Richard: They are beautiful---I always wanted the blue dots in there, but with the 6 volt system, it didn't matter much what color.
I stopped down today---nothing new done. Spoke to one of the guys---said they are 'catching up', and there is a Corvette that is in front of us.
I also mentioned to Jim (he commented that the dash panel looks great). I told him this is the second one--we can't find the other one you did. He mentioned that there are still probably parts on the lower level that belong to the Dodge. Next time you are up, we'll have to take a look on the first floor where the Dodge was for so long, and see what we can find.
Woo Hoo! Made money for Ol Bessy. Sold the last of my extra handguns. Now to pay down the bill and get ready to sell the 1886 rifle if need be....PROGRESS!!!!!!
Email to Dad, 21 July 2016 (PS Three years to full retirement, less if the economy tanks and we get early outs in 2017! Yep, I'm counting down!)
Dad,
Picked up a spare center grill for the dodge, cheep. Which ever one is better gets installed. As needed, I'll take the lesser of the two and shorten it up/convert it into the crank hole cover for the lower center of the grill.
Dad was down and visited the shop. Got a chance to talk with the boss and the painter before moving forward. Mighta been a bit of confusion on the painters part. Very meticulous fellow, quite a painter. Hadn't moved forward because the car weren't ready. Boss explaned and Dad confirmed....we plan to drive it. Concours restorations are false representations of the vehicle in its original form as none ever came out of Detroit with bodies as straight or gaps measured to the thousands of an inch, paint polished to snot smooth and ultratittium booby gloss shine.....etc. So, as Dad said, don't skim coat the battery box and don't perfectly straighten the car floor along the drive tunnel or smooth the frame or even take the door gaps beyond what would be expected on a new car or better a driver car. He explaned we plan to haul dead deer in the trunk with muddy boots stepping on the running boards and sweaty stinky bloody gloves tossed in the back seat while driving down the dirt roads coming out of the woods.....i.e. we plan to use the car.....
I think the painter is getting ready now for the final prime so we can do suspension/motor and then final paint. Dad seems satisfied that he clearly understands we'll be using Bessy, not looking at her under a $2000 fancy tarp in a climate controlled car bedroom!
Progress report. Dad went to the shop, met with the boss.
Ol Bessy is next in line for the paint booth for final prime and I'm not sure from the conversation if it'll get color at that time or after the engine and suspension is installed. But, coordinating the final preparation of the roof line to clean out the last little flaws and then in for seal and off to suspension and drive line.
Meantime, a better engine and trans was located and purchased. This one is under 100K miles and is also a 5.3L Vortec with 4L60E Auto OD and all the wiring, brain, PS pump, etc. Looking it over now to make sure its right and ready then it'll get cleaned up for the install.
Dad talked with the boss about the maiden voyage.....cross country in Ol Bessy with Mom, Dad and GoodWife. We're ready. Not sure we'll have it by Christmas but perhaps by spring! Boss knows we're getting anxious.
He has a 38 Chevy back in the shop for tune up. They built it....it just completed its maiden voyage. Cross country, 3 month duration. Don't know that our first trip will be that long but it'll be great with all of us camping across the USA!
Nothing yet. Cars are all in the queue and being worked. Next stop for Ol Bessy is the suspension and engine bay. LeMans rear on parallel leaves. Heidts Mustang II front. GM PB and Power Rack and the 5.3L+4L60 is in the shop and waiting to go in place as soon as the suspension is on. Perhaps this month as the suspension work on the Tbird is about done and it goes to paint. Should be swapping bays soon.
Testing, if ya'll can read this left to right and the Bb, Nn, Mm and space bare are working.....then the new keyboard must be on line.
No more giant coffee cups near the key board when I'm tired. 16 oz of hot coffee in the upper right corner of the keyboard will short out the entire bottom row of the board! Lesson learned.
May not look like much but all the screws came out. No broken trim. A few heads drilled and twisted out with a grabit but every one of the fragile 80 year old pot metal d-ring screws that surround the steel and stainless grill louvers came out with no damage to heads, threads or retention clips. Wew! Thank you PB blaster! (and dry Raleigh parts car!!)
This is antique gold. 80 years old. of all the pieces shown I can get all but the D-rings at a reasonable price (well, expensive reasonable) but the only set of d-rings for sale nation wide over the last 10 months are NOS and priced over $2500!
So....to the recovery. Two hours careful work and I've now got a full set of trim, stainless and chromed potmetal, to start polishing and restoring. Straightened the D-rings and the grill tonight on removal. Just waitin for buffing supplies to arrive....lowes and TSC no longer carry that stuff....so, had to go to Amazon.
