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

Yes indeed...and I'm religious about wearing eye protection when there are sparks in the air. That said, I've experienced those little heat seeking guided missiles ricocheting off my forehead, carefully steering their way through my somewhat bushy eyebrows, hitting the backside of the safety glasses before leaping to their final death/resting spot, my eye (it's happened more than once!...as such, for the past couple years I wear both safety (magnifying, because, well, I'm old!) glasses and a shield). But, this time, I was just laying under the car, bolting on the front fenders after having them off to sandblast the backside. And, I admit (to the optometrist as well) I wasn't wearing eye protection for that task. After ward, when I felt the "gravel" in my eye, I thought it must have been a piece of sand, and figured it would rinse out. I was wrong.

 

Guilty for not wearing eye protection for a long time. Now that I'm older glasses are required to see. A old sheet metal man told me that a menthol filtered cigarette butt rubbed across the eye takes out steel slivers too. Ouch on both accounts.

 

a good clean tissue wrapped around any magnet works and you can tell if it came out.

 

How's this for a weird occurrence. Working on my header project, I was lying on my back under the car tacking some tubes and a healthy spark found and entered my ear channel,...burned the ear drum and started an infection Took about a month to heal and get full audio service back. Never thunk to wear ear plugs for welding

 

I hate it when that happens too!! And that great sizzling sound it makes as it bounces around in there! My eye has healed up...hope your ear does the same.

 

It's been a few weeks since my last update...between life events, I've been able to find a few small pockets of time here and there to work on body working the front fenders.

Once they were metal prepped, they received about eleventy-two coats of Rage Gold filler.

Followed by sanding and removing eleventy-one coats of filler.

Once done, they were removed from the car for a few coats of high build primer. There's nothing like a panel being all one color again to show the areas that somehow require additional attention (I missed a few spots on these!).

The front fenders will join the other primed panels slowly curing and awaiting guide coat and additional block sanding (not to mention additional work on the areas that I missed).

 

I feel your pain. Bondo on, sand bondo off.... Repeat" eleventy" times if needed. Seems endless some days. One can certainly gain a greater respect for those that do this every day by doing it yourself. I have a greater insight into why this phase of a restoration costs so much and why so few do it. I also see why a good body man is very reluctant to quote a price for this work.

 

I bought some of that graphite guide coat the other day. I wasn't impressed. It's messy and gets attached to everything. I think I will go back to spray bomb guide coat.

 

I know right?

I've used the graphite (like?) guide coat in the past and prefer it over spray bombs. Don't discard the stuff you bought if you don't care for it, I'd be interested in it.

 

how is the graphite stuff dispensed?

 

It comes in a container that sort of resembles a sour cream container with a sponge like applicator on the top. Between the container and applicator, there are holes in the lid. By shaking the container, small particles make their way through the holes in the lid and embed into the applicator.

https://www.3mcanada.ca/3M/en_CA/p/d/v000056355/

 

Man, ya got those fenders lookin good.

 

Thanks Ron.

 

I've been slowly plugging away at the body work...next up was the cowl and dash. After stripping pretty much everything that was in the way and that would unbolt, I cleaned up the sheet metal one last time, applied filler, sanded filler, added more filler, sanded more filler and repeat etc...until it was ready for the high build primer.
I was curious about trying out the "stink block" that Darryl Hollenbeck mentioned in his video (linked in post #495 above). I had done a bit of research and found the product he references is actually an Owen-Corning glass foam insulation product used in the construction industry. I sourced it locally and used it as the first round of blocking out the rear fenders (the high build primer had been curing for a few months). The foam glass works very well in quickly conforming to the compound rounded shapes of these cars and parts. The foam glass and guide coat, works very well at quickly levelling out the panels. I was/am impressed! After a quick lap of the rear fenders using the foam glass as the sand paper and block, it quickly levelled out the primer/panel and showed some highs and lows that were left after the first round of body work. After I was done with the foam glass sanding block, the freshly "straight" rear fenders got another (and I believe the last) coat of Slick Sand high-fill primer.

