Visit the Acquisition page for more info on how I got this car.
Visit the Photos 5 page for earlier pictures.

9/6/03 :: Thanks to the Gathering we got a little further ahead in this massive project we have been crazy enough to undertake. This is the first time since we've had the car that the wheels have been off... The rears were locked up tight and the drums refused to budge. Many calls to all area parts stores did not turn up a drum puller but we have one so its just a matter of time before the cooperate. There is alot of rust in there... the drums are going to have to be heavily sanded and/or machined as you can hear the binding as the wheels turn. We have shoes and one wheel cylinder rebuild kit so that we'll probably pick one wheel and have at it.

9/7/03 :: Here's a view we rarely see since we don't have a lift. Another picture from the Gathering weekend. More parts for the wanted page too now... bumper mounting brackets for the front and side brackets for the rear bumper. Hopefully the bumpers will be on their way to Virginia in the near future as I have made a deal with a metal restoration shop there... they repair my bumpers and I build them a web site. Any one else interested in bartering?

9/9/03 :: Got the first wheel cylinder cleaned up on the wire wheel and discovered that we have a spare - in the parts we got from Miles. Joe is working on the spare right now which has the same problem as the one we took off the car - the bolts are snapped and frozen in place. While our original cylinder soaks Joe is working on trying to create a track in the screws so they can be removed. We may end up drilling them out and retapping the holes - "Nothing is ever easy" someone likes to say... Another bit of good news is that we actually did purchase all 4 rebuild kits for the cylinders so it looks like this will be our next project... We didn't get the rear drums off - we need to get a drum puller - so who knows what we are in for?

9/26/04 :: I am SO ashamed to see its been more than a year since my last post. We kinda stalled out and got very discouraged over body repairs. We've looked really hard for body panels since then and have accumulated quite a collection at the moment. First came the used right side fender from Norman Hart and then I found a set of front fenders, rear quarters and a deck lid made from fiberglass that we bought from England. Not sure exactly what's going to happen with these - our first thought are to use them as templates to have metal panels made. We were in heavy negotiations with someone else to purchase a new left side fender from Canada UNTIL we saw the ad in our LOCAL paper for a "65 Honda S600"! Luckily we have friends who tell us this stuff because it was in a free paper that we rarely look through. We went and saw the car - although its hard to say car when there are probably 200 pieces all disassembled including the tub from the frame. The body is in excellent condition, just missing the bottom 5 inches or so of each fender. The metal behind the fender is still intact though - I didn't even know there was something besides the fender there since on my car its ALL rusted out. There is also a 4-5" inch hole in the driver's side floor pan but otherwise the body is excellent. Someone painted a white racing stripe on the car which is kinda cute but I wouldn't want certain people to stop talking to me so it probably will not be duplicated when the car is repainted :-) Sunday afternoon we took truck and trailer to pickup the first load and actually got more than we thought was going to fit. The man we bought the car from had also purchased a 66 parts car so had tons of extra items such as a door, hood, transmission, and rear end. After moving 2 of them I think that 1/2 the weight of the car comes from that one section! So, all thats left to pickup is the tub itself... hopefully that will happen next Sunday and there will be more photos. Some of the things I am most excited about with this purchase are the original shop and owners manual, original ignition switch and Honda keys, the plastic sunshade (cracked but in good enough condition to have someone duplicate), two convertible tops - again cracked but much better than ours which is just bows, a tonneau cover and some interior carpet and rubber. We have a complete exhaust as well as a 2nd front pipe in better condition than whats in the photo). And did I mention 2 brand new master cylinders, still in the bag??? Did I mention the bad news? The engine in the new car is seized - the pistons are stuck. I'm sure we could figure out and repair with enough time but at the moment, the plan is to use our perfectly good engine in the new body. My only dilemna is what to call the car :-) My first instinct would be to say that the engine is the most important part of the car and that I could still call the the composite vehicle Chatham since many parts from our original car will be transfered. I guess I will have alot of time to consider this. The tub and frame will be heading directly over to the body shop where they will be cleaned up, repaired and painted as necessary. You should see some new updates on the site soon. At the very least I have about 50 hours of work in cleaning up and inventorying new items.

10/03/04 :: Another Sunday, another S Car Run! The body was sitting on a dolly which seemed like it would just roll up the ramp of our trailer but it did not want to cooperate very well. We ended up letting the very heavy back end of the car sit on a couple tires to keep in from shifting around while towing. It was a long trip home from Richmond watching in the rear view to make sure things were not moving around but not nearly so far as Nova Scotia :-) I will add to Brian's "Nothing is ever easy" that "Things could always be worse" :-) There is a 3 inch hole in driver's side floorpan area, in the far outer corner which goes through the firewall into the engine bay area. The bottom 5 inches of fender have been cut out on both sides and there are a few rusted areas... BUT overall, this is in WAY better shape than the body we have been working with so far. On the 6th I start my campaign to drive the body shop owner nuts by calling to ask when I can bring the car over. I have to be somewhat nice as he is now my cousin-in-law... The plan is to get the tub and frame over to the body shop where we can actually work on it. Our 3 bays are so full of "stuff" at the moment it looks like several S Cars exploded!