more aptly put....can this guy make up his mind or what???

The buyers for all of my cars have turned out to be real flakes, and since we're talking about small dollars anyway, and since the body of my 56R (Frankie) is so good, I'm back in restoration mode (this week). And, of course, having fun with the Plasma Cutter on Dorothy (76R). Geesh I love that thing!

Questions, questions, questions

#1: What is a good product to use to paint the inner fenders? My inner fenders are in great shape and I want to get them blasted, primed, painted and stored away. Is this a paint thing or a POR type thing?

I'm close to getting the body off Dorothy, the donor car, and will use her frame. Since there's so little body work to do on Frankie (aside from sanding, sanding, sanding), I want to get moving on the chassis and engine first. But...

#2: I don't have a socket that fits the crankshaft pulley. Anyone know what size that may be?

#3: Since I need to get the steering column out to pull Dorothy's body, is there anything I need to look out for when pulling the column (Power Steering)? It looks like rebuilding the Steering gear is not that difficult? Necessary??

Thanks for your help...and go ahead and have a good laugh. I know Lamar has! Oh, and forgive me but it's just so much easier to ask than have to go look dtuff up!!

Have a great weekend.

Gary

What a moron, disregard the pulley nut/bolt issue. It's missing. I was thinking of something else....I hope!

Gary

No laughing matter here. I'm glad you kept the cars. I hope the restoration goes easily for you.

I took my inner fender panels, along with a whole pick-up load of parts, to the local powder coater, and had everything sandblasted and powder coated semi-gloss black.
It's beautiful and inexpensive. The truck load cost me $250.00, that includes all of the panels surrounding the radiator, the radiator saddle,and all related parts, the fresh air ducting, everything under the hood area that I wanted in black, and all of the front suspension parts, coil springs, sway bar, you name it, if it was black, it was in that load of goodies.. All of those parts were done on both sides for that cost. probably as cheap, or less, than you could paint them for, and they are bullet proof..!

If I am laughing it's that I am laughing with you not at you. I know you too well Gar, you're like me, you have to laugh at things sometime to keep your sanity. If you ever plan to sell these two cars, now is the time before you do anymore cutting on Dorothy. Selling either one individually would be tough to do, but selling both as a project you may come close to getting most of your money back. If you're not passionate about 54's then why keep on. It sounds like you're trying to make yourself want to like 54's but your heart is elsewhere. Sorry to get personal but what are friends for. Just don't want to see you waste time and money on this project when I truly believe you want to be working on a 49 maybe.

But to answer your questions. If you are going back original with the inner fenders then I'd recommend stripping them, applying a coat of Eastwoods self etching primer and then a coat or two of their Underhood Black (UB). I like using their aerosol UB because it comes out thin and duplicates the thin paint from the factory. I assume you are going to undercoat the car when finished so the undersides will get undercoated. I thought I had some pictures of Buttercups innerfender after painting but couldn't find them Did find these though. When you get ready to dupicate the paint under the fenders, it appears they had a light coat (like everything else in 54) of black primer and overspray from the body paint. Then the dealership undercoat. Here's some shots of that.







Re the power steering. Why are you using Dorothy's frame. I recall that Frankie was pretty darn solid and even the very rear crossmenber was staight. Why even take Frankie off the frame. Just that much more work. Just swap out the power steering and Roadmaster brakes. Heck of alot easier than removing bodies and repairing frames, or am I missing something?

Hope some of this helps , either way you go buddy, I'll help all I can.

Feeling guilty for getting Gary into this?

JUST ANOTHER PART OF MrEarl's AWARD WINNING AFTER SALES SERVICE

Mr. E didn't get me into anything I didn't want! I wanted a Roadmaster and he sold me one, then a Super and then a..... only kidding! And Lamar, it's too late on stopping the plasma torch. A you can see from the pic, Dorothy has become a true parts car. I've also learned that, everything on a Buick weighs a ton! OK, I already new that...my back reminded me this morning. Yanking heavy parts while closing in on 60 is not fun!

