W_Higgins

Jon, I'm interested to hear your take on mixing diesel with gasoline as was mentioned above. Do you care to comment?

The only 100% way to know would be with paint analysis and that can get pricey. I'm curious, do places like the jambs respond the same way? Though not a 100% guarantee I would expect that a lot of times when something was refinished the jambs were not. If you get a different result there that might provide a clue as to what your next step should be. Is it crazed or rough whereas the other stuff you polished that came up was only oxidized?

It is also possible that the surface you're trying to rub out is not the original finish. You're there to assess it and I'm not, but so many times I have seen things declared as "original paint" when it is not. It is exceedingly rare to find any car that hasn't had at least one refinishing campaign on part of it during the first cycle of its life. In the era all manner of do-it-yourself products were marketed towards owners so they could repaint at home rather than use a professional shop. Finishes back then were not generally long lived and were subjected to much more abuse than we tend to experience today.

It is attractive to those of us that like stodgy old Lincolns! I like the proportions and that it represents what was available as a desired functional modification at the request of the owner. Compared to the '39 K LeBaron Royal Canadian Tour car it looks like a chop top!

That will be very attractive. Whatever the case, wherever you have contrasting colors the same applies. Also, if you wait until after both colors are sprayed to do all the blocking and buffing you will wind up with a wonky line at the color change because the lower layer isn't flat and when you block it the high spots will come through, not to mention high risk of cutting through the top color while you're simultaneously trying to work down the lower one if you wait and save it all for the end. Don't get hung up on the paint cross-linking. That's immaterial with what you're trying to accomplish. Take your time and get this first color completely sorted out and then move on to the second one. It will save a lot of that tedious sanding that you're trying to avoid, not to mention that the odds of having to respray sections will be much higher.

I go about it different for a number of reasons. What I do in a case like this is go ahead and color sand the whole thing to remove texture and buff the areas that will remain the base color. Then I go back and carefully 800 sand belts and reveals to break the gloss where you want the color change. From there, mask very carefully in the root with fine line tape, then spray only enough of the contrasting color to achieve coverage. If the gun you're using now doesn't give you a fine spray, find one that will, like a larger Paasche air brush (I'm not talking little things like model builders use, but an old touch-up gun that truly atomizes the paint). The mask line is minimal to break the edge and because the undercoat has been blocked free of texture, resprays of color-over-color with single-stage paints tend to lay better so it will only take minimal sanding and buffing to clean up the belts and reveals and hence the need to not lay on so much material and create all those other issues that you'll have to overcome as a result of doing so. The need for mil thickness isn't there when the job doesn't entail sanding off half of it and buffing hard around sharp edges afterwards.

Do I understand correctly that you are doing three coats of color for the belts and/or reveals? Do you intend to color sand and polish the whole job once finished or leave the texture shown in your photo?

Everything is relative.

This is not true. Anything atomized (and vapor) and solvent based isn't good for anyone -- healthy or those with lung issues alike. Aside from that, right there on the site they spec that their product is to be used with a hardener which is the rub with modern paints being more toxic than their predecessors. The idea that enamels and lacquers are "safe" is a myth. The AE system is an easy 8-1 mixing system, 8 parts AE Color to 1 part AE3001 Urethane Hardener to create a Hi Tech Coating system that is at 2.8 lb./gl VOC as packaged

Maybe in the recent past. Today they would argue with the tank, provoke the tank, get in the path of the tank, and then cry victim when the tank did what it was designed to do all while on your own private property. Afterward, the DA would issue a warrant to seize your tank while the mob continues to move on unfettered to the next house. It has become a world where what is right is wrong and what is wrong is right.

From what you describe with your lung issues, the sub-par materials you're proposing to use, and your criteria that it doesn't need to be show quality, see if you can find a MAACO (or equivalent in your area) that will just knock it out and get it done for you. You will still get a higher quality job than what you are proposing to do at home without exposing yourself to the health risks.

No, I don't see it as an age thing. This hobby has already been thorough a few generations so if that were the case it would continue to cycle. Hobbies don't die with old people because they are making more old people every day. I see it as a societal change and since I tend to see everything in the world through the lens of money, in a most general sense I attribute this change to the death of the pension. As a friend once told me years ago, "There is no more 30 years and a gold watch". Prior generations would have their father get them a job at Bethlehem or GM or wherever after their grandfather had gotten him a job there. There was a predictable path to their life. The current working generations know no such stability. Now you couldn't hope to retire with any form of pension tomorrow unless you got on that train at least 20 years ago (except of course for public jobs and whatnot where they are all underfunded and waiting for their own crash -- isn't it interesting how many retired school teachers we see in his hobby, though?). As a result I think everyone has reassessed what is important to them given the instability in the world the last couple of decades. With no assurance of a comfortable retirement waiting on them, or even that they will have the same job five years from today, rather than looking out across the horizon and seeing a destiny they can control they see at least a few job changes and probably a couple of moves. People don't want to be weighed down by "stuff". They want to put on their flip flops, throw their Ikea furniture to the curb, and move on. Life is more like a series of hurdles rather than in the past where it was rungs on a ladder. Stuff is just something else to drag them down. People adapt to the societies in which they live and this is not now a society that lends itself well to being burdened with tonnage. Disposable house, disposable furniture, disposable cars. Now a whole generation of pensioned boomers are exiting the market and chucking their possessions to the proverbial curb and there aren't enough replacements in society coming along to pick it up. However, you can collect all the memories that you want from experiences (experiences that don't require "stuff" as the entry fee to participate) and you don't need a U-Haul truck to move them. Also, let's face it, a lot of us haven't been the best stewards of the hobby. Even people with their act together have had projects lingering in the garage that will never get finished. It's covered in boxes with so much stuff on the floor that you can't walk around it. It is a burden during their life and becomes a burden for the children after they pass and the children that grow up looking at this learn from their parent's mistakes and want something different.

