well, not many updates for 3 weeks, but mucho progress. In somewhat chronological order:

The padauk was abandoned. It did not respond well to steaming, becoming black spotted, and not very bendable either!

  so I switched to generic 0.1” luan ply wood. I was able to use 2 layers for the fenders, and 3 layers for the running boards.

this is before staining, and this is after.

next up was stripping all the components, checking all the welds, grinding, then off to powder coating!

 We selected Illusion Rootbeer Brown.