1952 Special Deluxe Project

[avgwarhawk]

Is it dedication or just plain crazy? Looks cozy to me. Today I happened upon My Classic Car. It was the GA Moonshine show I believe you attended Robert?

[Guest Rob McDonald]

"Hello, County Planning Office? I'd like to report a non-complying structure on my neighbour's property. Hello, Rhett, it's me, Scarlett. Yeah, it's that damned Yankee again. First he hauls that disgraceful old car home and now he's wrapped his carport with what looks like body bags. I tell you, we should never let those people cross The Line."

[MrEarl]

"Hello, County Planning Office? I'd like to report a non-complying structure on my neighbour's property. Hello, Rhett, it's me, Scarlett. Yeah, it's that damned Yankee again. First he hauls that disgraceful old car home and now he's wrapped his carport with what looks like body bags. I tell you, we should never let those people cross The Line."

What???... That would get a "Home Improvement of the Month" award in my neck of the woods.

Just one suggestion Rob, clear greenhouse poly would afford more light and it lasts for years!!!!

[Guest Peter Bird]

Hey, Robert! Man, are you determined or what! I would laugh like crazy if mr Plod turned up knocking on the door saying "Excuse me, sir, you wouldn't be growing anything in there by any chance, hmmm?"

"No, sir, just working on my Buick!"

[buick5563]

I would laugh like crazy if mr Plod turned up knocking on the door saying "Excuse me, sir, you wouldn't be growing anything in there by any chance, hmmm?"

I get asked that all of the time since I have green plastic panels to let light into my garage. When the sun is shining you can see a green glow from the street.

Think of the crop you could grow in a 2000 ft. garage

[JohnD1956]

...Just one suggestion Rob, clear greenhouse poly would afford more light and it lasts for years!!!!

Don't do it Rob. The longer the tarps last the more likely you won't be driving next summer... LOL

[Guest shadetree77]

Chris, I think it's a bit of both. I did attend that Moonshine Festival this year. That particular show was filmed at last year's event. I didn't know it existed until I saw that episode earlier in the year. That's the one in Dawsonville. Not to be confused with the OTHER moonshine festival I go to in Hiawassee. Dennis wasn't at the Dawsonville show this year but he WAS at the Hiawassee one.

Lol, if anybody asks I'm going to tell them I'm growing rust in there. It really wouldn't surprise me if somebody stopped by. It does look like a front for a grow house doesn't it?

I took the "green" house for an official test run today. I got out there early this morning, gathered up all my tools, positioned my lighting, and fired up the propane heater. It was around 38 degrees outside with a 5-10 mph wind. It was at least 5 degrees warmer in there before I even lit the heater. Within about half an hour it had warmed to a comfortable temperature. A few hours later, when the sun hit the black plastic, I was able to turn the heater off. The black plastic got pretty hot in the sun and warmed the room quite well on its own. It takes a little getting used to as far as dealing with a tight work space but I was able to work all day long in 40 degree weather and I didn't lose feeling in any of my extremities even once! I'd call that a successful test of my ugly creation.

While I was in there I got my door stripped of the parts to be transferred and then removed it. I got my "new" door out of storage and cleaned it up. Got a nasty surprise while poking around inside the replacement door. There was a HUGE rat nest in the top corner. It just had to be in the least accessible corner of the door too. It took me an hour to remove the nest with a wire hanger and needle nose pliers through a half-dollar sized hole!:mad: To give you an idea of just how big this nest was, it filled up a 5 gallon bucket to the half way mark. Nasty stuff! I also made a discovery today. Apparently, back when the damage to the drivers door was done someone performed a half-a$$ed repair job on it to get it to open. Check out the pictures. I'm thinking someone sawed into the door and bent it back in order to swing a hammer or other tool in there. Just enough "repair" work to make the door open again without hitting the front fender. There are signs that this door was touched up with paint too. I found some over spray in spots that could only have been made after the car left the factory. I guess the damage to that door was quite extensive at some point. All the more reason to replace it. I ended the day by coating all of the moving parts on my new door with penetrating oil and testing everything. It all works as it should and I plan to hit everything with some white lithium grease before I put it back together.