I see many hours of work ahead on the grill louvers. I'm gonna spend most of it watching the rust float off the metal in a bath of steel cleaner for firearms. Gentle, no attack on the base steel and not much more than a few hours soak ought to have the carbon steel bits ready for a final wash, dry and prime......modern chemistry is way good.
This will be spare trim for the headlight stands. I already have a full set from the original car.
The grill sides. Straightened em before the photo....very light bend was all that was needed. I have a better center piece so after straightning this one, I'll likely cut it down and use the lower section to fill the hole where the crank hole cover was lost long ago.
The pot metal d-rings. Got them straightened while still screwed to the grill shell, they just has a very gentle bend....probably somebody tapped something with the nose of the car once. Then took them off. Probably get a polish and perhaps a clear coat.
Some more gold....every screw and clip from the pot metal d-rings was recovered. I'll de rust them in solution and use again. Every thread in both d-rings is perfect. With care, this set can go back onto Old Bessy's nose with original hardware and stay there for another 80 years.
Cleaning up the pair of Ram hood ornaments. Old Bessy's original Ram in the background, heavily pitted. The ram from the Raleigh parts car bought in 1991 in the foreground, less pitted.
I may have discovered a top coat that will make one or both look fine, fill the pitts against further weathering and leave the surface feel dead smooth.
Locktight, Ultragel super glue. I use it on grips as a finish. tuff as nails and solvent and heat resistant and sticks to about anything.
Here the parts car ram has been cleaned only. Less pitting but still some holes to fill. The chrome is thin at 80 so it got a buff at 3000 rpm with a loose muslin wheel with a brass polishing compound followed by red rouge. It looks grand as can be for 80....another good reason to buy cars and parts from the south and south west....less rot.
Here is Old Bessy's ram, polished with 0000 steel wool only. Much more heavily pitted on this original Maryland Car and part.
Here is the tail of Old Bessy's ram. Looks ruff up close. But its had three coats of ultra gel super glue, each dry coat cut back with 0000 steel wool. Final finish was a vigorous buffing with the loose muslin wheel and red rouge. Its smooth as a baby's backside. Shines like a diamond in a goats backside. And a test with 0000 wool indicates that the heat and action of buffing did not remove the super glue top coat....merely polished it dead smooth and leveled out the pits. So, a very tenacious top coat that I could coat the entire chromed piece with to make it shine and feel much smoother. And, I'm sure, sealing up the surface does for the zinc casting what it does for wood gun grips, seals it against future rot from the elements.
I'll have to glue up the entire surface of Old Bessy's ram and level and buff it out and we'll see what happens. But for now, I think the Raleigh parts car Ram may be the one that gets put pack on Old Bessy's hood after paint. Its in a bit better shape after 80 years.
Fortunately, almost all of Old Bessy's exterior bright work is stainless steel, even the grill teeth and bumper bolts are capped in stainless steel. Chrome outside is limited to bumpers, bumperettes, hood ornament, door and hood handles, grill surround, trunk handle and trunk hinges.
But....Old Bessy is now ready for full dress. Finished the body stainless. 4 bumper bolts found to go with the 4 from the Plymouth parts car, so both bumpers will be capped properly. The rear quarter trim, the back door trim and the front door trim. All polished and in good nick. I was missing one short section of rear door trim....so, I cut and crimped a longer section of spare front door trim to make one from scratch. Thank heavens Ma Dodge used stainless trim, ya can't crimp chrome!
Left over to sell is a full 9 piece set of stainless for the hood and a full set of front door trim.
Did some more experimenting on some scraps of pitted plated potmetal.
Its about impossible to flow any kind of paint into the pits. there is always an air bubble.
As for the superglue finish. Three thin coats seems to fill most pits and produces a fine smooth finish when buffed.
Red rouge on a medium muslin wheel at 3000 rpm with plenty of force and bringing the part up to ouch temperature won't remove all the superglue finish or even, seemingly, burn it off. It does a wonderful job smoothing the superglue finish like glass and bringing up a very nice shine.
Neither will white (stainless coloring compound) nor orange (brass cutting compound) reliably remove the finish. In fact, where it breaks through the finish, and with much difficulty, it removes the chrome exposing the copper much faster than it removes the superglue finish.
Car starting fluid will soften the finish so that it becomes moderately difficult to remove with 0000 steel wool but as soon as the fluid flashes off, the finish hardens again. Its then easier to flake/peel the finish with a thumbnail.
About the only reliable way I found to remove the superglue finish is to bring it to Really Ouch temperature with a heat gun and then work the glue off with a brass scraper or thumbnail if you can stand the heat.