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1932 Ruxton, or how I became an unwitting restorer.


Barry Wolk

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I have a car collector friend that has rare and unusual cars. He called me one day and told me that he was flying to Flint, Michigan to look at a very rare 1932 Ruxton, purportedly finished while the company was in bankruptcy.

That's what I read Barry....

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You wrote "Restorer". I wrote "Receiver". The company went bankrupt and the Receiver, the person that controlled the assets in Receivership ordered three cars assembled from the inventory of unassembled chassis and bodies. What I don't understand is what restorer you are speaking of.

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I haven't had a lot to report on as I'm pretty much done with the chassis. My next task is to install the gas tank. I had it cleaned 6 months ago and it rusted up. I think they used water on it when it was powder coated to wash away the degreasers they use. I'm also hearing bits of lead knocking around inside the tank, so it might have been baked a little too hot and lost some lead in the seams. I'm not going to take any chances so I'm going to install a liquid liner. It'd already been degreased. I'll start with the Fast-Etch that comes with the kit and finish off with acetone to displace any moisture.

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The roof is almost done.

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The snow made for some shortened hours, but Jocko was able to move down to the side of the body and create a perfect door gap.

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The parts came back from the e-coater. What seemed pricey at first turned into quite a value. He asked that I not sand blast the parts as he would have to start at the beginning of his process to get rid of the sand. Jocko and I are astounded at the condition of the sheet metal. The underside of the fenders and the mating edge where the rear fenders sandwich the welting are rust pitted, but there's no surface rust and very little bodywork required to make them perfect.

How did a car get through 80 years with no body damage?

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This weekend's task was to install a liquid liner in the gas tank and make sure that the gas gauge functions properly.

On Saturday I started with cleaning the tank with an acid metal prep. It took about 20 minutes of sloshing before the inside shows no signs of rust and the surface attained a dull gray finish. I skipped the first two steps as the tank had already been degreased and cleaned. The instructions start you off with sloshing the tank with dishwashing detergent and water followed by a thorough water flush. That's followed by a muriatic acid and water bath that removes most of the rust. Since I had little rust I went right to the metal prep.

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This is what came out when the acid was dumped. There was very little debris in the paper towel after straining. This acid is reusable numerous times before it loses its effectiveness.

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Once the metal prep is drained you pour in a quart of Acetone and slosh it everywhere and drain. Rinse and repeat. The second quart came out nearly clear. The next step is to uncap the openings and blow a copious amount of air into the tank to evaporate what acetone remains. The final step is to cover the sending unit and gas pick-up holes and pour in both quarts of tank sealant. After that's done you cover the filler neck in tape and rotate the tank in all directions to thoroughly coat all tank and baffle surfaces. After 8 minutes the instructions say to open the holes in the tank and blow out the fumes and reseal. Rotate for 8 more minutes and drain excess material.

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Of the two bottles poured in only half of one bottle came back out of the tank so I had successfully left behind enough material to put gas in the tank after 48 hours of cure time.

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You can see a nice white lining through the filler neck.

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My wife joined me to help test the fuel gauge and sending unit. They had been tested separately, but not wired into the car. Before installing the finished tank today I wanted to make sure they worked in concert and gave an accurate reading. I couldn't get it to work and sent my helper on her way. She had only been gone 30 seconds when I realized that the instrument pod was hanging in free-air and wasn't grounded. I clipped on a temporary ground and the gauge worked through its full range. It should provide very accurate information. I torqued down the rear lung nuts after setting it on the ground and setting the parking brake. It's ready to roll.

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The next step was to do a tape measure alignment. We couldn't get the toe-in to anything less than 2 1/2". At first I couldn't imagine how that happened. I sought out and purchased the tie rod ends by size and what I received matched the physical size and appearance exactly. The center link wouldn't screw into the tie rod ends far enough to make the adjustment. I was thinking I'd simply find a right-hand and left-hand die and simply cut longer threads as the tie rod ends are deeply threaded. Finding a die for an obscure thread size is like finding a needle in a hay stack. Positive Tool has some pretty rare tools, but nothing left-handed. It was likely lathe-cut originally. The solution then struck me, I really didn't need to thread that section, just remove enough metal to create a space thats slightly smaller than the valley of the existing threads, allowing the rod to be screwed in 3/4" further, if need be, without having to thread the area.

