1955 Ranch Wagon Cruiser

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Torchie said:
Great job on the roof braces. You are lucky that roof panel is in as good of shape as it is. Most unrestored wagons have some sort of roof damage by the time they reach that age.
[P [P [P
Torchie
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Yeah, from the other evidence it looks like it sat in a field for years, so around here we'd expect hail damage. It does have or did have a few small dings around the edges that are probably the result of something leaning on it.

Damage, even from someone sitting on it, would have been a real problem for me to fix.
 
The roof panel is pretty stiff for a panel that large and without any detail, but I'm still having a problem blocking. I installed Peal and Seal hoping it would stiffen the panel -which it did - but not enough. Sure brightened up the inside.

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I have noticed that the roof is expanding and contracting with the variation of temperature from the am to pm. I decided to check the surface temp at 3:00 pm.

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Sunlight from a sky light.

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I have 2 huge swamp coolers running, but the humidity is too high for them to be doing any cooling other than blowing air.
 
I hate to be the one to say it but I will. You might be less frustrated if you hold off for cooler weather to finish up the paint prep. Even if you get it paint ready I don't see how you can shoot the color in those temps.
Not being from your area what does that mean for you time wise. A delay of a month? Or would it be longer than that?
Hang in there.....
Torchie
 
Torchie said:
I hate to be the one to say it but I will. You might be less frustrated if you hold off for cooler weather to finish up the paint prep. Even if you get it paint ready I don't see how you can shoot the color in those temps.
Not being from your area what does that mean for you time wise. A delay of a month? Or would it be longer than that?
Hang in there.....
Torchie
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I bought slow reducer and activator, which is for 85 degrees and above. Now I feel under the gun to get it done before the weather changes. Night time lows stay in the high 80's, so if I paint it early in the am it should be OK. The triple digit heat can last to the end of October.

My plan is to mask the body and paint the roof in the next couple of weeks. The drip rail is continuous all the way around the car - a natural dividing line.
 
Thought I'd check the surface temperature in the am. This is at 7:00. I have figured out that the filler and glaze set up almost instantly when the surface temperature is above 100.

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I built 2 of these to paint the roof. I sprayed the high build primer with them and still can't quite reach the center with the gun at 90 degrees to the surface. So I guess if anyone is tall enough to look down on the roof, they'll see some tiger striping. But, they will get the job done.

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I got the roof blocked to 320 and it came out pretty good. Just had to sand with no pressure - it took a while.
 
I like your scaffolding DJ! I painted a full size Dodge van a few years back, I used two empty 55 gallon plastic barrels and two 2x12 x16 pieces of pine lumber to walk on. Was a little shaky getting on, but they stayed surprising stable while painting the roof.
 
Country Misfit said:
I bet you have rubbed some skin off of your fingers,doing all that sanding. Your ride is looking good.
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I have been wearing nitrile gloves to sand and do pretty much everything else, so I still have my finger prints. However, my calluses are gone and my hands are girly clean. I start school in a couple weeks where I'll have to hammer hot iron. A blacksmithing instructor with soft, clean hands just seems wrong. Plus I'll probably get a blister in the first 5 minutes.
 
The week didn't start out well. First thing Monday morning a bark scorpion crawled in my shoe and stung me on the toe. I was in the process of putting trash bags on the wheels so I could shoot the last (hopefully) coat of primer on the body. I pressed on and got it coated before taking the rest of the day and Tuesday off.

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I did get the last coat blocked and sanded to 400. The quarters, roof and tail are ready for the paint booth (sealer and sand to 600 before BC/CC). Still have some work on the doors and fenders.

Today I dragged out the tailgate. I have been putting off doing anything with it because it has major issues. The bondo at the bottom is covering up rust holes and a huge crease. The rest of the skin is not too good either.

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I spent a while with a stripping disc, but the metal is too pitted to clean up. I decided I had better get the gate media blasted and evaluate how much of the skin will need to be replaced.

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The latches have a bit of rust.

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Got the upper and lower tailgate sections apart and ready to take to the media blaster on Monday and decided to throw in the inner window frames and a few other small parts.
 
DJ your a better man than me, your thin patients is way over my head :eek:
Your doing an outstanding job, even with the local wildlife attacks. :eek:
Your an inspiration to us all [cl
 
bob w said:
I want to know the fate of the scorpion...

"rust free southwestern car" I guess it's everywhere.
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The same shoe he crawled out of smashed him flat. I am generally at war with scorpions, as a result they go on the offensive. They often actually run towards you - very aggressive. They usually sting more than once. 6 stings in one attack is my record. Each sting feels like you hit it with a hammer, followed by about 50 shots of Novacaine.

We got rust, that's for sure, but no salt.
 
Those latches look like a good candidate for electrolysis cleaning. Mine looked almost that bad, after cleaning they looked almost new.
 
Bamamav said:
Those latches look like a good candidate for electrolysis cleaning. Mine looked almost that bad, after cleaning they looked almost new.
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I dunked them in WD40 Rust Restore. If that doesn't work, I'll do the electrolysis thing. I'm pretty sure they'll be almost impossible to replace, I need to save them.

My bumper brackets will be going in the electrolysis one of these days.
 
I left them in the Rust Restore over night - not much improvement. So I put them back in and forgot about them for a week. Here's what they look like after a week in the Rust Restore (they aren't really fuzzy like the pic). The left one is clean and everything moves freely. The right one is still frozen and crusty.

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So, I gave the crusty one an overnight bath in vinegar. The vinegar removed the crust, but didn't free the pivots. I soaked it with Kroil - no improvement. A torch freed the moving parts, so I waited for it to cool and soaked it with Kroil again. That's where it is now.

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Still sanding. But I hope to get color and clear on the inside of the doors tomorrow.
 

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