Projects Tim's (aka anothercarguy) 1938 Ford Club Cabriolet Build Thread

Use a hardener(China Dryer ?) in that paint? If not, why? Seriously curious...

& on the pin locating panel, maybe either a rotated/twisted dimple for the pin to poke thru, or just slots w/a tapered edge - since it's only to guide the lid down in a specific path. (sorta like the old hood pins) ???

Still, nice details. .

Marcus...

 

I use the Japan Drier in the top coat. It helps to accelerate the dry time and hardens the paint. I didn't use it on the primer layer.

I may re-visit the guide pins further. I need to think about it more. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

OK. Thanks. Do you know, if the under-layers w/o the jd stay soft & not harden for quite awhile? When I used this stuff w/o the jd a few yrs ago, the paint eventually got hard, but it took a whole summer of heat to harden. Was always curious if the jd in a non-pigmented base(clear?) would hold out from chalking better/longer, have a deeper gloss, etc.
Marcus...

 

It wasn't real clear but he said there was no hardener in the primer and the way I read this is that he used JD in all coats of paint, not just the final coat of paint.

 

I don't have any comment on the JD in a non-pigmented clear coat holding out better/longer...I've never used a clear alkyd type paint. It does add a bit of deeper gloss to the pigmented paint. I've also never used this paint on the topside where it would be subject to a lot of UV...so again, I'm not sure if it would be more resistant to UV fade/breakdown. My experience has been strictly on the underside, where it works well, touches up easily and seems to be harder than woodpecker lips!

As for the alkyd primer staying soft without the JD...The underside of the fenders seemed completely dry to the touch after 12 about hours...I installed the fenders after 24 hours and did not detect any remaining softness...though I didn't dig in with sandpaper or a scraper tool of any sort. I just wanted them sealed up while I body worked the topside.

Sorry about the confusion. You are correct, I did not use the JD in the primer coat. I will use JD when I apply the finish color coat.

 

Thanks for the comments. I did figure you didn't use the jd anywhere but the final topcoat. Was just curious as to your experiences. The Industrial Rustoleum I used did harden, but look a very long time. Maybe the coats were too heavy, but it's not like I slobbed it on, nor floated the paint on. I had tried both a brush, & a foam applicator. Flashed ok, dry to touch fairly quickly, but I could leave fingerprints in it or fingernail dents for a long time. So any other future applications will contain dj. .
Marcus...

 

After a couple week hiatus to hang with my buddies in So-Cal for the GNRS, it's time to get back on the '38. In reality, while representing a major step forward, the body work stage is probably my least favorite task of a build. For the next several months, I will be wearing a dust mask when in the shop and will have my filter fan box nearby at all times (I blow the filters out at least a couple times per day when I'm sanding filler). When I was younger, I never bothered with the filter mask, but I was not too bright either and would pay the price with hacking and coughing each morning. I've also never been great at "selfies" either...but here we are.

I should also add, that in the past when using phosphoric acid to convert rust, I would then spray PPG epoxy primer over the phosphoric acid etched panel. Then do my filler work on top of that. That system seemed to work well for me. But, with the price of PPG epoxy primer going through the roof and much of it being sanded off while doing the filler work anyway, I decided to try going straight to the filler stage directly over the panel (after the acid treatment). Opportunity to learn from my mistakes!! It turns out, that the filler was not happy with the phosphoric acid basecoat and had issues bonding to the panel (internet search confirmed this little detail...doh!!). So, I ended up having to pretty much sand and clean off all the acid. It was better to find that out now! Anyway, after the fenders got a thin skim coat of filler along with the required sanding, they were removed from the car and set up on saw horses.

I then stood them up back to back using small pieces of plywood screwed between them to hold them together and masked the underside. They then received a couple heavy coats of PPG K38 high build primer. They'll now be set aside for a couple months to allow for any possible shrinkage before they get a guide coat and the next round of blocking sanding. In the mean time, I'll move on to the next panels.

While bodywork is my least favorite part of the build, it is rewarding to see a panel in one color of primer!

 

Tim, I have used the PPG Shopline epoxy primer quite a lot and have been quite satisfied with it. I also like Eastwood's 4:1 high build primer better than the K38. I still do my filler work over the epoxy and the high build both. Just make sure the high build is scuffed real well before applying filler.

 

Thanks for the recommendations Dale...I'll keep that in mind when my current supplies run out.

