VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 title or not to title that is the question

Hello everyone,

Bill (rbl2) you have a real talent for working with wood, maybe you should open up a shop and restore woody wagons.

I have a story i would like to share with you in regards to vacuum sprayers (for what it's worth) in my early 20s i sold a water based vacuum with the name of Rainbow, it had a great attachment package including one for spraying.
One of my first sales was to my grandmother (relatives always by stuff from you) and she referred me to a Marine living in one of her rental houses near the Marine corp base in
Twenty Nines Palms, California, so i went to see him and we got to talking about cars, and he said his favorite car was a 1940 Willys coupe, well i was floored because i just happened to own one along with a 1940 Willys pickup, so the Marine said "if you sell me your coupe,i will buy a vacuum"($425.00w/attachments) what can i say i was eleated, so the next weekend i hauled the coupe 135 miles up to it's new owner, the Marine came out to greet me and before he even said hi he said "you know what this vacuum has a sprayer attachment", i said i know, then the Marine asked me if i will help him paint his car, i wasn't sure how to answer him so i said sure alright i'm game, and besides he was a really good guy, and then i thought to myself this way i would have a personal account of how the sprayer works.
About 2 months had passed and i get a phone call, it's the Marine he said "i finshed the body work, lets do some painting", so the following weekend i arrive at his house and i see a strange 2x4 structure 12'x 24'wrapped in thick clear plastic in the yard, i come to find out it's his homemade paint booth, so i laughed and we got down to it, and when it was all said and done the Willys was now a beautiful shade of red, it really glissened, and i would have to say that little sprayer worked better than i expected, and it looked a whole lot better than the $29.95 paint job Earl Scheibe did on my 1957 chevy.
So if someone has a real tight budget and their not going for a show quality paint job it might be the way to go.
gnewt

In all truth, I'll have to say that my first paint job was on my 1930 F0RD Model "A" coupe that I bought locally for $80. It was black (many coats) so I went to town and bought some sand paper and a couple of cardboard buckets of LYE. I sanded, put on a mixture of LYE flour and water paste, waited scraped, and repeated the action several times, got down to bare metal used some metal prep my dad found at an oilfield supply store, sprayed on a couple of coats of red oxide primer, then went to town and bought 3/4 of a Gallon of Chartruse enamel paint and a quart of firetruck red paint. and 3 gallons of thinner. I used my mom's almost new SEARS Kenmore cannister vacuum cleaner with the anti-moth sprayer, The car was cool! after I painted the engine block and head, wire wheels and a body stripe with the Firetruck red with a small brush, I never did get the chartruse finger prints off the cannister.... I wish I would of had color film for my Brownie Hawkeye camera, but only had B&W film...........

[img][IMG]http://pic1.picturetrail.com/VOL1180/4341552/9153654/327374404.jpg[/img][/img]

My two brothers and our dog showing off in the rear, shop built mini-pickup bed with two sidemounts, oilfield welder style

rbl2,...I could probably do almost as good a job on your Chevy, since I have had 55 years practice!

A decent paint job can be had in many ways, including rollers and paint brushes. The trrick is in the sanding before and during and the sanding and polishing afterwards. I use a similiar method with wood and can take a dull gloss finish and rub it until you can see your reflection in it. I do all my finishing by hand. It's time consuming and hard but it's well worth it. A decent finish on wood can take longer than the actual construction of the project.

I remember those moth sprayers and my ol man and an uncle talking about painting a car with it but I don't think they got very good results.

It's not the actual painting I'm concerned with. It's all those tiny dings and itty bitty dents. I have no idea how to fix them. I'm told the metal has to be treated with something or the putty wil fall off in a year or so.

I'm not interested in a show quality paint job but I want one that looks good from 5-10' away and isn't gonna fall off in a year or two.

About 6 years ago I had a Chevy Cavalier that ran real good but needed a paint job. My son borrowed a real cheap spray gun and a small compressor that maybe would go up to 60 lbs. We slapped some 2x4's together and wrapped it up with visquene. It looked pretty good when my son was done and no doubt had he had the peoper equipment he would have done an excellent job.

As far as doing restoration work on woodies goes it's not that I can't do it, I just can't do it in a timely manner anymore. My health won't permit it.

