1935 Ford Project -2Dr Sedan to 3W Coupe

[bgbdlinc]

Thanks for the comments and support. Last Thursday was setup day for the Motorama Show 2017. I drove the car down to the show and back. I started out in a raging snow storm with gale-force winds and wondered about my sanity. The snow stopped about 15 minutes later but the roads were salted and sanded already so the car was plastered in ice, sand, road salt, during the entire trip. It took about 4 hours to clean it up with nothing but a wet cloth and before the road crap could eat through the wax. We removed the fenders and stored them with a quick swipe of the rags. The remaining salt ate through the wax and started some surface rust by the time the show closed on Sunday at 5pm. No problem, I'll just wire wheel them again and apply several coats of wax again (more than I had before) and resolve not to put them away dirty again. The rest of the body is fine -no harm, no foul.

 

[Alaska Gasser]

Simply incredible.

 

[John in Oz]

Looking great David, cool to see you are enjoying it, even better you drove it to the show. Do you have plans to ever paint the car. I have a mate out here who just uses wd40 on his T.

 

[bgbdlinc]

John -no painting on the horizon. I love it just as is and the way the roundy bits reflect sunlight. I'm just using paste wax right now -no gloss clear, flat clear, or anything else. I've heard about using WD40 and other thin oil penetrants that enter the pores of the metal. I would imagine that they would need a whole lot of extra work to prep for paint i.e. metal prep, sealers, etc. Maybe Bash knows the pitfalls.

 

[Bash and scratch]

Linc I have no personal experience with using any of those products that I have read they use to keep them from rusting while driving in bare metal,, but I can only imagine what kinds of issues one might have if you ever decided to paint it!! I certainly have had my share of issues with contaminants when it comes to paint time and believe me they are no fun! I met a fella down south and asked him what he was using on his bare 32 but danged if I can remember what it was? (seems to me it had something to do with saddles?) I also know that there is something they put on bodies after they have been dipped (to keep them from rusting in transport) that seems oily till it dries and I have washed that and sanded after it was dried and primed with no issues but again can't remember what it is called? One may be able to give a dipping outfit a call and find out?

 

[cocobolo]

They may use a product called Dubbin on saddles. Same as we used to use on the old leather soccer boots in England more than 60 years ago. No idea on whether or not it would work on metal.

 

[PG409]

David.....I know you are probably resisting it, but wouldn't a clear coat with flattening agent be a better solution? Again......maybe Neal can address that issue......

 

[Nitro Hunter]

Way back when,Reddi strip used to offer i do believe a phosphate coating to prevent rusting and it did work quite well ,but i think their issues with it when it came to body work and paint.

 

[bgbdlinc]

David.....I know you are probably resisting it, but wouldn't a clear coat with flattening agent be a better solution? Again......maybe Neal can address that issue......

I tried many combos of clear gloss, semi-gloss, and flat clear (after the wire wheel/scuff pad treatment), and none were what I wanted. Oddly, the dash looks good in gloss clear, so I left it that way and it doesn't bother me.
The 'just wax' treatment is soooo easy to maintain and I don't have to worry about a precious paint job -stone chips, scrapes, bee guts, etc. Happy, happy, happy.

 

[Speedy Canuck]

So that's it? It's on the road and you've stopped all updates?

I've been left high and dry before, but coming from you, this hurts.

 

[bgbdlinc]

....you'll get over it...one look at your wall of vintage Olds manifolds and poof, no more pain....ha!
I have been busy driving around the countryside and chasing rattles. Then back to the garage and silence their rat-tat-tat voices with dumb-dumb, sealer, and epoxy. Also filling pinholes as required before any interior work gets rolling. I'm also cleaning up areas of the body like the rear fender-wells, rocker panels, the cowl vent, and the underside of the trunk lid.

The cowl vent needed some attention in the drainage tray with wire wheels and rustproof paint. Taking it apart for the first time in 80-odd years was a nightmare with lots of critical nuts and bolts rusted in solid. Access is a problem too -working blind from above or below with tools, hands, wiring all conspiring to get in the way. In the end brute force and ignorance won the day (again) and my sawzall cut loose vital pieces for disassembly. Welding pieces back together without incident should qualify me for installing IUD's.

