[Lynn]

Good day today. Been fighting a lower back injury that happened just before MCACN. Was in a lot of pain during that whole weekend. Note to self. Don't pick up an old iron floor jack and turn quickly to put it in the back of the truck. Won't bore you with the details, but gave in to Physical Therapy to speed up the healing process. Before the injury I was doing 5 miles on the treadmill 4 or 5 days per week. Was even able to do a 10k in under 55 minutes. Not bad for an old fart. That came to a screeching halt. Just started back a little bit at a time once or twice a week. Did 4 miles this morning without issue before going to PT, so seeing some real progress.

Got home from work and went down to the shop about 5:30. Drilled out some broken screws in for the center caps on the two rear wheels. If you don't have a set of rescue bits, check into it. I could not have done it without them.

Also cleaned up the lips on the wheels. Figured while I had it on the tire machine cleaning up the bead surface, may as well do the outside. Came out really nice. Just used a green scotch while they were rotating on the tire machine.

Car would not go into park; was having to set park brake each time it was parked. Just a simple shifter adjustment fixed that. While I was under there, I noticed the trans mounts look REALLY old and cracked. Engine mounts look almost new. Ordering trans parts tonight.

Checked out the lights. All work as they should. Electric wipers work as they should. My 210 had vac wipers and they sucked (no pun intended) especially uphill. Even the friggin AM radio works. Not that there is anything I want to listen to on AM.

Didn't check the clock, but would be shocked if it worked.

I mentioned in my first post that the only pitted chrome was the tail light housings. Not quite true. Guess the stars in my eyes kept me from noticing, but the outside mirror base and both hood rocket bases have some pitting. Not a big deal at this point.

One thing that will definitely need addressing is the kickdown for the transmission. Not hooked up. Most of the linkage is there. But I need a couple pieces. I may have something leftover from when I converted the El Camino from PG to 4L60E. I rarely throw away brackets or linkage pieces. Shouldn't be hard to source.

I can live with the 40 or so pounds of undercoating on the bottom of the car for now. May have it dry ice blasted at some point. The three cosmetic things I really want to address are:

1. Some nimrod painted the firewall black. Not a high quality paint (thank goodness) as there are several spots where it is flaking off. Not even going to attempt anything on that unless and until the engine comes out.

2. I am assuming the same nimrod undercoated the bottom side of the hood. There is so much undercoating that there is a prop rod stored up in front of the radiator. If you open the hood ALL THE WAY it will stay open unless the wind is blowing OR if you just bump the car hard enough.

3. Hood hinges got painted half black (I guess to match the firewall... who knows what a moron is thinking when he does something like that) and half body color.

I am planning to talk with someone local who does dry ice blasting to see if he can blast the underside of the hood WITHOUT disturbing the paint on the top side. I would think so, because of how that works. Anyone try something like that? I read on line that it was doable, but haven't seen anyone post before and after pics of that job. So, if I get that done, would be easy enough to fix the hood hinge issue while the hood is off.

For now, just waiting on tires and other parts to arrive.