Projects Giant speedster project

The REO is a great example of a barn find. Do you have the headlights and hood and radiator? Did REO have electric lights in 14 and a starter? I have a '14 buick and that was the first year for buick having a starter electric lights and Left hand drive.Sorry to hijack the thread with questions. I love brass era cars.

 

It is a little over $9 a qt. in your Home Depot -- here it is $35 - I guess it costs $26 to tell me not to drink it in FRENCH!

This made my morning. Thanks.

 

The REO is completely complete. I took everything off to work on the engine easier. I had '14 Buick B37 but I sold it. It was a nice car. I toured with it some. Come to think of it I had B25 for a short time too. The REO was to take it's place but I got waylaid with the Seagrave. Both the REO and the Buick are quality cars and that's why I like them. The Buick engine is probably a little more advanced. Hey, they take the same tires and almost the same rims. Big snow down here. Nobodies doin nuthin.

 

touché

 

nice pair of old buicks. The one I have is the b-25. Great car for tours. I took mine on the reliability tour they had in Chattanooga in 2008. I hope to get back to another one some time. I am glad you are in the home stretch with the speedster. I have been lurking on this thread for along time.

 

Jerry, I say just leave the REO as is cosmetically. Just do the drive train and get it reliable, have some careful repairs done to the original leather (and drown it Lexal) and drive it.

As you said....its too nice to restore. As long as it is kept clean and dry....it should last a long time.

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I think there might be something better than Lexol but I don't know what. It needs some kind of oil poured on it. Maybe just drown it in neats foot oil.

 

I agree with Mr. Model T. I have a 1921 Model T that was bought by my dad in 1976. It had been a Long Island police car / fire chief's car (stories contradict) from 1921 until 1929. Then it was placed into storage in NY from 1929 until 1965. Then it was transferred to AZ where it was in storage (and the signs / sirens / lights were remove) from 1965 until 1976 and my dad bought it.

We have done as little as possible over the years. An accident required the replacement of the windshield, and a bent fender but thats about it. We rebuilt the engine in 1989 but she still has her original upholstery, wheels, etc.

The engine is red because you know that makes it go faster (my dad).

The only souped up things on the car --- high compression pistons, after market distributor, and a straight pipe. With one the driver, the top down, and windshield folded she'd make 55 easy! But it's a nail biter at that speed!

 

Jerry,

The RR dealer in Miami buys saddle oil from McLelland's in 5 gallon cans to soften up all of their leather seats.
I use it & it really works well. ( I have a Mclelland cutting saddle)


http://www.mclellands.com/

Jack

 

Restore the leather with Leatherlique (sp?) products. Call them, show/tell them exactly what you have and what you want to accomplish, and they will recommend the correct products and inform you of the order in which you use them.

Their stuff is the best for restoring old, cracked leather without ruining it.

 

Lexol was the first thing that came to mind, but I have to agree with Jack and Plym49....saddle oil or Leatherlique might be best. I think the REO interior could be soaked and soaked and I bet it would soften up real nice.

I don't think I would even touch the body at all, except a thorough cleaning and polish up the bright work. The wheels look exceptional....are they raw or sealed? If raw....coat them in linseed oil and leave them be.

Mechanically, I would do a complete rebuild inside and out....especially new babbitt bearings, rings, valves and seats and seals. I would also do a complete refresh on the transmission, drive shaft, rear axle and brakes, re-pack all the bearings and drive the heck out of it. Does it have a good top?

If my 1916 Hupmobile was in the same shape....that is exactly the direction I would take.

We have an original, unrestored 1906 Holsman Model 10 Stanhope Autobuggy at the shop and it is the most enchanting machine I have ever worked on or driven. To know that the car is virtually untouched since it was assembled by Dr. H. A. Castle in his front yard after it was delivered by the Union Pacific Depot is amazing to me......and something that would never be again if it was restored.



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I swear this has to do with the speedster!

I finally escaped the house. The main roads were plowed. Here's a fun fact. Those reflectors they glue on the road so you can see the edge and middle of the lane at night. The snow plow got every one of them. Usually the DOT cuts a little groove and puts them below the surface, but not here. My tax dollars at work. I thought about collecting them and sending them to the governor. Next item. I was a foreign car mechanic for 30 years so you'd think I could put on a timing belt but I got the Aveo exhaust cam off by one tooth and it was surging at idle. I got that fixed today and I also got the old rusted out waste oil heat down from my shop. I heated my repair shop with one for 18 years but they were a pain in the ass. I gave this one to Jon at Phoenix Machine. He says he's going to rebuild it. Even though I hate propane, I'm putting a gas heater in. Maybe I'll switch to natural gas if they run the gas line up my road. I need proper heat to finish the speedster. See I told you this was about the speedster. But I will actually work on the speedster tomorrow--promise!

Jerry

Man, those pictures are as bad as my old camera!

 

LOL- I saw that same thing today; reflectors scattered EVERYWHERE... like dead horseshoe crabs on the Jersey beach

 

This is one of those threads that needs to stay at the top of the forum. Love this stuff!

