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Eddie now you are having fun Looking great
Alain red W-31
Alain with my bizarre (and childish) sense of humor, this is fun!!! Borrow two plastic spoons , and use a sharpie pen at the pub! My wife said the bar maids face was priceless but that I am a child… and to knock it off lol
Ok so I am continuing work I have stripped the hood top side will be flipping it to strip underside , my hurst scoop arrived and I’ll be fitting that , gulp lol cutting holes is scary lol, I’m the meantime I needed to either find a new hood tooth or repair the Swiss cheese piece, I decided to try the repair first.
the tooth isn’t sheet metal it’s pot metal which adds to the complexity of the repair. I looked on line and found these specialty rods and flux for pot metal from muggy welding
So I stripped the paint off and removed all the epoxy filling the holes , man was a bit surprised at all the holes !! Swiss cheese, but I had nothing to lose so I decided to give it a go
I put a piece of ceramic trim tile on the backside and used a clamp to hold it, I used a simple map gas torch , followed the instructions and I previously watched a video on the mfg site, when the flux turns a caramel color I fed the rod in, working the edge first then into the center, when I finished that hole moved onto the next where the holes were close together I closed them all at the same time,
when I was done with that area I moved on to the next I put a wrench on the completed area to act as a heat sink, just in case . It really was pretty easy, and the product works as advertised make sure to use enough material as adding afterwards isn’t really an easy thing
heres the tooth after the repairs a little smoothing with putty and it’s fine, I was happy with the results
Not a big deal I thought I would share if you have pot metal that needs repairing these rods melt at 350 and really stuck well to the pot metal, I know there’s guys here who want to save every original piece and perhaps this helps some day
Nice work and good info Eddie. A lot of pot medal trim pieces that may benefit from this procedure also?
indeed scrappie, that was my main impetus for posting it, there are pieces that are practically unobtanium, they also use this material to fill pits etc , one neat thing is this material will work on dissimilar metals , if you had a broken mounting stud , it would be possible to attach an appropriate threaded rod or reattach the stud
As I was looking at the tooth I noticed that one corner was missing? Not really seen but still , so I decided to see if I could fix it
first I cleaned up both sides of the piece and cut a small piece of 20 gauge steel in the approximate shape, as a backing plate and to add strength if needed as it’s just sitting out there lol
I then put the flux honey over both pieces and used the rod to fill I wasn’t too worried about it as this piece gets painted etc Rough weld Flipped it over and put a piece of tile as a heat sink and brazed the back side as well All cleaned up
I hope this helps folks I will say the rod works well and I believe I could plate the substrate if required , if this was a hard to find piece of pot metal trim
Well haven’t been on the site or even the internet much, that’s the bad news the good news is I’ve actually been in the garage, so now a little update,
I have been debating and debating the best way to seal the weld seams from the quarter replacement , so I went back over the welds again this time with a tig welder ( there’s a learning curve fellas lol ) but I love it, then I decided to seal the seam with non lead body solder , I really didn’t want to put heat to the panel but I truly believe it’s the best way.
I started by conditioning the trunk and back side of welds and cleaning up that whole area for epoxy primer
Moving along I got some lead free body solder tinning butter and paddle wax from Eastwood , I bought three tubes which really wasn’t enough so I bought a couple more stuff is pricey.
I tinned the seamsand applied the solder , easy enough, and there’s tons of videos and how tos on you tube
The nice part is you can hammer and dolly , and it really sticks , I did go back and add solder , and the plan now is to prime and apply first a skim of duraglass just in case and then regular putty as required , it won’t take much of either
Very nice work. The solder is sure to keep the seam sealed for a long long time. 👌 Glad all is good. Soon it will be time to get outside for a couple of frosty mugs. Hopefully, we can meet up this summer I can bring some Canadian-type brew and you can bring some USA type brew and we can mix and match them.
Take care.
