Second Report of Work Done - East Bridgewater Stop

Thirty Eight years later and it is time to restore Hanna back to original. Fortunately, she has not been too abused-at least for New England standards. The gussets are perfect, as are the floors, core supports, rockers, windshield posts and even around the front and rear windows. Fenders and doors also have no rust. There is a rust hole in the trunk where a rag was left sitting, and the lower quarters were rusted but are now repaired. Though it has been said the car was a lot worse than expected, all you rust belt areas should really look at the car and see how great it is!

We have had the car for three weeks now, and a lot has happened. Friday of the first week had the car displayed at a large Cruise Night, still in complete form. We handed out flyers about the project and all the money from the sale of the car would go to Children's hospital. received a lot of support, plus a number of people stopped to tell us about their experiences with the hospital. Week one was a time to disassemble the car, and on Saturday everything that could come off the car came off. Week one ended with the drivetrain out of the car, the interior out, and all body panels removed.

Week two and the glass was removed, then all the undercoating was removed from the front wheel wells. The whole front suspension was also disassembled. A lot of time was spent contacting people to solicit help and donations. I will post a list of who donated what and the parts we still need later this week. (And okay, no one stepped forward when the Red Sox lost and Brady was hurt in the first quarter. But now you really have to cheer up us New England guys because not only did the Patriots lose, they got their butts kicked. Please, cheer us up and donate something). This weekend was rainy so we did not go back to the cruise night.

Week 3 was beautiful, so we loaded up the body shell and went to the Cruise Night. We got a lot of publicity at the show, and the announcer talked about the car three times before we left! the proceeds from all the summer cruises here go to Children's Hospital, so they were thrilled to see another project for the cause. Saturday was spent cleaning parts, removing leaf springs and torque links, and about 7 hours was spent removing the bed liner material from the trunk. This stuff was a quarter inch thick and did NOT want to come off. Unfortunately, the trunk floor was not cleaned out first and there is some small rust holes that formed under the material.

We have another work party Saturday. We hope to remove the gas tank and shocks, remove undercoating from the rear wheel wells, and start blocking out the body and panels. A number of shops are lined up to help with the project, and we hope to have the car to a stripper next week to further clean under the hood, the wheel wells, and the trunk area.

Editor's note: In addition to the progress reports here, Tom Benive is posting a restoration log at http://theamcforum.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6258 featuring Hanna. Besides having a lot of pictures, Tom is doing a wonderful job of providing a step by step description of what is happening along with sharing a lot of very good tips.