39 Ford Project

[Custer55]

This past week I spent prepping for epoxy primer over most of the bare metal areas. Not sure what I am going to to with the bottom of the car yet. I don't have a lift so using a spray gun underneath the car won't be a good option, so I will have to try something I can apply with a brush. I may try my epoxy primer (Tamco DTA) without any reducer and see how it works applying it with a brush.



The first thing I worked on was putting some fiberglass reinforced bondo on a few areas that I didn't get the metal smoothed out real well. This lower section that I had patched the trunk was one of them.



Also did some around the trunk area where I welded in the new gutter to fill in a few weld voids, and the top edge of the tail pan where I had made some adjustments getting it to fit the trunk shape better. At this point everything was sanded and ready for epoxy. The biggest pain was getting all the weld spatter removed. I should try to cover things up to keep the spatter off things as much as possible as it wasn't fun to get it all off.



And a coupe of spots on the trunk inner structure where new metal had been welded in.



A couple of coats of epoxy on the inside of the trunk, just doing one side at a time on the trunk lid as I don't have a good place to hang it up to do both sides at once right now.



And on the new trunk floor and trunk opening as well as the tail pan and lower quarter panels. Also got a couple coats on the inner fenders inside the trunk so it all looks nicer than it did before. The primer looks more gray in some of the pictures but it is just the lighting at the time, as it is all black.



Another view from directly behind the car.



With that done I prepped the cowl and firewall to get all of that covered in epoxy primer as well.



Looking much better with no more bare metal showing.



And finally primer on the outside of the trunk lid. This ended up with 3 coats as I mixed a bit too much primer, so no sense letting it go to waste. Also got the outside of the cowl vent door sprayed but didn't get a picture of that.
Next will be getting the doors and trunk back on so it will will look like a whole car again other than the front clip. That will be the next project to tackle!!
Brian

[busterwivell]

Amazing what you've done, Brian. You should be very proud.

[Belair-o]

Sweet! That is really looking great!

[chevynut]

It's a little late but my painter has been painting high-end cars for decades and he uses only one product to prep his cars. He uses a product called "All-U-Need" by Clausen. It's a zinc-enriched waterproof high build polyester primer. He sprays it thick on bare metal, blocks it, and sprays more and keeps blocking it until he gets the body straight. He probably uses some filler if needed but I think his metalwork is good enough that he doesn't need it much. He doesn't even worry about having bare metal spots. Then he shoots a coat of good epoxy sealer and paints the car. I wish I'd known about this stuff before I started prepping my Nomad for paint because it's a lot simpler and probably better and far less expensive process than what I did (PPG DPLF, Slicksand, PPG K-36). He says he's never had problems with it and he paints million+ dollar old Maseratis and other rare cars.

[567chevys]

Brian ,


Was just looking at some of your Pictures and comments you are doing a great Job keep it up .

Thanks for sharing .


Sid

[Custer55]

Amazing what you've done, Brian. You should be very proud.

Thanks, I feel like I am learning and getting better as I go.

Sweet! That is really looking great!

Thank You

It's a little late but my painter has been painting high-end cars for decades and he uses only one product to prep his cars. He uses a product called "All-U-Need" by Clausen. It's a zinc-enriched waterproof high build polyester primer. He sprays it thick on bare metal, blocks it, and sprays more and keeps blocking it until he gets the body straight. He probably uses some filler if needed but I think his metalwork is good enough that he doesn't need it much. He doesn't even worry about having bare metal spots. Then he shoots a coat of good epoxy sealer and paints the car. I wish I'd known about this stuff before I started prepping my Nomad for paint because it's a lot simpler and probably better and far less expensive process than what I did (PPG DPLF, Slicksand, PPG K-36). He says he's never had problems with it and he paints million+ dollar old Maseratis and other rare cars.

I will keep that in mind for the next project. Tamco also has a high build primer that is rust encapsulating and can be used directly over bare metal. You can prime the whole car with it if needed over the bare metal. I have been using the epoxy primer 1st because it seals the metal from rust as it can be a long time from when I get primer over the bare metal to when I get back to working on it again.

Brian ,


Was just looking at some of your Pictures and comments you are doing a great Job keep it up .

Thanks for sharing .


Sid

Thanks Sid

[Custer55]

Finished up a couple of odds and ends the last week or so. I got the hood hinges and the trunk prop rod painted and re-installed. Just used spray cans to do these. Then repaired the trunk hinge bolts which were little carriage bolts that fit into the trunk weather strip gutter.



This is one of the bolts I am talking about. They were in good shape other than being partially rusted away on the bolt heads. Not surprising based on what the gutter itself looked like.