I tend to over think and that leads to lulls in progress , appreciate the support and kind words it does keep me going!!
anyway moving along I also took the opportunity to adjust the door gaps I don’t know if it’s just my car or something on the 69’s but it seemed impossible to get and even gap from top to bottom ? My car it seemed that the gap on the top curve was wider then the straight part of the gap? I adjusted for hours on the replacement door and got it where it was “ok” but I wasn’t thrilled , it was the exact same on the original doors both sides
I was thinking to take 1/8 steel rod and mig weld and grind it , but while I was doing the leading , I closed the gap, now from top to bottom it’s exactly a paint stick thickness gap , took awhile but I’m happy with the results , I want to finish the metal the best I can prior to any filler , I continue to hammer and dolly and a few areas required a shrinking disc which also worked great
Yes I’m sure blocking will be much easier !! But not quite there yet , when I get tired of sanding grinding etc I go to opposite side and hammer and dolly or shrink or whatever , there is the issue of the convertible stiffness that prevent access to the back side so it is what it is in that area not terrible but I would love to get behind that panel , lol
the plan for the trunk is epoxy primer and then epoxy truck bed coating , I’ll be using this for the rear wheel wells as well ,
I can then decide after to go with an original style spatter paint But durability is a concern? I wonder if anyone makes this style paint that isn’t water based?
I was thinking to go with the u pol brand raptor , ? I believe I have read here several folks have used it I do plan on driving the car not showing it so it makes sense to me lol I am up for any other suggested products
Well I’m sure by now everyone knows I’ll be finishing the car like a 69 hurst olds convertible, I ordered the mirrors , scoop and spoiler from fusicks, I reading through the forums I read that the hurst olds style mirrors need to be mounted as far forward as feasible to maximize their usefulness , well passenger side is no issue as there are no predrilled holes for a remote mirror, drivers side not do much , so I made some sheet metal plugs by bending some 20 gauge sheet to the right contour , slipping it under the area and tracing the hole shape, I held this in place with a magnet at first , and this played havoc with the tig , I managed to get a couple tacks and removed the magnets , I then tapped it down and filled with the body solder , seems fine for me lol and I’ll be able to move the mirrors up a couple of inches
I found I needed a smaller hammer to fit in around obstructions and such , plus some new flapper files, I’m kinda cheap lol so I made some tools from crap I had laying around Cheap body homemade El cheap o next to my uptown hammer lol Some home made slappers made from files and such Some smaller dollies made from a larger combo dolly And another home made hammer for really tight places
Good job on the soldering, the lead free stuff is harder to work with, than the real lead! BTW, you can get lead, and lead free, a lot cheaper at Roto Metals, or Johnson manufacturing. As for the sub for those spatter paints that can wash off: I've been using Zolatone. It's an architectural paint, that is really tough, and looks similar to the original spatter paints. Comes in a variety of color combos. When I restored a 69 Buick GS, I was able to use 2 color combos, to get a good match to what was there originally.
Keep playing with that TIG, you'll get better and better with your metalwork!
Keep playing with that TIG, you'll get better and better with your metalwork!
Thank you for the kind words !! High praise indeed coming from a master like yourself! , also thanks for the paint tip and alternate source for supplies Eastwood gets 65 bucks for 4 measly sticks and they don’t go very far , I do feel very comfortable now after the body solder that it will be a quality job , and the hammer and dolly work wasn’t too bad , I’m also learning to use a shrinking disc, plan is to really minimize filler but there’s going to be some I am not good enough to have buffed steel lol,
any tips for areas you can not get to the back side? I could cut the inner bracing but I’d be very uncomfortable doing it and don’t really think it’s worth it I’ll have to live with putty in that area ( about 8-10 inches of seam)
Eastwood does have lots of hard to find stuff in one place, but it's always less expensive to buy it elsewhere, if you can find what you need.
I never have an issue cutting out the backside of a panel to make the visible side better! You don't see the backside, most often, so it doesn't matter, much.
You can sometimes get away with using the dolly with a handle, where you can't get directly behind the seam.
Thank you for the tool tip ! I like Martin body tools , heck I like tools period lol, I’ll wait till my next project as I work on my skills lol before cutting the brace I do appreciate all your sound advice !
As a quick update as I continue tidying up the body , finishing little odds and ends I kept thinking I need more cfm, I posted a thread for compressor suggestions and I decided to buy the emax 80 gallon silent air it delivers 31 cfm @ 100 psi and 26 @ 175 ( I’ll never use that pressure) well it arrived yesterday , I am putting it in my shed to make working in the garage a little more pleasant , I plumbed air line from shed to garage previously in anticipation.
well wtf was I thinking lol
it comes in a big azz box
Seriously it looks like a great machine pricey but looks like I won’t be waiting for tank pressure anymore it has continuous mode and the pump ( Eaton) looks like serious but of kit , as a heads up for anyone it wasn’t the easiest thing to move you will need a little help , I managed it but I wish I did this when I was a bit younger lol
November 14th, 2022, 03:34 PM
Eddie now you are having fun Looking great
