Re: 72 T/A progess
 

OK, being the perfectionist I am I wasn't satisfied with the way the reproduction wheel came out. Since it is a harder urethane material, the Plasti-Dip spray nicked rather easily and didn't adhere as well as I would have hoped. When I picked at it a little, the entire coating peeled off in one piece. That, of course, meant that I did not prep the repro wheel well enough.

I also wasn't satisfied with the fact that it still had a bunch of grain along with a fake outer seam that marred the surface. So I ended up hand-sanding it with 80 grit, then 200, then 400 then 600 until it became as smooth as the factory wheel. I was very careful to keep away from the fake threads along the inner seams. I then sprayed it with a flexible plastic primer and sanded that with 600, reprimed and resanded by hand until it was shiny and smooth. I also reshaped the edges where the urethane meets the spokes as the repro was a bit too angular in that area. Once I was satisfied, (I know, I've said that before) I sprayed the wheel in numerous heavy coats of the SEM Landau Black and the result was beautiful. SEM is the coating to use and it is great stuff, much better than Duplicolor or VHT or any of the other brands. Other than the black anodizing looking way too new, the wheel looks like an NOS wheel now. And it feels a lot better as well. I will be installing this one in the car and saving the original wheel for posterity.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i3...68a/repro1.jpg

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i3...68a/repro2.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...emlins/ooo.gif Freakin' unbelievable Mac! https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...emlins/ooo.gif

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

In my spare time I'm working on creating an NOS ZL1 engine out of Wrigley's chewing gum wrappers, maple syrup and Dr. Pepper cans. (You have to use Dr.Ppper because it has more caffeine than other sodas and we all know the ZL1 was a more highly caffeinated engine than it's iron counterparts.) https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...ns/naughty.gif

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

any progress since the last update?

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

No, still waiting for the body man to finish prepping the front sheetmetal before I bring him the rest of the body. I will be making a decision either way in the next few weeks as to where the car will be finished because I am getting old and don't have the patience for these delays after 21 months of him having the panels. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...emlins/mad.gif

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

[ QUOTE ]
No, still waiting for the body man to finish prepping the front sheetmetal before I bring him the rest of the body. I will be making a decision either way in the next few weeks as to where the car will be finished because I am getting old and don't have the patience for these delays after 21 months of him having the panels. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...emlins/mad.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Get a rope! https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...thumbsdown.gif 21 months! Christsakes!

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

Future rapid progress kinda depends on whether Santa brings me the welding equipment I asked for. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...ns/naughty.gif

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

[ QUOTE ]
No, still waiting for the body man to finish prepping the front sheetmetal before I bring him the rest of the body. I will be making a decision either way in the next few weeks as to where the car will be finished because I am getting old and don't have the patience for these delays after 21 months of him having the panels. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...emlins/mad.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

And I thought that I was SLOW. It's white Steve, DO IT YOURSELF.. You have done everything else..


http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...photos2059.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

21 Months is entirely too long, I see that they did some metal work and blocked a lot of filler which is a time consuming process. Looks like they are
using Rage Gold in that shop. That stuff gets “Real Hard”. All that is left are the Quarters, Roof and then final sheet metal alignment, You are using the
original sheet metal so your car should come together real nice.
I do this for a living so I know how you can be easily side tracked. You have to have a time frame and game plan and try to “Stay on the car till it is finished”. The problems begin when you have a delay where you are at a stand still for whatever reason and get involved in another project...........
Steve You are doing a Great Job, I have learned a few things.

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

I stopped up at the body shop last week and talked to my body man. We will see what happens. I am scheduled to bring the body up there in 2 weeks to get the trunk floor done and windshield channel, hopefully in a 7 to 10 day time span. Then I will take it back home to reinstall the windshield and the rest of the underside stuff: exhaust, gas tank, fuel lines, etc. while he works on other projects in the shop. We will see how this works out.

