Schei.........?? that is!! Tom remembers for sure.
I have zero experience in automobile painting. Acrylic single stage, basecoat/ clearcoat, reducers (fast-slow??), activators, epoxy primers, building primers, Aaahhhh!!
Then we get to guns, pressure feed, cup guns, HVLP guns, base coat guns, primer guns, finish guns. This is getting complex. That's why I retained a painter for the important stuff.
The front end was a combo of black paint, zinc coated parts, and raw steel spindles. What to do??
Paint it red to match the car!!!
I can do this, read the instructions....
Now we get out my genuine Devilbiss
2 gun set.......Which Gun??
Nick came by and looked at them and
said "use the small gun for small parts".
Disassemble the front assembly, clean, sandblast and sand, then wipe them down with wax and grease remover TWICE (ask me why I know to do this) and we be ready!!
The red basecoat seemed awfully thin, the tech sheet indicated multiple coats until
hiding is achieved. It took five coats to cover. Its now all satin red.
As instructed, I waited 1 1/2 hours and then sprayed the first coat of SPI universal clear. WOW, nice product. A second coat 30 min later and I was done.
Tack free in 1 hour and I'm impressed with myself. Click on the picture.
You CAN teach an old dog new tricks.
The powder coated frame looked pretty good in the pictures right? WRONG!!
I knew it had some issues but until one gets to the finishing.........
There is probably 60 hours in repairing the frame and the rear axle issues caused by the original owner.
Things are looking up. Persistence and determination and this came back from the painter yesterday.
ARREST ME RED is as true a red as I could find and is actually Honda R513 Rallye Red. The main focus here was a basecoat-clearcoat red without the orange tint. I think its nice.
I provided the materials and did the prep and a friend sprayed it for me. Personally I think painting the frame with all the nooks and crannys would be worse than painting the car.
Is this nice or what??? Thanks Nick
As you may have guessed, I'm as old as dirt. The early years were nothing but fun and work. Forty nine (count'em!!) years ago I drove the "A" Bone to Las Vegas and sold it the first night cruising Fremont Street downtown.
With what now seems like a small roll of "C" notes in my jeans, I rode a Greyhound bus back to Los Angeles and paid for my first two years of college with the cash.
Having been in Vegas for the last 45 years, I saw the "A" twice but never up close. Different colors both times.
I often wondered what happened to it.
At our Sunday street car show and tell get together this morning I spotted an "A" (rat rod) arriving and wandered over to check it out.
IT WAS MINE !!
As I walked up to the car, I noticed the firewall (no one but me would radius a firewall) and what was left of the metal top. The car is (was) badly damaged in a intentionally set fire in the early 1980's and then dragged into the back yard where it sat for almost 30 years.
The current owner acquired the car recently and assembled it as a rat rod.
Speechless ??? You Bet!!
My trusty town car sits in the shade waiting to take me to lunch. I drive this car everywhere. It runs nice, makes boost, and I get a lot of thumbs up from the guys standing on the corner looking for work.
I have met new people at the Friday night and Sunday morning get togethers and what an nice bunch they are. All have vintage or unique cars that stand out in their own ways.
Most do their own building or tinkering but feel that I'm a little nuts to tackle the projects that I do.
All feel that the blown Chevy six is a hoot in a lot full of wild small blocks. Hang on guys, I'm coming!!
In the original "A" coupe, the trunk drip rails discharged fluid through a larger cavity in the rear of the body. Actually just dumped in the rear of the body to the ground. This doesn't work well at all with a full floor. Water always runs downhill, right?
At the time we rolled the floor, we bent
this shape in a 48" 16 gauge strip. I thought this represented what the two piece rear section might have looked like.
I did not have the original rear angle but it had to end up like this when bolted together.
A lot of trimming and fitting since it needed to drain from the center to the sides (notch) and bow to the rear to match the rear panel (same notch). The trunk rubber bumpers mount on this and the trunk latch also is attached.
Next were the drip rail extensions and then the tube through the floor.
With end caps on the cross rail, arched to the rear and sloped down from the center to the outside the cute little drip rail extensions dump the water into the trough. My Bud Light test all ended up in the trough (very minimal test, good bud light).
I will use 5/8" od tubing connectors through the trough and floor on each side and 5/8" hose between them. A little seam sealer will finish this part.
I don't do body work, at least I didn't think I did. Is this body work?
This is a great project and I am having a great time since I did not bid this.
All the body mounts are in and tight and the trunk would not close. About 1/4" out of square. This was like this when I purchased it but I assumed it would straighten up on a new flat frame.....wrong!
I met a retired collision guy who came by and looked at it. No big deal to him, just place a porta power in the passenger side rear corner up to the drivers side trunk opening and jack it over. WHAT PORTA POWER ??
I was afraid to do that since the "A" cab is bolted together in 3 pieces back there. I built a cab window support and bolted an additional crossmember above the floor crossmember. I pulled the cab left to right with a comealong and the whole think straightened up. Installing the diagonal and two vertical supports, it stayed in place perfectly. The doors fit, the trunk lid fits, is this body work??
I think I'm a happy camper. Is there going to be a pop quiz on this on Friday??
I thought I had put all the dents and crap on craigslist but evidently not.
I had to do a minor mock-up in order to locate the steering column/shaft so why not confirm the vision?? It involved about 20 minutes to see if this is similar to "the vision".
What do ya' think? If you remove your glasses and squint a little it looks a lot like the "vision".
The firewall setback is only 2 1/2" and is a function of the distributor clearance.
Miles to go but I'm good with this so far.
The rear floor is rosette and seam welded in place and fit better than I had hoped. No problems with the installation.
Four crossmembers and the front and rear originals make this a strong installation.
I purchased replacement fenderwell panels but am unimpressed with them. The panels are 22 ga. and are not as strong as the original A units. I feel that the fenderwells are an integral portion of the rear quarters and these cannot replace them well.
Haven't decided which way to go yet.
The front end was a combo of black paint, zinc coated parts, and raw steel spindles. What to do??
