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Tag Archives: Fourth of July

Red, White, and Blue

Tonight I put to bed another Fourth of July weekend. The anticipation and planning for the holiday weekend is always exciting.

The hard part is trying to fit every thing and everyone into the plans for the weekend. My daughters were especially excited about the weekend and planning all the food we would need and they made out a grocery list.

It’s a good thing they were thinking about meals because it was the last thing I felt like doing after a long VERY HOT week of working.

Part of their plans for the weekend was getting up early to go and pick strawberries at the local strawberry farm just around the corner from our home. We set our alarms for six am this morning and headed over to the farm. I would have liked to sleep in but picking strawberries is an annual tradition. Not necessarily on the 4th of July but each year we go picking strawberries.

This year grandson Jack accompanied, my husband, two daughters, one boyfriend and me to the farm. It was a beautiful morning with lots of beautiful berries.

Happy Fourth of July to all and a special thank you to all our service men and women serving and to all those who have done so faithfully in the past.

 

 
 

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The Jensen Project and putting the weekend away.

The Jensen Project is progressing nicely.  My husband and son pulled it out of the garage on Sunday and started to assess what to do next.  Some twelve years earlier my husband and I had sanded the rust off and applied some rust reformer to the car to prevent the rust from reappearing.  We had mixed results.  It worked in some areas but not all.

On Monday, July 4,  they began scraping and sanding all of the rust off the front of the car.  Before they could begin they had to remove the motor and transmission so they could access the engine compartment to prep it for primer and painting.  So right now we have more apart than what we started with but it will make for an overall better job.  After they sanded and removed all the rust they applied naval jelly with steel wool and worked it over the entire front end.  They worked on the Jensen for about 6 hours each.  About 6:30 pm they declared it was ready for primer.  They headed into the shop to get the flatbed to load up the Jensen. 

When they got to the shop they unloaded the Jensen into the car wash bay, just in time before the rain began.  We began wiping the surface clean with a wax and contaminate remover before we could paint.  Next was masking off the areas where we didn’t want any primer.  My husband sprayed an epoxy primer on the areas that they had prepped.  It looked great to see the primer on.  One step closer.

Tuesday evening we masked off the engine compartment area and wheel wells so he could paint it with Imron.  It is a durable chassis paint.  These areas will stay black and will not be painted  “Competition Yellow”.   The Imron will be a very durable paint for the wheel wells and the “Competition Yellow”  paint color is very expensive so choosing where to use them based on cost and utility makes sense.

Tonight my husband added some fiberglass to some areas that he will contour with some body filler later before he paints.  He also painted another layer of primer to the front end.  The reason for this is the first primer adheres well to bare metal but is difficult to sand to a finish that will cover well with paint.  The primer he applied tonight is one that can be sanded to a smooth finish that will produce a nice paint job.

This past weekend while the guys worked on the Jensen, I worked on various projects around the house.  It was so nice to finally have two days in a row at home.  I was very careful not to pull out too much and end my weekend with a lot of things started but not much finished.  I finally finished painting the final coat of paint on the family room and stairway. 

When I was looking for something in the garage on Sunday I ran across the trim paint for our base around the country porch.  The boards have chipped paint on them and were in need of some touch-up so after I had my basement painting mess put away I combined some needed yard work along with the painting.  As I worked my way around the base of the porch scraping and painting, I trimmed the grass and pulled the weeds around the flowers.

I can’t believe that the Fourth of July weekend has come and gone.  For me it always seemed to say that the summer was over.  It was always time to start thinking about back to school.  I haven’t taught school for the past three years now so somehow I feel like I have more summer left without preparing for my students or getting my own kids ready for school.  They are grown and can get themselves ready for college each fall.  In fact they are offended if I step in to help get ready for school or make a suggestion.  Afterall, they are adults.  Except, of course, when it comes to my checkbook.

 
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Posted by on July 7, 2010 in Unfinished Projects

 

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Anticipation

Fourth of July

This morning I was out and about running errands for our business.  I noticed that everywhere I went there was anticipation in the air with the Fourth of July weekend ahead.  People are busy talking about their plans for the long weekend.  Some are going camping with family, others are driving to a favorite destination to meet friends or relatives for the weekend.  Our destination this weekend will be home.  It seems like such a long time since we’ve spent much time there.  I’m looking forward to working in the yard, finishing some painting and watching my husband work on a project that we started over 30 years ago before we were married. 

He has a renewed interest in finishing the 1972 Jensen Healy that we have had in our garage for our entire married life.  Last weekend our son helped release the rear brakes on the car so it can move.  My husband put the carburetor on the car and they had it fired up and running.  This past week he has ordered the radiator for it and has started prepping the various parts of the car for painting.  He’s got the two front fenders and two doors primed and waiting for the Competition Yellow paint to be applied this weekend.  Then we will bring the chassis of the car down to the shop and begin prepping the parts on the car for paint.

He bought two Jensen Healy’s while we were dating.  I still remember the ride home from the auction in the late fall.  It was a cold ride with no heat in the car.  One had a bad motor from an engine fire and the other had a good motor with a rusty body.  The plan was to use the good parts from each and make one car of the two.  When we moved from our house in town in 1992 to the lake we actually used a broom and dust pan to scoop up the leftover rusty parts from the one car and moved the remaining good parts to our new home to work on.  It sat for many years untouched and then about 12 years ago he worked on it for a while and got the engine and transmission installed in the car.  We actually took it for a ride down the road with the motor in it with no doors on it or seatbelts.    He’s decided that everything does not have to be perfect now, it just needs to be done.  He said he’s looking forward to moving it from the liability side of things to an asset we can enjoy.

The kids are excited for it to be completed.  Each year as prom came around for each of the four of them they thought maybe Dad will have it done for prom.  All the proms have come and gone but the goal is to have it finished for Heritage Days in Upsala, the second weekend in August.  It may not be completely detailed but I can now see the possibilities of riding in it for the parade.  I, too, am living in anticipation for the Fourth of July weekend and the possibilities it holds.

1972 Jensen Healy

Chevy 350 in Jensen HealySideview of Jensen Healy

Jensen Healy doors

 

Jensen Healy fenders

 
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Posted by on June 30, 2010 in Fourth of July, Uncategorized

 

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