I finally had enough with getting the front seats out of Dorothy, so I just cut the floor out. Now that was heavy too. Then, after listening to the compressor run for 30 minutes while I ground off the nuts underneath, I finally got the seat removed from the floor, along with another inch of left over mouse droppings. But, one of my favorite new "tools" is a 3M mask I bought on eBay for about $20. Weld, cut, grind, whatever and the world still smells like a fresh spring day! Oh, and as an aside: My $10 Harbour Freight 3" grinder is a ton better than my Sears version that cost $60.

So to answer your question on using Dorothy's Frame: I want to bite off more that I can chew! And, if I'm going to do this, well I want to do a frame off. Actually, with the exception of the rear "tow bar", I think Dorothy's frame is in better shape. And I think it will be a ton easier to change all the lines, work on the driveline, etc. Of course, I'm prone to mind changes though as you know!

RocketDude: $250 to blast and powder coat all those parts? Where do you live anyway, Tijuana? I paid that much to get 5 wheels done!

Gary

Mr. E didn't get me into anything I didn't want! I wanted a Roadmaster and he sold me one, then a Super and then a..... only kidding! And Lamar, it's too late on stopping the plasma torch. A you can see from the pic, Dorothy has become a true parts car. I've also learned that, everything on a Buick weighs a ton! OK, I already new that...my back reminded me this morning. Yanking heavy parts while closing in on 60 is not fun!

I finally had enough with getting the front seats out of Dorothy, so I just cut the floor out. Now that was heavy too. Then, after listening to the compressor run for 30 minutes while I ground off the nuts underneath, I finally got the seat removed from the floor, along with another inch of left over mouse droppings. But, one of my favorite new "tools" is a 3M mask I bought on eBay for about $20. Weld, cut, grind, whatever and the world still smells like a fresh spring day! Oh, and as an aside: My $10 Harbour Freight 3" grinder is a ton better than my Sears version that cost $60.

So to answer your question on using Dorothy's Frame: I want to bite off more that I can chew! And, if I'm going to do this, well I want to do a frame off. Actually, with the exception of the rear "tow bar", I think Dorothy's frame is in better shape. And I think it will be a ton easier to change all the lines, work on the driveline, etc. Of course, I'm prone to mind changes though as you know!

RocketDude: $250 to blast and powder coat all those parts? Where do you live anyway, Tijuana? I paid that much to get 5 wheels done!

Gary

Actually, I got more stuff done for that cost than I listed. I also had the battery box, the battery cover, the big panel in front of the radiator, I did lots and lots..!
I spent several hours sandblasting just a few of the items, and not very well, I might add. I got discouraged and decided to take it to the sandblaster. I had no intention on having it powder coated, for what I expected to be a very high cost. I told the guy how long I spend on the few parts I attempted to sand blast, and he laughed at me. He said he could blast the whole load in less than an hour. Minimum charge for an hour, $75.00..! So I asked how much to blast and powder coat, and he said the would do it all for $250.00. I went to another place closer to my home, and it was cheaper, BUT..! I had a lot of road tar on the fender panels, which they told me I would have to remove, a project that didn't thrill me, so I went back to the first place, and he said they would remove the tar for no extra charge. That sealed the deal. They take a huge torch and remove the tar in minutes, like it was nothing. When you have the proper equipment, life is a breeze.
I will soon take my wheels to him, so we'll see how much that costs, but I'm sure the blasting won't take long, so it shouldn't be too expensive. I'll let you know, maybe wheels cost more..?
It was done by Vinman performance coating and fabrication in Hesperia California. He has several booths of difference sizes, the largest being big enough to do a truck frame.
It sold me, any time I have enough to make up the minimum, it will go to Vinman. I will gladly trade a few bucks for many, many hours of saved labor..!
Gary, also...

Mr. E didn't get me into anything I didn't want! I wanted a Roadmaster and he sold me one, then a Super and then a..... only kidding! And Lamar, it's too late on stopping the plasma torch. A you can see from the pic, Dorothy has become a true parts car. I've also learned that, everything on a Buick weighs a ton! OK, I already new that...my back reminded me this morning. Yanking heavy parts while closing in on 60 is not fun!

