well… it’s been just over 2 months since I last updated this site. Man, I’m such a slacker! and sadly, in that time, I haven’t really gotten a whole lot done on the Rapier. I guess sometimes life really does get in the way. I had hoped I’d be wrapping up my garage interior project by the first of the year, but unfortunately, it looks like the new garage deadline is Feb 1. I was able to complete the insulation, drywall and paint, but i still have some cabinets to build and some serious cleaning to do. Aside from all the construction mess, it looks like 2 sunbeams have puked their guts all over my shop. I’ve got Rapier parts everywhere!!!

Since my last entry, I did manage to get a few things going on the Rapier. I dissembled and cleaned 2 complete Rapier front ends. To my surprise, most if not all of the parts off of both assemblies are in amazing condition. I dropped 4 drums off at Page Brake to get turned, and also sent out 2 sets of front shoes to get re-bonded. My “new” parts supply continues to get bigger too. I just recently received all new brake pipe and wheel cylinders (and a bunch of kits from Vintage Parts Inc. on Ebay), I still need to source some rubber brake lines, but they’ll surface soon enough. I sent out a single carb intake manifold, that I got from Ray Marty, to Mike at Pierce Manifolds. Mike is going to outfit the manifold with a fresh new Weber carbie….YAY! I ordered a couple sets of vent wing window rubber seals from Frank Schoenberger in OZ. and made a sizable order from Scotts Old Rubber for the rest of the rubber bits.

Since the garage had taken up most of my focus, I thought this would be a good time to get the ball rolling on the interior bits, so, off to the upholstery shop Liz and I went to pick out interior colors and materials. We are using a local Salt Lake upholster called the “Seat Cover Shop”, who specializes in Convertible tops and were “the” suggested shop of one of the local Upholstery warehouses. We took down the seats (fronts and rear) and had Scott give them the once over. Seems everything is workable other than the rusty seat frames, which Scott stripped and I sent off to my powdercoater go get a nice satin black treatment. While the frames were at the coaters, I took the front seat hinges, hood chrome and headlight eyebrows to T&T Plating to get re-plated.

While I did all this, Scott made up a sample of what the seat covers would look like.  Liz chose a nice marine grade white vinyl for the tuck and roll seat fields and we had Scott mix up a pink match to our paint color to add to the piping. Needless to say, the color was a dead ringer, and Liz loved the pink/white combo!!!

White with pink piping….SWEET!!!

Well, the weather has made a turn for the cold. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, it is after all November. Man, where have the last 2 months gone…

Progress on the Rapier 2.0 has come to halt until I can make some working room in my shop, looks like I’ve got some serious cleaning to do . While moving the 2.0 into the garage, I thought to myself, this would be a great time to insulate the ceiling, it is after all, starting to get really chilly!

So… aside from some serious cleaning, I’ve spent the last 2 days stapling bats of pink joy to my shop ceiling. This stuff really sucks, but it will sure be nice to have a toasty warm shop in the thick of winter. If I finish this quickly enough and I’m still feeling motivated, I may even drywall the ceiling and hang all my new shop lights. So much to do, so little time.

The Rapier makes a really great insulating table.