AntiqueCraftsman

Yep I just measured it, 24" looks to be perfect. I hate to take it though if someone else who has an older car that actually needs to be crank started wants it. For me, it would just be a back-up for an emergency start if the starter quit working for some reason. It would be nice to have but certainly not a necessity. Plus I can make one from scratch pretty easy actually. I even have a steel rod from an old hay rake that looks to be about the right size to work with. So, I'd like to have it if no one else needs it. But if someone else needs that baby for an actual crank-start car by all means give it to them.

Yeah. I was surprised they had a hand crank too, but they do. Like I say, I can make one easy enough. It's just a bent bar with two pins at the end as you can see. But #5 looks extremely similar as you can see from the photo I posted.

I have a 1947 Chevy Fleetline. It has a hole for the crank and I'd love to have one. I'm thinking the crank would be something like #5 but I really don't know the dimensions. It's a simple enough crank I was thinking of just making one from scratch. This is a photo of what it's supposed to look like. Proportionally it looks pretty close to #5. Including where the end pins are located.

Apparently not only are new people not coming into the hobby, but those who are already in it are dying to get out.

Considering the typical age of antique car restorers I'm not convinced that this would necessarily be such a pleasant topic. ?

I agree. "rip-off" may indeed be too strong a word. This implies that the supplier or manufacturer is making an outrageous profit, which may indeed not be the case at all. Perhaps I should have simply said that replacement parts cannot be had for realistic prices. Not intended to place blame on anyone. It just is what it is.

Unfortunately times have changed dramatically. Modern day cars simply don't loan themselves to being easily repaired or modified by their owners. So the new generation isn't being exposed to treating cars the way we used to treat them when we were young. So that whole mindset no longer exists. In addition to this the new generation isn't acquiring the tools and knowledge of how to work on older cars. Not to mention that parts for older cars are no longer easily obtainable without having to pay high prices for them. In fact, I had recently complained about how expensive replacement parts are for older cars. I was simply told that if I need to worry about the cost then I'm in the wrong hobby. Just as a very small example. I have an old engine that I would like to remove the head from just to take a peek into the cylinders to see if I might want to clean the cylinders up before trying to start the engine. So I decided to order a new head gasket first. The head gasket cost $70. What? ? $70 for a head gasket! You've got to be joking me! I remember when they used top be $7. It's a miracle anyone bothers with this hobby in today's world to be quite honest about it. Replacement parts are a total rip-off. So in today's world, not only does a person need to have the tools, knowledge and desire to do this, but they better be filthy rich to boot!

Thank you. I stand corrected. DON"T add phosphoric acid to the mix! As you say, it's a totally different type of chemical process.

There are two features of the gel, or jelly approach. One feature is that Phosphoric Acid supposedly works faster and more efficiently when in a gel form. The other feature of the gel is that you can smear it onto the rusty surface and it will stick without the need to immerse the whole panel in a large tub bath. I had the additional idea to use an old blanket to cover the gelled surface just to keep the gel from evaporating during the process. I'm not sure if that's a good idea or not yet. I might experiment on some small parts to see how well it works. I'm thinking I might go out and get some molasses as well as a bottle of phosphoric acid. Maybe mix in a little more phosphoric acid into the molasses just to give it a little more kick, using the molasses as the 'gel' base. Then thin it just a bit to make it easily spreadable over the metal surface. Finally cover the whole shebang with a wet blanket or cloth. Then leave it set for a while and see what happens. I think that's worth an experiment if nothing else. If it works it will remove the need for large vats of large amounts of solution.

I've been reading up on it and apparently it's actually phosphoric acid that is removing the rust. Apparently molasses contains quite a bit of phosphoric acid. You could probably just buy phosphoric acid and skip the molasses. Edited to add. I just read that phosphoric acid works best for rust removal when it's in a gel form. The molasses apparently acts as the gel and therefore helps the phosphoric acid work better for this specific chemical reaction. But you can probably buy phosphoric acid in a gel form too.

Thanks. My 47 Chevy is coming along just fine. No serious rust problems on that car. I just acquired a "newer" project car that everyone is trying to convince me to take directly to the scrap yard due to some serious rust issues. I might actually end up doing that, but it never hurts to ask questions and learn new techniques along the way.

I hope so too. I just grabbed that photo off the web because if I posted a pix of the car I'm actually working on it would have distracted from the topic content. ?

At $600,000 each I think I run out and grab two of them.

I save everything. ? This drum actually looks pretty good on the outside. It's not broken or chipped anywhere (yet). If the inside of the drum isn't badly scored I would have no problem at all reusing it. I have a lathe large enough to turn it if the braking surface needs to be cleaned up. I see no reason why a brake drum shouldn't last forever as long as the shoes are replaced in a timely manner. I don't plan on sinking a penny more than I need to in this "restoration project". So I'm not about to toss out any parts that could be reused. My "finished restoration" will be what auburnseeker sees as a "good starter project car". ?

