In the last week of September I got a call from Ernie Romero. He had the slot open in his shop for our body. We agreed that I would bring it down on October 2, 2020. But first I had to get it loaded into my pickup. I’d taken measurements and it appeared that, yes, it would fit.  Snugly and with the back end hanging out over the tail gate. But that was MUCH more convenient than trying to get a trailer down the narrow little road to Ernie’s shop. So I drafted my daughter, Tori; her boyfriend, Chris; our housekeeper, Juana to all help transport the body on temporary 2×4 skids with lifting poles up the hill from my shop to the pick-up.

Transporting the body

Pallbearers

Ready to offload at Ernie’s shop.

Once we had the body on the work cart, we left the body for Ernie to do his skilled magic. That means I needed to seriously get to work on the hood, the wheels and other sundry parts that still need work. All before the body is finished.  The plan is to immediately install the body on the car when the upholstery is finished.

Once we had the paint on the doors and the body, it was time to get the upholstery installed.

No upholstery

I checked with my advisory counsel at the La Jolla Regional Group of the Horseless Carriage Club. The consensus was – “See if Ernie Romero is available. He’s very busy and usually fully booked for a year or more, but check anyway. He’s the best.” So I checked. And Ernie had a block of time coming up. But first he needed to see what the remaining upholstery and other bits looked like. So August 17th,  I took the remaining seat bottoms and thoroughly trashed seat backs, one door and the top bows (and remaining top fabric) down to Ernie’s place in El Cajon (about 45 miles away) so he would see what materials we had for patterns.

Old upholstery laid out with front seats & back seats in correct positions.

Top Bows extended

Back & sides of top

We talked a while and figured out a price for new upholstery using patterns that he would need to make from the old material.  We wanted to retain the original stitching style and use curled horse hair for the padding, not foam. We also spoke about what I’d need to do to obtain fabric for the top, which would be a separate project.  (I’ll go into more detail about the top in another posting.) While I waited for the slot to open in Ernie’s shop,  I’d needed to figure out how to get the body to him. He figured a slot would be available sometime around the end of September or early October 2020.