Does a tune up have to take three years of your life, ruin relationships and finish off with a paint job for 4000$? These questions led to Mission 47. The mission was to fix rust, lower the suspension and also to paint it fresh, all in 47 hours. No professionals got to participate and the cost was not to exceed 1200$. By Lars Krantz.
Samuel Strand had painted his pickis before the mission. He began each work with a burnout. Today you can watch American television programs where workshops with a burnout in each program. Samuel did it in 2008.
Continued from last issue Worldkustom:
The gang had worked 11 hours and gone home five on Saturday morning. Now they were here again, nine on Saturday morning after four hours of sleep.
The five victims had worked throughout Friday evening and night to four a.m. on Saturday morning. The Buick had hidden more rust than expected and everything had been delayed. We had been forced to take out the rear side windows. Now we had no weather strips. A cry for help had been sent out on the network by usabil.nu. The gang had finally called it a day at ten past four in the morning.
Back after four hours. Dennis Sepp, Robert Gustavsson, Per Johansson, Bert-Ove Lundgren, Samuel Beach and Mike Ström that came with breakfast. Note the magazine Classic Börsen on the table that was already in print. Normally, a project is completed prior to publication. Mission 47 was made in the burning heat of todays seconds. Real time. The computer to the right transmitted an image every five seconds. Thousands followed the drama on the web. Bert-Ove was the one who fixed the data management as well.
Now they were here again. I looked at the clock. Five past nine. They had slept four hours. A guy came with prawn sandwiches. He had followed the process through the webcam.
Hello, my name is Mike Ström, I’ll buy you breakfast.
Today the suspension day began . Front and rear suspension would be lowered and the car finished so painting could be made towards the night. I looked forward to an early evening after a long night. Little did I know what was to come. Bert-Ove Lundgren, who loves problems, had been assigned the task to assemble the lowered spindles from Fatman in the United States.
It went south. The spindle is split and consists of a so-called upright holding the wheel axle.
The two had been joined together for 58 years and I think you get the rest. Total stop and Bert-Ove disappeared off to his job where a hudraulic press waited. Bert-Ove shows the lowering difference.
The rear suspension took Per Johansson care of. A simple game for the flinke youth unless Samuel Strand had hidden one spring.
Samuel had voted on the spring at the right end, a VW Transporter spring that would have given the Buick a Gällivare Hang loose style which sent the gas tank in the asphalt.
The middle spring was choosen, a Monte Carlo Heavy Duty 1973 delivered by Norrlands Custom and when the other was to be mounted Samuel had hidden it. Original spring to the left. I was sweating. No weather strips, the lowering the work had been halted at both ends and they were playing as the clock was ticking.
The Buicks springs were spun togther at both ends. To jst cut them was not possible. THANKS Norrlands Custom patiently looking in catalogs, measuring, and making suggestions on appropriate shorter springs.
NOON. The Buicks paint was cracked and had great surface rust craters in the plate. Robert, Rabbe Gustavsson was the one who most clearly realized the tremendous preparatory work that still remained. He didn’t say it but his grinder was never quiet.
Dennis Sepp had not sanded before but Rabbe saw his talent, gave tips and the two were working very closely in the grinding fog. Behind them was Samuel, putting on new bondo and molded abrasive basis.
Bert-Ove called from its outsourced shop:
-Houston we have a problem. I have been disassembeling stuff but the new bushings do not fit. Right now we have no front suspension. We agreed to use the old bushings from 1950. No one liked it but we had no choice.
The cell rang again. Hasse and Ann Sjöberg, two amazing enthusiasts from Örnsköldsvik with show cars, drivers and giant garage, had seen my cry for help online.
-Nahh, We come down. I’ll take the strips I have said Hasse.
We got to take what we wanted. A Golden Moment to remember.
My wife ( nick name The Ant as she’s little and hard working) came with lunch and the local newspaper was lying on the table
Mission 47 was on the first page, TV-station Middle News wanted to cover it. 6000 had been on usabil.nu where webcam was to be found and several had posted cheerful greetings and tired bodies got fuel.
