Hurry Up and Wait

(Written on 1/28/2022)

As soon as I bought the Spitfire, friends and family asked how soon I'd have it on the road. I genuinely admire those folks who can turn things around in no time at all, but I'm not one of those guys. When my brother and I were boys I can remember him asking in frustration why I made a project out of everything. The answer: I like projects, and I like things done a certain way. Not only did this frustrate my brother, it pretty much drove my father crazy. Dad admonished me for being a perfectionist, but I know full well I'm not a perfectionist, for try as I might, I've never managed to make anything perfect. 😉 My answer to anyone who asks when Penny will be done, is ten years. In reality I have no idea how long it will take, and I don't really care. Driving her will be fun, but so is the process of rebuilding her. In addition, I never have just one project going at a time. This life offers so many interesting things to learn and experiment with that it would be impossible to focus on just one. I'm always amazed when someone tells me they are bored. I've always wished that days were 36 hours long.


When Marla and I bought our home, a third garage bay was a requirement because we both wanted to eventually get an impractical car. However, when I bought the Spitfire the bay was being used to house lawn mowers and other various items. So Penny went right into a storage unit.


Note the plastic sheet underneath her. This was a new storage unit and I didn't want to risk being charged for oil stains. So there she sat and dripped until I had a storage shed installed in the backyard, thereby freeing up the third garage bay. Penny took up residence at home on Halloween 2020. Of course the new shed required landscaping, and by the time that was done, it was cold. Working on anything in an unheated garage in winter is not my idea of fun, so winter was spent researching garage heaters, all things Spitfire, and making Penny plans.

😷 Covid came along that spring, and I had some unexpected time off from work. One would think I would have used that time to start working on Penny, but there was a list of projects I still wanted to do to make our relatively new house more our home. By May, however, I was itching to focus on the car. The first thing I did was to set up the garage for year round work by installing an electric heater. OMG, beats the hell out of the bullet kerosene heater my dad had, and I now have a 50A outlet for welding as a bonus.


Next I built a rolling work/storage table. Eventually the entire body will be removed from the Spitfire, and I wanted something mobile to set it on. The table is 4' x 8' (standard sheet of plywood) and has a shelf of the same dimensions. It's constructed from 2x4s and 2x6s in addition to sheets of 1/2" and 3/4" plywood.

By June it was time to stop looking, reading, researching, thinking, and planning and instead start spinning wrenches. 😎 


Location: Chambersburg, PA, USA

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