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Jocko is making good progress for the number of hours spent. He works like I do, in 3-4 hour chunks for best results. He has the roof finished and 3/4 of the rear done. The windshield posts took a little extra work. but it's turning out nice.

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There was quite a bit of detail that had to be restored in the window area. The sharp edges had been built up with the filler of the time. The door gap turned out perfect.

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The first batch of chrome arrived. I only unpacked the steering column. They did a beautiful job.

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Now I can finish the steering column, a complicated affair, to say the least. There are 5 tubes and a horn wire. The center tube is rotated by a lever in the center of the wheel that operates the lights, in three positions. That tube had a broken collet, used to clamp down on the tube so the lever can rotate it. Again a very unusual 7/16-24 thread. No taps and no dies available and this one was broken. Someone shaped an 7/16-20 nut to fit over the remains of the broken collet, on the right. They epoxied everything in place, and nothing worked. Now everything will. In one hour they made me a brand new collet that matched the modern thread of the nut already made for the purpose. Astounding.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The pistons are being machined, but EGGE said that the rear seal housing was not available to them. It's a two-piece housing that typically uses a rope seal or can be modified for using a more modern seal.

The originals were castings and used poor quality pot metal. This is typical of the way they come out.

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It's actually two parts.

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This is how it looks installed in the output side of the Continental engine.

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Fortunately, my Ruxton mentor had had several sets made for his car and rummaged through his stash and came up with this for us to copy. It's not what you know................

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Greg took one look at these marks and said they were from the clamp of a steering wheel spinner/suicide knob.

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The steering column is done. The last item was the horn button. I couldn't figure out how the parts that came out of the horn button would have worked as they cause a dead short, constantly sounding the horn. Once again my mentor came through with pictures that showed me that the spring they used was too big. I had a spring on my desk left over from a carb kit that worked perfectly.

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The new collet was altered slightly to make it flush with the back of the assembly. The Bakelite cover had been removed during the previous restoration. They drilled out the brass rivets and used some type of adhesive that didn't hold. I drilled out the brass as deep as I dared drill and belled out that hole for better adhesions. I cut a copper wire and pegged all three holes and then filled them with epoxy. Further dabbing should ensure adhesion. This part has the horn button spring pressure on it at all times..

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Once that set I was able to do the final assembly of the steering column. The button in the center is the horn. The lever on the right is the rotary light switch. In the position you see it the lights are all off. Putting the switch handle down one detented position you turn on the two parking lights on the front fenders and the single rear driving light. These remain on in all positions but the off position. Moving the lever upwards by one click the low beams come on. Move the lever upwards one more time for the high beams.

On the left is a throttle control lever. It rotates another tube that moves the throttle plate for warm-ups, and could be used for a crude type of cruise control. The steering wheel was covered in 80 years of being handled. Everybody gave me the same recommendation; run it through the dishwasher. It came out beautiful. The cracks are so small that we missed them on first inspection and are barely visible after going over the wheel with super fine steel wool and some 1500 grit sandpaper. As it was cooling I applied a couple of coats of paste wax to seal it and it soaked it up. The third coat started to reduce a nice dull luster. It will look wonderful with the nicely patina'd wood dashboards, probably the only two unrestored parts on the show field.

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The machine shop nicely resolved the too-long center link by removing just enough material behind the threads to allow for the tie-rod ends to be further threaded into the ends, effectively shortening the too-long rod without doing a left hand thread extension.

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This is cut to the same depth as the valley of the threads.

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  • 1 month later...

Startling juncture for this project. Seeing the hood resting on the beautifully chromed radiator shell was an emotional thing. The exercise brought to light some interesting problems. For some reason they couldn't get the flanges for the shell to line up with the holes in the frame. It was then that they realized that the front crossmember, containing the bell housing and clutch, needed to be in place in order to spread the frame rails apart by about a half inch. Now the shell lined up perfectly, but the hood was a poor fit. It had been flipped all the way over at some point and sprung the hinge edge.