I finally had enough with getting the front seats out of Dorothy, so I just cut the floor out. Now that was heavy too. Then, after listening to the compressor run for 30 minutes while I ground off the nuts underneath, I finally got the seat removed from the floor, along with another inch of left over mouse droppings. But, one of my favorite new "tools" is a 3M mask I bought on eBay for about $20. Weld, cut, grind, whatever and the world still smells like a fresh spring day! Oh, and as an aside: My $10 Harbour Freight 3" grinder is a ton better than my Sears version that cost $60.

So to answer your question on using Dorothy's Frame: I want to bite off more that I can chew! And, if I'm going to do this, well I want to do a frame off. Actually, with the exception of the rear "tow bar", I think Dorothy's frame is in better shape. And I think it will be a ton easier to change all the lines, work on the driveline, etc. Of course, I'm prone to mind changes though as you know!

RocketDude: $250 to blast and powder coat all those parts? Where do you live anyway, Tijuana? I paid that much to get 5 wheels done!

Gary

Where's the picture? OK, I'll try again.

I need to find a place like that here in Maryland, or close by!

Gary

OK, sorry for the duplicate posts and pictures. I seem to be having issues with something or other...anyway...off to get the column out.

Gary

And just in case anyone is wondering what Frankie looks like, here he is:

Sorry, I didn't dress him up for the picture! Lamar - at least he's on wheels now...well and assortment but none the less!

Well, I need to start listening to the advice I get from this site. Fr. Buick was right in warning me that I might bend the steering shaft getting the body off the car. One day I'll stop with the sophomoric mistakes. I didn't have a wrench or socket big enough for the pitman arm so I cut out the floor thinking I could get the cowl up high enough to pass over the shaft. Wrong! Anyway, I don't think I bent anything getting the front half of the body off. One of the best cheap things I ever bought was my cherry picker.

To reiterate, the plan is to put Frankie on Dorothy's chassis, so I've been getting what I need off Dorothy and cutting the body off along the way. I was trying to keep track of the body mounts since I was told this was essential. Well, the long and short is that I dropped them and mixed everything up for the most part. But, they were either smashed, cut or partly missing. And since I'm putting Frankie on this chassis, did I really screw up??? I also mixed up the only shim that came off one of the body mount locations. Please tell me I'm still OK. Anyway, here's some pictures of what's left of my Kansas mud bog and rat farm! Now this is the way to work on the dash!

Where did that picture come from???? It's not mine. Let's try again. Here goes...

This is looking like that 60's model kit, the visible body.

Yah, the visible Roadmaster!

Gary
Watching you work brings to mind an old saying...something about "a bull in a china closet"
Willie

Is that some kind of compliment......hmmmmmm......??? Still thinking......

Willie:

Forgot to ask you (nice cars by the way). Am I going to have a body mount issue transferring my Super to the Roadmaster chassis? I killed the order of the body mount rubber I pulled off the parts car although I'm not sure what good that would have done. They were in various stages of smashed and ripped.

Thanks!

Gary

Gary

Keep thinking and don't stop entertaining us.

Just replace the mounts and set the body on them. If some are loose and there is a space between the body and the mounts add shims as required; then tighten all.

Willie

Since Willie would like me to further your entertainment, here's a pic of the inside of the radio. I keep waiting for mice to come jumping out at me. I wonder just how long Dorothy sat in the Kansas fields? Looks like the radio was a nice cozy condo for a rodent family. The front door is the speaker. And speaking of which, anyone have a recommendations for radio restorations? I see this guy a lot at the shows (Mike Hagan's) and another company (Retro Radio Restorations). Both in PA.

Thanks, Gary

PS. I avoided taking down the headliner for a longtime since I had a feeling I may trespassing on more rodent properties. So, in addition to coveralls and a bandanna, I wore a respirator and goggles. And just as suspected all kinds of stuff fell out and on me. I don't mind the material they gather, it's the black little pellets that bother me greatly. I guess I'm just a girlie man 'cause I hate the little buggers and what they leave behind.