Well. JH 19370, or what is left of her, is now in my possession. Nice drive across Wisconsin and Minnesota to pick her up this past weekend.

Looking like an excellent investment, the more I delve into her. She belonged to Ernie West, and we had a really nice chat about JHs in general and ours specifically. Many of the parts from 19370 moved over to his other JH post accident, which explains her “stripped down” condition. Anyway, got her home and been playing the past couple of days.

Like I said above, he stripped pretty much anything that could be unbolted and removed. However, the items I was looking for are all there (along with a couple of nice surprises). The three fenders that weren’t damaged in the accident are pretty much perfect, as are the rockers and floor pans. Even the front passenger fender is probably salvageable in the “behind the wheel” area, which is the part I need. Those will all be coming off in the weeks to come.

Also (and this made the cost of the car and the transportation much easier to swallow) the soft top, while not perfect, is in perfectly serviceable condition… just needs to be cleaned up. It’s a much lighter weight than the aftermarket top that Ms. Jenavieve came with, it’s not suffering from any shrinkage (in fact it’s a tad loose), and the framework is clean as a whistle. So, the first order of business tonight was to unbolt both top frames and do a bit of regluing at the header rail, and the soft top and frame you see in the picture above is now happily mounted on Ms. Jenavieve. I think it’ll be perfectly fine once it’s tidied up, and more importantly it actually fits right and I can snap and Velcro the back the way it’s supposed to be done. Took all of an hour to swap, and it actually works right.

So, I was checking my eBay account to see if the tach I had ordered had shipped (which it had, and I’ve received it, and it didn’t solve my problem, but that’s for another post) and ran across a listing for a 1974 JH parts car. Long story short: it now belongs to me and my son and I will be driving over to Perham, MN to pick it up this weekend.

From the good side.  And….

From the not so good side.

As a result of this unexpected event, I am going to hold off on any more body work on Ms. Jenavieve for the summer, and then re-address it next fall/winter when I can do it right with the donor car.  I haven’t actually seen this in person yet, but according to the owner it’s in pretty good rust-free condition (other than the obvious damaged/missing parts).   This solves my problem of needing rockers and lower fender repair patches, plus I can use the floorboards and maybe a few other bits.

The pictures aren’t quite correct as he’s since removed all of the exterior lights and trim.  And obviously the engine, transmission, interior, dash, etc. are gone as well.  Still lots of good parts there, though.   The plan is to disassemble this as much as I can this summer and dispose of what I don’t need, either by finding people who can use the parts or just storing them “just in case” and sending what’s left to the recycle bin.

Well, I wouldn’t say completely bodged, but the new paint is definitely darker than the old. Giving it a couple more days to harden up and then I’ll hit it with the buffer and see if I can blend it a little better. I think it’ll be ok for the summer…. at least pass the 20 foot test anyway.

Don’t shoot me… I know I committed a car restoration faux pas. It’s only temporary. I just need it to hold up for the summer and then we’ll do it right next winter.

Armed with Bondo Glass, Bondo Body Patch, glazing putty, high build primer, and about 9 different grades of sandpaper from 40 to 1200 grit, I’ve spent the past few days patching up what you saw above. It’s not perfect, but it’ll pass the 10 foot test. I had my body shop friend match up the paint and get me a quart of single stage with the appropriate reducer and activator, and will cross my fingers that it will match and spray it tomorrow. Pictures then unless it comes out completely bodged.