Ruthy got to have some family time this Thanksgiving weekend! Tim’s family was in town and all got together to work on this exciting restoration.

Ruthy is a family project here in the shop. It’s Tim’s grandma’s very first car – a ’39 Chrysler Royal.

(For those of you who are not yet familiar with this restoration, read Ruthy’s story and browse through all the other progress updates here.)

Little by little, we are chipping away at the work that needs to be done on the car to bring it back to its original condition. Every little bit helps, and it was a productive day at the shop!

First, Alan and Chris removed the old radiator out of the nose and grill area of the car.

Alan also did some welding, replacing rust in the front fenders with new steel patches.

Alan doing metal work on the fenders

Uncle Larry was in town for the holiday and came by the shop to look at the motor. He is the expert mechanic in the family. The motor doesn’t turn free at the moment so we are soaking the cylinders in penetrating oil. We’re hoping the oil breaks the pistols from cylinder walls so that the motor will eventually turn over.

Tim & Uncle Larry

Julie and Chris used chemical stripper to remove all the old paint from both of the hood pieces. Once the paint is completely taken off, Tim can start on any metal and body work that needs to be done.

Julie & Chris stripping off paint

Paint stripper is very strong smelling, but it sure does work great for scrapping off all the paint.

There has been a lot of progress done on Ruthy’s fenders, including some metal and body work that had been done before this weekend.

Fender before primer

At a glance, the fenders of the car look to be in fairly good shape, but they were peppered with minor dents and dings. It took a lot of time to get perfect due to the fact that the fenders are so rounded.

The majority of the body work is done on the rear fenders. And the metal work is complete on the front fenders, so it won’t be long before they get moved into the body work stage as well.

Rear fenders in primer

Tim and Chris also started removing the rubber coating from the running boards. It’s been a trouble spot since it is really thick and hard to get off. They ended up using an air chisel to get them off, which will make it a lot easier to scrap the rest off.

Running board – half stripped

We haven’t gotten as much work done on Ruthy as we had hoped to by now. We were so overwhelmingly busy with work and bike shows this summer that she unfortunately couldn’t get worked on. Thankfully, we have more help in the shop now and can devote more time to the project.

To read back on the other Ruthy updates, follow the tag: Ruthy on the blog. More updates to come as progress is made!

And while you’re here, take a look at some of our finished work in the Photo Gallery!