1903 Cleveland Roadster project

[alsfarms]

Hello Harm,

I am very impressed with your Cleveland dust covers! The Iseki tractor looks like a well built unit.  Diesel?  Three point hitch?  Cat looks familiar.  Our neighborhood has a small flock of cats that just migrate around and chum up to everyone, including our feed dish!  I like the addition of front hanging weights, on the front of your tractor, for draft work.  I suppose that you are going to remove them so your loader can effectively be closer to the front axle resulting in better weight distribution?  Are you going to build some extra ballast to hang on the back of the tractor for the times you use the tractor as a loader?  Since I rebuilt my loader it is much more a pleasure to run, cuts much more evenly. etc. etc.  What kind of updates can you share about COVID-19 in your area?  We are certainly staying close to home...I mean at home or the farm.  You an Anna take care and stay with your current low profile in the public eyes.  It will be way better!  My onions, that do not look real good because of very cold unseasonal weather for a few days, are "Yellow Candy" type.  They are very good tasting onions and are good for long term storage in the cellar.  I will be replanting a good share of the onion patch today or tomorrow.  Thanks for your update. 

Regards,

Alan

[alsfarms]

Hello Harm,

So far so good for my family and I.  (no coronavirus)!  What is you status on the Pandemic and the Cleveland?  I am getting ready for my first seasonal irrigation by mid week.

Regards,

Alan

[Sloth]

Hello Alan,

Not much going on here. Good to read that you and your family are OK. Anna and I are fine too. This is the 4th week we stayed at home. No visitors and no shopping, no problem for me, but Anna becomes a bit restless. The Corona situation in the Netherlands: according to the health authorities,  the number of new cases and the death toll from Covid-19 virus, is decreasing slowly. But, due to Easter, there could be a time lag in recording. We will see tomorrow.

Regarding the Cleveland, I made 12 nuts for the rear axle compensating gears. 3/8" UNF x 11/16" spanner width.

 

One nut (bottom up)

 

12 Nuts

 

Further, I have to mention a set back. At close inspection,  the top rear spring leave (right side) showed a crack near one of the two eyes. I guess something went wrong with the manufacturing 😰. Looks to me they forgot to temper this leave after the hardening, the file test showed no marks what so ever... Well, long story short, at the moment no spring manufacturer has his business open. All closed by government order.  I have to wait till the whole Corona thing is over.

Next, as the temperatures are improving, painting the rear axle and the wheels (for the final coat). That means wet sanding 48 spokes etc. Most of you know what this means..... Next job will be, mounting the front axle and steering assembly.

Regards,

Harm

[alsfarms]

Hello Harm,

Hopefully all is well, yard work done, wife happy, garden planted and progress on the Cleveland.

Al

[Sloth]

1 hour ago, alsfarms said:

Hello Harm,

Hopefully all is well, yard work done, wife happy, garden planted and progress on the Cleveland.

Al

Hello Allan,

Yes, most of the jobs are done. Wife reasonable happy... At the moment we have very nice weather,  dry, sunny and  day temperatures around 61F, the nights are still cold. Most of our fruit trees are blooming, very nice time of the year.

Regarding the Corona virus, all car club events have been canceled. I doubt if we will attend any classic car related event this year. Rumor goes that our government will forbid all events this year,  including sports, cars, parties, shows, and so on. Well, better staying at home, healthy and grumpy, than 5 feet below the Daffodils. That reminds me, a trip to the Barbershop would do me a lot of good.....😊, but they are closed.

 

 Less progress on the Cleveland than I wished for. I need the green PU paint. Ordered it by mail, but I have to wait 2 weeks 😒 , its Corona virus related.... Yesterday I sanded one wheel, took a few hours, afterwards my arm fell off ☹️. Clearly not used to this kind of job anymore.