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

While I was at the shop I grabbed one of the rear wheel flairs to see if there was a better way to strip them than media blasting. Since they are ABS plastic I ended up using the old purple stuff in a tub. There was a ton of paint on the flair so it took about 5 days of soaking and scrubbing with a bristle brush to get the majority of the paint layers off. It worked rather well. Some fine sanding will get the remainder of the yellow primer/filler off. The plastic is actually a white color that is very close to Cameo White. I don't really know, but these may have come unpainted from the factory since the color is so close. Anyone know?

Heres the before shot with the white rubber welting covered in paint and cracking:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC190014.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC190013.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC190011.jpg

It is interesting to see that the factory used a big staple to hold on the upper end of the welting onto the plastic flair due to the severe angle it has to maintain.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC190009.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

I started out with a small bucket:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC190017.jpg

And then graduated to one of the tubs that my wife uses to store the Christmas decorations:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC220005.jpg

Here is the removed welting next to the NOS piece that I took off of the NOS front spoiler. Big difference after all these years. The NOS stuff is very flexible. Unfortunately the repro stuff is made only in grey and you have to paint it or dye it.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC190025.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC190022.jpg
Here's how it looks after 5 days:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC220008.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC220006.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

Once I got it all cleaned I found a couple stress cracks in the plastic:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC220010.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC220011.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC220013.jpg

I pulled out the trusty plastic welder and used that to heat up and massage/melt the original material into the cracks thereby repairing the areas.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../PC2201004.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../PC2201005.jpg


Of course things look uglier before they get prettier...

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../PC2201010.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../PC2201013.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../PC2201015.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

After a few minutes cooling down I sanded the area with a mini-orbital sander and 180 grit. Once that was finished, the area is just as strong as the rest of the flair:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC220022.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC220017.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC220028.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

Yes back in the day, they were molded in body color. That plastic welder looks like the trick to fixxing these. NICE
The welting takes paint with flex very well.

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

I love this thread! and I wanna buy Steve's car when he sells it https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/beers.gif https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...ns/worship.gif https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...ns/naughty.gif

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

Note to self: when you borrow one of the wife's storage tubs make sure there is not a hairline crack in the bottom that drains out 5 gallons of very expensive cleaning solvent onto work bench/old pool table which then leaks onto rug under said work bench/pool table. Because you will have to clean up the entire mess and then discover that rugs soaked in Purple Stuff overnight do an amazing job at completely sanitizing one 6'x12' area of all dirt, grease, oil, paint, etc. Now wife wants the rest of basement floor cleaned to match the bright grey rectangle. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/frown.gif

Before:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/P6130005.jpg

After:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC270002.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

Leave it up to you, Steve...to find yet another use for the cleaning solvent! https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/grin.gif

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

Yeah, I think that's a record or something: that is the first time I have actually used something for it's intended purpose, unintentionally of course. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/grin.gif

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

It took several days of soaking to get all of the white paint off of the other flares. The purple stuff doesn't seem to touch primer-surfacer layers so that took a lot of 80 grit sandpaper and a Black&Decker Mouse sounder. That stuff is hard as rock. That is the reason the flares still have a yellowish tint to the white plastic. I had to get most of that layer off to see where the stress cracks were. I also found some more serious cracks from impact damage on one of the flares.

Here is a close up of one of the stress cracks in the lower front spoiler:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC280014.jpg

I ended up fixing these by using the plastic welder and smearing at across the cracks perpendicular to the direction of the crack. This melted the plastic back together. It took a while to get all the cracks welded up.

The marks in the lower portion of the flare are from the stress crack remelting process.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC280012.jpg

The black spots are where I used black ABS plastic rod to weld the majpr impact damage cracks back to gether. Once it cools it is sanded down with 80 grit.