[avgwarhawk]

Body metal repair techniques have advanced quite a bit.

[Guest Rob McDonald]

EEEEEWWW! Did I happen to mention that, officially, there are no rats in Alberta? Every now and then one shows up in a dump or a building and the government sends out a massive SWAT team to eradicate any trace of it. Mice, we got plenty but no racoons. Too darned cold and dry for them, I guess.

[JohnD1956]

Thats the beauty of the north. Except the down side is all those rodents who are there are looking to invade your home to stay warm!

We've been working on trying to eliminate rodents from our shed in the back yard, but apparently the poison we have been putting in there is just an appetizer for the varmits!

[Guest shadetree77]

Got a few more items crossed off of my huge 3 page long "to-do" list today. I finished cleaning up the inside of my new door. Made sure all of the drain holes were clear and all of the debris was out of the bottom of the door. I sprayed all of the moving parts down with white lithium grease and greased the window mechanism. The rest of the day was spent prepping the engine compartment for pressure washing. Covering the firewall and windshield, taking off the starter, tying up and covering wiring, etc. Strangely, it's going to be in the upper 60's to lower 70's here for the next few days (and they say global warming is a myth??) so I'm going to buy a gas powered pressure washer at Home Depot this weekend and hopefully have a clean engine compartment come Monday.

Before I moved my original door into storage I took some pictures of the myriad of old oil change stickers stuck to the door jamb. Looks like someone kept the oil changed religiously. The writing has faded away on most of the stickers. The only thing I could discern was a date on one of them of "1-28-67". On another one I can see the mileage written as "58,711". That one has a month and day listed but no year. I wish it had the year because then I'd have a reference point for the history of the car. I was told by the grandson of the original owner that it was parked in the barn in the late 60's or early 70's.

[Buicknutty]

Very cool to those old gas station stickers! One my cars had a couple too, and they had the same issue, one was illegible, and the other didn't have a year filled in also.

I got my Bugle a few days ago, nice article on the restoration of the emblems, Robert.

Keith

[avgwarhawk]

Esso and Sinclair stickers are awesome!

[JohnD1956]

60's - 70's? Now you can tear down those walls around the car port!

As for the pressure washer, are you really sure you want to do that? Nothing beats soap and hot water and I'v seen pressure washers that won't clean anything in and of themselves. Even if you cover your wiring harness, you may wind up damaging more wires than you think.

[Guest shadetree77]

Keith, thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed the article.

Chris, yeah those are really cool. You don't often see a Sinclair logo without the dinosaur on it. Pretty cool. I like the little Esso guy too.

John, I can't believe this warm weather! It came out of nowhere. I may have gone through all of that trouble for nothing! You have some good points there on the pressure washing. The unit I've decided on has quite a few good reviews online so I shouldn't have any trouble with it doing a good job. If I do, I'll pack it up and take it right back to the store. I agree that it's risky, but with the amount of crud caked on this front end I really think the risk will be worth it. I thought the underside was bad but this front end is infinitely worse. Pressure washing is so tempting because if will make things SO much faster. I have all night to think about it and I'll talk to my Dad in the morning. We might just end up hooking our water hose to the hot water outlet and saving ourselves 200 bux. On the other hand, I've needed a pressure washer for a LOT of parts cleaning jobs lately. I guess I'm still on the fence.

[Guest chevy_dude97]

I guess I'm still on the fence.

Save your self some cash, I can personally tell you that pressure washing not only will ruin any rubber or old paint but also make a complete mess. After a good 20-30 minutes when I first tore down my front end I pressure washed the passenger side. In that 30 min or so I effectively added to my list of things to buy(new brake hose, plug wire, but I also added a good 1 hour of pressure washing my driveway to rid it of the new debris deposited by the pressure washer. I noted that at a distance it would clean the wire looms of dirt/grime but up close it would remove the cotton. Also the hard crud that would not come off with the washer now was wet and I still needed to scrape.... So for the drivers side I only scrapped with a drop cloth underneath and I saved my self a good 40% in man hours.

