Events began happening fast now

For about two years, and through five false starts on finding a new chassis, the prospect of actually accomplishing a frame swap on the 109 seemed so far away.

Now, within a matter of about one week, we had located, purchased and taken delivery of a new chassis and it, along with an entire second 109. All of which was taking up valuable floor space at our friend Gord'n Perrott's shop, Lamorna Garage (http://www.lamornagarage.com/) in Seattle. About halfway through the fifth "false start chassis," we had finally engaged Gord'n in our plans (I think there is a lesson in there somewhere...). He had advised us on the Sonoma 109 and concurred that it was a deal worth pursuing.

The Saturday after we took delivery of the Sonoma 109, Gord'n and I sorted through all the parts that the seller had stuffed into the back of it. The first thing we pulled out was the Chevy 292 engine with a Scotty's Adapter & flywheel (sold locally to another Series enthusiast). Then came three Series transmissions, Suffix B, E & F, followed by three transfer cases, radiators, a propshaft, etc. As peice by peice went in the scrap bin, I kept on saying that there was gold buried in there somewhere. And finally, we found it! One front military axle in very good condition, two swivel balls in very good condition, and a set of four leaf springs better than those currently on our 109.

But up to that point, all of our discussions had been about just doing a standard frame swap--in other words, moving all of our 109 onto a bare frame. Instead, we had an entire second 109 to remove from the new chassis before we could even get to that point and then find a home for all those 109 parts. Fortunately, Gord'n found a good home for it so that just left removing it from the chassis. Again, some good luck because the body was only held onto the chassis by about 8 bolts that the seller had just installed for the purpose of shipping the truck to us. We are not quite at the stage yet of removing the body from the Sonoma 109. When that time comes, in about 3 weeks, we are just going to unbolt it, raise it with a hoist and lower it onto our old chassis.

But we have begun the teardown on our 109...