IN THE BEGINNING... THERE WAS MUCH RUST.

Since we brought Vlad home in February, we haven't really touched her. Last week we went out to a friendly local dude with a garden full of Chevy's and a garage full of parts, and picked her up some salvaged parts she was missing - a drivers side arm rest, a foot brake knob, interior light housing and coat hooks and a window winder. He was kind enough to give us the little rubber stops missing from the sun visors too, so they are now both operational :)

The known mechanical problems right now are that there is a pink fluid leaking from her (transmission or power steering? Not certain yet but we believe transmission). She also has a busted front passenger side spring. New springs and shocks are on their way! Because of these, we haven't driven her much or very far. AC is also not working - this is yet to be diagnosed. I did take her out for a spin to the library on my birthday, it took several tries to get the poor girl going after a while without starting.

Last weekend we ordered a sweet new radio for our girl. I had ordered a Rampage AV2000, which is the correct radio for the Metallicar, but T expressed some dismay (okay major annoyance) that he couldn't play mp3's in our baby. Bitch. Anyway, the company emailed me to say the radio wasn't available after all. So we ended up going for the Retrosound Model 2, which has bluetooth, usb, and all sorts of techy things to satisfy the engineer. She IS a beauty, but I'm so ashamed. I'm sorry Dean, I've let you down. 

I wanted to get up a bunch of early pictures now so as we go along, we can see her progression. So below are lots of pics from many angles that show the extent of most of her scars and battle wounds. 

Damaged driver's side panel. From what I understand, the metal at the top is all that is needed to make a new panel here, so not sure whether we will reupholster yet or get a new panel altogether. 

Pretty much the condition of all the weather stripping on poor Vlad.  

Reversing light housing is damaged on both sides. 

Damaged trim and crazed paintwork, but  she has her original emblems :)

More trim in bad condition. We're not sure if it was painted at one point? 

Holy rusted metal, Batman. 

Her once awesome teal interior :)

Very cracked 47 year old steering wheel

Sadly the previous owner cut a huge hole in her dash panel to install a new stereo. Worse that that, it appears he accidentally cut right into the metal - see bottom right. Doh. 

Vlad currently has 4 keys for her doors, ignition, glove box and boot. I bought a new set so that all her keys match, but we haven't installed it yet. 

Pitted and rusting chrome everywhere. 

Where is Dean supposed to lean his arm?

A badly patched rust spot. There are a couple of these. 

The belly of the beast. 

I hope the Dr who did this surgery lost their medical licence.