Well, I made it up and down the street without any catastrophic issues. Pretty mean sounding at this point given that I don’t have any exhaust pipes hooked up beyond the headers. Got an appointment with a custom exhaust shop early next week. I definitely need to tweak the carbs and check the timing. The one pseudo significant issue is the interference between the left wheel and lower valance when turning hard to the right. My lower valance is a combination of three separate trashed units that I had lying around and was able to piece together. It was one of my first attempts at sheet metal work. In hindsight, I probably should have chosen some easier pieces to cut my teeth on. So unfortunately, I’m having to take a hammer and dolly to some brand new paint in an effort to reshape things enough to get the necessary clearance. Just one more entry on my list of necessary touchup painting. I wish I would have remembered some of the lessons from my first Sunbeam restoration 20 years ago. If I were to do it all over again, I’d only initially paint the door jambs, interior and engine compartment, then after assembling everything and road testing, I’d go back and paint the exterior. No matter how careful I tried to be, there are lots of chips and dings that need to be addressed, but they can all wait until next winter.