Here are the 4 bolts attached to some copper plate so I could weld the heads and then grind the head back close to the original shape.



After welding and grinding they look a little better. Not too worried about them being perfect as they will be hidden when weather stripping is added anyway.



Painted with some epoxy and bolted back in place now the trunk is ready to re-install. I always save any epoxy that is leftover from spraying parts in a small container. I have about 2 to 3 days before it gels up in the container so it comes in handy to do small parts like this with a small paint brush.



And with the trunk bolted back in place.



So next I started prepping one of the hood sides. Some rust damage that will need repairs but not too bad.



And a view from the inside. These are not fun to clean up with all the nooks and crannies in them. I like the look of the louvers but hate getting them ready for paint.



This is the worst of the rust on the hood side, which for sure will need a patch panel made. The lower edge has deeper pitting in a few areas but I will try to weld up the pits before resorting to patch panels in those areas. (mostly on the lower edge where the hood side meets the fender and inner fender. The rest of the panel is in pretty good shape.

[Custer55]

Been busy with other projects the last couple of weeks but I did finally get back to working on the hood sides this past week.



Most of the lower edge where the hood side meets the fender and inner fender was in good shape other than some deeper rust pits. Rather than trying to make a whole new bottom edge I just welded up the rust pits as there were no rust holes so it was much faster to fix this way. From my experience you will know as soon as you pull the trigger on the mig welder if the metal is to thin to just weld up the pits as it will blow a hole right through the metal!!



The lower rear corner had quite a few holes in it so I marked what will need to be replaced.


Then made a paper pattern so I could better locate the indent in the lower corner I will need to replicate.


Here is the metal cut out and the indent location marked. I left a bit of extra metal on the back and bottom edges.


To make the indent I made a set of dies from 3/8" steel. My first test piece I figured out that 3/8" was thicker than it needed to be so I made a 3/16" spacer to get the depth better. Before pressing out the actual patch I also tuned up the small die a bit to make it a softer radius at the bottom of the indent. Also figured out on the first test piece that I needed to tack weld the sheet metal to the bid die so it wouldn't distort the whole piece when I pressed it out on the shop press.


Here I have the patch panel fitted and clamped in place to to scribe the hood side where it will get trimmed out. Other than the indent and a small flange at the bottom this was a fairly easy piece to make as it is pretty much flat.


All fitted up and ready to tack weld in place. I used magnets to hold it in place for the initial couple of tack welds. I picked these up at a local hardware store recently and they work great as they are super strong magnets.


All tack welded in place ready to fully weld the seam. I have it tack welded about every half an inch and then ground all the weld flat on the inside and outside. I also did some hammer and dolly work as well as planishing the tack welds. Being such a flat panel there was some distortion to work out before the final welding.


Welding the seam I used the same technique as I did welding the tail pan sections together. Starting at one end I did 3 tack welds at a time and then ground the welds on the outside of the panel smooth before doing the next 3 tack welds. By doing it this was it is not such a big job to do all the grinding at one time and it keeps me from rushing the process. Also I don't need to force cool anything this way either. The distortion wasn't bad either, other than right where the seam got pretty close to the louvers.


And here is the back side of the panel after fully welding the seam. Weld penetration is great and the heat affected zone is fairly consistent which helps with smoothing everything out.
"to be continued"

[Custer55]

With the inside weld seam ground smooth and most of the distortion worked out it is looking and feeling pretty good.


Then I spayed some primer on the area to make it easier to tell where it needed a bit more work.


After block sanding the primer, doing some more hammer and dolly work and some light work on the planishing hammer (my lowest crown die is a 6" radius so I didn't want to get to crazy with it) I think I am going to call this good to go.


So on to the left hand hood side. This one needs a much smaller patch so should be a bit easier. I was able to use the big die for the indent by just flipping it over but I did have to make a new small die as the indent goes the other way from the right hand hood side.


Fitted up and in place to tack weld in.


Final welded and smoothed out. Not sure why but this one actually was harder to get smoothed out and get rid of a slight oil canning.


So the next problem on this side was to fix the lower mounting holes. At some point these holes were cut out instead of adjusting things properly.


After reforming the metal I welded in a small patch piece and them marked it where it needs to be cut back out.


And the finished repair. Looking much better now.


And here is the damage on the front hole. Repair procedure will be the same as the rear hole. Then I will have some rust pits to weld up but not as bad as on the other side. Once that is done it will be time to get epoxy primer on these. Being October 1st today my days are numbered for spraying epoxy as it needs to be a minimum of 60 to 65 degrees for proper curing. Most of the rest of this week looks ok but Friday the high is only supposed to be 52 degrees with lows in the 30's so we shall see.
Brian

[BamaNomad]

Great work Brian!