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WEEKEND 9 - 2/10/2001

We started bright and early Saturday morning. After picking up some gas and breakfast we headed to Neil's Dad's place to pick up our rusty hunk of steel we affectionately call our frame. Are loading it on the trailer we headed over to JeePanels Plus in South Paris, Maine. JeePanels Plus is owned by Sheldon Greene, the father of a good friend of Neil and mine. He said if we pay for the gas and grit we could use his professional sandblaster. (He got this sandblaster when he used to sandblast bridges.) Well three hours later we had a completely cleaned frame. We ended up going through about 500 pounds of Black Beauty grit. Man, it looked brand new (except for the few holes here and there). We loaded the frame up and brought it back to Neil's Dad's and that ended Saturday. The next day we needed to get all the crud out of the inside of the frame rails. Using the engine crane we hoisted one end of the frame up and then hammer and blew all the junk out. After that, I spent most of the time removing broken bolts from the frame. Neil took measurements and cut out the replacement pieces of steel that we're using. Our next weekend will be welding and painting of the frame.

{short description of image} Ron had started working about 5 minutes before this was taken. You can see the clean part of the frame to his right.
{short description of image} Another shot as he works himself down the rail.
{short description of image} A close-up of how clean the frame is getting.
{short description of image} Ron switched with Neil and neil started focusng on the front.
{short description of image} You can see the untouched rear section of the frame and the cleaned sections on top.
{short description of image} Ron in the distance making sure not to get to close.
{short description of image} Here's a picture of Neil (right) and Sheldon (left) from Jeepanels Plus talking about some slight holing in the frame by the right front tire well.
{short description of image} Confering again.
{short description of image} Ta-Da. The completly clean frame.
{short description of image} From the other end.
{short description of image} A close-up of the front of the clean frame.
{short description of image} This is one of two major badspots on the frame. The weird thing is that all the badspots, major or minor, were on the right side of the vehicle. Strange.
{short description of image} Here's the other one.
{short description of image} This is the sandblaster that we used on the frame. The compressor for it was actually a 2 axle trailer that was up the hill.
{short description of image} Back at Neil's Dad's place. Hanging the frame, knocking all the crap out of it.
{short description of image} This is the crap we knocked out of the two frame rails.
{short description of image} More broken bolt removal. Will it ever end?