 

Sanded wheel

Regards,

Harm

 

 

Edited April 19, 2020 by Sloth (see edit history)

[Larry Schramm]

3 hours ago, Sloth said:

Hello Allan,

Yes, most of the jobs are done. Wife reasonable happy... At the moment we have very nice weather,  dry, sunny and  day temperatures around 61F, the nights are still cold. Most of our fruit trees are blooming, very nice time of the year.

Regarding the Corona virus, all car club events have been canceled. I doubt if we will attend any classic car related event this year. Rumor goes that our government will forbid all events this year,  including sports, cars, parties, shows, and so on. Well, better staying at home, healthy and grumpy, than 5 feet below the Daffodils. That reminds me, a trip to the Barbershop would do me a lot of good.....😊, but they are closed.

 

 Less progress on the Cleveland than I wished for. I need the green PU paint. Ordered it by mail, but I have to wait 2 weeks 😒 , its Corona virus related.... Yesterday I sanded one wheel, took a few hours, afterwards my arm fell off ☹️. Clearly not used to this kind of job anymore.

 

Sanded wheel

Regards,

Harm

 

 

 

The last time that I cleaned some old wheels, I lightly media blasted them with glass beads.  It made the final sanding easy.  Just do not be too aggressive.  Just enough to get the old paint, etc... off.

[alsfarms]

Hello Harm and Larry,

Glad to hear that all is staying well in Holland!  As hard as it is when we almost get "house happy" just hang in there!  I have used glass beads also for cleaning wood, however, one must be very careful or you can certainly "antique" the wood parts.  I do sand blasting on the side and I have had folks bring solid old work furniture to me to clean and antique.  I do it but it makes me CRINGE as I know what the end result will be and in my way of thinking....I do not like sand blast antiqued wood!

Your wheels will show the love you have shown them and your arms will be much stronger..... 🙂

Regards,

Al

[Sloth]

20 hours ago, Larry Schramm said:

 

The last time that I cleaned some old wheels, I lightly media blasted them with glass beads.  It made the final sanding easy.  Just do not be too aggressive.  Just enough to get the old paint, etc... off.

Hello Larry,

Thanks for the tip.

Regards,

Harm

[Sloth]

3 hours ago, alsfarms said:

Hello Harm and Larry,

Glad to hear that all is staying well in Holland!  As hard as it is when we almost get "house happy" just hang in there!  I have used glass beads also for cleaning wood, however, one must be very careful or you can certainly "antique" the wood parts.  I do sand blasting on the side and I have had folks bring solid old work furniture to me to clean and antique.  I do it but it makes me CRINGE as I know what the end result will be and in my way of thinking....I do not like sand blast antiqued wood!

Your wheels will show the love you have shown them and your arms will be much stronger..... 🙂

Regards,

Al

Hello Al,

Got two wheels done today, one to go.

Are you, due to the Corona virus, locked in? What measures are take in Utah to prevent spreading the virus?  I hope you and your family and friends are in good health. When I read about the situation of some of the USA States, I makes me very worried where this crisis will end.

Regards,

Harm

[alsfarms]

Hello Harm,

Our state is one of few that does not have mandatory lockdown controlling us.  We do have a mandate that no groups larger than 10, stay 6' away, stay at home if at all possible.  Our Ut5ah economy is really stating to show some serious stress with the business folks pushing to relax the mandates so small businesses can get back to work.  Maybe in a few more weeks we will be able to relax.  Where I live there has only been 4 confirmed cases and they were across the county from us about 50 miles.  My wife and I are being very disciplined to stay at home and out of site!  I think Utah totally has a total of 27 deaths and total cases slightly above 3,000.  We are no where near as bad as the metropolitan areas, like New York.  Have you got Popeye arms yet from all your sanding?

Regards,

Al

[Sloth]

Very nice weather today, no wind, very sunny and a temperature of 70F. Ideal weather to paint the rear axle and wheels. As I prepared the axle and wheels during the last 2 weeks, everything went very well. Just some small runners, but no insects landing in the fresh paint...😊. Now waiting for the the paint to dry, will do the striping next week.