Next up will be the doors.

 

Part number for the Owens Corning stink block? I had a hard time finding it locally.

 

This is a copy of the invoice for the block that I purchased. It gives the product number, supplier and the cost (in Canadian $) for the 15 sq ft (5 pieces, 18"x24"x4")

 

Thanks for that!
I doubt I'll get my fiberglass body straight as your fenders were even before filler, but if/when I tackle that, it is nice to have a link for the right product.
Owen-Corning glass foam insulation product FGBKPP40F Foamglass Block

 

Wow, you are doing a great job on the body work! I have been trying to figure out a good way to hold my rear fenders for the body work coming up. Although I can't see how you tied yours together I think I get the idea. We have been working on the doors for weeks now. We hope to get some black paint on them this week. Thanks for the update Tim!

 

Thanks Sam, I'm looking forward to your updates as well. There are 5 scrap wood straps bridging the gap between the 2 fenders (screwed into the body mounting holes, and one across the bottom towards the rear of the fender screwed into the fender brace holes). It stabilizes the amount of "flop" and twist the fenders otherwise have with seemingly no other way to hold them except for bolting them back onto the body.

 

Doors done. Note the big black brick...that's a chunk of the foam glass "stink block"...
Next up, the back half of the body shell.

 

The last section to complete the body filler stage was the rear 1/4's/body tub...


Once done with the filler, a quick round of masking tape and the rear 1/4's/body tub got a few coats of high-build primer (Yay...all one color again!!!).

I will be switching gears for a few days to do a round of maintenance on the '32 so it's ready for Deuce Days in Victoria next month. I may even try to get in a day or 2 of Coho fishing! Then it'll be guide coat and the progressively finer grades of sandpaper block sanding will begin.

 

Looks great! You deserve some time off.

 

Looks really good.
Enjoy Deuce Days.

 

It's been a couple months since I showed any progress on the project cabriolet. It's been an action packed 2 months (included fantastic Coho fishing, getting the '32 ready for Deuce Days and road trip, a trip to Manitoba to help with a family construction project, attending Deuce Days and the follow up Curmudgeon road tour (documented in this thread: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/can-am-curmudgeons-are-road-trippin-again.1338625/), a round of service for the daily drivers and boat, yard work and house maintenance...as such, the cabriolet sat idle while the hi-build primer "cured"...until now.

With the hi-build primer cured for a couple months, it's time to start block sanding. The dry guide coat was applied and then the first round of block sanding was completed using the foam glass block. This was then followed by 150 grit on the sanding blocks.

Once complete, the door was set aside until the second door was completed.

And, after both doors were to this stage, they received another couple coats of hi-build primer and were again set aside to cure (sorry, no pics). This was followed by the decklid and hood top which were treated to the same guide coat, foam glass block, 150 grit sanding process.

Before receiving the next few coats of primer and being set aside for curing as well.

The panels are coming out nice and straight...I was hopeful that I might have gotten away with being able to block sand all the way to the ready for paint stage with the just the first layers of hi-build primer...but that was being a bit too optimistic. I should know better...I've gone through this many times before and know what it takes to get a panel arrow straight (below is the reflection in the 1/4 panel of our '28 roadster I painted it black so it had to be arrow straight!).

So with patience, panel by panel I will get there...even if it means going over the process a few times.

 

Tho you may have answered this question before, what's the final colour going to be?

 

Currently working towards a Fiat colour...Verde Chiaro. (Photoshop credit thanks to the Moose).

 

You sure did get that model Eh straight! Nice work as always.

 

More of the same...guide coat, block sand using the Foam Glass, guide coat, block sand with 150 grit, re-apply primer.

It doesn't make for fascinating photos...or updates...but it is the process, and it does slowly show that progress is being made.

 

Remember; you're in body and paint prep hell and the only way out is to keep going. I's going to be worth it.

 

Thanks for the words of encouragement Joel (truer words may never have been spoken)...I'm continuing on head down and slogging through it. I'm really looking forward to getting past this stage of the project, but am reminding myself that getting through it is not as important as getting it right!