The e-coating process really did a nice job of removing all the rust and getting primer into areas that could not have been reached with spray. However, it revealed some crazy repairs where edges of the hood either wore or rusted away. Looking at the pictures there were some decent gaps before, so the edges had been built up, likely with lead. Those edges will have to be reconstructed in steel.

After the base coat dried on the body I have to admit fondly fondling the newly smoothed body. The owner's wife found that amusing.

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Guest prs519

" I can't remember how it came into my possession, nor what it was designed for. The tapered end has a dull point like an alingnment tool used in steel work and the prying end is what had me baffled. "

Barry, Let me first thank you for the wonderful documentation you have been sharing with us. You seem to have a fantastic problem-solving mind! As for the pry bar, I remember using them in mining equipment maintenance. We called them "ladies foot(s)". They are great for aligninig major assemblies as one mates, for example, an engine and transmission, the taper insures one is coming together straight. They were also very useful when needing to pry on a race or bushing or such, especially in close quarters, where a close fulcrum is essential. Thanks again. PS maybe the next Continental will be your car with some retro styling mixed in with the new.

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When we bolted down the radiator shell and tried to fit the hood, these were the gaps we got.

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Every single bolt hole lined up, but none of the panels did. I fiddled around with the radiator shell and found that by shimming the RH side the center of the shell moved over just enough to draw all the panels into place. I recall there being some shims made from webbing that were on the floor when I took the fenders off, but there were no witness marks to see where they came from. Now I know they came from the top of the frame, between the decorative pan and the radiator mount. About 3/16" of shims made everything fall into place.

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Busy day. Upholsterers in the back seat, bodymen in the front. Here I am, watching other people work. We found that the body needed to be shimmed up in the front, but we couldn't get the driver's side up. Jocko realized that I had attached the steering column to the body mount, locking the body to the chassis. Once we shimmed the body up the gap in the lower part of the hood closed up perfectly.

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Skip had already fabricated new arm rests. The last time the car was restored they were left out, but the PO saved them. They were pretty well chewed on, but enough remained that they made great patterns. The actual arm rest wood was salvaged and new panels cut. Those were trimmed to fit. They fabricated the white curved panels out of PVC sheeting that's about an 1/8" thick. It's cut to a rough shape and heated until it becomes pliable enough to bend into the corners. After a few minutes of cooling it holds its shape. It's then trimmed to fit. The two side panels and the area surrounding the window are three pieces, but will be bonded and upholstered as one. They installed the old seat to check the fit and called it a day. The new upholstery will have no buttons.

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The radiator shell has a faux front that replicates the look of a radiator, but just acts as a guard. It comes to a peak in the center. It looks to have been flattened, which distorted the intentional waves. This is a critical part to get right as the pattern is not very forgiving. If it turns out great it'll be gloss black, if not it'll have to be muted with matt black. I'm shooting for shiny. The hardest part is duplicating the waves so I made a crimper out of an old pair of glass-breaking pliers to duplicate the curve.

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The old welting was temporarily installed so the hood could be fitted properly. It's pretty obvious that the hood had suffered some damaged from being flipped all the way over, bending the hinge and hood. The hood was temporarily attached to the hinge with Clecos so we could check the operation of the hinge. We found that things were so bent that there was metal to metal contact on the hood when it was designed not to. This hood is unlike the hood on most old cars. Only the top pieces lift up and are propped in place with rubber tipped rods. They were not meant to flip all the way over. On many cars you lift the side panel, which is hinged to the top panel, raised as a unit. This hood is a minimum of 4 feet long and lifting both pieces would be a strain for most people. The side panel are held in place by spring-loaded latches that keep it centered even if the chassis twists. It was well-engineered to allow for movement without paint on paint. This is 9 hours work for two guys to get right. The lines are beautiful. These guys are artists in their own right.

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  • 1 month later...

Big step. Huge headaches fitting the rear fenders. There was a previous rust repair in a predictable place in the rear fender. Unfortunately the fender was welded off the car and it really didn't fit, so, between the two rear fenders about 50 fender washers were stacked up as spacers to get it to fit. After lots of cussing and angst the old rust repair was cut away and the fender sprung back into shape. The front fenders will require very little work, by comparison as all the metal is original.