 

Rear axle

As you can see, the caps can not be removed of the axle. So I made 2 small 'gallows' to hang the caps at during spraying, just to keep them free hanging of the axle. Worked very well.

 

Rear axle with small 'gallows'.

 

Painted wheels.

 

I use MIPA PU paint, its flows well and is not too expensive. Applied it with a HVLP spray gun. Two layers of paint, and everything was fine. In the past I used Dupont Centari, but that is hard to come by these days.

Regards,

Harm

[Terry Harper]

Very nice Harm!

 

I am really enjoying following your progress.  I love the thatched roof

in the background. They have always intrigued me.

 

Best regards,

 

Terry

[Sloth]

23 hours ago, Terry Harper said:

Very nice Harm!

 

I am really enjoying following your progress.  I love the thatched roof

in the background. They have always intrigued me.

 

Best regards,

 

Terry

Hello Terry,

Thank you for your kind words. Most buildings in my neighborhood are farms, and most of them are thatched. When these farms where build (around 1850) roof tiles where very expensive, thatching with reed was cheap. Now a days, its the other way around, roof tiles are (relatively) cheap and thatching is expensive (labor intensive).

Regards,

Harm

[alsfarms]

Hello Harm,

Nice work with your hanging device for painting.  Your HVLP system, do you throttle down a conventional compressor or do you have a dedicated unit?  I also use a HVLP paint system and really like that you minimize over spray and runs.  (puts paint on just a bit slower however).  Are all the under parts of your Cleveland receive green?

Regards,

Alan

[Sloth]

7 minutes ago, alsfarms said:

Hello Harm,

Nice work with your hanging device for painting.  Your HVLP system, do you throttle down a conventional compressor or do you have a dedicated unit?  I also use a HVLP paint system and really like that you minimize over spray and runs.  (puts paint on just a bit slower however).  Are all the under parts of your Cleveland receive green?

Regards,

Alan

Hello Alan,

I adjust the air pressure to  85 PSI. As I have one of the first HVLP spray guns (bought it 30 years ago), it also has a build-in pressure regulator, needed to stabilize the air pressure in case you use a long air hose. Its keeping the spray gun internal air pressure between 30 and 45 PSI. I am very fond of this spray gun, it has served me well over the years. Just one drawback, there are no parts (needles and nozzles) available anymore.

Yes, the undercarriage is painted Moss Green (RAL 6005). As written in the the 1903 Automobile Review; the under carriage was painted Coach Green, with red stripping. The body was painted dark red, with green stripping.

Regards,

Harm

[Mike Macartney]

16 hours ago, alsfarms said:

Nice work with your hanging device for painting.

 

Another very clever idea I will 'steal' if I manage to do spray painting again. I am still, very much, enjoying reading your posts and progress.

[Sloth]

10 hours ago, Mike Macartney said:

 

Another very clever idea I will 'steal' if I manage to do spray painting again. I am still, very much, enjoying reading your posts and progress.

Hello Mike,

Thank you for your kind words, good to see you on my blog. Necessity is the mother of invention, even for such a simple solution, keeping  parts separated of each other during painting.😊

Regards,

Harm

[Sloth]

Regarding the HVLP spray gun, I forgot to mention that the make is: SATA, type NR95 (the green one). I also have two conventional The Vilbiss spray guns, I use them not so often anymore. Further more, today I ordered the special paint for my Beugler pin striping tool. The special paint is a bit thicker than regular paint, and so much easier to apply (won't leak out of the Beugler striping tube). Problem with it is, that there are not many vendors around who have all the colors on stock. But I found one in Belgium, it should arrive end of the week.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Sloth (see edit history)

[Mike Macartney]

10 hours ago, Sloth said:

. . . . today I ordered the special paint for my Beugler pin striping tool.

