Gene's 35 Ford rebuild

After 24 years and over 100K miles, I have decided it’s time to rebuild my 1935 Ford humpback sedan.

I have added many improvements over the years including parallel leaf springs, new engine & trans, air conditioning, brakes etc. However, each add-on was patched in to the old parts. The 12 circuit wire harness I installed 19 years ago is now supporting closer to 20 circuits. I recently had a leak at the shift lever on my th350 trans. because the frame is in the way, I will have to pull the engine and trans to get at the seal. The list of issues is too long to list.

So, the decision has been made. I ordered a new Fatman Fabrications chassis and have starter the disassembly process.

 

This is a big project and I have never stripped and repainted a whole car before. Therefore I have started to start small and learn as I go. I decided to start with one headlight bucket. I understand that when using paint stripper, it’s important to mask off any areas that might hold any stripper which could leach out later and ruin the new paint. So my first step was to hand sand all areas with joints such as the rivets and headlight ring. I then masked these areas and buffed the rest of the bucket to prepare for stripping.

 

Good to see a driver get some love. It will be as good as new soon and you can be back on the road for another 24.

 

I'm in

 

^^^^ I was gonna ask, because I don’t know, but does Farman make a chassis for a beam axle up front?

 

I'm subscribed, are you planing on going back with black? HRP

 

Good to see you've begun Gene, all journeys start with a first step.

 

Hotrodprimer,
I haven’t decided on the finished color yet. I love the black but I’m thinking about a very deep blue that looks black except in the right light.

 

In for a Penney, in for a Pound.
May the Force be withYou.

 

Everyone thinks my car is black. It's not. People will contest that with me, but I mixed the dark blue and sprayed it myself, so I should know. In fact I do. Usually these days if people say something like "Is that your black roadster?" I just say yes. After 25 years, I can't be bothered with the discussion.

 

I ordered a new primer paint gun from Eastwood. It is supposed to arrive on Wednesday Aug 30. While I'm waiting, I have been hand sanding several small parts that have crevices that paint remover could get trapped in.

 

I also built a paint booth out of 3 mil plastic from Ace Hardware. It's not exactly a professional booth but it should keep most of the overspray from priming contained.
In order to have room to work on this project, Every morning and evening I have to move the Factory Five cobra I built in 2016. To be able to get it in and out I made the booth so I can roll up the sides.

 

I was looking forward to using the paint remover rather than hand sanding especially for parts that were not smooth. I decided to start with the right fender/headlight brace. This part is under the fender and not visible. Following the instructions, I sanded it with 80 grit paper to rough up the surface. I then used a spreader to coat the part with a fairly thick coat of remover. I covered it with plastic and waited a half hour. I used a scraper to remove the gunk and paint. Almost no paint came off.

Not to be discouraged by my initial failure, I tried again. I shook the can much longer than the first time. I repeated the sanding with 80 grit paper, gave it another even thicker coat of remover and covered it with thinner plastic.

Same result. I had mess of consisting of remover and a little paint after extensive scraping. I was very disappointed. Once I cleaned up the mess, it took just as long to remove the paint after using the remover as it did by just hand sanding.

Lesson learned. There are no short cuts. I will hand or machine sand everything from now on.

 

So, it’s safe for your skin, the earth, and the paint.

 

I can live with M2, even Ryan ran it but...............................He has our sympathies for his choice of vendor.

 

Thankfully we can still get the good shit that burns your skin and takes paint off. For now at least, because you guys lead the way. For some reason, others follow.

 

I know, my issue is fatman in general. BTW, is that 38 EVER going to do a burnout in anger again!?

 

Gene, I'm excited to watch the progress you're making on your road warrior.

These are the type of disks I use for removing paint.

https://www.amazon.ca/Stripper-Stri...cphy=9001444&hvtargid=pla-1650329818946&psc=1

I just recently stripped the rear quarters and rear inner fenders of the cabriolet. In total, it took about 4 hours.

 

anothercarguy,
I tried to buy the material you showed but amazon said it could not be shipped to my location ( I love California). I could get this https://www.amazon.com/Strip-Stripp...=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9zZWFyY2hfdGhlbWF0aWM&th=1

but i don't know if it's as good. What do you think?

 

Pretty much the same animal. I also use the ones that fit a Roloc style holder in a die grinder.

 

The 3m versions are quite a bit more spendy, but they work well and seem to last a bit longer. Here's the Roloc version...

I'm sure these too can be sourced in California.

 

Hey Gene, I'll tag along for the build. Remember Deuce days is only a couple of years away.

 

Good start Gene. Finally got the link from Tim
I know from experience that what you post is carefully scrutinized by the traditional police. And, even tho I'm old enough to have lived it,...I have been slapped for my naïve selection of parts and/or my comments. I love sharing my project with others but occasionally feel like I'm walking on eggshells.

 

The strip discs work good. Even better if you have an adjustable speed grinder. They sometimes melt the paint and smear it around when the grinder is spinning at full speed as it gets the surface quite hot.

 

I just across an interesting bit of history on my headlight bucket buried under many coats of paint . "Ford TWOLITE HEADLAMP".
It would be nice if this could be seen through the finish paint but I'm afraid the primer and topcoat will covert up again.

 

I am learning to paint. For my first attempt I tried painting the headlight buckets, the fender brackets and the horn brackets. With that attempt, I managed to get runs, sags and insufficient paint on all six of the parts I tried to paint.
I sanded all the new primer off and spent the next couple of weeks studying videos on paint gun setup and painting techniques. I learned that my compressor is very marginal for primer and probably unacceptable for finish paint. My compressor puts out 8.6 cfm @ 40 psi. My primer paint gun requires 9.5 cfm @ 40 psi. I did a test on the gun setup and it looks like it should work.
For my next test I repainted the same six parts. However, this time I tried to paint the inside of the fender brackets with a paint brush and sprayed the other parts. The paint brush left brush marks.

One headlight bucket came out OK but the other had a run. Both horn brackets came out OK but I touched one with the air hose and ruined that one.
Based on the fact that I obviously am not good enough yet to continue priming the real parts, I am going to setup a test area where I can practice on sheets of metal until I am confident I can do the job right.