 

Hey, I just remembered. I did some research on Neats Foot oil. I comes from the shin bones of cattle--that's weird. But it very penetrating good oil. However, if the bottle doesn't say PURE Neats Foot you may be getting something with petroleum products in it or ever LARD! Hah! So make sure it says pure. I gathered from my research that saddle oil is basically Neats Foot oil.

Jerry

 

Neats Foot oil is a very good product. But on your REO it will probably give you oiled dried-out leather when you want to restore the suppleness.

Neats Foot used regularly can keep leather from drying out in the first place, but it is not as good as a safe restoration.

Call Leatherlique, speak to them, read some web articles, get a small amount and try it out on a dried-out scrap.

I predict you will like the results.

 

Now this is exciting!

Sanding wood, that is. Huh, you want more? That's all I did. I sanded. Then I sanded some more. Wait, there is more. I vacuumed the dust off. Then I blew off the rest of the dust. Then I ran my hand over the wood feeling for rough spots. Then I sanded some more. Then I looked for spots I missed. Then I repeated the process. As I did this I thought about how the speedster was going to look on the cover of Hemmings Motor News or maybe The Dupont Registry. Do they still print that thing? How about Classic and Sports Car? Newsweek? No, that went out of business. Top Gear! How about the Caffeine and Octane Show. What if I just get the damn thing done! Clear coat by Sunday--that's my goal.

Jerry

 

Weird... It appears on my feed sequence as recent.

Meh.

 

Poop deck

Well, I had this nice professional cherry stain and I tried it out on a few scraps and it looked good. Doesn't this sound like the prelude to disaster? So I brushed it on the deck with a sponge brush and wiped it off and it looked like POOP! I stared at it for about 20 minutes and then I began sanding it off. Well, the more I sanded the better it looked. The grain started to come back out. I felt better. This will put me off schedule though. Wait--do I have a schedule? The wife called and I ran off without taking a picture of the semi-finished result.

Jerry

 

I can see clearly now.

Everything is clear now. More sanding, more sanding, more.... You get the picture. When I was satisfied ( well, I'm never quite satisfied) When I'd had enough, I wiped off the deck then blew it then wiped it again then sprayed it with Bulls Eye then sanded it lightly. After that the ritual began: the measuring, the stirring, the filtering, the mask, the hat, all that stuff. The neat thing about modern paints is you can sand and buff so they are a lot more forgiving. And that's good because I barely know what I'm doing. I did have one or two tiny spots that repelled the clear. Kind of like fisheye but irregular. Weird! I laid the clear heavy on those spots too. But just like Cecil B deMille and the Red Sea, the clear just drew back and parted. I doubt anyone will notice. Maybe I can fill them in later. So a little sanding and buffing, and I can move on to phase to 453.7.

Jerry

 

this shop is too clean who owns this thing now?

 

That shop is too clean. I wish someone would rent it. But not before I get the deck done.

 

Deck

I finished buffing the deck bit and I was not happy. There were little pits and waves and things. The gods of clear coat were angry at me. I sanded more, this time with 600, then again with 1200. It looked better. Then I buffed. Better still. So I'm not a perfectionist. In fact I like some imperfections. If something is too perfect it looks machine made. I like a thing to look hand made. Too much glitz is bad to me. I want the craft to show through. But I have to think about whether there is too much craft showing on the deck. I'll look again tomorrow.

Jerry

 

Beat on the wood with a chain and a small ball-peen hammer. Then refinish. You will affect the proper aged effect then.

 

Heat them first! Scorches are cool!

 

Looks like silicone contamination.

I missed why you did not run with plain old spar varnish. Period correct and patinas with age, just like most of us here.

 

Oil base stain?

 

Very honestly you are the probably the only guy who will notice them.

Had a friend who restored a wooden boat about 10 yrs ago. He counted 23 imperfections in his stain job. Took the boat to 5 shows the first year after finishing it and not a single person noticed any of them.

 

Jerry, just to add my small change ($0.02) to the conversation. It's a wood structure and wood is a naturally porous material. It will pick up oils and such from your hands and any other things that come in contact with it and once contaminated it is very hard to remove the contamination. I tend to prefer varnish (good old Man-O-War Spar Varnish) or lacquer if anything other than a rubbed in wax or oil finish and it always seems to work better in multiple thin coats allowed to dry between coats. Anytime a "fish eye" type of condition happens it seems to just get more visible the heavier the coat put over it and about the only way to remove it is to sand it as flat as possible between many coats until you are happy with the result. The other possible method is to brush on coats over the flaws to fill the dents and sand the brushed on repairs until you are happy with the surface and then spray a final finish coat, finish sand and buff it out.

Your choice, how much time do you want to put into it?

All of that said, you are building a beautiful car and as barnbikes said, you are probably the only one who will notice the flaws.

 

Double decker

Sanded more on the deck. My gut tells me to spray on another coat. What can it hurt? Everything is taped up. I hate it but I'll be looking at this thing for the next twenty years. What?!

Jerry