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

One of the front flares was actually melted and burned from the prior owner's carb fire that got out of control. You can see how warped the edge was.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../PC280001a.jpg

For that repair I used a heat gun and heated the area up til it was soft and then squeezed the area between two wooden rulers to straighten it until it cooled.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../PC280004a.jpg

It took a few tries but eventually flattened out.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../PC280008a.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

This is another use for the heat gun: you can weld plastic with it. This is the attachment for plastic welding. You can insert the plastic welding rod into the hole at the top of the tip or you can use it without the rod as in this photo and just melt the pieces together. It looks like this flare was repaired once before since it has a 1973 red inner brace glued to it. Their glue didnt hold very well so I welded it to the flare and later followed up with a liberal smearing of 2-part epoxy.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC280006.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

Here is the formerly melted front flare:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../PC280009a.jpg

An here it is compared to it's twin:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../PC280011a.jpg

I also used the heat gun to reinforce cracked areas on the lower part of the melted front flare. Once that was done I used the 2-part epoxy to glue the back section back to the flare where it separated from the fire.

I used my patented "flare rentention fixture" to get the pieces in the right position so the epoxy could harden overnight.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC280001.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

Here are the finished two front flares:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC290015.jpg


http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../PC290010b.jpg


And the sanded out, welded up cracks:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC290017.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC290016.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

And here are the finished rear flares. They were in a little better shape with just some cracks near the upper and lower mounting screw positions.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC290004.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC290002.jpg

I used the 2-part paintable/sandable epoxy to reinforce the lower mounting areas as well as the front and back sides of all of the upper mounting positions on all four flares. It sands very easily once it hardens overnight. This stuff really helps with the rigidity of the flares and should prevent future cracks from starting at the screw holes. I used a liberal slathering of it at all of the originally glued areas on the back sides as well, since the factory glue probably wasn't up to the task of holding the parts together after 35 years.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../PC290001b.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../PC290008b.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

Nice job Mac. Your tutorial is inspirational. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...iggthumpup.gif

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

Has to be the best step by step restoration thread this site has ever seen. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...ns/worship.gif

Just brilliant! https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...iggthumpup.gif

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

Thanks for the moral support! https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/grin.gif

And here's the remnants of that original spoiler. It looks like it took the brunt of the flames as the gas poured out the air cleaner snorkel down the radiator shroud and onto the radiator support.

Here's the original "crime scene" photo:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...dofTorchin.jpg

and here's the spoiler. It's just a little too far gone for me. I can always put it on ebay as a "nearly NOS piece." https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...ns/naughty.gif

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...PC290002-1.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC290001.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/PC290003.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

As usual awesome work Steve. Happy New Year !!

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

I have been wondering what to do about the scratched up anodized aluminum window trim on the front and back windows. I figured I have no problem with polishing them if I could get the old scratched anodized finish off somehow. So, I did a little searching and found the following method worked pretty well. It seems that using Sodium Hydroxide (common household powdered lye/drain cleaner) is what most people recommend. I also stumbled across something that worked much better for the initial heavy stripping...what is it? Why the same old "Purple Stuff" of course! I happened to place a couple of trim pieces in the Purple Stuff just to clean them off and after a few minutes the anodizing started crusting up and bubbling off. So, I did what most people would then do: I read the ingredients on the Purple Stuff jug and low and behold it contains Sodium Hydroxide. It must be in some heavy concentration becuase it worked much faster than lye mixed in water.

Here is what I set up to do the larger pieces: a kiddy pool lined with heavy 6-ply plastic sheeting from Home Depot. I filled it with about 8 gallons of water and then added one can of powdered Drano. It takes about 2 hours before any progress is observed.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/P1010013.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

It does take time and you have to continually check on the progress so you dont get to the point where the anodizing is gone and your aluminum trim starts feeding the chemical reaction instead. Here is the trim after about 5 hours. You can see the tiny foaming bubbles rising from the trim pieces.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/P1010035.jpg

Here is what the piece looked like at the 8-hour mark. You can see most of the anodizing is gone except in the corner area, whcih was the slowest area to dissolve.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/P1010029.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

After seeing what the Purple Stuff did I set up a plastic pipe capped at the bottom and filled with the Purple Stuff. I then hung the straight price of trim on a wire and hung it in the pipe.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/P1010020.jpg

Here it is after 30 minutes:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/P1010022.jpg

And after 2 hours:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/P1010024.jpg

You need to check this solution frequently and use a Scotch Brite pad or 0000 stainless steel wool to scrape the anodized crust off of the surface. This allows the chemical to get a better bite at the surface and continue the process. The Purple Stuff does work very well and very rapidly but seems to reach a point of diminishing returns after a few hours.

