The Day We Started Tearing It Apart
It’s an interesting feeling being so excited about building a car… and the first step is ripping it apart. But the bright side is knowing that it’s going to make putting the whole thing back together again so much easier right? First – let’s talk about the kind of space you need to pull something like this off. This is by no means a comprehensive list – and it’ll grow as we continue, but to give you a basic picture into what we’re working with.
Folding tables. Folding chairs. And a 20’ x 30’ space. Armed with Ziplock bags, sharpies, masking tape, a speaker to blast our Beach Boys (okay okay Beyoncé) and our handy dandy Speedway T-Bucket Manual we hit the ‘garage’ for the first time.
Bags for tear down
Tear down tip: Every single part that gets torn off the car gets labeled and bagged (or wrapped) and then put onto our parts tables. No, that’s nothing fancy, it’s literally just a folding table covered in parts. Pro tip: If you’re assembling a building team, make sure you draft someone that’s VERY organized and likes to label. We envision this is going to save us HOURS in the long run (bless you #tinyT).
Tool list:
- Allen wrenches (get yourself a full set)
- Actual wrenches (7/16 and 9/16 seem to be the most popular, but you’re going to need a full set as well)
- Socket wrenches with an extender (note: if your tires are as wide as ours are, you’re going to need a LONG extender)
- Jack stands
- Jack
- Hammer/Mallet/Rubber Mallet
- Screw Driver – Flat head and Phillips (bonus points for a short version, easy to get into tight spaces)
- Flashlight
- Wire Cutters
- A moving blanket if you’re not the laying-on-dirty-floors type (track mats and creepers work for fancy car builders)
- Bonus points for remembering to wear a long sleeve shirt to avoid the fiberglass shards (so. itchy).
Slowly but surely we’re making progress, we’ve:
- Torn off the front/rear fenders, running boards (and step plates) and aprons on both sides
- Removed taillights and wiring
- Removed battery box
- Removed truck bed
- Removed radiator & grille shell
- Removed mufflers/exhaust pipes
- Taken our fair share of selfies
It’s progress. Good, tough, productive, tear down progress. But the best part? We’ve caught the itch (and I’m not just talking about the fiberglass). We’ve been talking about/dreaming over/brainstorming on this project for months. And now that it’s finally here and started – we don’t want to quit. Because it really is un-nerving to leave something for another day. How un-fun. Not to mention, our deadline is looming (71 days… but who is counting?!) and we’ve still got to tear it down to the bones, have the body painted and then do the HARD parts of putting it all back together, add fluids, wire the whole thing and turn.it.on. Sigh.
We’ll get there – and it’s going to be amazing – but until then – we’ll just be here, blogging about the whole thing for you… Xoxo, #BucketBetty