or the Rooster came first. I suspect it was the Rooster. Well, Ma Nature has her kind moments. I get 4 more days around 6C to 9C before the nasty white stuff comes down to stay. Window parts tomorrow! I started, but then read the manuals and changed strategy. What if a molding clip broke at the door sill (chrome sill) and I had to replace it? How would I get new sealant around the clips? Thats done now, but there's other places where I've got to get the order of installation right or I'll be fixing chipped paint forever, just from removing and re-installaing!
Exterior mouldings are all installed with no thanks to the shop manuals. Not one picture of the clips for the Station Wagon! The two-donor had stick-on side mouldings, so there weren't any spares except for the rocker panel clips (didn't need them). I had just enough of everything, even the body seal. Gonna need to touch up a few scratches too! I couldn't remember if the mouldings needed to go on before the windows and hardware go in, so I played it safe and did them all. Some cars use threaded clips inside the doors, but Ford made it easy for Fairmont/Zephyrs/Cougar wagons. They use a springy barbed-style clip prong on the doors. Everything else either has the standoff rivets or threaded clips. That means all the interior panels had to be off. No wonder they charge so much for removing the mouldings at the bodyshops!:banghead3:
