The Road to Recovery

Time for an update. The damaged rear quarter arrived at DMCNW last week after I shipped it off via FedEx Freight. Here's a picture of the huge box that it barely fit into before I shipped it off:


I also purchased four new tires and found them in matching tread, which was harder than it sounds. It's really easy to find tires for each tire size, but super hard to find the same tread pattern on the different tire sizes. I decided to purchase Cooper Cobra Radial GT tires since I could have the same tread pattern on the front and rear. The front tires are no longer manufactured, but I found a brand new pair on ebay. The rears were available from Discount Tire Direct.

I had my old tires removed from the wheels and had a local guy sandblast and powder coat the wheels before I put the new tires on. When I first saw the color that he used, I thought that it was too light, but after putting them on the car, I am very pleased with how great they look. Here's what they used to look like when the original powder coating was flaking off:
 

Now here's what they look like after the restoration job with the new tires:
 

So things are progressing well now. The car is finally back on its own weight with all four tires on the ground. The panel will hopefully be repaired this week and sent back to me quickly and without damage during transit.