Where the washer worked best was inside the fenders and on the engine exhaust/intake. And whatever you do do not use a hot water line for your pressure washer unless it is stated to utilize hot water. These things use the cool water for cooling.

[Guest shadetree77]

Thanks for the input Jessie. Just out of curiosity, do you remember what the PSI rating was on that pressure washer you used? Was it gas powered or electric? The one I want to get is a gas powered 2200 PSI unit and I'm wondering if that would cut through that hard stuff. Thanks for the tip on the hot water. I caught that on a thread started a few days ago about chassis dirt. I didn't know that as I've never owned a pressure washer. Good advice. Hmmmm...I gotta' say right now I'm leaning towards NOT buying one. I'm thinking we hook up our water hose to the hot water line and go to work with scrapers and brushes. We have a high pressure fitting for our hose that does pretty good. I could use that $200 for other parts.

[Guest shadetree77]

What an incredibly frustrating day!! My Dad and I spent all day trying to get the replacement door hung and lined up and still didn't get it right. The first time we hung the door we got all but one bolt started and when I went to put the last bolt in I made a discovery. The guy who sold me the door neglected to mention that he drilled one of the bolts out! :mad: So we had to take the door off and try to drill out and tap the hole. The hole was sloppily drilled out at an angle and although we were able to tap a new hole, it quickly stripped out when we put the door back on. There is too much of an angle to the hole and it goes underneath the plate that is over the hole. Kind of hard to explain but needless to say, the hole is no longer useable. I'll just have to hope that 2 bolts will hold it on that hinge. Anyway, so after we got the door back on and the hinge bolts tightened down we tried to close the door. It would not go together. After a quick look around the edges of the door we made another wonderful discovery. The bottom edge of the door near the front of the car is bent inwards! :mad: It's not noticeable until the door is on the car. We were able to gently hammer on the door edge enough to get it back into place. It now has a slight crease to it but it still looks better than my old door by far. After this the door finally closed but it was WAY out of alignment.

After wrestling with the hinges for a few hours we finally got the door into an acceptable position. Time to re-install the striker. I put the striker in position and tried to close the door. We could only get one click out of the latch (it's supposed to click twice). The door would not seal completely. So then followed about an hour of moving the striker all around trying to line it up. When I finally gave up on that I got down on the ground and took a close look around the bottom edge of the door. Guess what folks?? The rear edge of the door is bent too!! :mad: It is making contact with the edge of the door jamb and not allowing the door to close enough to get that second click. At this point I was dead tired and more than a little pi$$ed off. I called it a day. Maybe we'll be able to finish it up today. More hammering and bending is in order for that door edge. I could never be a collision repair/body guy. That stuff is too frustrating!!

[avgwarhawk]

That's a bite in the keester. I have never replaced a body part but have seen others do it. The process takes a lot of adjusting and re-adjusting. Some more adjusting. A shim. Another adjustment. A few swear words. Throw a tool. Get out the hammer. Retrieve the tool you just threw because now you need it. Eventually the puzzle is solved.

As far as the stripped hinge hole, can you run the bolt through and reach inside with a nut/washer?

Edited January 12, 2013 by avgwarhawk (see edit history)

[Buicknutty]

Robert;

Sorry to here of of your troubles with the door. They take quite a bit of fiddling around to get them to fit right, just ask my wife!

On my '41 coupe I had the passenger door dip stripped to fully clean it up and out. Well, what I didn't realize was that they use quite a bit of heat for the drying stage, so much that some lead from an old repair ran out, then when I started trying to refit it to the car, it wouldn't fit properly anymore. Somehow during the process it got sprung and it took me, with much help from my lovely and long suffering wife, to get it fitting as it should.

Keith

[old-tank]

Basics Of Basics - Autobodystore

Lots of good stuff here including door alignment.

