Sunday, May 10, 2009

Spring Fever



Okay, this week in Victoria's restoration was kind of fruitful. First, I began cleaning up the springs. In a prior post I reported that "one of them" included an etching of "J3829". Well, as I began looking at them all I noticed that they all had this or a similar engraving. However, it was a little different than I had first seen. The etching didn't say J3839 but it said instead JD829 and then "BERRY" (see photo. Does anyone know what this means?

I then tried to remove the inner, rear fender wings. I say "attempted" because I found that the inner fenders were fused to the exterior body panel with rust. I'll try and fix this the following weeks. I have already ordered replacement inner wings plus the sill of the body panel area that surround them, so preserving them isn't important except that it'll help who ever I get to do the metalwork to "landmark" certain things when they do the work.

I also removed the structural elements that supported the cargo floor. I am going to remake these in the next few weeks. I might also add that, in the course of working, I had an encounter with a hummingbird. Surest proof IMO of the existence of a god. It flew in the barn, hovered at eye level with me and made eye contact, and then flew away. Next surest proof of god: I then also found the sun glasses I had misplaced two months ago. Alas, this is the last I will accomplish in the next few weeks. I am getting married next weekend. In Canada next weekend is a long weekend owing to Queen Victoria's birthday, which is still a national holiday. Since "Victoria" was made around this time of year 59 years ago, I have also chosen to make it her birthday. Happy birthday Victoria! I know that you're looking sad a the moment, but you're on your way to a full recovering thank to the efforts of a lot of people all over the world. I hope that by September 2010 you'll be Canada's only surviving, operational J Van.

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