Well Mack, I ain't goin no where so get on over here and paint my car. I might even be talked into buying some beer (after the fact) and some mudbugs. :grin:

heck, I might even be talked into buying a decent air compressor to go with that decent spray gun I have. While I'm at it I might even close in the carport so bugs don't get in the paint. :)


:vcca:

That's ok bill, you just keep sharing those stories with us,there more special than any old woody anyway.
Oh GOD what did i say, please don't strike me down with a bolt of lighting.
gnewt

Bill, with your ability to smmoth wood out as smooth as a baby's belly, I bet you can do an excellent job on car skins, remember to mechanically get the dings out as best you can with a hammer and dollys, then apply a shallow layer of good filler (Bondo is good) and block sand it out, spray a light coat of contrasting color primer block sand with the fine stuff, the contrasting color primer will tell you where the low spots are, fill them again with a smear of bondo and block sand again, use the body putty to fill in any tiny holes in the bondo, block sand and before you know it you will have sanded 95% of the bondo off and have a smooth surface to prime with high filler primer and block sand smooth and prime for the final coat, it s easier to do than tell you how to do it. That is about it! You could have it done before I get half way there. I know that you have a problem standing beside the car very long, I do wish you were living close by, we could work on cars and have a good time chewing the fat , and quaffing a root beer or something good and cold with some foam on top!

Hey Mr Mack explain to me what an anti-moth sprayer is and how
you use it.
genewt

MrMack
In one of your previous post you stated "I would encourage getting a 53 or 54 Chevy Station wagon and getting your boy involved in restoring it.
Why the 53-54 versus a 49-52, is it just a personal preference?
gnewt

gnewt,
You connect the hose to the vacuum cleaner exhaust (blows out)an to the sprayer, which is a simple spray gun without any adjustments and with thinned paint in the cup press the trigger and the paint sprays out in a fairly fine mist.

rbl2,
here is a pic of my second attempt at building a musical instrument about 6 years ago. My first was a cigar box banjo that I built when I was 10 years old. It appears to me, that the building is much more easy than learning to play them.

[img][IMG]http://pic1.picturetrail.com/VOL1180/4341552/19685581/327386450.jpg[/img][/img]

Have I ever told you the story about the time my First Sgt and I got stuck downtown Baghdad with no weapons or radios and no one knew where we were? It all began one day when..... Oh wait, this is a family forum.

Well, then there was the time... mmmmm family forum....

Ok, here's a car story I wrote several years back for a woodworking forum I go to. It's family safe.

In the story I have to explain a few things to the readers because they have no knowledge of antique cars to speak of.

----------

This mornin I went to do my laundry when I discovered I was all out of laundry soap. No big deal. It's a beautiful day out. I was wantin a cold drink anyhow. This is just the excuse I needed to take the old car for a drive. :vcca:

So there I am headed for the Winn-Dixie with my 32 oz. coke in a styrofoam cup sitting in the corner. There are no cup holders in a 1926 Chevy, never were. I can see the store about a mile away. I reach over and grab the cup, fixin to get me a drink, when for no reason known to God or man that danged ol cup squished and coke and ice went everywhere. Primarily, of course, in the crotch of my pants.

Now there I am, drivin down a four lane road in an 80 year old car with people pullin up beside me to wave and give me the thumbs up, a hollerin at me and askin what model F*** it is, not meanin no harm, just generally givin me cause to be concerned and extra alert, all the while I have the better part of 32 oz of coke in my lap, soakin in, real good. :eek:

I ain't exactly in the mood for bein friendly at this point, if you know what I mean. Can't let go of the steerin wheel. Can't let go of the cup. Can't wave and I ain't in no smilin mood. I don't care how good and straight it goes down the road you just don't ever let go of the wheel of an 80 year old car. You just don't. Ever. Period. Which is what it looked like I had. Unprepared. And alot. :o

Dontcha know by the time I got that cup and 1 oz of coke that was left in it situated my pants were just drippin wet. But only in the crotch. Of course.

So what am I sposed to do now, turn around and drive the 10 miles home just to change my pants so I can remake the 20 mile round trip just to get some laundry soap that I am now so desperately in need of? If I go in that store lookin like I peed my pants it ain't like I can hide afterwards, I mean, just how many other short, fat, long haired, old men drive a bright yellow 1926 Chevy roadster? Might as well put my picture, wet pants and all, on a billboard, or the tv, or the world wide web, or the Pearly Gates, or somethin.

By now of course, I'm at the Winn-Dixie, which required a lot of turnin and down shiftin and watchin for those pedestrian folks, just to get into the parkin lot and find me a decent place to hide and cuss. I mean park.

