As you may know, over Thanksgiving, we got a special delivery – a 1939 Chrysler Royal that has been in the family for years. The car was Tim’s grandmother’s first car, and has been in storage for the last 60 years. This year, Tim will be restoring the car to give back to his grandma the way she remembers it.

This Saturday, we had a family day at the shop working on Ruthy’s restoration. It was the first time we’ve gotten a chance to devote a day to the car, and we got some help from Tim’s sister, brother-in-law, dad, and friend, Matt. It’s truly a labor of love, and everyone is really excited to do this project for Pat.

Tim, Julie and Chris working on Ruthy!

The first order of business was to disassemble everything on the car, label it and make note of anything that needs to be repaired or replaced. Since it is a 1939 car, we know that we may not be able to find a lot of the small things that need to be replaced, so Tim anticipates having to fabricate some things.

This guy’s been in here a while!

We pulled the doors off the car, but left the fenders and some other parts on for when we have more room in the shop. First, we will probably do the body work on the parts that are already off the car, and then move on to the other parts. We cleaned out the inside of the car, vacuuming up all the random dirt and debris, and identifying the rust holes we need to repair. And we even encountered the skeleton of a mouse in one of the back door panels..

Tim, Alan, and Chris taking doors off

Julie, Tim and Alan working on disassembly

It was definitely a productive day with all of us working on it! We got a good idea of the work that will be needed, and Tim is really happy with the progress. Here’s what Ruthy currently looks like after Day One… All cleaned out and partially disassembled.

Ruthy, after a day of disassembly

There is a lot of work left to be done on grandma’s car. We’ll keep posting updates along the way, so follow the blog and Facebook to keep up with the progress.

See our  Restoration Services page for more information on the kinds of restoration work we usually do, and contact us with questions or to discuss your project with us.