This is starting to look like a car.

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I found a guy that does ceramic powder coat, a perfect use for the combination intake/exhaust manifold. What a piece of engineering this is for a one-piece casting. I spent 3 hours blasting off the original porcelain finish. There was some pitting, but the powder-coat will fill most of that with some special attention.

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All of the parts of the exhaust system will be coated.

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A considerable amount of time was spent correcting a previous repair. When I took the car apart both rear fenders were held on with 50 washers as spacers. The repair was done off the car so nothing fit. The old repair was cut out, new metal fabricated and tacked in place on the car and checked for fit.

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I've busied myself by getting some of the ancillary bits and pieces finished. One of the most challenging is the combo generator/distributor/water pump drive. It is driven by the timing chain through the gear on the back of the engine, which is really the front of a normal engine. The brass screw is for a tensioner for the timing chain. That gear drives the generator through a shaft that passes through the generator. That shaft has a gear on it that drives the distributor in direct relationship to the timing chain. The distributor has a bracket on it that is cable-controlled to change to different timing advance settings for fuel quality and starting issues. The manufacturer tags are available from a tractor restoration site pretty reasonably priced. The zinc plating is working out well. I've learned that there are no shortcuts. Media blast, degrease, metal prep, plate.

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Fenders and doors finished. Front fenders mounted. All of the sheet metal is installed, even the rear windows. The rear window frames are extruded aluminum. Some think that's a pretty early use.

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Looks like one of those barn find pictures.

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The only known pictures of the factory striped Joseph Urban paint job are in B & W, but luckily the print-out is exactly a 10:1 scale, making the picture perfect for scaling the size of the stripes. I don't believe there are any Ruxtons with original paint and some obvious liberties were taken with the restored cars.

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The strip below the body line scaled out to 4.5". The second and third strip below are larger, but it was harder to determine their exact measurements until I happened to notice that there was a logical mathematic progression to the sizing. The second stripe is 5.25", .75" larger. The next stripe adds .25" to the increase making it 6.25", 1" larger than the previous stripe. Jocko made gauges that will be enormously helpful in laying out the final striping.

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With the gauges Jocko was able to lay out the striping.

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The Ruxton's 18-S Continental engine is mounted backwards with what is normally the front of the engine facing the firewall. They needed to install a cooling fan in front of the radiator. They accomplished this by installing a large pulley on the flywheel with the belt passing through the bell housing/crossmember. These are the constituent parts. I found sealed bearings, so the drip oiler installed on top of the assembly is no longer necessary, but looks great.

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Almost done.

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Looking for a set of hose-type water pump shaft couplings that used these fittings.

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I found that the coupling clamps for the water pump drive shaft are the exact radius of 1 1/4" thin wall electrical conduit.

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Since I only found one original coupling I'll use the four original pieces on one side of the shaft and the replacements on the rear.

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This is the inside view of the ledge that supports the fabric roof insert. You can see the hundreds of holes I welded shut from the original and subsequent roof replacements. I wanted to avoid holes altogether so I researched a number of roof installations and found that Plymouth used a similar system. Instead of drilling holes a sealant is applied to the edge and the whole roof is drawn down by the bolts on the inside of the vehicle. On the original installation the top was cinched into place with wood screws, but over time and exposure to moisture those fasteners failed.

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Using gauge sticks I trimmed the roof rack to a 1/8" gap around the perimeter, enough clearance for two layers of material. The T-fasteners I installed needed to be flush with the surface so I used a paddle bit to recess the nuts. The marks on the edge showed me where I needed to create some more clearance with the belt sander.

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I shimmed up the frame until it was flush with the lower edge of the upper ridge. This allowed me to exactly fit the frame so that there were no gaps when the aluminum edge was installed. As I snapped this picture I realized I missed recessing one of the t-nuts. I did that before moving on.

