There's a big project at school I've been working on for my current drawing class, which I've volunteered to be on the CGI team for.  It will finally be a promotional piece for the school, completely inspired by, and created by school members, both teachers and students.  It's a 50 second piece that will run in the local movie theatres, and hopefully nationwide sometime.  I'll be involved in the modeling, texturing, animating, and rendering of the 3D elements that mix with live action video footage.  This is what I've hoped to be a part of for years, and I have my fingers crossed that this project is brought to fruition since I've seen so many of these just fall apart and never happen.

06/28/2005 I took some time off from the project.  I'm still in the shop everyday cleaning and arranging things, but not accomplishing any tasks :(.  I have some photos from a car show I tried to have the El Camino drivable for.  My favorite is the late 20's 5 window in rat rod fashion! They were supposed to have a burn out contest, and that's definitely one thing that car can do well is toast the rubber.  I have overheating problems again that I have to figure out, and there's still a short in the electrical system as I found out when the battery was drained in line at the emissions testing center last week.   It's a love/hate relationship with that car.

06/16/2005 I finished welding all three recesses for the vents last night, and started smoothing out the weld edges on all of them a bit.  I took photos, and even mocked up the aluminum vents into the recesses for an idea of what all those holes will look like when done.

06/15/2005 Monday night I had my last class for this quarter, so I only put in about 1.5 hours.  I did manage to finish weld the drivers side AC vent and hand filed the weld smooth for the top half of the vent.  This is a slow process, but the result is definitely turning out very well.  I left me camera at the office by accident so I couldn't take any photos to show the detail of what I'm talking about.  I had dinner with the new team I'm working on last night, so I didn't get anything done on the truck.  I have to change out the heater core for my Dodge this weekend so I looked up the steps required to do that last night.  I also priced out a new bed, bed wood, smooth stainless bed wood strips, and smooth tailgate with hidden hinges last night for the '56.  I can get all of that for about $3k!  Yeah,, gotta love a cheap hobby.  Here's the manufacturer I'm looking at. 

06/13/2005 Well, I caught up on some of the sleep lost to the insomnia last week, and now that I'm sure I can't make the deadline for the road trip, I'm not pushing myself as hard to complete stages of the project.  I did get all three AC vent's trimmed out of the dash, and each recessed piece spot welded in place.  The edges of the recess are trimmed on all three and ready to be finish welded.  I'm a bit concerned about the having to build the lip out of the weld I leave, so this may take a couple of tries to get everything the way I want it.  What I'm trying to avoid is having any body filler used to make the edge because it will chip off, so everything on the lip must be metal, and filed smooth by hand to the exact shape I want.  I have some photos of where I left things at midnight last night. 

06/10/2005 Still suffering a bit of insomnia, but started trimming the hole for the single AC vent on the driver's side of the dash last night.  I received the stainless steel mounting straps I had custom made for my in frame fuel tank today.  On Wednesday I forgot to mention that I received the new rectangular shifter boot for the Lokar shifter, and the cut to fit braided stainless steel lines for the power steering pump.  Looks like late next week before I can get the flexplate, so I'm hoping to get all the AC vents done this weekend, and started on the body work.  If I'm lucky, I can start installing the power windows and my custom (oval of course!) interior handles and power window switches.... Wish me luck! :) 

06/09/2005 I've had little sleep this week.  Tuesday night was dinner with my new boss/co-worker which only allowed about 2 hours of work trimming out more of the center AC vent hole.  Last night I FINALLY have it all trimmed out, and almost ready to weld it in.  I need to change some of the mounting screws used by the vent to make sure I can adjust them within the limited space behind the dash once everything is welded in though.  Check out the photos of the AC vent work, the left dash wraparound, filled switch holes, computer mounting deck, and emergency brake pedal.

06/06/2005 Well, Friday night and all of Saturday were shot due to some socializing with regular human beings I felt compelled to do!  Sunday was spent welding more on the dash.  I filled all the holes for switches etc. along with the ashtray hole.  The recessed metal that will hold the double AC vent in the center of the dash FINALLY got welded together.   I've started the tedious process of trimming the dash to recess this new piece into.  You don't want to cut too much out you know!  I had class tonight along with some homework to deal with, so I was not able to accomplish anything.  Also, it turns out the special flexplate I ordered for the transmission is lost in action, and I won't know when I can get it until later this week.

06/03/2005 I had a golf tournament yesterday for the office that wiped me out, so I was only able to get about 3 hours in last night. I finished welding and grinding the left wraparound corner of the dash last night.  I also welded the rearview mirror mounting holes, and any seam throughout the interior of the cab.  Weld and grind, weld and grind.

06/02/2005 I finished both defroster ducts, will spray paint them tomorrow hopefully.  I also welded about 90% of the left wrap around corner of the dash into place.  All I do is weld and grind!

06/01/2005 CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM LAST WEEKEND! I was only able to get about 2.5 hours in last night since I had some paperwork to take care of.  I spent the whole time modifying the defroster ducts to work with the Vintage Air system Mark and I installed.  Under dash space is getting limited, so the inlets to the ducts needed to be moved from straight down, to receive air from the center of the dash.  The hoses on the new system are smaller in diameter than stock, so I had to fabricate a new one.  I've only worked on one thus far, so it looks like a few extra hours to finish it, and the drivers side duct.  I also had to fork out $200 for a special flywheel for this AOD conversion that must be shipped from out of state, delaying the drivetrain installation until this weekend, and I picked up a used dust shield and inspection plate for the AOD from Colorado Mustang Specialists.