The Resurrection of Vixen

Quote of the Week:
"You built a junkyard... Out of a DeLorean?" - Jason Snyder

The time has come (finally) for me to venture into the world of stainless steel & gullwing doors. October 23, 1999 I brought my baby home.

The previous owner, a Lotus collector, bought the car in 1988 for his then-wife. The car was in perfect working order, with only 1721.4 miles. He took the car apart for a thorough cleaning and restoration.

Shortly thereafter, he went through a divorce and the car had remained untouched since.

She is a 1981, with a 5-speed, and gray interior... VIN 5927.

The body shell had most of the stainless and all the wheels removed, and was sitting on the floor in an old shed.
The engine has been removed and totally disassembled.
The windshield and rear glass were broken during removal of the doors.
The stainless (including the left front fender) was all in good condition.
The car had a heavy layer of greasy dust all over it. I'm figuring it helped protect it.
He had a service manual, and several boxes of literature, and NOS parts.
He claimed that all the pieces are there, and that the car was fully functional (and PA state-inspected) when disassembled.

See the door? Believe it or not, there is an entire disassembled car in this mess somewhere.

It wasn't the easiest chore to dig the car out of the shed it has been buried in the last 9 years, but we managed. It had been stored rather poorly... lots of the parts are damaged due to poor storage & handling.

In fact, if you are planning on storing a car, two things to avoid putting in it are a bail of fiberglass insulation & a ten pound bag of Puppy Chow. It was a veritable rodent resort town.

The three of us that were trying to lift the pontoon & frame up into the body just couldn't quite get it off the ground. That posed quite a challenge as we had to lift it up into the 24' U-Haul truck I rented to get her home. We eventually had to use a roll-back truck to drag the unit across the floor and up onto the rollback, then position the rollback to slide the unit into the truck. Ouch.

Getting it out was a bit easier, as we had six people, and also noticed that the pontoon was in fact not even bolted to the frame. Made for pretty easy lifting when separated.

We manuevered it all into my garage and I started to work. Here's my preliminary shopping list:

- all new lines, both fuel and brake.
- 4 new brake calipers
- all new carpets
- front and rear glass
- new headliners
- new inside rearview mirror
- all new weather stripping

But it isn't too bad, I keep telling myself. I'm just at the initial "I bit off more than I can chew" stage. I decided to start small by cleaning the pontoon and organizing the interior parts inside. I then hung the body panels on the car with a couple of bolts each just to get them out of the way. Doing these things made me feel a bit better. I then put the binnacle on the dash, and when I looked at the odometer, I nearly cried...

The car has 1721.4 miles on the clock. Now maybe that's 101,721.4 ... I'm afraid to ask. But so far everything on the car seems to support that the only wear & tear is that caused by poor storage. Whatever sparked the previous owner to take the car apart that completely will always boggle me...

And this is the truck I brought her home in.

Well, it looked kind of like this. =)

If ya' gotta move, ya' gotta move in style, ya' know?

At this point I had to repeatedly assure my neighbors I had not bought a Fiero...

The resemblance though is striking when the naked pontoon body is seen. You can tell where Pontiac took their styling cues from for their little mid-engined two-seater.

Sigh... I have my work cut out for me. My first 'real' work on the car involved climbing under the front frame to chip away broken epoxy, wire brush, and then coat the metal with Rust Reformer. I bought several cans of Rustoleum Dark Machine Gray and plan to paint the affected areas as correctly as I can, but I realize I'll never get them perfect. I'm on something of a timeline. I need to have the car assembled enough to sit outside by Christmas, as I need to get my '58 Plymouth out of the elements as soon as possible.

I realize that while under both my time and monetary constraints, I will never have a concours-quality D. The undercarriage will have to be a bit ugly, and I'll have to 'make do' with a lot of non-perfect pieces. I intend to focus my energies into the car's exterior and replacing lots of the interior. Having the car look good at least will help stop me from panicking about the scope of this project. I had a bad spot last night, where I just imagined myself selling the car piece by piece on eBay... potentially making enough money to buy a car in better shape...but I guess I'll just try to hang in there & build the best car I can with the resources I have. I can't expect anything more of myself than that.