 

Do you know the type and make of paint you use. I have used sign writing paint in the past. The paint, I think has been OK, it is more of an operator problem with me! When I have practised on a sheet of painted metal (an old door skin) the lines are fine. When I start on the proper job, a vintage motorcycle tank, I am not happy with the result.

[Sloth]

On 4/28/2020 at 8:46 AM, Mike Macartney said:

 

Do you know the type and make of paint you use. I have used sign writing paint in the past. The paint, I think has been OK, it is more of an operator problem with me! When I have practised on a sheet of painted metal (an old door skin) the lines are fine. When I start on the proper job, a vintage motorcycle tank, I am not happy with the result.

Hello Mike,

I use 'OneShot' striping paint, have  good results with it. When I tried to learn my self striping (some 25 years ago), I experimented a lot with different kinds of paint. Car paint was useless for this purpose, to fluid. Household paint for wood, would do, but depending on ambient temperature,  sometimes to fluid. Hammerite is OK but just a few colors to choose off. So in the end I used the OneShot paint (advised by a friendly coach builder)

Regards,

Harm

[Sloth]

To impregnate the wooden body of the Cleveland I ordered West Systems epoxy 105 + 206 slow hardener. I have read a lot about impregnating wooden bodies (yachts and cars), on a number of forums, and most of them advice West Systems. One drawback, its not cheap... but available at Water sports shops. 

[Mike Macartney]

16 hours ago, Sloth said:

I use 'OneShot' striping paint, have  good results with it.

 

I'll have a look this morning and see what make the paint is that I have used in the past.

[Sloth]

At last, this morning (Monday) the package with the striping paint arrived! The delivery person told us, that the company was overwhelmed with packages. It got out of hand and they hired numerous (untrained) workers to keep the deliveries going, but most of the packages are a week or more delayed (so was ours). Well, as the weather is very nice, I started to stripe the wheels. First striping the felloes, now they are drying. Tomorrow I hope to stripe the spokes.

 

First wheel partially striped (spokes will be done tomorrow)

 

Four wheels done.

 

Regards,

Harm

 

Edited May 4, 2020 by Sloth (see edit history)

[alsfarms]

Hello Harm,

Nice work.  I need to learn the skill of "striping".  If you get a chance, show us a picture of your striping set-up.  With the paint you use, is it forgiving and easy to remove if you end up with a boo-boo and a smudge?

Regards,

Al

[Mike Macartney]

Hi Harm, I had a look at the tins of paint I had used for striping and I have tins of '1 shot' in white, but the green paint I used on the fuel tank of a 1920's Gamage was 'Wright-IT'.  Your striping on the wheels looks very good. I think I needed more practise!

 

 

Mind you, looking at the photo 10-years on, it does not look too bad.

[Sloth]

2 hours ago, Mike Macartney said:

Hi Harm, I had a look at the tins of paint I had used for striping and I have tins of '1 shot' in white, but the green paint I used on the fuel tank of a 1920's Gamage was 'Wright-IT'.  Your striping on the wheels looks very good. I think I needed more practise!

 

 

Mind you, looking at the photo 10-years on, it does not look too bad.

Hello Mike,

Thank you for your kind words. That is a beautiful machine, I like it very much. How did it behave on the road? Your striping work looks very good, nice colors too.  I must admit, I never heard of Wright-It paint, found the website with specifications.

Regards,

Harm

[Sloth]

This afternoon, I continued the striping. Got it finished, that means that the wheels are ready for the tires. 😄 May be tomorrow? But I must say, putting new stiff clincher tires on the fresh painted rims makes me a bit anxious. So, first thing to do in the morning, lighting the shop stove and putting the tires in front of it. In the past I had good results by warming the tires a bit, when warm, they tend to be sightly more flexible. Well, we will see.

