I moved to San Diego in the summer of 2015 courtesy of the US Navy. I made the most of my time by driving the 2002 around as much as possible. In a car without air conditioning, near constant 75 degree weather is a godsend. I made the normal runs throughout the area - never venturing too far as I still had lingering questions on reliability in a 40 year old car. While there, I did take it to La Jolla Independent for a tune up and got some new tires as well. I tried to arrange for LJI to do some restoration work, but never could get their schedule and mine to line up. Sea duty assignments and loads of underway time will do that I suppose.

Three months ago, I got the word that it was time to head back to Virginia Beach. This time around I sent the car back ahead of time in an enclosed trailer as coming out I did it on an open and was worried the entire time.

While driving around one day, I came across a small restoration shop nearby to the breweries I like to frequent. A quick search online revealed very high rankings and a quick peak of their facebook page showed me a familiar sight - they were working on a 1976 2002 in the shop.

I knew I had found my shop.

I made an appointment and happily drove down to check everything out, see their work, and talk future direction with the car. The owner is also the lead fabricator and painter and is very personable. His attention to detail is flawless and the amount of preparation and execution he puts into paint is nothing short of staggering. He has a vision for seeing how things will play out that I wish I had. He would be able to accomplish everything I wanted:

• full trim delete
• full rust fix
• black out of all remaining trim around windows
• removing and filling turn signal locations
• correcting all body work
• Straightening all body lines
• Refreshing engine bay
• Painting engine
• Replacing some mechanical items and bushings

At the end of the day, I was quoted a very reasonable amount for the work that I was about to have done. All it involved was a down payment and the keys.