Door Panel Engine Turning project

[KAD36]

I thought I would post (finally!) some restoration pictures of the door panels on my 55, and as some of you know, this was my grandfathers car he ran through the coal mines with in PA, and I have had back on the road since 83. You can see the condition of the panel in the "before" picture - it was pretty "worn". The metalwork, color matching, and repainting was pretty straightforward, but engine turning the panels was an obstacle for me. The swirl pattern was pretty worn down from years of using the door handles and having your had rub against it (look at the paint wear from drivers elbows resting on it with the windows down!). It took me a couple of months of trying different techniques that others had tried and studying posts until I had success that met my criteria. Though not flawless (I'll confess to a blemish or two), they came out excellent and are a far cry from what was there before. I have to give Bhigdog a nod of thanks for the encouragement and passing on some tips.

In short, using a Craytex medium grid cylinder chucked into hex drill bit holder worked best for me. Using some spare interior panels purchased off of eBay to practice on, I found the best results were achieved (through months of trial and error) by sanding the panels down smooth to remove all past swirls and blemishes then buffing them out to a mirror finish. I measured the center and offsets of the factory swirls with a set of calipers, and made a metal "sled" which was indexed and slid along a straight edge on a sheet of graph paper attached to my drill press to keep spacing consistent. The sled held the insert to be engine turned. Any variation was an enemy to consistency - I found that consistent pressure and dwell on the drill press was a must. To do that, I attached a 2 lb weight to the handle of the press and lightly "bounced" the craytex onto the aluminum piece for about a 2 second dwell. I kept everything dry - no oils or lubricants. I recall something on the order of 11-12 rows and 35 swirls per row on average. about every 3 rows, I had to redress the end of the craytex stick (it got a little ratty) and would do 10 test drops on the sled to wear it in the end before continuing on the piece to be finished. All kinds of nuances cropped up, the most annoying being as the craytex "flexed" from pressure, it would make a slight change in the diameter of the swirl, so I had to keep the length of the stick short (about 1/8 inch protruding) and could not overuse it as it would flex from fatigue. Using "spare" inserts from a parts car saved time from having to re-cut or restamp a new set. When done, I shot with a coat of high gloss clear. I think my total cost was on the order of 50 bucks to do both driver and passenger sides - for the practice panels, craytex stick, and some red paint to match the interior paint and of course my "trial and error" stuff didn't come out right for me (wire brushes, scotch-brite, valve grinding compound, oils etc) but others have gotten to work for them.

If you have the patience, a good eye, and resilient back (from bending over the press for a long time) its really easier than it looks - give it a try!

Here is the link to the album - hope this works. Will insert some before and after also.

http://forums.aaca.org/members/kad36/albums/interior-work/

Edited January 18, 2015 by KAD36 (see edit history)

[Bhigdog]

Nice Job Ken. Very glad it worked out for you. I do know how tedious the job can be. I've recently heard that very good results can be had by using a shank mounted end cutting wire brush. More than one way to skin this cat I think...................Bob

[buick5563]

Looks great Ken. I am glad somebody finally used Bob's advice . The graph paper idea is an inexpensive alternative to the vertical mill.

Edited April 30, 2012 by buick5563 (see edit history)

[Guest shadetree77]

That looks great Ken! Thanks for posting this. I've always wanted to try that but didn't know if I'd have the patience. Also, the lack of a drill press in my shop doesn't help either. It really does look good though.

[KAD36]

Thanks for your compliments! Reducing the fidelity of the photo to meet the site limits took some of the details out, so they are a little fuzzy. I wanted to add that finding the right paint code for the red on the interior was a bit of a hunt. Think I posted a question on that here a long time ago trying to look for the codes. The red I used which is a very near match, you can barely see the difference in bright sunlight. Its a red high gloss enamel called "Berry" by Valspar. Got it at Lowes of all places. Put about 5-6 coats down, heated it up to dry for a week and rubbed it out.

Robert - think I got the drill press for like 60 bucks at harbor freight with a coupon. Its the little dinky one. Used this project to rationalize it and has come in handy for many other things. Got along without one for almost 20 years....now I require a much bigger one with more options, capacity and capability for upcoming tasks I don't know about yet. Surely this must have happened to someone else....

Next big project is bodywork welding and touching up some paint to help presentability as I plan to drive it more this summer and to "fix it right" will take too long with driving season this close. Have fully tuned it up and gone thru it and replenished my cache of spare single point failure parts I used to travel with when I took it 300 miles 1 way to college - year round. Am considering a trek to North Carolina for the nationals this year. Every year since Batavia when the nationals were right in my backyard something on the car acted up that I either didn't have time or cash to fix properly. Think I have it under control this year. My trans is a little questionable, but theres cell phones and club members. We'll see how it goes.

Edited May 5, 2012 by KAD36 (see edit history)