Detail of striped spokes

 

Striping completed

 

My striping set

 

How I came to do the striping myself. About forty years ago, I finished the restoration of a Ford Model A, 1931 Victoria. The restoration was started by my brother in law, but just before he could complete the restoration, he died (long and sad story). The car came into the possession of Anneke and me, and we decided to complete the work. One job left, was some striping, unfortunately we could not find a person would would do the striping. But, after I incidentally spoke with a coach builder, he told me, give it a try to do it your self. He also lent me a Beugler tool, and told me if you get the hang of it, buy a Beugler Professional kit with seven heads, so I decided to give it a try. And I must say, for an amateur the results where satisfying.

 

My striping set consists of a Beugler Professional kit (30+ Years old now). The set has 7 different striping heads (different wheel width). Three guide arms, I made some extra guide arms, which at the moment are lost... Further, I use special striping brushes. The ones pictured are not in the best of shape any more, the left one is number 00, the right one number 000. But I must admit, that I used them -as far as I can remember- more than 25 years ago. I am sure, I need a lot of practicing,  to get again the hang of it.

 

The procedure I use: first I clean the spokes with M600 de-greaser, making sure I have a lot of kitchen paper sheets at hand, then start striping. When I mess up, I clean it with M600 and a sheet of kitchen paper. Discard the paper immediately, otherwise you may - absent minded- use it again, and that will leave you with a mess (how do I know? 🥵). Furthermore, there is not much to say about it, just take your time. Well one other thing, you really don't need much paint for this. For the 4 wheels, I just needed some 10 CC (0.61Cubic inch). After the work is done, the striping set must be cleaned very thoroughly. Be very meticulous with that, as the small striping wheel tends to stick very easily (get glued by some invisible remaining paint). Its is a hell of a job to free the wheel after it got stuck (again, how do I know? 🥵) -heads are rather expensive-..... For sheet metal I use magnetic tape as guide, but for narrow edges and small radii, I use it free hand.

Regards,

Harm

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by Sloth (see edit history)

[alsfarms]

Hello Harm,

Nice work and thanks for posting your how to do it comments on striping!

Regards,

Alan

[Jeff Perkins / Mn]

I admire your skills in pin-striping. It is a real art, one needs the skill, the right touch and feel, and an artists’ eye......none of which I possess! Using just two different brushes I did stripe one car, my 1929 Ford Cabriolet. Pictured below is the product I used. It was OK. I also striped the wheels on my Model T years ago, can’t remember what paint I used. Also pictured below.

 

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by Jeff Perkins / Mn (see edit history)

[Sloth]

7 hours ago, Jeff Perkins / Mn said:

I admire your skills in pin-striping. It is a real art, one needs the skill, the right touch and feel, and an artists’ eye......none of which I possess! Using just two different brushes I did stripe one car, my 1929 Ford Cabriolet. Pictured below is the product I used. It was OK. I also striped the wheels on my Model T years ago, can’t remember what paint I used. Also pictured below.

 

Hello Jeff,

Thank you for your kind words.  I use the same One Shot paint. Nice wheel, detachable rims? Your striping looks good, the color combination shows. The wheels of the Cleveland are green with red striping, a bit hard to see.

Regards,

Harm

[Jeff Perkins / Mn]

6 hours ago, Sloth said:

Hello Jeff,

Thank you for your kind words.  I use the same One Shot paint. Nice wheel, detachable rims? Your striping looks good, the color combination shows. The wheels of the Cleveland are green with red striping, a bit hard to see.

Regards,

Harm

I think red stripe on green is one of the prettiest combinations, yours looks fantastic. I love your green color.
Yes, the wheels on my 1913 Ford are from a later car, demountable from the rim. Best for me as I do a lot of driving. Never have had a flat tire though. I do have the original wheels.

[alsfarms]

Jeff,

It is good when someone simply learns a skill and then uses it in our hobby.  Do I understand correctly that you used the more traditional "Brushes" to apply your stripping?  My confidence is not high enough to try yo simply use a brush.  I have one very artistic son who could do it and I have thought to encourage him to "sharpen" his skill and do my stripping for me.  We will see how that turns out. 