I never heard the molasses idea before. I'll give this a shot on some small parts first just to see how it works. If it does the trick I might think about using it on larger body parts. I'm wondering if I could use a wet old blanket instead of a full tank bath? Take the hood and saturate it with the molasses solution, then take a blanket and saturate the blanket too. Then lay the wet blanket over the hood. Come back a few weeks later and remove the wet blanket and wash the hood. If that worked I wouldn't need a large tank to immerse the full hood into. Plus, if this works it would make the molasses go much further too. I guess I can try the blanket method on a small part and see how it goes. That's the only way to find out.

Wow, I'm really glad I asked! Lots of good ideas here. I figured there would be some suggestions for both chemically removing the rust, and for special epoxy type primers. Sandblasting also sounds like it would be a lot less work than using a wire brush and sandpaper. And it would do a far better job too. I'll have to look into the sand blasting idea. And then still use a special sealant primer after that. I think if I went with my original proposal with incomplete rust removal and just spraying standard primer over that I'd probably have rust bubbling up from under the finished paint in no time. So I'll look into methods for complete rust removal and then sealing that surface with a special sealant primer before applying the standard paint primer. Thanks to everyone for the quick replies.

You have a great imagination. ? Trust me, I'm not spending nearly the time on the car that you are imagining. I seriously doubt that I have more than 15 minutes into these rear brake drums total. It's not like I'm out there beating on them for hours at a time. I actually work on the this car when I feel like taking a break from other things I'm doing. So this car is BREAK TIME. ? And of course at the moment it also happens to be BRAKE TIME.

Let's pretend for a moment that we have an old rusty car that is worthy of restoration. Say, maybe an old Reo like the one pictured below: How would you deal with this level of rust? Let's just focus on the hood. What would you do to prepare the hood for paint? My naive inexperienced thoughts are as follows: 1. Take a large wire brush on a power sander and wire brush all the loose surface rust off. 2. Then maybe go over the metal again with 80 grit sandpaper on a power sander: (only because I have a ton of 80 grit sandpaper) 3. Then clean the surface and wipe it down with the proper solvents and spray with primer. From here we're home free. We can just continue to clean up coats of primer until we're ready to apply a color coat. How'd I do? Did I flunk? ? I'm just wondering how professional restorers would deal with this? Would you chemically remove the rust? Would you chemically treat the surface before applying primer? ( I mean beyond the normal cleaning solvents) If I did it my way would I end up with the thing rusting back out in short order? I was actually thinking of sanding it all down with a 9" sanding disk of about 120 grit until I have all shiny bare metal showing. But I'm wondering if that would compromise the thickness of the original metal? And would that even be doable? Would you actually get to shiny bare metal, or would you end up just sanding clear through to the other side? Exactly how 'rust-free' does the surface need to be before moving on to primer? Thanks in advance for revealing your professional secrets.

You win an old rusty '54 Chevy Project car. All you need to do is come and drag it off this trailer. (ha ha) Thanks for the directions. Unfortunately the star wheels are frozen so I can't seem to get them to turn anyway. I just looked up a brake drum puller. $92 to $139 depending on where you shop. I think I'll pass on the brake drum puller. Although I might look into making one from scratch out of old farm implement parts. I might try heating the drum up too. I did manage to get it to move about 1/8" outward from the axle. I did that by pounding old screw drivers into some holes in the brake drum. This allowed me to wedge the drum away from the axle ever so slightly. It must be frozen onto the shoes. It can't be turned at all. The wheel is locked up super tight. So it's not sticking to the axle, it must be sticking to the shoes. I wonder if heating it up would cause it to expand enough to let go of the shoes? I'll give that a shot tomorrow. This car has brand new tires on it! I mean, the tread is brand new. Unfortunately the tires are totally dry-rotted and garbage. But the point is that they had put new tires on it just before they parked it apparently. It might have new brake shoes too. I'll get these drums off eventually. For some reason I always end up doing the impossible if only to prove that it wasn't impossible after all.

Question for Antique Chevy Mechanics,.... Which way to Loosenville? Ok, here's the scoop. It's word problem so I hope that doesn't lose everyone. An AntiqueCraftsman gets out of a 1954 Chevy and walks back to the driver's side rear wheel and removes the tire and rim. He reaches behind the hub and finds the brake adjustment slot. He then positions the brake adjustment tool into the slot to engage the star-wheel brake adjuster but doesn't know which way to turn it to loosen the brake shoes. Question: Should he place the adjustment tool underneath the star wheel and pull down on the tool to turn the top of the star wheel toward his face to loosen the brakes? Or should he place the adjustment tool above the star wheel and push up on the tool to turn the top of the star wheel away from his face to loosen be brakes? BONUS QUESTION: For those who passed the undergraduate question above and would like to obtain extra credit will the passenger side turn in the same direction, or will it be precisely the opposite? Disclaimer: If any of this has confused anyone not to worry as I'm already thoroughly confused from just typing in the questions.

