Hit and Miss in the garage with the '56 F100

 Guys, just want to show you this photo and let you mull over it for a moment or two and consider whether I am being hyper critical or a complete bum hole about the situation.

What you are seeing here is the culmination of four days work from a guy who I have now dumped due to taking advantage of our hospitality, friendship, free accommodation and food for him and his two dogs and wanting to sting us over a grand in labour charges for what is essentially cutting and shaping two pieces of 5ml plate. Oh, I forgot, he DID drill 14 holes, too. 

Prior to his arrival, he advised me the cutting of the plates would not be a big deal as he had a 9" angle grinder and was able to cut the plates.  Little did I know that for a solid three days, that was all he did. 

There's no argument that the pieces have been nicely cut out and cleaned up. But, do you know what? After 15 hours spent on them, they'd want to be works of art!

Seriously, had I known this guy was gonna take that long, I would have bought a grinder and done it myself. In hindsight, I should have mocked up a cardboard template, transferred it to the plate and marked it out and taken it to a fabrication shop (no, nothing with the word "surreal" in it) and had them cut the plate out with a plasma cutter or oxy cutter etc and saved four wasted days. Days that could have been spent tacking up the rest of the panels. which is what I wanted all along. 

Not only that, when I sent him a message on day four while I was at work asking if he would be able to get the front end completed by the weekend he snapped back at me and told me I had no idea what I was asking! This is coming from a guy whom we offered free accomodation, free meals. My wife even gave up her own bathroom to give him his own bathroom. And we allowed his two dogs to sleep with him on the bed.

Needless to say I have moved on with this guy and am finally resigned to the fact that I will have to complete the work myself. I have enlisted the help of a third year apprentice welder and am confident between the two of us we can complete the project. 

Other news...

Well, the Jag front end is out and the horn things that support the front rubber mounts have been removed. Kinda sad about that as I always thought using the rubber mounts was the best way to go. Seems like it's now a bit passe. 

Just check this out! How is this for a shocking butcher job! The Jag front requires a small notch to be made in the front end to sit snug in the f100 chassis. But this is taking things to extreme! There is only one remedy for that, and that is welding a patch on it.