Harm,

Have you tackled the tire installs yet?  I once waited until it was sweaty hot to install a set of 30 x 3.5 tires on a set of fresh powder coated wire wheels for a Model T.  I held my breath every step of the way...and was lucky to not knock any paint off.  When you get the tires on share a picture of your success!

Regards,

Al

 

[Sloth]

Today, because of the very fine and warm weather I decided to paint the tonneau, dash and hood with the West System epoxy. Went well, mixed small batches and applied them fast.

Tonneau inside

 

Tonneau underside

 

Tonneau door

 

Wheels have to wait, the striping paint need some extra time to harden. I found it a bit to soft.

 

Regards,

Harm

Edited May 9, 2020 by Sloth (see edit history)

[Ben Popadak]

Very nice work.  I've been enjoying your posts.

 

The West System is some nasty stuff.  What do you use for a respirator or for ventilation?

 

Ben

[Sloth]

39 minutes ago, Ben Popadak said:

Very nice work.  I've been enjoying your posts.

 

The West System is some nasty stuff.  What do you use for a respirator or for ventilation?

 

Ben

Hello Ben,

You are right, its indeed nasty stuff. I don't use it indoors, but that makes me a dependent on the weather. I use a brush and a foam roller, absolutely no spraying.  I wear a respirator mask (Stanley OV/R95 Respirator Mask) and disposable latex gloves.

Regards,

Harm

[Luv2Wrench]

1 hour ago, Sloth said:

Hello Ben,

You are right, its indeed nasty stuff. I don't use it indoors, but that makes me a dependent on the weather. I use a brush and a foam roller, absolutely no spraying.  I wear a respirator mask (Stanley OV/R95 Respirator Mask) and disposable latex gloves.

Regards,

Harm

 

Try getting disposable latex gloves around here!!!   I'll be painting soon and unless I get really lucky I might be wearing my welding gloves.

 

Beautiful work as usual Harm, really love how this project is coming together. 

[bob staehle]

2 hours ago, Luv2Wrench said:

 

Try getting disposable latex gloves around here!!!   I'll be painting soon and unless I get really lucky I might be wearing my welding gloves.

 

Beautiful work as usual Harm, really love how this project is coming together. 

Our local wallmart has plenty of latex gloves  you just have to pick them up in the parking lot

[Mike Macartney]

9 hours ago, bob staehle said:

Our local wallmart has plenty of latex gloves  you just have to pick them up in the parking lot

 

That will be a long journey for you Harm! 

 

I believe that spraying the epoxy primer on my Humberette body, last year, was the 'last straw' for my lungs, even though I wore an inline air fed hood/mask. My breathing got a lot worse after that. Let that be a warning for others! 

[Jeff Perkins / Mn]

On 5/8/2020 at 9:26 AM, alsfarms said:

Jeff,

It is good when someone simply learns a skill and then uses it in our hobby.  Do I understand correctly that you used the more traditional "Brushes" to apply your stripping?  My confidence is not high enough to try yo simply use a brush.  I have one very artistic son who could do it and I have thought to encourage him to "sharpen" his skill and do my stripping for me.

 

Al, this is all I have for my striping:

Also a small sample of the stripe I did on my Ford Cabriolet:,

Encourage your son.......

Edited May 10, 2020 by Jeff Perkins / Mn (see edit history)

[Sloth]

8 hours ago, Mike Macartney said:

 

That will be a long journey for you Harm! 

 

I believe that spraying the epoxy primer on my Humberette body, last year, was the 'last straw' for my lungs, even though I wore an inline air fed hood/mask. My breathing got a lot worse after that. Let that be a warning for others! 

Hello Mike,

It surely will, have no idea how to travel to the USA at this moment....

Sorry to read about your lung problems.  40 Years ago Anna and I lived in a small village with a number of shipyards. I knew several yacht painters, they all warned me for epoxy paint causing severe health problems. Mike, I hope with some warmer and a somewhat dryer weather your breathing improves a bit.

Best regards,

Harm