Restoration of Victory Six sports roadster.

[Ron Lawson]

Matt Do you do your own plating? If so you are sure one hell of a talented man 

 

[nearchoclatetown]

Matt, very impressive work. And you could not find a better car to compare to then Bill/Dale's car. Or is it Dale/Bill's car? Ask Dale what happens when he gets caught {by Bill} driving his car in the rain. 

[Mattml430]

7 hours ago, Ron Lawson said:

Matt Do you do your own plating? If so you are sure one hell of a talented man 

 

Yes Ron I bought it of an old fella that wasn’t using it anymore. He had motor bikes and Morris minors that he used it for. 
Im still learning with it all , the most important thing is having everything clean. It’s been an invaluable investment because you don’t need to send parts out and worry about bits going missing. Some parts we have are irreplaceable. I can only nickel and copper plate but to be honest I prefer the look of nickel over chrome. It takes a bit more care looking after it but that doesn’t bother me. 
I want to make some long tanks out of 200mm pvc pipe for the bumpers but a couple of guys said I will struggle with doing that. I think if I can circulate the solution enough with a pump it should work but we’ll see. 
 

Its a shame the WA rally has been cancelled Ron I know you’ve been looking forward to it and working hard to have your car ready for it. It’s all out of our hands at the moment isn’t it. I think everyone is making good decisions with it all. 

Edited March 31, 2020 by Mattml430 (see edit history)

[Mattml430]

2 hours ago, nearchoclatetown said:

Matt, very impressive work. And you could not find a better car to compare to then Bill/Dale's car. Or is it Dale/Bill's car? Ask Dale what happens when he gets caught {by Bill} driving his car in the rain. 

Hahaha!! Bill said it couldn’t of gone to a better caretaker but if I talk to Dale again I’ll ask him. Both Bill and Dale have been very helpful with some great information for me. 

[Ron Lawson]

The cancellation of the Rally is a real bummer Both Kerry and myself are on the organizing committee 

[Mattml430]

7 hours ago, Ron Lawson said:

The cancellation of the Rally is a real bummer Both Kerry and myself are on the organizing committee 

Yer it’s sad for you both. So they are saying it’s going to be in WA in2022 does that mean they are still doing the SA one next year. 

[Ron Lawson]

I don't think that there is going to be on in SA next year These state Rallies are bi -annual We in the West are sad that it has been canceled but hopefully when all of this is over we can get back to normal lives and plan a very special Post Corona Rally that every one will enjoy 

[Mattml430]

I made a start on straightening the body today and it was in pretty ordinary shape. After quite a bit of hammer and dolly work I was thinking I’d love to stick this thing in the English wheel. But it’s a little bit big. 
I thought I might make a hand held English wheel with a couple of the small rollers. 
it took a couple of hours but the result was so worth it. 
It’s bloody heavy but I think that’s why it worked so well. I had both sides almost straightened out within about half an hour. 
needs a little more but I ran out of time today. 

[Mattml430]

[Mattml430]

This side had a really bad crease in it. 

[RichBad]

Awesome, looks impressive.  Will be a good workout to:)

[Mattml430]

6 hours ago, RichBad said:

Awesome, looks impressive.  Will be a good workout to:)

Yer mate 10 minutes on it and I was having an asthma attack 😂. It’s actually no effort to use it, it’s just holding it up. But it sorts out the panel quick smart. 

[Bullfrog_eng]

Good one! I had never thought of doing that, but I wish I had. My panel work is finished, at least for a while. Keep it in mind though for next time.

[Mattml430]

6 hours ago, Bullfrog_eng said:

Good one! I had never thought of doing that, but I wish I had. My panel work is finished, at least for a while. Keep it in mind though for next time.

I thought that’s why I would post it so it might help someone else. I actually googled to see if you could buy something like it after I made it but the hand held type I saw are much smaller. After I finished it I thought I should of made it so the rollers turned 90degrease , but never mind it’s pretty handy the way it is. 

[nearchoclatetown]

Great idea Matt, your work impresses me.  I have not seen that done before. I am thinking I might make one with urethane casters. I have some dings in a factory painted door to take out.

[Mattml430]

7 minutes ago, nearchoclatetown said:

Great idea Matt, your work impresses me.  I have not seen that done before. I am thinking I might make one with urethane casters. I have some dings in a factory painted door to take out.

Yes that would work well I think. Here we can buy alloy casters with a 10mm poly urethane coating. That would be perfect for the job. 