At the first LCOC show I attended about 1992 a judge was looking over the '60 Premiere we took and as soon as the front door opened he declared, "This car has been modified with an air duct added to the door panel. That's not original. We'll have to deduct for that". The car was obviously an unrestored original and when I pointed out to him that the unrestored '60 Continental parked next to us had the exact same feature he said, "Well.... it has been modified too." That moment gave birth to my position that I don't need a "judge" to tell me that he knows less about my cars than I do! What really set off the Toronado guy was when he asked if mine had a vinyl top and I answered in the affirmative. It must have been appealing to some back in the era, including my grandparents who bought it new!

I wouldn't know. Is that one of the games with the round orange ball or the little brown pointy one? 😄 What I do know is if you go on the Model T forum and mention the word "Kevlar" you would wish you were wearing it instead of using it on your transmission bands!

I ran into this same issue on a '59 Cadillac. The glass sediment bowl had a cork gasket. After I changed it to a neoprene one the problem went away. It wasn't leaking. All I can figure is it was wicking out and evaporating.

There have always been people in this hobby that sub-out work. That is nothing new. To me the biggest difference is that people used to love and collect objects and now they are more inclined to collect experiences. It's a long drawn out thing to debate why but that's what I see -- many people would rather spend their money on a cruise than an object they park in their garage. The antique furniture, clock, and other markets are suffering the same issues. People don't want all the care and feeding that comes with owning "stuff".

People must have used them because every bumper I've ever had has evidence of it but it's certainly not anything I would ever attempt. On the back you have to jack it from the body so the axle will drop or you can't fish the tire out of the wheelwell even with the fender skirt off. Amongst '58 - '60 people there seems to be a line drawn with those who are of the opinion that '58 was the pinnacle of styling and that the next two years they threw in the towel on design to satisfy the critics, and then those who think '59 and '60 are superior because they refined the issues that people didn't like with the '58 by making the lines more subtle. I've run into the same thing with Toronado people. One time I was talking to a guy with a beautiful '66 that was going on and on about all the revolutionary design features and when I did no more than mention to him that I have a '67 he just dumped all over it and went on this rant about how Oldsmobile ruined it and should have redesigned the next year entirely. Everybody has their thing.

I've never read anything official but have heard that early 58's had weld failure issues (though nothing as dramatic as windshields cracking) and I think they mostly overcame it by increasing the number of spot welds. I don't know of any instances of where they changed joint designs or braced things. For all the obscure topics they cover, the Service Bulletins are silent on that issue. My '60 will flex a little when I put it on a typical two-post lift but not so much that I can't still open and close the doors as other non-unibody cars are prone to do. It is important to do a close inspection of the torque boxes if you ever shop for one of these things. The outside can exhibit little in the way of rust issues even if not repaired yet still have torque box damage. Several years back there was a huge Lincoln auction and in it a '59 with very poor gaps and horrendous body work. Looking in the front fender wells there were diagonal pieces of angle iron stuffed where the torque boxes used to be. Wish I had a digital camera back then. The irony was all the painted cars were junk and brought ridiculous money and all the good ones were the parts cars in the field out back and sold for $400 bucks each. It would be interesting to know where that car is today.

Here we go. Tire on top has been mounted and inflated. Lives in the dark for the most part and no cleaners used on it. Beneath that I put an unused tire from the same source. For a true black standard you can see the painted wheel peeking out between the two. Just like with the all-white and all-gray tires, the blacks share the interesting trait that they will stay pure until you inflate them. Once inflated they will turn in a matter of weeks to days and in the case of white tires, deteriorate with cracking (not normal little micro checking) hard spots, etc.

Actually I was just about to post that there are several of the black tires that turn brown too, it's just that most people don't notice it unless you can see something truly black next to it. I took photos of such an occurrence recently and will see if I can find it. I had a case with a set of whitewalls where I got the runaround. It was sunlight, cleaners, etc. Nope -- tires got mounted, washed off with clear water, and went into a windowless storage building until a period of weeks later it emerged with brownwall tires.

Of course I tend to be a bit biased, but I think Lincoln in 1960 had one of the easiest to read instrument panels of the era. I never tire of looking at the prismatic selector dial:

All I can think when I see it is how much I'd like to have that instrument panel lens that doesn't have the "70 mph" crack in it. All three years offered interesting combinations of style changes and trim features between models. For '58 I prefer the Premiere and Capri because I think the side trim coming up from the rear does a nice job of balancing the short fender scallop. To me they look better yet in a two-door. It looks like it was somebody's hot rod with all the chrome on the engine. Look at that dual master cylinder they put in place of the Treadle Vac. Is that a hydraulic booster on the back of it? There are big hoses going to it.

You should really assume nothing until you know that everything is kosher at all four wheels with respect to the condition of the shoes, drums, and anchors. Chrysler long adhered to a system that was mechanically superior on account of its self-energizing design, but the trade-off is that they are more complicated to set up. Even with a completely stock OEM system, if you don't have the adjustment correct at the wheels nothing is going to work to your satisfaction and you are going to be chasing your tail. The wheel adjustment is the easiest thing to screw up. Once you know everything is 100% at the wheels, then start looking at other areas.

My friend used to have one. He liked to say the inside of the bed looked like Elvira's coffin!

While it is nice that the brand has survived.... call me when they make a rear wheel drive sedan with at least eight cylinders again.