If yours is like my 55's the door has some square captive nuts that can only be replaced if the door skin is off. There are some thread repair products, but that would require removing the door again. The good news is that 2 will hold it. If your hinge pins and bushings are worn you will never get it adjusted! Never!

The problem with used parts is they have been adjusted and tweaked for a different car or they have settled to different mounting stress.

I find it best to only have a helper to lift the door to the initial mounting position ( or a jack )....too much arguing about where to go next and explaining what you are doing (failures are also kept private).

[JohnD1956]

The door must be frustrating. Make me not look forward to the one I need to put on my wagon. But I want to help you make up your mind on that pressure washer.

I work at a commercial kitchen. A few years ago one guy brought in his gas powered pressure washer to clean some racks and shelves. The day he did this I pulled up the truck I drove, and asked him to wash the bugs off the front. After a lot of noise and a sound drenching, I told him to stop and I got a rag with some dish soap and scrubed em off by hand. Later I took a look at the racks he was washing and noticed that thing never even touched the grease he was trying to get off.

Other than that I have a 2nd story. My neighbor bought a seriously big gas pressure washer to clean his perimiter stockade style fence. On the initial day I watched as he started the machine and again, with a lot of fanfare noise and water all over the place the fence did not look any cleaner to me. When I said so he agreed and took another whack at it. He got much closer this time. You could see the old finish ripping right off the wood. When it dried it looked like hell. A year later he was replacing the entire fence.

I have also heard that using one on a house siding is not recommended because the pressure can drive the water up and underneath the siding, leaving the underlying structure wet and susceptible to damage from dampness.

Now thats a house, a fence, kitchen grease (which is pretty tough) and dead bugs. But are you really willing to spend a few hundred dollars plus the gas and time for set up just to undo it all in a few hours? Maybe best to rent one and try it out first?

[Guest Rob McDonald]

I'm with JOHNDEE, spend the money on parts you need, instead. Just face the awful fact that elbow grease, smelly fumes, and toothbrushes are the only way to the sanitary engine compartment you desire.

Actually, if you use a citrus degreaser, your workhut will smell quite lovely. Be a bit careful with the stuff, though. I didn't think I was allergic to anything until I bought a can of Fast Orange handcleaner. My hands immediately broke out in an angry, sore rash. It healed up right away but I'd be using industrial rubber gloves and a face shield if I was using any stronger Florida Fruit-based cleaners.

[Guest shadetree77]

Another day gone by messing with the door. Well, half a day. I got lazy and decided to rest for half a day. We got the bottom edge taken care of. Door alignment is not perfect but it's as close as it's going to get with this bent up door. But....the door still won't click twice in the striker. We did anything and everything to adjust the door and the striker. Nothing worked. I grabbed a light, rolled down the window, stuck my head into the car, and observed the lock bolt entering the striker while closing the door. It looked to me like the lock bolt is going to the point where it clicks once and then when further pressure is put on the door it bends back instead of traveling the rest of the way up into the striker. I opened the door and wiggled the lock bolt. Turns out, the lock bolt has a LOT of play in it. I checked the original doors and they have a lot less play in them than my replacement.

So it is my opinion that the part of the latch mechanism that the latch bolt is hooked to is worn out causing excessive play in the latch bolt. This extra play is allowing the latch bolt to "give" when a lot of pressure is put on it. It doesn't have enough tension to force it the rest of the way up into the striker. It looks like I'm going to have to change out the whole mechanism with my original unit. I'm not looking forward to this as the service manual is extremely vague on the process and that latch looks like something out of the game "Mouse Trap"! And I thought I got a good deal on this replacement door! HA!

Since I can get the door to seal well enough to prevent water form getting inside I've decided to hold off on it for the next few days while I degrease the front end. I was supposed to have started that job today but the door problems ruined that. I now have a day and a half to get the front end clean before the cold weather rolls back in. I've enlisted the help of my wife for tomorrow. I did decide NOT to buy the pressure washer by the way. Instead, I'm going to use the money to get my original fuel pump rebuilt and buy a few other things I need. Thanks for all of the advice on that issue guys.