[Dodgeystu]

Looking fantastic Matt! Brilliant idea with the hand held English wheel and your plating is looking great!  You're right in your comment about getting everything clean with the plating kit, I didn't realise how clean "clean" was until I got my plating kit up and running.  Every finger print shows up etc.  Good practice for coronavirus hygene!

Edited April 6, 2020 by Dodgeystu (see edit history)

[Mattml430]

19 minutes ago, Dodgeystu said:

Looking fantastic Matt! Brilliant idea with the hand held English wheel and your plating is looking great!  You're right in your comment about getting everything clean with the plating kit, I didn't realise how clean "clean" was until I got my plating kit up and running.  Every finger print shows up etc.  Good practice for coronavirus hygene!

Thanks Stu

Yer the English wheel worked a treat. 
Ive been using a scotch Brite pad in my detergent/ degreaser bath to get everything a bit cleaner and it seems to be working well. Lot of learning and a lot of mistakes haha. Have you done any pot metal like the handles or anything like that yet?. I read somewhere I had to copper coat them first before the nickel but it hasn’t worked yet. 
Once I get the roadster done I want to redo all the plating on the Victory six sedan it’s all looking a bit average. 

[Dodgeystu]

12 minutes ago, Mattml430 said:

Have you done any pot metal like the handles or anything like that yet?. I read somewhere I had to copper coat them first before the nickel but it hasn’t worked yet. 
Once I get the roadster done I want to redo all the plating on the Victory six sedan it’s all looking a bit average. 

Yeah I've done one bit of pot metal on an autoreelite.  My kit is a triple chrome kit so has a flash copper and a copper plating tank, so I do both of them before the nickel.  The pot metal came up well, but you've gotta be real careful when you dip it in the caustic cleaning bath, as it just chews it up in no time!  I actually wrecked one as I chucked it in and walked away and left it, came back and it was shagged! Luckily I had a spare.  The copper coating allows you to fill some of the pitting that old pot metal generally has.

[Mattml430]

13 minutes ago, Dodgeystu said:

Yeah I've done one bit of pot metal on an autoreelite.  My kit is a triple chrome kit so has a flash copper and a copper plating tank, so I do both of them before the nickel.  The pot metal came up well, but you've gotta be real careful when you dip it in the caustic cleaning bath, as it just chews it up in no time!  I actually wrecked one as I chucked it in and walked away and left it, came back and it was shagged! Luckily I had a spare.  The copper coating allows you to fill some of the pitting that old pot metal generally has.

Ah!! Ok so that’s probably where I’ve been going wrong. I might have to come over for a visit and get you to teach me a bit on that. Once we get back to some normality. 
The plating kits are one of the best investments you can make when restoring cars. It’s just so nice not having to send little bits out. 
Im going to try do my bumpers one at a time in a long tank with a pump to circulate  the solution around it, how do you think that would go. My voltage supply will do up to 40amps. Would be just enough I think for the surface area of our small bumpers. 

[Dodgeystu]

Give it a crack Matt. Worse case is, it doesn't work and you've gotta send the big stuff out... You really make a huge saving doing the small stuff.  I really like having control of the quality as well after paying for some crappy plating previously.  As long as you have the solution circulating enough it should work I reckon.

[Mattml430]

24 minutes ago, Dodgeystu said:

Give it a crack Matt. Worse case is, it doesn't work and you've gotta send the big stuff out... You really make a huge saving doing the small stuff.  I really like having control of the quality as well after paying for some crappy plating previously.  As long as you have the solution circulating enough it should work I reckon.

I was thinking of using 200mm pvc pipe and cut a slot in the top to drop the bumper in. I would need about 6 tanks all together so a bit of mucking around to get it all done. Be a bit of a shit if it didn’t work but you never know until you try. 
I was thinking of putting 4 or 5 anodes evenly along the pipe tank. 

[Dodgeystu]

2 minutes ago, Mattml430 said:

I was thinking of using 200mm pvc pipe and cut a slot in the top to drop the bumper in. I would need about 6 tanks all together so a bit of mucking around to get it all done. Be a bit of a shit if it didn’t work but you never know until you try. 
I was thinking of putting 4 or 5 anodes evenly along the pipe tank. 

That'll work! As long as you have multiple anodes along the length, that was my main concern.  You'll find a way to make it work mate, you always do!

[stakeside]

;;;;;;

[Bullfrog_eng]

Matt, I do my own zinc plating, but it is fairly easy as most of the stuff I do is relatively small (nuts, bolts, brackets, wheel nuts and clamps, etc.) and can be done in a 10 litre bucket. For much the same reason as you do your plating, plus it is about a 200 Km return trip to visit the platers. But I have never got into nickel. 