Probably. I might even talk myself into doing that before too long. ? I haven't even gotten it off the trailer yet. I had to drag it up onto the trailer because the rear wheels are froze up. I'm thinking they parked it with the emergency brake on and the brakes are frozen in the hard-on position. That's just a theory. In fact, I'm in the process of trying to remove the rear brake drums just to get the thing to roll freely on the back wheels. I live in a forest with lots of trees so I've been toying with the idea of just winching the body up between two trees and driving the trailer out from under it. I'd like to have that trailer free in case another $200 bargain pops up on Craigslist. I could just shoot out and grab that one too. ? By the way, not to worry. I was actually working on the '47 Fleetline yesterday and cutting lumber on the sawmill too. So it's not like I'm devoting all my time to this '54 rust bucket. Oh! By the way! While I was looking for rotisserie ideas on YouTube I saw a guy who built his own metal rotisserie. Looks to be pretty expensive to me! All brand new tubular metal along with a couple hydraulic jacks. I'll bet he's got some dough in that rotisserie itself. And he built it to restore a '55 Chevy body that doesn't appear to be in much better shape than my '54. PLUS, he's talking about buying all pre-manufactured replacement parts on eBay to weld onto it. If he keeps that up he'll have $10,000 in that car before I get mine off my trailer. Owl grant you that a '55 Chevy is far more in demand than a '54, but still. Personally I'd rather have the older vintage cuz I'm weird like that. Who knows? Maybe I'll find an older piece of junk to work on before too long. Don't forget I'm doing everything I do today because I'm ticked off that I missed a running 1930 Ford Sedan for $900. So now I'm just buying any old junk I can find to pacify my frustration. What I really should be doing is making an appointment with a mental health physician. Or maybe a Buddist guru who can convince me to sit in a corner and chant, "Who am I, who am I, who am I?" Problem is that I already know the answer to that question. I'm the guy who's frustrated at having missed out on a running 1930 Ford Sedan for $900. That's who I am. It was less than 10 miles from my house too! I just wanna cry.

Well, returning to the '54 Chevy "project" I've decided to disassemble the bulk of the car and place all the parts with their bolts in well-marked boxes. So far all the bolts are coming loose without breaking or stripping with only a very few exceptions. So that's pretty encouraging. If I had to cut everything apart I'd just scrap it. But thus far it's coming apart pretty nice. The main body is going to need full rocker panels on both sides replaced, as well as most of the floorboards. I'll fabricate all those parts myself. I won't need to purchase pre-made rocker panels or floor panels. I have all the tools necessary to make any sheet metal part I need from scratch. I'll also make them from metal removed from other junk cars. So they'll be no financial investment. Just my time. And since I enjoy making things from scratch it will be a pleasurable experience. No rush. I think the first thing I'll do is build a rotisserie to hold the body. In fact, I just looked on YouTube and found an extremely cheap and easy wooden auto rotisserie. I can have that built in no time.

Apparently while some of us are rebuilding old rusty cars and wooden boats, other's are building female androids. It's amazing how times have changed. Edited to delete suggested inappropriate content.

When I was a young teenager my mother had a 1955 Buick Special that was also a very similar color. I miss the good old days which is probably the underlying psychological reason why I'm trying to bring them back by restoring old cars. In my sick subconscious I'm probably thinking that if I can bring these old cars back to "like new" condition, it might somehow magically transform me into being a healthy young child again. And it probably does serve that purpose at least to some degree in my dreams. ? I'm torn between restoring old cars, building old wooden paddlewheel riverboats, and building robots in my spare time. The robots are kind of out of place in terms of era. Although, I have been thinking about maybe building a robot that replicates a robot from some old sci-fi movie. Believe it or not, there are actually clubs for just about every old sci-fi robot you can think of. So it's even possible to take a modern day hobby like robotics and make it into a "retro dream".

That's about what I expect my rig to be able to do. Except I don't plan on hauling 4 full-size vehicles on it. Notice that it isn't even leaning even though the four vehicles are all on one side. I actually did quite a bit of studying of the physics of barge-shaped hulls. They are amazingly stable and require very little draft. According to the calculations my "riverboats" should only sink down into the water a mere 4". That's calculated based on what the wood they are made of weighs. And that was even calculated using the weight of green wood. They should even be lighter when the wood is well cured. Then I did further calculations to see how many people I could have on each barge. Based on calculations using Pennsylvania waterway laws each barge should safely carry (25) 200lb people. I don't plan on having anymore than 4 or 5 people on each barge. But technically the complete rig could legally carry 100 passengers. The most I plan on ever having might be 20. 5 on each barge. Just look at the weight on this baby and it's not even leaning toward that side. I don't think I'll need to worry about stability problems at all. The paddle wheels seem to do a really nice job too.