Chris, that describes the process almost perfectly. Only difference is that there are more than a "few" swear words in there! Thanks for the suggestion on the hinge bolt. For whatever reason we didn't even consider that! I believe it will work too. You can get to the back side of the hole easily and I see no reason why a bolt and nut would not work. Thanks!

Keith, that must have been frustrating. How did you figure that one out? Did they see the lead come out and tell you? I showed my Wife your post and told her she needed to come help me with the door. She just gave me one of those looks. I'm sure you know the one I mean, lol.

Willie, good advice as always and thanks for the link. I'll give it a read. You are right about the door skin having to come off to replace those but I do believe what Chris suggested will work. Two bolts would probably do just fine but why not stick another one in there just in case?

John, I agree. I have decided that it would not work as well as I thought. I was imagining a perfect scenario where I would fire that shiny new pressure washer up and the petrified grease would cut like hot butter and go flying. After hearing from a lot of folks that have traveled this path before me, I now know that this was wishful thinking. As far as renting one, I checked into it. It's nearly $100 to rent one for ONE DAY. I think I'll pass on that.

Rob, I have conceded to the fact that all of those things are in my near future. Should have known that a "quick fix" wouldn't cut it. Nothing beats some old fashioned hard work to get the job done right. I've never used the citrus cleaner but I've heard good things about it. I'm actually going to be using Marine Clean degreaser made by POR-15. It did an amazing job on the underside so I bought another gallon for the front end. A face shield and rubber gloves will definitely be used as well. I've never heard of an allergy to Fast Orange. I use that stuff every day.

[MrEarl]

I bought a door handle clip remover tool today. I looked everywhere for that thing. Harbor Freight no longer carries that tool. I found it for $10 at O'Reilly Auto Parts after checking all of the other auto parts stores.

Is this the type clip remover tool you bought, so O'Reilly has these? Or this type?

[smithbrother]

That PULL/PLIERS tool looks BETTER than the PUSH type I have had for years.

I will see if our store has it......

Dale in Indy

[Buicknutty]

Robert;

I showed my wife your reply, and she had a good chuckle about it! No one told me about the lead, I just saw it like that when I got the door back. Actually I didn't realize that it had been repaired before, it was a medium sized dent, that had been straightened then leaded, painted to match. Must of been a very old repair.

To get the door to fit in it's opening again was a challenge, but there are some brutal sounding techniques outlined in the body service manual that involves 2X4's and push/pulling on the doors to get them to fit the body. This must of been an issue back in the day.

Keith

[Buicknutty]

Robert;

I showed my wife your reply, and she had a good chuckle about it! No one told me about the lead, I just saw it like that when I got the door back. Actually I didn't realize that it had been repaired before, it was a medium sized dent, that had been straightened then leaded, painted to match. Must of been a very old repair.

To get the door to fit in it's opening again was a challenge, but there are some brutal sounding techniques outlined in the body service manual that involves 2X4's and push/pulling on the doors to get them to fit the body. This must of been an issue back in the day.

Keith

[Guest chevy_dude97]

Thanks for the input Jessie. Just out of curiosity, do you remember what the PSI rating was on that pressure washer you used?

I got a homelite gas powered one from home depot. It has a 5.5hp engine and 2700psi..... Don't get me wrong I love my pressure washer. Just wasn't the best way to go about cleaning the road cement IMO.

[Guest shadetree77]

They do Lamar. I just bought mine 3 days ago from O'Reilly auto parts for $9.49. Made in USA by Lisle Tools. They are labeled as "Windshield Molding/Door Handle Clip Pliers". Harbor Freight DOES NOT sell that tool anymore.

Lisle 35200 - Molding Pliers | O'Reilly Auto Parts

My wife and I spent the day scraping and scrubbing. It's not done yet but it's getting there. Here's a few pictures. Check out the yellow inspection mark on the steering box and the white mark on the shock. I'm documenting all of those marks so I can put them back.