But here is another incentive for you (in case you need one!)

I recently had my front and rear bumpers chromed, along with the clamp plates and a couple of other minor bits. Now the bumpers were pretty rough and I spent a lot of time straightening them, but they came up quite good. They were still very badly pitted, however, and would have needed a lot of work by the platers, not to mention many coats of copper, before chroming. Cost, $2660!!

They now do look good though.

[Mattml430]

11 hours ago, Bullfrog_eng said:

Matt, I do my own zinc plating, but it is fairly easy as most of the stuff I do is relatively small (nuts, bolts, brackets, wheel nuts and clamps, etc.) and can be done in a 10 litre bucket. For much the same reason as you do your plating, plus it is about a 200 Km return trip to visit the platers. But I have never got into nickel. 

But here is another incentive for you (in case you need one!)

I recently had my front and rear bumpers chromed, along with the clamp plates and a couple of other minor bits. Now the bumpers were pretty rough and I spent a lot of time straightening them, but they came up quite good. They were still very badly pitted, however, and would have needed a lot of work by the platers, not to mention many coats of copper, before chroming. Cost, $2660!!

They now do look good though.

Wow that’s expensive isn’t it. It’s definitely worth giving it a go then. My bumpers are quite badly pitted also , so there will be a lot of preparation before plating. I find a 6” foam pad on a sander polisher works the best for preparing the steel. Then Iinish it with a trizact belt. 
I’ll give it a go when I get time and let you know how it goes. 
Ive done a few bits and pieces in nickel just as corrosion protection but I don’t think it’s that good on its own it needs the copper for corrosion protection.  

[Mattml430]

14 hours ago, stakeside said:

;;;;;;

I’m not sure what that means?
I only went to school to eat my lunch and do wood work. Lol

[Mattml430]

Managed to get my hood irons finished today. 
Made them out of stainless steel so the should outlast me. 
Thanks to Dale Emmett and Bill Guess for sending me pictures and measurements it would of been almost impossible to get right without them. 
 

[Ron Lawson]

Looking fantastic Matt 

 

[RichBad]

Looks great mate, especially with those rivets.  Nice one!

Edited April 26, 2020 by RichBad (see edit history)

[Mattml430]

5 minutes ago, RichBad said:

Looks great mate, especially with those rivets.  Nice one!

Thanks mate yer I used some button Phillips head screws. Welded the heads up and polished them. 
Then I countersunk the opposite side of the bar , tig weld the screw until it was red hot and bashed it down into the counter sunk hole. Worked out really well and the hinging of the hood iron is nice and firm. 

[Ron Lawson]

Matt did you make the irons out of stainless?

[Mattml430]

8 hours ago, Ron Lawson said:

Matt did you make the irons out of stainless?

Yes I did Ron and just left them in a brushed finish. I don’t think they need to be polished. My wife reckons I will end up polishing them. 

[JACK M]

Those are about the nicest irons I have ever seen.

I am visioning a future forum discussion in many many years (like a hundred or so) with some way off in the future owner asking when did Dodge make stainless top irons.

[Mattml430]

4 hours ago, JACK M said:

Those are about the nicest irons I have ever seen.

I am visioning a future forum discussion in many many years (like a hundred or so) with some way off in the future owner asking when did Dodge make stainless top irons.

Hahah thanks, it might cause some confusion because I made a twin set for Pete’s roadster as well. 

[aunty norm]

Maybe they will think it was for export (Australian ) models only! 

[Mattml430]

Sending my old radiator in tomorrow to be recored. Had heart failure with the first estimate of $5-6000 but today he called me back and has agreed to do it for $3600 completely rebuild top to bottom. He has been well recommended so I’m going to go with it. I have it all pulled apart ready to go so it will be nice knowing the radiator is brand new. 

[Mattml430]

Won’t have a crank hole for that price but I will just have to put a black plate there where it’s supposed to be. I can live with that. 

[Mattml430]

1 hour ago, dc-8dave said:

Hello Matt,

                    It is always a good idea to send the radiator shell in with the radiator so they can make sure the radiator fits the shell and the mounting holes line up properly. 

Thanks Dave yes I’m dropping it all off together so it will be a good fit. 

[Mattml430]

My radiator is going up to Bob in tweed heads now so I’m much happier about that. I know it will come back perfect. 

 

Pulled the diff out today to find it in great condition with all the bearings in excellent condition. Just wanting to replace the front seal in it but I’m having trouble removing the inner crown nut. Giving it a soak for a bit and hopefully it will move for me. I do remember my 27 diff giving me a world of trouble with getting some bits apart.