Starting Work at Sachse Rod Shop

After several months investigating the different options (and one unfortunate incident where attempting to transport the AMX made the trailer into a sail, whipping our car around on the highway) my dad and I found Sachse Rod Shop. We toured their paint booth, fabrication area, etc. and came to the conclusion that they really did do great work on restorations. Additionally, the North Texas AMC Club confirmed that they were a fantastic place...albeit a tad expensive.

The thing that really convinced me was the fact that the gentlemen there, Frank Millsap and his employees, had combined decades of experience teaching their craft at various community colleges and trade schools. Mr. Millsap was perfectly happy to let me come in and work on my car alongside the workers at the shop.

Original condition of the stand

The very first thing he had me do when we brought the car over was disassemble, properly label the parts, sandblast, and paint a stand for the car body. My impression at the time was that Mr. Millsap wanted to make sure I knew what a wrench and screwdriver were--essentially making sure I hadn't overstated my knowledge of tool use or work.

There are a few things that I learned here which I'll mention:

1. Take profuse amounts of pictures, cataloguing every step in your project

2. Place small parts in clear, labeled bags

3. If your media blaster is having trouble with low amounts of sand coming through, cover the nozzle with your glove and then give a quick spurt of air or two. This should redistribute the media along the bottom

4. Getting shocks from touching your media blaster isn't much fun

5. When using a spray can to paint something, do quick sweeping motions over the part instead of a continuous stream of paint. This will help reduce paint drippage (also go for several thin layers instead of one or two thick ones)

Here are the pieces sandblasted and ready for painting

Here's Brian helping me paint the stand. Hi Brian!