Costs for Week One:

Date	Purchase	Store	Price
23-Oct-99	Car	George L.	3,000.00
23-Oct-99	Title Transfer	New Stanton Tag	22.50
23-Oct-99	U-Haul	U-Haul	132.19
24-Oct-99	Gas For U-Haul	Kress's	30.00
25-Oct-99	Turnpike Tolls	PA Turnpike	3.20
24-Oct-99	Semi Gloss Black Spray Paint	Home Depot	2.37
24-Oct-99	Semi Gloss Black Spray Paint	Home Depot	2.37
24-Oct-99	Semi Gloss Black Spray Paint	Home Depot	2.37
24-Oct-99	Semi Gloss Black Spray Paint	Home Depot	2.37
24-Oct-99	Semi Gloss Black Spray Paint	Home Depot	2.37
24-Oct-99	Semi Gloss Black Spray Paint	Home Depot	2.37
24-Oct-99	Semi Gloss Black Spray Paint	Home Depot	2.37
24-Oct-99	Rust Strip	Home Depot	3.41
24-Oct-99	Rust Reformer	Home Depot	5.46
24-Oct-99	Epoxy	Home Depot	2.67
24-Oct-99	Masking Tape	Home Depot	2.83
24-Oct-99	Black Silicone Caulk	Home Depot	3.45
24-Oct-99	Black Silicone Caulk	Home Depot	3.45
24-Oct-99	Black Silicone Caulk	Home Depot	3.45
		Week 1 Total	$3229.20

Year One:
Week 1	Week 8	Week 15	Week 22	Week 29	Week 36	Week 43	Week 50
Week 2	Week 9	Week 16	Week 23	Week 30	Week 37	Week 44	Week 51
Week 3	Week 10	Week 17	Week 24	Week 31	Week 38	Week 45	Week 52
Week 4	Week 11	Week 18	Week 25	Week 32	Week 39	Week 46	-
Week 5	Week 12	Week 19	Week 26	Week 33	Week 40	Week 47	-
Week 6	Week 13	Week 20	Week 27	Week 34	Week 41	Week 48	-
Week 7	Week 14	Week 21	Week 28	Week 35	Week 42	Week 49	-
Year Two:
Week 53	Week 60	Week 67	Week 74	Week 81	Week 88	Week 95	Week 102
Week 54	Week 61	Week 68	Week 75	Week 82	Week 89	Week 96	Week 103
Week 55	Week 62	Week 69	Week 76	Week 83	Week 90	Week 97	Week 104
Week 56	Week 63	Week 70	Week 77	Week 84	Week 91	Week 98	-
Week 57	Week 64	Week 71	Week 78	Week 85	Week 92	Week 99	-
Week 58	Week 65	Week 72	Week 79	Week 86	Week 93	Week 100	-
Week 59	Week 66	Week 73	Week 80	Week 87	Week 94	Week 101	-
Year Three:
Week 105	Week 112	Week 119	Week 126	Week 133	Week 140	Week 147	Week 154
Week 106	Week 113	Week 120	Week 127	Week 134	Week 141	Week 148	Week 155
Week 107	Week 114	Week 121	Week 128	Week 135	Week 142	Week 149	Week 156
Week 108	Week 115	Week 122	Week 129	Week 136	Week 143	Week 150	-
Week 109	Week 116	Week 123	Week 130	Week 137	Week 144	Week 151	-
Week 110	Week 117	Week 124	Week 131	Week 138	Week 145	Week 152	-
Week 111	Week 118	Week 125	Week 132	Week 139	Week 146	Week 153	-
Year Four:
Week 157	Week 164	Week 171	Week 178	Week 185	Week 192	Week 199	Week 206
Week 158	Week 165	Week 172	Week 179	Week 186	Week 193	Week 200	Week 207
Week 159	Week 166	Week 173	Week 180	Week 187	Week 194	Week 201	Week 208
Week 160	Week 167	Week 174	Week 181	Week 188	Week 195	Week 202	-
Week 161	Week 168	Week 175	Week 182	Week 189	Week 196	Week 203	-
Week 162	Week 169	Week 176	Week 183	Week 190	Week 197	Week 204	-
Week 163	Week 170	Week 177	Week 184	Week 191	Week 198	Week 205	-
Year Five:
Week 209	Week 216	Week 223	Week 230	Week 237	Week 244
Week 210	Week 217	Week 224	Week 231	Week 238
Week 211	Week 218	Week 225	Week 232	Week 239
Week 212	Week 219	Week 226	Week 233	Week 240
Week 213	Week 220	Week 227	Week 234	Week 241
Week 214	Week 221	Week 228	Week 235	Week 242
Week 215	Week 222	Week 229	Week 236	Week 243

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