The trunk lid was reskinned earlier, punched with about 120 louvers, and reattached to the support structure. I've been taking the rust off the substructure and sealing the perimeter seam and pinholes with epoxy. Rust proof paint is the order of business tomorrow under the lid and in the lid channel in the rear deck. All of this is in prep for weather stripping installation in a couple of days.

 

[Speedy Canuck]

....you'll get over it...one look at your wall of vintage Olds manifolds and poof, no more pain....ha!
I have been busy driving around the countryside and chasing rattles. Then back to the garage and silence their rat-tat-tat voices with dumb-dumb, sealer, and epoxy. Also filling pinholes as required before any interior work gets rolling. I'm also cleaning up areas of the body like the rear fender-wells, rocker panels, the cowl vent, and the underside of the trunk lid.

The cowl vent needed some attention in the drainage tray with wire wheels and rustproof paint. Taking it apart for the first time in 80-odd years was a nightmare with lots of critical nuts and bolts rusted in solid. Access is a problem too -working blind from above or below with tools, hands, wiring all conspiring to get in the way. In the end brute force and ignorance won the day (again) and my sawzall cut loose vital pieces for disassembly. Welding pieces back together without incident should qualify me for installing IUD's.

The trunk lid was reskinned earlier, punched with about 120 louvers, and reattached to the support structure. I've been taking the rust off the substructure and sealing the perimeter seam and pinholes with epoxy. Rust proof paint is the order of business tomorrow under the lid and in the lid channel in the rear deck. All of this is in prep for weather stripping installation in a couple of days.

I've got a couple of cool manifolds on the wall now, but I still need to live vicariously through someone with a running driving hotrod. I'm still chugging away on my chit.
Cool update though! Good to hear you're driving the wheel off of it.

 

[bgbdlinc]

Gotta space my test/fun runs out around the construction/small stuff or else I'll do nothing but drive. I read somewhere that a very experienced rod builder always drove his own new builds at least 1000 miles before attempting any 'refinements' like even chassis paint, interior, etc. Seems like a good idea to me as I work on little stuff like cowl lacing, hood bumpers, trunk seals, f*cking upper door seals (still can't figure them out -they are not obvious for installation and the diagrams are mostly useless.....).

 

[Sheldon]

Yeah: I know I'm a lousy car builder. You put everything together with painstaking care, don't put plates on it until you think it is done. Then it still takes a few months chasing leaks, rattles and changing a few things to get things right.

Sheldon

 

[bgbdlinc]

...rattles and pin holes will be the death of me. Captured nuts in inaccessible places rattling around make me scream so rather than remove the cage, I just fill them with epoxy....
Sheldon: too true. Operating reality is another world...

 

[bgbdlinc]

Spectacular day at Georgian Bay. Took off the lid (10x Dzus) and took off into the countryside...nothin' like it and after a few pics, I am refreshed.......and ready to chase more rattles, weather seal the trunk, etc......

 

[ratrig]

Very Cool ride.
thanks for sharing

 

[bgbdlinc]

....mysterious wiring problem so I spent the day hot, hot, hot and upside down...punishing, punishing....no relief, no resolution, yes pissed....

 

[Old Ray]

....mysterious wiring problem ]

..........tells us more please O great one?

(sorry that I didn't needless and uselessly repost the picture)

 

[bgbdlinc]

I got a set of SW Wings gauges new in box, USA made in 1989. Only needed fuel, temp, oil press., and voltmeter. Voltmeter was DOA and everything was wired fine and all the other gauges worked just great. I've put 600 miles in test runs and things are good. I got another Voltmeter from Speedway, hooked up the new to the same wires. Now the fuse in the panel keeps blowing (15A) and I've tried everything -even re-mounting the old broken one and the fuses keep blowing on that one circuit. The lights in the gauges are on another circuit and they all work fine. At this point I've tried as much as I can so I'm taking it to a garage owned by a guy who has built rods for years. On this kind of stuff I don't have enough experience to mess with it further so I'm handing it off.....