Projects 1939 Ford Convertible Sedan Resurrection

My breathing air compressor looks just like yours. Mine is SAS brand also seen the same sold under the Allegro brand. Mine is over 25 years old but works fine was able to get new filter. The full face mask was SAS got through Amazon.

 

Wow that three months went by fast!

After finishing the body we masked off the wheel tubs and sprayed some Upol Raptor
liner.

We chose to spray it on with the same gun we are using for everything else (except clear)
(De Vilbiss FLG3) Which was sold to me as a primer gun. We have three different size
nozzles for it though and Don seems to favor using it.

We used brushes and rollers to pain the tool box.

It's finally ready for the move to the clean shop. (Early April I think)

The removable wall idea worked well. I removed a few screws, put some handles out of the
junk hardware boxes and it slid easily to the right giving us plenty of room to move the body out.

The move is only about 40 feet but we knew better than to try to roll this contraption
across the loose gravel. So we winched it on the trailer for the move. it was good to see
the body out in the natural light.

We decided to do some small stuff next.

I wanted to get the dash pieces ready for the woodgraining project. I was supposed to
deliver them to the artist a couple of weeks ago at a swap meet in Monroe WA. That
didn't work out so I will have to deliver them to his home in the next week or two.

I have some more stuff to share so I'll try get back here soon.

 

Man, that looks great! I’m sure it feels good to have it to that point.

 

I am liking the progress. It looks like you are doing a first-rate job.

 

Fantastic work Sam and Don!...You guys are getting dangerously close to the final assembly, which is the really fun part of seeing a long term project come together (literally).

 

Wow, looks amazing!

 

Great progress/build!

 

I've been wondering how you're doing. It looks like big steps now. I'm impressed
by the amount of work you guys do so that you can get stuff done on the car. It's looking great.

 

Thank you! Yes this body work has been a tedious project , but every time we get some more parts painted and set aside for assembly we are more inspired to not give up.

Thanks Bandit! Slow but sure....

Thanks Tim! I don't think it is time to hang up the danger signs yet but I am still hoping to drive this before this winter.

Thanks Dan!

Thank You!

Thanks Joel! It is very SLOW but steady progress.

Back to the project.

After doing the small pieces I decided to take a look at my grill. I had paid a bunch of money for this grill about a decade ago. It looked pretty nice when I bought it so I paid way too much for it as usual.

I decided I better see if the center trim would fit. Of course it did not.

All three of the stainless trim sockets were flattened and or messed up in one way or another.



I decided to make little dolly to help recover the proper shape for the center slot.



It did help. we used a little heat and various tools to get the slot usable.

Eventually we got the trim piece to lay down to contour most of the way.

This last bit at the top is easily pushed into place.

The two side piece sockets were almost flattened. We eventually were able to get them
to contour also.

We noticed some rust peaking out from behind that green primer. So sanding some primer off
in a few places we decided that some previous owner had laid down some green primer over a
light surface rust. You can just guess how fun it is to sand blast one of these stamped steel grills !!!
I did do one sand blasting session and managed to get the front of the grill blasted clean. I ran out
of 80 grit sand for the pot blaster though ( thankfully). Bought some more sand. Those hundred pound
bags are too heavy for this old man to lift theses days. Well the next time the weather, my physical
condition and ambition align I will try to get the inside blasted clean.
I don't look forward to trying to spray painting this thing.

Thanks for watching and commenting, it is encouraging!

 

Holy smokes, Sam. This think is gonna be killer!

 

first i've heard of 80 grit...thought 60 was the fine-get the kid at the yard to load them and put garbage can under the tailgate to take 1/2 when you get started blasting

 

What holds the narrow stainless trim to the side grill bars? I see some holes in the grill bars.

 

Hi Joel! Well the bottom appears to be held in the socket we repaired and then the clips shown below apear to insert into the holes in the grill.

Hello Patsurf,
Well, we have tried other grits but this 80 grit seems to work well in the little HF pot blaster. It leaves a good surface to start the body work/paint projects. I did get the young fella at the yard to load it. When I got home I rolled it off the tail gate and into a small yard wagon that has a dump function. Darn bag about flattened the tires on that thing. I will cut it open and shovel the sand out of the wagon when I am ready finish the sand blasting in the next week or so. I need to get that done before it gets too warm around here.

Sam

 

It's door time!

2K primer

I wanted to run the license plate light and third brake lights through the X bracing so
the Ford wire tabs can be eliminated. I had quite a time getting the wire through the
brace but it's done. Due to poor planning I had to carefully cut off these tabs that I
assume ford used to secure the wire after the primer was applied.




We used single stage gloss black on the inside of the doors.

Painting the back sides and jambs independent of the outside was probably not the best
plan. We did end up with a tape line on the back side edges that we had to sand and buff.
That was not fun and some paint touch up was required.












Base Coat

Clear coat. The paint came out pretty smooth but we have been cutting and buffing for
a couple of weeks now. We cut and buffed the back side edges first after replacing all of
the plastic masking. The plastic starts peeling paint after a couple of days. This really mess
with the cut and buff process.
All of this stuff is now cut to 3000 grit and looks pretty good. We plan to try some buffing
today. I hope to post some shiny door panel pictures tonight.

 

Well none of these pictures captures the luster of the shiny black paint or the smiles
of the builders. Don worked all afternoon on this trunk. It just had to be black.......

We still see some areas that need a little more attention and will tackle them tomorrow.