Samuel started distributing pinstriped special memories at the table for everyone. Golden Moments
Bert-Ove had brought the spindles and began to assemble but missing cotter pins. Several in the workshop missed stuff and we sent Godfrey Krantz 12 years with a shopping list to Mekonomen (Like Advanced Autoparts in Sweden) in the same house.
-Mekonomens Cash register had broken down, he reported when he came back with a bag full of stuff.
-They said they could not take payment . . . Yeahh sure! THANK’S Mekko.
4:30 p.m. In the afternoon wheels sat in place. The car is lowered onto its new height and wheels crawl into the wheel wells. The gang gathered, the fans were turned off and there is silence in the workshop. A much needed respite. It looked perfect.
-Ahh so neat everyone said and gratitude goesto Fatman Fabrications in the United States. In the rear we could have withstood a couple of inch more lowering. Two men stood in the trunk and the car looked better. With a full tank, water-filled spare wheel and tool box in concrete, it may be ok. The sun goes down for the second day. I looked at the clock, 4.30 p.m. – already! It was as if the garage was a capsule from where you saw the sun rise and set over the earth. 
All moves to the body which has far to go. Moreover, the hood is far from done, not the sun visor, not the rims. All chrome shall be addressed and. . . I see that everyone sees the crazy in the whole thing, the madness, yet nobody says anything. They just continue.
Hours go by. Samuel is sweating. In Dennis’s face runs furrows of black soot. Only thing needed is that one throws the tools of fatigue and insight and this whole everything goes down the drain but it is quiet.
I look at Per. The young gun. Is he falling apart?
-What is it, he says, and I go in to the computer room and write on th eblog on usabil.nu
The time is 8:22 p.m. Now the guys ave been running for 28 hours with a total of 4 hours sleep and now the speed increases, the intensity. Now you can feel the the fatigue thick but also the energy around the car.
We must come to painting. Everyone looks at the clock but everyone wants to do a little more, grind some more to improve, adjust, Rabbe shaking his head, too little time. Samuel knows that we need to start painting, everyone is tired, worn out, Rabbe hand grinds insane.
The roof is bad, the hood is not good, time is running out. No one wants to draw the line, everyone wants to do some more. I’ve never seen anything like it ….. ”
10:10 p.m. Professional painter who followed us online and owns the shop, Leffe Eriksson comes. He has seen how time passes. He must not meddle in, but he sees that everything is slipping out of our hands. He says nothing. Everyone knows anyway. We need to start painting nooow! Samuel, the choosen painter goes to bed in the back seat of Pers Impala.
The ground paint is a tone filler that serves to isolate the underlying everything so topcoat do not suffer from unpleasant surprises. It is blended in green to give good saturation to the final mint-green color. Rabbe wobbles with paint cans to prepare for Samuel.
11:00 p.m. Samuel comes out again now with a new hammer and a new alignment tool. He attacs a dent !! But what the ..?
-It thought it would have been hidden by the rear bumber but now I see that it is not going to do it, says Samuel, whipping together more spray fillers and puts on.
-Amazing
Dennis and Bert-Ove draws new cables to the webcam so the public can be taken into the paint booth. Everybody is goes over the car with a thinner rug . Rabbe mix the primer and return directly to grinding on the hood while Samuel paints … It´s too late now to be able to paint the entire car
00:20 a.m. It’s Sunday. The time has passed midnight, the oven is baking the car and the tire machine goes because of the rim painting. Since Friday morning, they have been awake for 40 hours and slaved in 32 of them with a break for 4 hours sleep and they’re still standing
In the middle of the night, the car is only partially painted. Hood, steering wheel, sun visor, rims and other small things are undone. In a few hours, the Buick is to be completely done and ready. It takes two hours to paint. It has to dry. When will they sleep? Samuel and Rabbe mixes top coat and Samuel is about to begin. Right there the paint brush can starts to fail ….
To be continued . . .