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When the fabric is wrapped over the metal edge and secured to the wood frame, or just glued to the aluminum there will be no need for fasteners drilled into the roof. There will only need to be a small caulk line flush with the steel and fabric top. There will be a number more screws securing the aluminum edge to the wood frame ensuring a tight seal.

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Apparently, spray paint can be applied without runs if one is patient.

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I installed the fan assembly and hung the sectional belt off the pulley.

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I then hung the flywheel and attached pulley from the sectional belt so you can see the relationship of the fan to the rear of the engine.

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The LH fender is in really nice shape, but the wheel coming off on the RH side really tweaked the fender. It was pushed in and out in a number of places. Some of the metal required shrinking and some beaten into stretching. There's no real damages as if it were in a collision, though.

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The intake/exhaust manifold came back from the ceramic powder-coater. It's not as glossy as I would like, but will be more than suitable. Most of the pits were filled, but the ones that remain are hardly noticeable. It was there for a week so he blasted it again, baked it to 800° for 24 hours to remove any oils, blasted it and baked it again, this time applying the ceramic coating. He said he's done a lot of exhaust manifolds and a number of intake manifolds, but had never seen an 8 cylinder intake-exhaust combo before. It's about 3 feet long and probably weighs 75 pounds. He charged $350 for all 4 pieces.

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It looks pretty good assembled. I'll purchase new brass manifold nuts to finish off the look. The carb is at the machine shop getting a new control shaft made. The controls are on the wrong side of the carb. The fix I did would have held up long enough to move the car along, but everything changed when we found the engine needed to be rebuilt. The new shaft will protrude out the correct side of the carb eliminating my rigged short term fix.

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Fan assembly is done, starter, distributor/generator and water pump are done. The only thing left is the fuel pump, but can't find an AC model number on it to get a rebuild kit meant for today's fuel.

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I finished the aluminum edge around the top. It met with everyone's approval. The upholsterer said I made his job quite simple. A couple of edges in the lead needed reshaping, so it should be a nice fit.

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All of those mounds are holes that were drilled in the roof. I welded shut over 200 holes. You can see the bolts that draw the top to the inner framework.

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There will be no holes needed for the installation of the top. It will simply be drawn down, putting pressure on the aluminum edge, which will have a modern hidden sealant under the roofing that wraps over the edge. The gap will then be caulked with an appropriate material.

I posed the question on the AACA web site as to what the original roof configuration looked like and someone sent this drawing that exactly matched the ledge and roof edge details of the Ruxton. It used a metal edge drawn down with wood screws. I just substituted 1/4"-20 stainless bolts and hidden T-nuts epoxied in place.

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The roof is out and the fender work is done getting everything straight. The LF fender needed a little edge straightening and repair, but it was pretty pristine. The fender on the other side was a mess made worse by previous repairs. However, it really looks right. Likely better than new. Now the fun begins. The fenders are all off and blocking the body has begun. I'm told I can show the car in gloss black, but not the final striping.

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I found out that the water jacket cover the owner just spent a bundle to chrome is actually pretty worthless. It's just a flat plate. It turns out it's another less than proper repair. The original covers were actually a distribution system meant to funnel water between the groups of cylinder banks for even cooling. They were made of mild steel and rotted out. I've seen a number of replacements on other cars that appear to be boxes, but none that matched the appearance of the stamped originals.

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I've been using a local fabricator in Redford for about 25 years. Lyndon Fabricating has press brakes that have long die sets that have different radii. I came up with the idea of having them make a channel about 4 feet long. That would give me enough extra material to make end caps out of the side flanges. They said I could have the channel in a day, but they'd also do the welding and drilling to duplicate the steel and brass original out of stainless. They said they could make it out of polished stainless, but I'd have to have it polished where it was welded. They are going to drill or punch all the holes and stitch weld the inner baffle in place. Their work is much flatter than I could have hoped for had I done the welding. It will require some rounding of the corners, but it sure looks stamped instead of fabricated.

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The company that I acquired the engine gasket set from, Olson's, has been very helpful. I needed to make a rather odd-shaped gasket for the exhaust by-pass tube. They supplied the copper ferrule and the material and I cut my own. I'm sending him the patterns as there were none on record for this vehicle.

