Sounds like you have what I'm hoping to buy next, an air system to feed my cabinet. Unfortunately, due to recent purchases, I'm missing all of the "special" deal days going on. The wife is throttling me!😀
Just curious, and sorry if you already said it, but how many gallons is your compressor tank? I can't believe years back that I had done a "frame on" to the '69 all with a 10 gallon tank. It was blast a bit, sit & wait, blast a lil more. As a younger man back then, I guess I had more patience than I do these days.

 

Is there a pill we can take to stop us from digging so many holes...asking for a friend.

 

Yes but the pill is hard to swallow.

 

I'll take some pictures when I get home, but I have a 60 gal DeWalt tank. It's funny that you mentioned the sales happening now, b/c that tank was my main "ask" for Christmas last year - so it didn't count against my budget. I will say that all the piping and brass fittings to run around the garage were a few hundred more on top of it. Then again, I have pex running around the whole garage, and 4 different connection points set up now (one on each wall). I'm definitely all hooked up.

Whaaaat?? Where would the fun be in that?? Mine was up and running, but some parts were a PITA. I had 3 spots before, and was dragging a line over to the workbench, so I removed a 90 degree corner to put in a T connection to add that one.
THEN...
I had a 15' accordion line by the garage door that I'd pull out to powdercoat, but it was a PITA pulling back on me. So I decided to add a reel by the door, and THAT needed a new water separator and pressure regulator in order to properly run for PC. Now the garage is a construction zone.

Then again, the temp just dropped to 25 degrees this morning, so I could be about to wrap things up for the winter anyway. If I get a nice day I need to pressure wash the frame as the #1 priority. I want it to the powder coater shop this winter, and can't do that 'til after I thoroughly check it out for rust and tighten up some of the stitch welding...

 

Ok, I didn't disappear, I just finally had a chance to get the garage back together. As promised, here's my air setup...

First, I have the compressor in a cabinet. I built the custom cabinets and setup along the back wall of the garage, and specifically included a spot for the compressor in the cabinet. The intention was to keep it neat and to reduce noise. Anyone that has one can tell you this doesn't work when it's cranking, b/c it gets warm and needs to vent. That means I have to leave the door open to have air flow, so it's just as loud anyway. It does look a lot better with the door closed, and it helps to keep the garage clean. Here's it in its cabinet on the back wall:



It runs up from the interior of the cabinet and around the top of the wall across the 3 walls of the garage. Moving to the left, I have one drop behind the toolbox on this wall. I don't use it much, but it was in case the blast cabinet ends up moving to this wall. It's also just easier to add drops during installation than try to go back later, as I found out this past week.


The next wall to the left again is the garage entrance. I added another drop here to be able to use air in the driveway. This is where I'm planning to add the hose reel this weekend, since the retracting air hose is more of a PITA than a help.



The last wall is where the blast cabinet is. The run used to end in a 90 degree drop to the cabinet here, but I just replaced it with a T this week. I was constantly dragging a line over to the workbench to the left, so I decided to extend and add another drop. I have the pex run over there and a shutoff in front of some plywood I just attached. The plan is to add another regulator / condenser on that plywood and have a 1/4 nipple there for using air tools on the bench.



Now that the garage is back together it's time to do some more blasting and powdercoating! I'm almost where I want to be right now, just a few more pieces to do. I also ordered the replacement windshield frame components. I don't know if I'll get to that before Christmas (2 of the kids' birthdays are also in December), but I'm hoping to get it fixed before the end of January.

We should have a couple of nice days (> 50) in the next week. If/when that happens the plan is to drag the frame outside to pressure wash it. That'll allow me to inspect it, see if any repairs need to be made, and tighten up some of the stitch welds. If I can get that done the frame will head to the powder coaters this month.

 

Beautiful work man! Getting your garage fixed up is always a good idea.

 

Thanks! Getting it fixed motivated me to continue the fight to disassemble the trailing arms. They were pretty trashed looking but I think they'll look ok once they're cleaned and coated.