[Guest Rob McDonald]

Great job, you two! That old inline eight has way more nooks and crannies to scrape out than a nailhead. I am so glad my engine is out of the car, resting on a stand. I can do half the descaling work sitting in my big comfy garage chair.

Attributed to Marshall-Wells, ca. 1910

[JohnD1956]

LOL... But I agree. Nice job Robert and wife! 400 points, here you go!

[Guest shadetree77]

Wow. It's been over a week since I last posted here. It has been a long week sitting around waiting too. It has been cold and nasty here so I haven't been able to get anything done. I know what you're thinking. "What about that beautiful structure you built to work in the cold?" Well it's still standing but I'm pretty much to the point where washing and painting are my next two steps. I can't do either in that enclosure and it's been way too cold to do that outside. So.....I wait.

According to the weatherman, I'm going to catch a break for the next two days in the form of upper 60's temperatures. This time I'll be tackling the underside of the front end with degreaser, scrapers, and scrub brushes. I'll be flying solo this time. Wifey and Dad both have to work. It was in the upper 50's today so I did get a few odds and ends taken care of. I also positioned the car and got all of my cleaning stuff together for tomorrow.

Today, I pulled the old door handle and latch mechanism from my original door. The manual was very vague on how to remove the door handle. It has a sliding retainer inside the door that is designed to slide back and forth to lock the handle in place. There is also a little compartment on the side of the door frame that has a covering on it that needs to be removed in order to slide the retainer out of the door. The manual talks about that hidden compartment assuming you know that it is there. I did NOT know that it was there so it took me a good long minute to discover it hiding under the weather stripping. When I finally got the small cover off (snapping off one of the corners in the process)I could NOT get that retainer to slide for anything!

It was rusted so badly that it wouldn't budge even after being drowned in penetrating oil. I ended up sticking one arm through the access hole to hold a small punch and the other arm through a small hole on the other end of the door to be able to hit the punch with a hammer. Talk about awkward and uncomfortable. It finally began to move and then proceeded to break in half. I pulled out the larger piece and then spent the next half hour messing around with the smaller piece before it finally came out. The rest of the process was straightforward and went exactly as described in the manual. This latch is crazy looking though. Looks like a miniature version of that board game, Mousetrap.

I ended the day by pushing the car over to the concrete and setting it up on some of my wood platforms. Those things have worked out great and have payed for themselves many times over. I put some tarps on the firewall and body to protect from degreaser splash. Everything is ready and waiting for me. My back is aching already!

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

Looking good, Robert. Difficult to stop once one starts down that "might as well" slippery slope.You better get with with it if we are to see you drive up in Lucy at South Bend.

Ben

[avgwarhawk]

The prep work is daunting in itself!

[Guest shadetree77]

You've got that right Chris! I'm absolutely overwhelmed at the amount of prep work still to do. I've never seen so much gunk in all of my life. I thought I had an idea of what this was going to take but after spending all day underneath scraping and scrubbing, I've realized I didn't know jack!

I crawled under the car at 9 am and, except for a 30 minute lunch break, spent all day under there. I rolled out from under there at 5:30 and called it a day. I've now got about 7 1/2 hours of work into the underside of the engine compartment and about 8 into the top side. Even with 15 1/2 hours of work I'd venture to guess that I'm only about 1/2 way done with the cleaning/prep work. That's not including paint time. Now it's time for the detail work. Next up will be tooth brushes and small brass brushes. I found some more inspector's paint marks on the A-arms. Here's some pictures of what it looked like under there when I started and a picture of the 5 pound pile of crud I ended up with. Keep in mind, this is what it looked like after having all of the degreaser and high pressure water hitting it after doing the top side. You can imagine what it looked like before that!

[avgwarhawk]

I would chaulk up the crude as preservation material!

[MrEarl]

I would chaulk up the crude as preservation material!

very good point

[Guest chevy_dude97]

I would chaulk up the crude as preservation material!

So very true. the best looking metal with paint was under inches of crud

[old-tank]

Er, uh..you missed a spot.