Photos Unboxed: Barry's First Cuts - Juiceboxforyou

Now that I have a bit of time to go back over these photos, it’s funny how optimistic I felt as we collected the shell from Sandblasting.

Teejay was kind enough to drop it down and collect it, and I was delighted with how little the rust had eaten through the shell, or at least that’s what I thought. Barry had said two to three days max, so I was looking forward to getting the show on the road. The pockets are deceptively mint in this image.

What I learned pretty early on was any little rust hole on the outside means a gigantic pile of rust waiting to present itself on the inside. It didn’t take long for Barry to start hacking the shell up right before my eyes. That feeling watching him without hesitation get his air saw and chop massive chunks out of the car hit me right in the gut.

Reality quickly set in, and I started to wonder had I bit off more than I could chew. Looking back, ill be forever grateful for Barry’s skills. Without him, I have no idea what would have come of this build.

When he cut the B-pillar only to find rust hiding under the roof, my heart sank. Bryan had already donated so much more of Dan’s other shell to the cause that had a roof, but he was keeping that roof for himself. This stuff is getting harder and harder to find, so I didn’t blame him.

You can almost hear his air tools in these photos. Both of us had taken the Friday and Monday off of work. The idea was to get as much done as possible—unfortunately, this started to looking like a bigger job.

The more we cut back, the more we revealed. It made me wonder what’s hiding under a lot of these cars. My heart sank, the shell was in much worse of a condition that I had expected, but barry was positive and kept me optimistic.

Bryan gave us two very vital bits for the door area as mine were toast, funnily enough, these were cut out of one of the main cars that gave cemented my love for the 86 so that always makes me smile.

I was fascinated with Barry’s way of working and being honest a little nervous at first shoving the camera in his face, but he loved it.

I shot these photos nearly three years ago, and although the car was pretty much a bare shell for almost two years, it’s great to look back on these images and see how far we have come.

I’ll forever be grateful to Bryan for letting me use cuts from his donor pieces. Barry was able to save a pocket from this while riding it like a cowboy.

He cut this little corner section too; mine was rusted out from moisture sitting in the one spot under the rubber. Isn’t funny where these cars rust?

Here is a photo of barry making the pocket mint again.

It always blows my mind when I think about the fact I’ve created so many memories with the car that has been reduced to that front cut you see in the picture.

And here we are making so many more with my build. Funny how things work out.

Bryan was putting the finishing touches on his Charmant at the time, coming over for a look every so often to see if the shell revealed any new surprises.

Barry shows no mercy; he’s been at this for years. It was my first time seeing this type of work to this level so I just nervously snapped photos or shot footage for the vlog as he hacked his way through anything that looked suspicious.

I don’t need to explain it here, but you guys know how much I enjoy his attention to detail, reusing old spot weld holes.

Moisture sat in between the two panels here; it’s commonplace for the 86 to rust and usually goes on all of them; it didn’t help that my wheel well was battered from drifting.

Hello, chassis leg. This image gives me anxiety! I’ve nearly forgotten just how wrong this whole section was before we patched it up.

Barry would show up each morning at about 11 am, armed with cheap energy drinks, a couple of joints and a Wispa. He wouldn’t eat for the entire day and work his way through whatever he could replace at the time. Those first four days will stay with me forever. I’m glad I took these photos, as much as the vlogs documented the story, I love looking back on photographs too. They can capture the scene perfectly.

I couldn’t be more grateful for the friends that have helped with this build so far; if it weren’t for Barry or Bryan, I probably would have taken on such a restoration, their knowledge helped keep the optimism going when things were starting to look grim.

I’ve lots more articles like this coming up over the coming weeks. I’ve had the time in lockdown to go back through all the photos and throw some words to accompany them.