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:)

The Ruxton has leather mud flaps front and rear. They were embossed with the Ruxton logo. The previous owner of this car had a set of dies made to emboss thin brass for hubcaps.

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After putting 5,000# of pressure on the die for a half hour it barely left an impression. The depth of the engraving made it pretty useless as a burn stamp, either.

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I'll have Positive Tool CNC some dies that are mirror images so the images all face out. The mud flaps will be made of sole leather. It's about 1/4" thick. The flaps that were on there were 1/8" and had no structure.

Some more of the chrome came back. Advance Custom Chrome has done a very nice job. I think the headlights are all that's left.

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It turns out the cowl scoop was likely original. The prototype didn't have the cowl scoop, nor did the early cars, but three newer sedans do have them, so it's likely running change.

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It's likely that tilting the windshield for ventilation was not optimum, so a flip of a lever was chosen. The side vents were meant to provide a draw of air out of the car. These were fitted as the last sheet metal to require sandblasting. There is no longer a trace of the original paint, anywhere.

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I can't remember if I posted this, but this is how realistic you can make a restoration with a $15 replica tag and $15 worth of letter and number punches.

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A slight sidetrack to extricate the bronze casting from the rusted sheet metal remnants of a Mark II fender. The was the cold air intake in the rear fenders of the early air conditioned cars.

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No, but this die was unusable as the impression would have been less than 1/64 of an inch deep and would not stand out in contrast to the dark field around it. The dies were never meant to emboss leather. I could try it on the sole leather when I get it, but I still don't think it will work.

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If you heat the leather with boiling water first than inpress the die and leave it under pressure until dry there will be an impression that will remain. When we make leather oil seals we build a die , insert the leather hot and leave until dry and every mark on the die shows on the leather when cold and its shape remains permenant. Hope this will help . regards Bob

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They could make them out of a plastic casting. I could do the same myself. I had a Corning light fixture lens with nice fluting that I cut to fit. I'm investigating having duplicate of the originals printed, but clear plastic is not the best for printing.

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I was going to make the half-round white Oak strips for the luggage carrier, but I couldn't find a 7/8" router or shaper bit. I'm having a millwork in Ohio turn 6 7/8" dowels 36" long for me so I can jig the dowel to a flat board and run it through my table saw, cutting to one side of the centerline. Since it's a dowel I'll be able to select the side with the most exposed grain.

The engine is done. Correcting all of the previous "repairs" took a lot of time. The head bolts were in the way of machining for new seats. They, incredibly, penetrated the water jacket in numerous locations, making them rust to the block. The crank had to be ground to fit oversize bearings. The original cam had a lobe missing from a stuck valve. A spare cam came with the car that was covered in rust, but cleaned up real nice. Because the engine runs backwards the gear on the cam that drives the oil pump is at an opposite pitch to run a stock oil pump in the right direction. All valve guides were replaced. The original valves were just fine, just needing resurfacing. The bores were oblonged. The previous build just put new rings on old pistons, so there was some slapping. Part of the delay was EGGE's poor performance. The tappets were checked for fit and there was little wear. When I get back from the Elegance at Hershey I'll jump into painting the block, installing all of the painted and restored parts and getting it into the engine bay before the car is painted. The weight of the engine will change gaps so we want to make all final adjustments before painting.

Speaking of painting, we're out of the repair phase and into the blocking phase. Instead of spraying on a dusting of paint he's using an actual duster that has particles so fine they stick in the smalls imperfection. No wait time and it detects the smallest pinhole.

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I know I don't have the patience for this.

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The new water jacket cover is finished. While the polished surface will make it easier to finish before plating the stainless does have a different look. I've ordered about $450 in chrome acorn nuts and washers of various sizes to complete the stock chromed embellishments. I looked around for things that could look better and found that in protecting the unusual tail lamp assembly I wrapped it and forgot about it. The ring that hold the horn could be nicer, too. I opened the package with the hubcaps and found one had significantly less definition than the others. I'll use one of the two remaining skins to do that.

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I used the 1200° gloss stove paint over the ceramic finish. It's definitely high gloss.

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