The Resurrection of Vixen Contiues...

["Dave Stragand" <dave.stragand@xxxx>]

Sooo...

Things are at a good point. The Vixen starts and runs... The wiring,
gauges and relays all seem fine. The fans work okay. The clutch...
uhhh... clutches. Overall, I'm ahead of where I thought I'd be at this
point.

Well, that's not exactly true. To be honest, I have purposely -not-
thought about where I should be at any point, nor when she will be
done. If I begin to set timelines, I begin to get impatient. I am
allowing an indefinite amount of time on purpose. In fact, I even have
a sign on the front of the car; big block letters reading "THANK YOU FOR
NOT ASKING WHEN IT WILL BE DONE". That hasn't stopped anyone so far,
though, and every time someone asks I get a little twinge of impatience
and frustration up my spine. It's not their fault, though, it's mine.
I am pretty impatient by nature, so I do what I have to do to get
through all this.

Should I be done now? I don't think so. I have about 750 work-hours
into the car so far... which is a lot, to be sure. How long did it take
them to assemble these originally? Less than a day, I'm sure. I'm
taking a bit longer. I set little goals; small steps. The radiator is
in. Cool! The vacuum hoses are connected. Great! The antenna goes up
and down. Fantastic! Small steps... small steps.

But then every once in a while you look behind you and realized you've
come a long way from where you started. You also realize you are closer
to your destination than you had thought. That can be a bit scary.
Maybe it's realizing that all you've known to this point is the
journey, and you know nothing about the destination. Maybe it's
something else. I've felt it before.

The night before I bought my '58 Plymouth, I could hardly sleep. All I
could think of was, "I'm actually going to own a '58 Plymouth!". It was
a long night. The next day, after bringing the car home, I went to bed
thinking, "My Lord, I actually bought a '58 Plymouth. What the he** was
I thinking???" It was another long night.

Some things just take a little while to get used to, I suppose. I
imagine a part of my nervousness is the fact that every time I get used
to the state of the car, I realize it has changed. This car actually
-runs-, for goodness sake. Just when did -that- happen? Now, I'm not
too far away from actually having the Vixen move under her own power.
The thought alone is a bit overwhelming. Overwhelming, but good. It's
a sense of pride and accomplishment. I'm doing what can't be done, and
saving a car that can't be saved. It's exciting, and I like to share
that excitement with all of you, who also love the marque.

To me, one of the most exciting things I will do this summer is to go to
the Cleveland 2000 show. I had planned from the beginning to attend,
with the car if possible. And it looks as if it will be possible to
bring the car, albeit on a trailer. I believe that the car in her
present state may be an unusal and interesting look at the DeLorean from
a purely functional perspective. However, not everyone feels that way.
I've encountered a few owners whom I might venture to call 'purists'.
Some seem to be actually offended by a less-than-perfect D. Maybe they
feel an uncompleted car may lessen the value of their investments?
(Personally, I would think that it would actually -raise- the value of
their car in comparison.) Or maybe they have the feeling that (as I
received in one email) my car "dilutes the status of the marque" in her
present state. That's a tad insulting if you ask me, as I would think
that it would -increase- the marque's status, if someone would go
through so much effort to restore one!

But I'll leave it up to the list to decide. I have created an eGroups
poll with that question. If you have feelings either way, I invite you
to please vote and let me know how you feel!
http://www.egroups.com/polls/dmcnews

With that said, I'll head out to the garage and work on my rear brakes.
I never thought it would take 7 months to rebuild my rear calipers,
but... more on that later. =)

-Dave Stragand
http://www.ProjectVixen.com
VIN #05927