I’ve been making good progress after shoulder surgery a few months ago, and feel that I am probably 80-90% recovered. I have been trying my best to walking the fine line between gaining strength back in my arm without re-injuring the repair. Regular physical therapy appointments have been helpful, but also getting in the way of getting back to work! At the 12 week mark post-op, by surgeon felt I was recovered enough to continue strength training without physical therapy appointments, so that freed me up to get to some of the projects that have been patiently waiting for me to more forward.

The blue 330GT that I’ve been restoring at my shop is one of those projects. The engine is down at Francois’ shop in CT waiting for me to return. When I first sent the parts down to my mentor’s shop, it was to spend more time with Francois, and build an engine there just like old times. Now that my schedule has freed up, I can return for my weekly visit. I’ve been getting parts together at my shop to bring down like water pump parts that needed rebuilding and modifying. I made the same modifications to this 330 water pump as I did with the 275GTS a few weeks ago, so it’s ready to be installed. I also needed to find a top plate for this water pump as the original one was so badly corroded and cracked. I was luck to find a used one, as I don’t believe this plate is currently being re-manufactured.

I currently have another car’s seats at my upholsterer’s shop getting refurbished, but I wanted to get these seats ready for the next one in the slot. It seems everyone in the auto restoration business is super busy, and I spend some much of my days checking on progress or pushing my vendors for time to do the work for my projects.

One issue was the condition of the recliner mechanisms on this 330. The car was probably stored in a damp conditions, so the recliner mechanisms on the original seats were rusting through the chrome plating. Trying to control the cost of this restoration, I found a good set of recliners from a set of seats I had in storage that looked in better condition than what we currently had. They were a little dirty, but I wanted to clean them up and check if they were salvageable.

After a little time of cleaning and polishing, the chrome came back very nicely. They weren’t perfect, but way better than the pitted and rusty units we had on the original seat. This is the reason why I save everything!