Both lower shock mounts were STUCK, even after soaking them daily for a week. I ended up just pulling out the 3lb mallet and banging on them til they released, then had to cut the ends off to push it the rest of the way through. They're the first victims that'll have to be replaced.

Removing the two halves of the trailing arm wasn't that bad, and the bearings came out.

Before and after:



Both blasted:



The trailing arms, you can see what they both looked like to start.


And after blasting the second.


These were a huge PITA, probably the most annoying thing I've blasted yet. So many nooks and crannies, and the stitch welding is terrible. There's weld splatter all over these things! They're so nasty that it makes me feel better about my own skills and what results I can get...

 

Very nice set up! I know vearing away to get that all done feels like a set back, not working on the car while doing so, but looks like everything will be much easier to do now. Good to know about the tank size. I just don’t have the room, or I would totally copy you. I’m thinking a 30 gal. Can’t be anything but better than what my previous. But dang, sure would like to have yours. TA’s looking great!

 

Very nice!

 

Thanks gents! I picked up the remaining parts that I needed, so the air system is done (for now).

Tool bench:



Garage door:



Got some work done on the strut rods. Before:



During:



After:



Also got a delivery for the next major project...



It's all the parts to remove and replace the rotten windshield. It's an upper center, both upper corners, both side posts, both outer lower corners.

 

Surprise 57 degree day in December??? Time to bust out the pressure washer!

Before: Not bad, just covered in 50+ years of dirt and grease, so I can't really tell the condition of the frame. Plus, I've never seen the bottom...



I took it out to the driveway, and foamed the heck out of it!


I pressure washed it off, scraped some of the more gunked on spots (behind where the PS pump was), then flipped it over and repeated the process on the bottom.



Similar results on the bottom. Good news: no scary surprises waiting for me on the bottom of the frame. All looked pretty good.



Back inside the garage after air drying outside for 4ish hours. Definitely cleaner, definitely a bunch of flash rust.

No worries though, it'll probably go for blasting and powder coating before Christmas. I didn't see anything scary or unexpected, so all in all I'd say it was absolutely worth the hour it took to check things out. The last thing I did on each side (top and bottom) was to do a thorough wall through with a video to document everything. I may not need it later, but it didn't hurt to do.

 

Now is the perfect time to do any needed welding you may need to do.
I took my frame to the powder coater, had them sand blast it, then I brought it home, finished all the factory stitch welding, added gussets to strengthen it, and did any welding for brackets for any modifications I had planned.
After all the welding, I took it back to the powder coater and they coated it.
Plan ahead!

 

I believe there's a VIN somewhere on the frame rail. Good time to take a picture of it, I regret not doing that with mine.

 

The VIN stamp on my frame was on the top of the drivers side frame rail, just around the location of the rear wheel well.
It will be barely visible.

 

Yup, that's my plan too. It's just annoying to me because I've been spoiled being able to blast everything else (smaller) at home! How did you transport, just back of a truck?

That's awesome advice, I wasn't tracking that. I found some writing that I need to photograph, but I didn't know the VIN was on it.

How big is it? Is it as small as on a VIN plate, or larger than that?? 1/8" tall letters? Larger?

 

About the same size as the lettering on the VIN plate.
The stamping on mine was faint and now that it’s coated, it can barely be seen.

 

Wow, your timing was psychic: I was *just* about to post that I'd found it!

I went over the whole frame, flashlight in hand, looking. I never found it, so I decided to just start randomly cleaning spots with a wire brush that other pics showed it. It really only took a couple of minutes to find the first digit, and 10 minutes with a small wire toothbrush to uncover it.



I'm a little nervous to try to clean it off any better, but it's the right number!

 

You’re golden!
As long as it matches the VIN tag on the windshield frame.

 

I covered the VIN on my frame before coating it so it would still show afterwards. I did spray it with a few coats of clear after the whole frame was coated. I don't think having such a small area without the"heavy" coating will be detrimental...

 

Yeah, it definitely does. Given the shape of the car, I'd have been *really* surprised if someone had done a frame swap on it!

That's a cool idea, I'll have to check it out.

The only thing better than finding the VIN was seeing how nice of shape the steel around it is.