jan arnett (2) Posted May 3, 2022 Share Posted May 3, 2022 Must be a weak area as mine had the exact same crack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan95 Posted May 4, 2022 Author Share Posted May 4, 2022 I'm curious how you solved the issue on yours. That manifold was only used for two years. Either the design wasn't good enough or the casting was changed to lower costs. I'll be calling soon to ask a few questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan95 Posted May 19, 2022 Author Share Posted May 19, 2022 Metal work on the cowl is now complete. Since the last update on the cowl, I trimmed and hammered over all of the edges, nailed it down the whole way around, and leaded the seam above the dash. Next step is the rear tub. 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lahti35 Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 Looking great! Nice work! Here's something to keep your moon rolling along as you work... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexRiv_63 Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 Very impressive work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan95 Posted May 20, 2022 Author Share Posted May 20, 2022 This morning I transported the tub to my garage from Bob's. This piece might take some time to get done right. It is made of seven pieces. The rear panel is the worst. the bottom third is rusted out. The flat pieces that make the backside of the wheel wells are simple enough to make new ones. The bottom flanges on them are rusty, and would need too much repair work to be worth repairing. The side panels I will try to keep. There are two more pieces for the door jamb that I haven't decided what to do with yet. The first problem that I need to solve is the the rear panel. Since the bottom third is gone, the top flange is in rough shape, and the rest of it has a lot of pitting, I want to remake the panel. It could be fixed by welding in a new piece at the bottom, but that's a big, long weld seam, and I'm not confident in handling all of the heat distortion to get it back to the right shape. The next problem is that it has too much crown to simply bend a new piece of steel in place. I will need to find an english wheel to make the new one. Thanks for the support and interest from you all. Ryan 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieBuick Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 Hi Ryan, There is little documentation of "tub" repair / construction out there and will be valuable to many restorers. Looking forward to your journey on this one ! Regards Norm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan95 Posted May 23, 2022 Author Share Posted May 23, 2022 Thanks Norm, I will try to provide some good detail on it as I make progress. This week's goal is to get a Harbor Freight English wheel and start getting familiar with it. I also need materials to make a wire form for the back panel. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prewarnut Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 What locates your windshield stantions? Seems like it might be tricky to get it angled correctly. Is it just seated into the horizontal frame of the cowl? Looks great from the exterior! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan95 Posted May 23, 2022 Author Share Posted May 23, 2022 (edited) The stanchions pass through the bracket underneath and are secured by a flange on the top and a nut on the bottom. I copied how the original was done the best I could. To get both brackets where I wanted them I used the windshield frame to get them both in correct relationship with each other. Then it was centered on the body, screwed directly to the arch, shimmed underneath, and bolted to the horizontal piece underneath. The wooden angle shims were found under the original construction and my assumption is that they allow the casting to fit correctly with minimal machining. Here is a picture without the metal and a picture looking up from below on a complete Moon. Edited May 23, 2022 by ryan95 (see edit history) 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan95 Posted May 26, 2022 Author Share Posted May 26, 2022 I've been playing with the English wheel for the past few days. I'm close to trying to make the actual panel. The guys on youtube who have been doing it for decades make it look easier to do than it is. This morning I also started separating the panels. That's a chore. Melting out the lead was easy, but dozens of little acetylene tack welds hold it together. I separated the sides from the back and separated the driver side piece from the wheel well. I need to make a decision on the side pieces to save them or remake them. The panel is straight and solid, but the flanges where it gets nailed or welded are beat up and I'm concerned with the flanges cracking when I re-hammer in place. I want to save them to keep some original metal on the car. Hopefully that won't be the harder option. 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan95 Posted June 10, 2022 Author Share Posted June 10, 2022 Since last time I have been working more on the tub. The quarter panels look solid enough. Both needed stripped and de-rusted. The first paint stripper I tried didn't do anything. I bought some Citristrip next, which works, it's just slow. For the rust, I used the rest of my Rust 911 concentrate and a plastic lined plywood box. After about 12 hours for each panel the rust was gone. This morning I worked on welding up and smoothing the original nail holes in the panels and then fixing the distortion. At this point I needed to get the rear fenders out so that I can use them to get the panel placement good enough. I decided to mount the fenders with a couple bolts to see how the car looked. Seeing it like this was a good motivational boost. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cxgvd Posted June 10, 2022 Share Posted June 10, 2022 Ryan; Congratulation on some great restoration work of a rare and interesting car. I was involved slightly with a '23 Gray Dort which was a similar project and the car turned out beautifully as your Moon will. Here is a photo of a 1915 McLaughlin, a much easier restoration I took on, complete now after six years work. The second is the Gray Dort. Regards, Gary 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan95 Posted June 10, 2022 Author Share Posted June 10, 2022 Those are some nice cars Gary, great work. Hearing success stories helps me keep pushing. At times I feel like I am just building an imaginary car that will never be a real one, just like how when I was little our family couch was my pirate ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted June 10, 2022 Share Posted June 10, 2022 2 minutes ago, ryan95 said: Those are some nice cars Gary, great work. Hearing success stories helps me keep pushing. At times I feel like I am just building an imaginary car that will never be a real one, just like how when I was little our family couch was my pirate ship. I've definitely experienced that feeling before. The mock ups help a lot. Seeing other completed cars helps. Our family couch was also a pirate ship. The lazy-boy recliner was both a rocket ship and a fighter plane. Very relatable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan95 Posted June 16, 2022 Author Share Posted June 16, 2022 (edited) Today's little project I wanted to try was straightening out the damaged headlight bezel. It looks like at some point the car was in a small accident and someone else straightened it out just good enough to fit the bucket. They left lots of hammer marks and stretched the metal. First thing was finding what I could use as a dolly on the inside. The mushroomed end of a couple punches worked well. I did a little bit of heat shrinking and hammering to get it a little closer to how it should be. Next I made a couple cardboard profile gauges based on the undamaged side. The rest of the process was working the damaged part back close to the original profile and sanding it smooth. Maybe an expert could get it better, but it is much better than it started. Fortunately I don't think I will need to get a new one spun. I hope the plating shop will be able to smooth it out some more without taking it back out of shape. All of the trauma has made this part finicky. Even a small tweak makes the opening for the lens look out of round. Edited June 16, 2022 by ryan95 (see edit history) 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JV Puleo Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 I am genuinely impressed with your sheet metal work...something I've never tried and may have to in the future so this thread is quite valuable. I suspect you could do the job of smoothing out the bezel better than many – or even most plating shops that would be tempted to just over polish it. Since it is supposed to be nickel plated you might consider doing that yourself...if not the finish plating, a coat of nickel and then a thick coat of copper, smoothed out and then finish plated. Nickel plating is fairly easy I'm told. Take a look at Luv2wrench's thread on his MG restoration. He's told me that nickel was about the easiest plating to do and doesn't involve dangerous chemicals. I just finished stripping the nickel from a bronze piece. It took much longer than the youtube video I watched claimed for the process but it did work. The solution is simply white vinegar and non-iodized salt. Stripping is simply the reverse of plating. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan95 Posted June 17, 2022 Author Share Posted June 17, 2022 I have enjoyed seeing your work and other's on here too. It takes many talents to build a prewar car. That's probably one of my big reasons I appreciate them. Perhaps further on I will spend some more time on the bezels and polish them up. A part only comes out of a plating bath with a nice surface finish if it went in that way. I've done a little bit of plating before but decided to save it mostly for the parts like the grease cups on the axles, which probably weren't that pretty from the factory. We do have a good shop in our area, Paul's Chrome. They turned our junk gas cap into a piece of art. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prewarnut Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 Decorative nickel can be tough as I've mentioned on another thread, especially on a larger piece. It is not as caustic as other solutions but the issue becomes controlling the temperature, anode(s) placement, agitation with a bubbler, etc to get a uniform finish. You can re-plate again or over plate but areas which don't adhere well or look burned or present darkly are hard to again go over. Trying to buff or sand back down is a bear due to the toughness of the layer. I have a small piece that I re-did about 5 times and with a magnifying glass you can see somewhat "start and stop" lines where each layer somewhat joined a prior layer...if you will. I think the best painting analogy is that nickel plating is like newer paints...you can't "feather in" where as gold or copper plating is like painting with laquer - a no-brainer. It's certainly worth trying though and a professional shop could always go over it or fix in the end. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan95 Posted July 22, 2022 Author Share Posted July 22, 2022 (edited) I can hardly believe it's been a month since my last update. I have been working on the tub here and there for a couple hours at a time. When I make another big step on that, I'll update more on it. I made some progress on the primer cups. I have been piecing together a set. I know what the originals looked like from the owners manual, so I knew what to look for. I have found all of them so far on ebay. I couldn't find any correct ones at Hershey. I started out by winning a good set of 3. Then I found number 4 with a long stem, which I cut down and rethreaded. Number 5 had a good body, but wrong handle. Number 6 was another long stem one that I cut down. The hex on it is smaller, so I will keep it in the set for now, but keep watch for one that matches the others. The next success was finding another one on ebay two weeks ago. It looked like the others in the pictures, but the body was significantly larger. I enden up taking the handle from it to complete the number 5 primer cup. The handle brass instead of bronze like the others, but it works for now. At least at this point, they all look pretty similar with exception of the one with the small hex and the other with a brass handle. Eventually better matches will pop up. I have been polishing and tuning them over the past few days. Edited July 22, 2022 by ryan95 (see edit history) 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieBuick Posted May 31, 2023 Share Posted May 31, 2023 Hi Ryan, How did you fair with the rear tub construction? Norm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan95 Posted May 31, 2023 Author Share Posted May 31, 2023 Hi Norm, it's been coming along slowly. Since there was so much rot on the original woodwork, many of my measurements to make the new pieces have about an 1/8 inch margin that they are off. It makes everything take a little bit more time to get it all to work nicely together. The wood has to match up well with the metal or else there are gaps or spots that the metal just won't fit. One of the pieces I tackled is a piece that goes between the fender and the door jamb. I have one made and need to start the other. Originally it must have been stamped, but I made it out of a couple pieces welded together to get around that. The next pieces that I have been working on are the large panels that make up the sides of the tub. I am using the originals for them. After lots of careful sanding on the wood, I was able to get them to fit okay. I still need to weld more material on the edges in some areas so that the flanges for the nails will work well. The big piece that I have yet to make is the rear panel. I still need more practice on my English wheel to get it right. It will also be a two person job since it is so large. I'll be seeing a couple other Moons this week at our club's annual meet. It should energize me to get busy on the body work again. I'll get you and the others some pictures of the tub progress when I'm back home from this trip. Ryan 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieBuick Posted May 31, 2023 Share Posted May 31, 2023 Ryan, thanks for the update, the sheet metal will be my biggest challenge. Thankyou for letting us follow your journey....Regards Norm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan95 Posted March 12 Author Share Posted March 12 (edited) Hello guys, sorry for letting my posting go dead for so long. I struggled to get much work done on the car these past couple years due to some mental health issues and having some other big projects going on. I am excited to say that over the past weeks I have been getting back into the Moon project. I have been working on some small parts, the hood, and the tub. Some of my project paralysis was from needing to figure out how to English wheel a new back panel for the tub. It took me a good bit of research, practice, and failure to finally figure out how to make something that was good enough to use. I'm thankful that it is the only panel with compound curvature that needs made. One hurdle was figuring out how to wheel the panel without a helper on the opposite side. I rigged up a support arm for opposite of me that solved that problem. Most of the process was going back and forth between wheeling, test fitting on the car, bending the panel around on a table with a moving blanket, and rolling the panel over a propane tank. Once the panel had the right shape everywhere, I cut the top and bottom edges to size and hammer formed them to the car. Coming up next, the sides still need trimmed, the panel needs nailed onto the body, it needs welded to the quarter panels, and the seams need filled. Edited March 12 by ryan95 (see edit history) 25 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieBuick Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 Ryan , good to see you back on the tools , Norm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsbrassnut Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 I'll echo that. Good to see you back at it. Keep up the good work and be sure to show the rest of us the progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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