The Venus (Update #1)

Hello friends! This is my first attempt at writing a blog, so please bear with me. I will primarily be posting Venus progress updates from time to time. Please see “About The Venus” for links to the website which will have much more detail, and can bring you up to date!

So, on with my initial blog post. As I left off on the website, the Venus body was flipped upside down for better under-body access to perform repairs and to paint. I couldn’t begin sanding and spraying in my driveway due to the noise and dust (not to mention an unpleasant neighbor), and it just wouldn’t be right anyway. So I am now keeping the Venus body in an enclosed (and lockable) boat storage place near Katy Mills Mall. 

After ordering all of my fiberglass materials, and after dragging the air compressor, small work tables, and all kinds of stuff over to the stall, I finally began glass repair work today, 4/7/08. It has been quite awhile since working with fiberglass and resin, but it wasn’t too difficult. Although not shown here as I didn’t take my camera with me, I laid a 10×12 inch piece of glass behind the holes in the instrument panel, as well as a piece behind the radio cut-out. This will serve as a firm foundation to allow me to fill in the holes with progressive circles of glass and resin, building each up to the appropriate level. The inside firewall will get a complete sheet of glass.

Yep, I know…pretty darn ugly! But after I get these holes covered and some seams reinforced, the interior will be sprayed with primer, sanded smooth, and then painted. It will then look great! The plan will then be to flip it right-side up, and continue sanding and minor repairs on the outside of the body. This is taking longer than I expected, and I need to spend full-days on this if I ever expect to get this finished!

The work was pretty rough at first. Below are two angle-iron pieces that apprently held the windshield posts. These were not original, and were just globbed on with cruddy adhesive…took a lot of work in tight spaces to get these out.

One other on-going issue is that of finding the correct pieces that made up the spokes on the front grille. I learned that my Dad used the horizontal bar that mounted between the two bumper guards on the rear bumper of a 1951 Mercury. I have only received 1 of these so far, but I expect to get another 3 or 4 before too long. Here is a photo showing you the trypical condition of these pieces. They will, of course, go to a chrome plate specialist to make like-new. The light fixture will be cut out.

Well, that’s it for my first blog entry. Please leave a comment. I really don’t know if I’m going to keep this blog up….but it is a way to send updates without attaching a bunch of photos to an e-mail.

Patrick