Being a Motor Doll

It's all about Motor Doll stuff for me right now:  Working with the Gasoline Girls to get all of our cars going. Getting my '48 Ford back on the road. Making plans for the Winslow Motor Palace. During my vacation last week, I spent all of my time on those three pursuits.

The week began in Mojave to finish the job we started on Kristin's Studebaker. A couple weeks ago, we put in a new transmission, but there were some bugs... so we couldn't bring Stude home. Clearly you can see from her smile, Kristin is a very happy girl now. With the help of "Big Daddy" Bart, we finished all of the fine-tuning, and got her rolling again. Kristin even drove her to Vegas this week! Success!!

Next on the agenda? Get Bondorella rollin', too.

A couple Saturdays ago, Kristin, Rosa, and I had a strip party and got most of the green paint off the cab of my '48. From there, I had to get it down to bare metal, which is how I spent mid-week of my vacation: Grinding bondo off of Bondorella, with the help of Kristin, and a little bonus help from Hells Belle, Kat.

The goal is to get Bondorella back on the road ASAP so she'll be ready for Ventura Nationals the beginning of September. It would be my first outing in the new and improved pickup, and our first event together as a car club. Bondorella still needs a couple of holes patched, her taillights wired, and  her front end reassembled. Plus, we need to put some miles on her to make sure all is good before I make such a long trek. Wish us luck.

I finished off the week with a trip to Winslow to do some work on the Motor Palace. We're still waiting on permits to start construction on our "motel room," but in the meantime, we need to fix some issues highlighted by the structural engineer, like "pointing" bricks (filling in the mortar where it's gone), which is what we did--thanks to the fine teachings of Glenn, a steeple-jack who specializes in historic brick buildings, and who will being doing the bulk of the work on the Palace.

Don't you love this great plaster found under the insulation?? We're going to try and leave as much visible as possible. The former owners framed in the entire building and insulated it, hiding all of this wonderful, textural material. Our goal is to have tons of "truth windows" so we can see the history of the building right there on the walls. I think the Palace will be quite a sight when it's done. Be sure to add it to your list of "must sees" along Route 66. And check out our new website! We'll post regular updates there.


So last week was all about getting dirty and getting things done. Would I have rather been sipping a fruity beverage on an exotic beach? Maybe... but I did have a heck of a lot of fun just being a Motor Doll.