 

Those fenders sure look good in gray/grey ! I like your method of joining the rear fenders. I think I'll steal that idea....
Now that I have gone ahead with the black on the CS my wife tells me she wanted the green colors. I don't know how many times I showed her those green tones we had been looking at and she never seemed impressed. I'm going ahead with the black. She had her chance... Good to see you are using that filter box. I still have not made one of those. We have been using the paint booth fan to keep the dust down but that requires keeping a window open. The filter box could save me some money on the heating bill. thanks for the progress post!
Sam

 

Thanks Sam. My wife is much more vocal on her likes and dislikes with regard to colors, I have little doubt which she prefers...Lol. She's also vocal regarding her preferred wheel choice(s)...she prefers wire wheels (her '36 had wire wheels that I had to clean). I didn't find any wire wheels, but I was able to find my preferred choice of Halibrand Sprints .

 

Hey, Tim;
Fwiw, last summer I got to pick the brain of a pro, & we discussed, among other things, primers, to go under both filler & esp also under bedliner-type-materials(to be used as an undercoating - like usual, & primarily as a salt/magnesium-chloride defense, on a daily-driver hotrod). He emphatically stated *No* acid-primers - of *any* kind. Reason being that the acid-action can't ever be stopped/neutralized. He did state that a good epoxy primer was ideal for this though. His personal/shop experiences over the years.
Also discussed glues used in place of crimping & welding(in the right applications), he was encouraging & enthusiastic about it, esp when my concerns were to eliminate probable rust accumulating areas(door edges, body flanges, etc).
Marcus...

 

Interesting...thanks for the info/comments Marcus.

 

I did forget to add, I think you're on the right track, but I'd still epoxy primer 1st, then plastic, if for no other reason, then that way you have the epoxy primer under any plastic. 2nd & 3rd coats just act as a thin filler??? ? Gotta primer anyways... Previous plastic-over-bare-metal seemed to eventually have rust under the plastic filler, & that was after all was cleaned, dry, wiped w/MetalPrep, dried, then plastic. But haven't done that in awhile... Guess I did that wrong yrs ago. I've learned from reading here, & talking w/a few decent folks.
Marcus...

 

Thanks Marcus...I've seen/heard a couple references to this video...Bad Chad is a story unto himself (take him or leave him, I've not been a fan, but have watched some of his stuff), but his gleaning of information from Darryl Hollenbeck in this video is very informative and eye opening...and it's tough to argue with Darryl's results. Actually, in this video, even Bad Chad is not that tough to take. Watching this video has helped cement my choice to re-consider/change up my previous process where epoxy primer was the first layer. It seems that the split has historically been close to 50-50. There are those that prefer filler direct to metal and those that prefer filler on top of epoxy primer (historically, I was one of the latter...but for this car, I'm going to try filler direct to the metal).

 

It was told to me by a PPG rep probably 50 years ago to put the epoxy down first, then filler, then epoxy prime. This puts the filler in a waterproof envelope. Filler is nothing but talc powder and resin and talc powder is a moisture absorbent. I was also told that filler sticks to epoxy better than bare metal. Again, all from a PPG rep.

 

It's always worth a try. . A very good way to learn. Curious iffen you'll notice anything different as you do things.
Marcus...

 

As can be seen below, I've been working on the continuation of making dust.

My revised metal prep process includes 10-15 minutes of wet time with a phosphoric acid solution, followed by being wiped dry, then 10-15 minutes of wet time with a baking soda solution to neutralize the acid, followed by another wipe dry, then a quick wipe/scrub with a water soaked red Scotch Brite pad followed by a wipe dry and then an aggressive blowing off to remove any remaining moisture. The metal is then ready to accept the filler work.

The next 2 panels to receive the metal preparation, filler work and then finally the high build primer are the decklid and the hood top. After watching the video posted in post #425, I decided to give the polyester filler primer Slick Sand a try. It's pretty thick and my Harbor Freight purple primer gun struggled with it a bit. I had already re-drilled the orifice up to 2mm but it may need to go another size up.






These parts, like the rear fenders will now sit for a couple months while I move on to the next panels so that any shrinkage that might happen can occur.

 

Hello Tim in Dustville BC! Looks like you are having fun! Thanks for the update.

 

Looks like it went on pretty good. It’s been a long time since I’ve used any polyester high build, but I have an older SATA with a 2.4 tip that worked well. I know you mentioned having a 2.0 tip. The 2.4 tip is like a garden hose. Lol.

 

Looking great! Slick sand has worked well any time I've used it.

 

Thanks for documenting all this! Car is looking great and I know what you mean about the bodywork stage. Bodywork has always been my least favorite part of paint and body…

 

Very cool.