I guess it’s about time for one of my updates. Where to start? Car-Nut-Ball me ended up buying a used GM Performance 5.7 liter Vortec V-8 engine and 700R4 automatic overdrive transmission, while I was on vacation in Oregon in August. I carried that engine/trans around in the bed of my pickup while towing my RV trailer for over a week. I THINK the engine will go into a 1991 Chevy S10 pickup that I bought from my buddy Ralph to do a V-8 swap on. I used the word THINK because I’m trying very hard to get this Car-Nut-Ball (C N B) disorder under control. Today, l love the idea of having a small V-8 powered pickup as my daily driver, but I’ve also changed my mind on these car projects like some people change their socks.

So, doing more research than ever before into what it will actually cost to do a V-8 swap, is what I’m doing before I make any final decisions. I just sold the RV trailer and will soon be selling my low mileage Chevy 2500 pickup. That two-week vacation to the Oregon coast, was my last trip towing a big trailer, so I don’t need the big truck anymore. Getting out of this scorching summer heat in mid August was fantastic. The high temperature on the coast was 68 degrees and the night temps were in the mid 50’s. It was awesome and it only lightly rained for a few hours on one day. Ever since getting back home, I’ve been painting my 1970 Camaro. That’s right, on September 14th I actually painted that car for a THIRD TIME since July. C N B me tried painting it when it was over 100* and the result was the worst orange peel l’ve ever seen. Only fix was to sand it down and paint it again, which happened a few weeks before the vacation. C N B me did not follow to the letter the paint mixing instructions, and that paint job WOULD NOT DRY, even in this heat.

Professional painter and friend Lucky Luciano gave me some great advice, that I did follow to the letter and that single stage white paint job eventually did dry. By now, my C N B brain said, this is a 1970 Camaro and it looks boring in white. So, hours and hours of sanding and prep followed to get this car as ready for a bright red paint job as I could do. On Thursday Sept. 12th the Camaro became bright red. At first, I was thinking that it looked good enough to not do any wet sanding and buffing, but again Lucky said he always wet sands and buffs no matter how good the vehicle looks after painting. I spent many more hours wet sanding the car and just when I thought I was finished, l’d realize that there’s still a lot more light orange peel to sand flat, which I did. I’ve never been good at the buffing, so I had the final buffing done by professionals. To my untrained eyes, the car looks amazing, it is without a doubt my best ever paint job, by far. The Camaro will soon be for sale. Next up for me, is doing an even better prep and paint job on my ‘65 Mustang, that I painted red last year, but I didn’t do good prep and the car looked great from 10 feet, but not good up close. If you’re like me, you are ready and waiting for this heat to become a distant memory.