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

The reason I used the Purple Stuff and tube method on the long piece was simply, that it was too long to fully submerge in the kiddy pool. You have to have the entire piece submerged otherwise you get uneven stripping and a big parting line in the trim piece.

Once the Purple Stuff did its work I then washed it in cold water and then transfered the straight trim piece to a section of plastic gutter lined with the same 6-ply plastic sheeting. I filled it with some of the same lye and water solution from the kiddy pool. You can see that the 2 chemical method (Purple Stuff followed by lye/water) works well as the lye solution immediately started taking away the remaining anodizing.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/P1010038.jpg

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

From start to finish it took 12 hours of soaking in the lye solution to remove all of the anodizing. This included the periodic removal of the trim from the solution, the scrubbing of the surface and washing with cold water and then replacing in the solution again. I think if you used a higher concentration than one can per 10 gallons of cold water you would get faster results. One website I found suggested 1/2 cup per gallon of cold water. But since I was trying not to poison everyone in the house I decided to do the conservative method. When I was done, I poured the drain cleaner solution down the slowest sink drain in the house, which cleaned that up a bit as well. As for the trim pieces, I placed them in the shower and hosed them down with cold water for 5 minutes or so to get all the residue off.

One additional thing to remember. You must use proper protection: heavy rubber gloves and safety glasses are a minimum, plus proper ventilation.

Here is the before on the corner piece:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/P1010015.jpg

Here is the after:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/P1010044.jpg

And here are the other pieces, all ready for polishing this weekend.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/P1010040.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/P1010041.jpg


This was a cautionary reminder I found on one website concerning using this method:

"Fast and easy, maybe. Dangerous, absolutely. Just one more reminder that every year trained professionals wearing protective gear are seriously injured when something goes wrong making up solutions of sodium hydroxide. It has an enormous "heat of solution" / "heat of dilution". This means when sodium hydroxide is mixed with water, it heats up the water. Not a big problem if a small amount is well mixed into a large amount of cold water. But if a small amount of water mixes with a large amount of sodium hydroxide (which can happen even in a large tank with poor mixing), that small amount of water is instantaneously turned into steam and erupts the contents of the tank all over the operator."

http://www.finishing.com/3600-3799/3674.shtml

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

Steve,
Based on your last precautionary statement, I will add the "rule of thumb" for mixing caustics or acids with water. ALWAYS, add the caustic or acid to the water, never the reverse. IF the water is already there when the chemical is added, it will instantly be diluted and will not result in a violent reaction (erruption). Water first; chemical second.
Even when cleaning your home drains, never pour the chemical in a dry drain, then add water. ALWAYS run water first, then add the chemical. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...ns/scholar.gif
Verne

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

Wise precaution, Verne.

BTW, Here is a link to a site that has the % concentration of Sodium Hydroxide in various items. It's so nice to see that Crest Tooth Whitening Strips have the same ingredient of Sodium Hydroxide as Purple Stuff and Drano. Though the powdered Drano ranges from 30% to 60% Sodium Hydroxide and the purple stuff is only 1% to 5% concentration. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...emlins/eek.gif

http://hpd.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/house...chem&id=19

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

I have read about this (sodium hydroxide) process before in a resto magazine, but do you know if the trim could be reanodized after it's stripped off? Or is it best to polish the trim and keep up with it? Any tips or info would be appreciated. Looks pretty good by the way!

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

I believe this is basicaly the same process the commercial anodizers use. Here is a link to one of them and how they do it:

http://www.focuser.com/atm/anodize/anodize.html

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

Thanks! https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...iggthumpup.gif

Re: 72 T/A progess
 

One thing that I still remember from High School Chemistry,
"Do as you outta, add acid to water". https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...ns/scholar.gif
The demo that the teacher gave was very convincing. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...ns/shocked.gif