18/03/2021
Hey, all it's been awhile since I've last posted, I have been a little pre occupied. The most recent mission has been reunited with the owner after being in pieces for so long. This 1985 KB Rodeo Spacecab family airloom was bistowed upon me to become whole once again. Retrived before it was Lost, a lovely lady requested me to complete her father's ute to remember him by, by returning it to its former glory. Unfortunately, the previous workers, who were asked to do the job before, did more damage than good by leaving it in pieces and losing many parts.
Not only did I need to find a lot of parts, I also needed to find a tub. Luckily I found one that was just past Orange, NSW, that was at least salvagable. THERE WERE LITERALLY NO OTHER TUB IN AUS THAT I COULD FIND. At the beginning of Covid I finally received the parts car to begin the process, until I noticed the damn thing was completely infested by black house spiders. It was literally top to bottom, inside and out full of spiders. LITERALLY EVERY DAMN SQAURE INCH WAS COVERED. After finally killing them all I began disassembling the tub, removed it and then began busting out the dents and rust. Before sandblasting I did all necessary rust and straightening every dent so there was less work once it was epoxied. Now the exhausting work started as body worked all the dents in the tub, polyester primed, blocked, primed, and then blocked again to be finally masked and painted.
When I started doing the cab, it was luckily not as bad as the tub. Dents all repaired and doors realigned, the final process of priming, blocking and painting were done. I thought I was done but I could not leave the grill untouched as it was disgusting so I ended up making it new again and matched it with the newly restored sunraiser rims.
Piece by piece the freshly painted parts and the newly aquired parts began falling back in place. New spacecab stickers were made by a local company named Inkdrip Screen Printing. We even decided to leave a little Memorial to the Father, Gordon Lee, by making a plaque with his initials in his honnor. After a strenuous detail and final check over he was finally ready to go home to his daughter.
March 7th, 2021 a beautiful jaw dropping rodeo was delivered to the owner. Anxiously waiting at home was his daughter waiting to be reunited with her dad. As this red ute pulled into the driveway the water works followed. Memories and emotion made this a very special day in my books, as I have never seen anyone happier in my life. I was told this was one of the very few things that were still left after his passing. Now returned the new life of the very special ute will create new memories for the rest of its time.