Ever try to down shift an 80 year old car? They don't have no synchronizer thingys in them that make shiftin alot easier. You have to double clutch them things and rev the engine a little bit and pray you don't grind no gears away cause you ain't buyin no more of them if you do. Now, you try to do all that while you have 32 oz. of coke and ice soakin into your pants, right above your private parts and startin to drip on them too. :cry:

Finally, and I mean it felt like it took forever, finally I get parked. Of course I park a bit away from everyone else, something I would have done anyhow, or so I told myself. What I don't need now is a bunch of spectators who wanna ask me what model F*** it is.

I no sooner get out, and hadn't brushed my lap but one time when a woman walks over. Just to be friendly of course and ask about the car.

"Oh my! What happened to you?" she asked upon seeing me. I told her and she laughed, of course.

"It sure does look incriminating. Are you goin in the store lookin like that?" she asked. "No way, Ma'am. I can't do it. Not lookin like this." I replied. Then she asked, "Do you have any coke left?" "A little" I replied. "Let me have it." she requested. Having no idea why she wanted what was left of the coke I gave it to her.

She then lifted the bottom of my T-shirt and poured what was left on it, from the center down. "Problem solved. Now it looks more like you spilled a drink then peed on yourself. By the way, what model F*** is this?"

Mack, we're talking about some pretty small dings here. The vast majority are not as large as my small fingernail and I have small hands. I'm not sure it would be worth the effort to try and bang them out.

If you look closely at the doors it appears as though they were allowed to rust and there is quite a bit of pitting under the paint. No doubt I could media blast the paint off but this is were I'm told I need to treat the metal before applying any bondo. Supposedly if the metal is not treated the bondo will come off in a few years, or so I read somewhere or was told.

You're probably right, I probably can do it and just lack the confidence.

That's a nice looking Dulcimer. you're like me, I can build musical instruments but can't play a one. :(

You're right, you need to move to Mississippi so you can come over and bag up my gremlins and paint my car. :grin:

I put the fret numbers on to help me learn the positions for different notes and chords. They are removable.
I have done some bondo jobs on hail dents, after sandblasting with regular blasting sand and wiped them out the same day with metal prep, applyed bondo and block sanded without any problems, they have remained unblemished for 10 years. I did have a problem with several that I used a red permemant marker to circle the tiny dent, it peeled off where the red marker was after they were bondoed and primed and painted..
I figured that the ones that lasted ten years and still look ok, were a successful and quick repair. I have tried to use lead and just never mastered that process.

I'm not even gonna consider using lead. I've been told that those who used it years ago were as quick with it as using bondo today and got better results. I'd like to see that. I don't doubt it, I'd just like to see it.

I can remember the frets and I can pickm out single notes and play a song that way. I've just never sat down and learned the chords.

I used to play a harmonica fairly well but I haven't picked it up in years to speak of.

MrMack, that is a fine looking job on your musical inmstrument. That should qualify you to do the top bows on my 28 Roadster. From this string I have found you are better at the wood than the vacuum cleaner painting.

Good Morning Everyone

I would like to become a member of VCCA, is it safe to join on line since you have to give out personal information?
gnewt

Mack, That's the first time anyone has mentioned lye and flour on this site to my knowledge. When I was about 15 in the late '40s an older friend bought a '31 Chrysler 8 and wanted to paint it. We asked the old timer for advice and he said it had at least 4 coats of paint over the original and recommended using lye. He warned us about the danger of getting in our eyes but only the eyes. He was the same guy who recommended egg preserver to seal small cracks in the cooling system and we were amazed that it worked. So we listened carefully and followed his directions. The result varied. In some places it went to bare and some places it left two coats of mostly brushed on enamel. So we just did it on those places again. And again we were amazed that the old timer's advice worked. We then borrowed his spray outfit and followed his direction and the result was just OK.That was my first car painting experience....Joe

Hi gnewt,

Try this, and download a form, which you fill out and send with a check to the address on the form.

Membership Ap

If you have any more problems, bring them here to be sorted out.

Glad to have you as a new member.

Hi Ray

thank you, i'll fill this out and put it in my out going mail
tomorrow, i wish finding a station wagon was as easy as replying
to all you.
thanks again
gnewt

Ray its gnewt again

As much as i like reading the posts over & over again,
is there a way to remove some of them?, i have to keep scrolling
down through all of them everytime i want to get to the most current one.
gnewt

Click on your name in the upper left of one of your posts. On the right side and above you will see ACTIVE TOPICS. Use the pull down arrow and select the time period that you will be reviewing the Chat Site again. That will give you all the current posts.