Tools and materials used during this stage:

 The in-line pneumatic sander is a must-have tool for this stage of the build. $40 at Harbor Freight. It has a 17-1/2" pad and a 1" stroke. I am using 80 grit psa paper. All you have to do is pull the trigger and slowly move the sander over the desired area with a light press. It works so well that one needs to be cautious not to pull off too much material. It's such a relief to have a tool like this. :) The small wooden handled sander is useful for fine tuning. It has a 12" pad and I am using 150 grit paper. The yellow spatula and the other do-ma-hickey are standard drywall tools from Home Depot as well. I like to use the spatula to dip the compound out of the bucket and to apply it to tight areas. The longer one is good for smoothing out large areas. Drywall joint compound. This is the key component of the surfacing. Easy to apply and even easier to remove... The key problem is how fragile it is when less than 1/8" thick. It also takes some time to dry although Phoenix is probably the quickest place this side of the Sahara.

I bought a bag of Fix-It-All at the local Home Depot. I think this is the material that hardens chemically rather than the gypsum based sheetrock joint compound in a bucket which dries by evaporation. I look forward to applying this over top of the joint compound and seeing if it creates a much harder surface. If the surface is hard enough I may be able to get away with NOT using a layer of 3oz fiberglass mat over the entire body. I have found that some areas of the body where the gypsum based filler is thin and too close to the styrofoam are very weak and a light press of the finger breaks through to the foam. This will not do, so the Fix-It-All is my attempt at low cost and simple solution to this issue. I'll post the results later this week or next weekend

Progress in the Garage:

Now that my back is better I can again sense good forward momentum  I have really been invigorated and want to keep pressing onward even though the temperatures and monsoonal humidity lately have me wincing.

The public response to the shape of the car has been overwhelmingly positive. In fact - I can't say that I've gotten even one negative comment! I guess this is a good thing, but I am a bit disbelieveing of this statistic because human nature dictates that some dissent should be evident. But noooo. Either everyone loves the shape or those that don't simply go away and don't care enough to tell me. :)

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