Folks Of Interest Wet sanding with gasoline Tommy the Greek

White gas is, basically, Coleman lantern fuel, not motor fuel

 

I guess that is why chasing the DDT truck is not common anymore.....





At least we are learning.

 

Don't be too hard on the old timers. In 50 years people will be talking about the stupid things we do now!

I've heard of wet sanding with gasoline but never seen it done. Know several people that thinned paint with gasoline or used it to clean parts.
A local diesel shop currently uses E85 to clean parts.

 

White gas is a generic term.
Lantern fuel is often called white gas. That's what most people think of when they hear white gas.
Amoco had a high octane unleaded motor fuel that was natural gasoline that was often called white gas.
A friend that was in the oil business called gasoline that didn't have any additives white gas.

 

With Bill Hines working lead for over 50 years and my Dad telling me how the fellas in the Army Air Corps washed the bombers down with gasoline,I guess those guys were/are tougher than nowadays?
It does pay to be vigilant and knowledgable about health concerns!
Water is cheaper than the high(gouge!) price of gas,so.....

 

I know a guy named Joe Tamby, he use to do work for Tommy Hrones. Had his own shop near Oakland between 49-53, he use to paint cars for Tommy. He painted his 1950 race car.

Next time I see him I'll ask about wet sanding with gas

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=526907&highlight=tamby

 

We used to make home-made fire extinguishers by grinding a hole in the base of a lightbulb and filling the bulb with carbon tetrachloride. We would seal the hole with wax. Throwing the lightbulb into a fire extinguished it.

 

There's a lot of confusion about what "white gas" really is. Many years ago, before the Roosevelt administration pushed hard to get rural electrification, many folks used the mantle type pressure table lamps for illumination. These burned naphtha, which was sold almost everywhere, usually alongside the kerosene. It came to be called "white gas". And that's what Coleman fuel is today. When we had the gas station, we carried it in 55 gallon drums that were marked "illuminating naphtha".

Amoco regular gas at one time was unleaded and was water white. It also worked in camp stoves and lanterns.

I remember wet sanding with naphtha. Always done outside on the drive.

When we prepped used cars for sale, we used carbon tetrachloride for fixing stuck hydraulic valve lifters. We'd dump two quarts into the engine, take the car outside, and let it run for an hour, then bring it back in and change the oil and filter. It worked most of the time.

 

now that we know better....don't

 

Stupid !!!

 

The world would be a better place if people knew the difference between stupid and ignorant......

 

My Dad was great friends with Tommy ,My Dad and 5 of his 6 Brothers all rode & Raced Motorcycles,so it was natural for My Brother and I to follow their lead,we all worked for and Raced Triumph mostly,BSA occasionally.my Uncle Clyde Mechaniced @ Nelson Brothers & Bob Arnold's CYCLE STOP on East 14th St. in Oakland ,most Friday Nights My parents would take us kids to eat @ The Venetian Room which was an Italian Restaraunt on the same block as Tommy's Shop.. I am Riding the Triumph # 130z in these Pictures with some of Tommy's outlined Scallops .
P.S. I never knew of Tommy using Gasoline for Sanding, I know he liked to use alot of Red Wine while he was working and the stories he told were often inspired by that. in other words it was hard to sort out the B.S. in the conversations.

 

Isn't the purpose of wet sanding just to keep the paper from clogging up? Surely anything other than soapy water would be experimental.

 

My Dad was a Bodyman/painter, Shop owner all his Life,when I had my Shop I was having Fisheye Problems with the Paint and the Wax & Grease Remover sold by the Paint Stores was ineffective,So I asked My Dad what they used back in the day,He said they'd use Gasoline to strip the surface of Wax,but since the new Acrylic Lacquer & Enamels came on the Market it did'nt react well,So they switched to Turpentine,I tried the Turpentine and it cured my Fisheye Problem,Still use it today

 

I remember as a young teen working at a used car lot clening cars when they were brought in,they would get wiped down with kerosene,as well as the ones that were on the front row,they shined like crazy !

 

Here is sample of Tommy's work. 1954 "K" Model. Won 2nd place in the Oakland Roadster Show in 1964. Don Bell won 1st place.
Biob,

 

When I was in high school we used to color sand with gasoline and then rub. Cars looked pretty good. I don't know of any significance to using gasoline other than tradition.

Dave.

 

I never used gas on paint...but I did on aluminum once. I can't remember exactly why (maybe too much exposure to fumes), but some buddies told me I should use gas to sand some old American 200s wheels to clean them up. I was finishing an '82 or '83 S10 pickup which I had replaced a 4-cylinder with a small block while in college and decided to run some 200s wheels to hint it had more than a hamster under the hood. When I found some narrow front wheels at the swap meet, my friends told me the old timers used gas to fast forward the sanding process. Being young and naive, I took their advice and gave it a try. It definitely worked, but gas wasn't $3.50 a gallon either. I admit I was nervous at first but quickly learned sanding the aluminum edge of the wheels didnt ignite...it only helped keep the paper from clogging up. That said, my days of sanding with push-oline were a one time experiment. I must have used 3-4 tubes of toothpaste to clean my hands of the smell of fuel. Sometimes you have to laugh at yourself.


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

With older gas brands having lead that might've helped the paint? One Shot used to
have it as an ingredient and some of those 50's and 60's era signs are still almost legible.
How it would help the sanding I don't know?

 

If you go back in the thread, you'll find that most regular gas at the time wasn't leaded, and that Coleman fuel (White gas or Naphtha) wasn't, either. It kept the 600 grit paper from loading up while color sanding on lacquer.

 

Again I'm not advocating sanding with gas and I'm sure nobody else is. I hope all the latest posts have read the whole thread. The reason for the thread was just to let the young guys know what things were like "back in the day" and to try to get some more Tommy the greek Hrone stories.

Remember things were different then '50s & '60s. No E.P.A., no public warnings and few cared. My fatherinlaw a good mechanic used to siphon enough gas out of whatever car he was working on at the time and put it in an open container to use for washing parts and his hands when they got greasy. Yes my wife talks about frequent fires in the garage (luckily none too bad) and he lived into his '90s as did Tommy.

Actually when I started the thread I had just talked to my old friend Steve who used to work for Tommy, was about the same time I was painting the dash on my 48 Ford. I didn't want to try sanding with gas but I did use some paint thinner to sand a small spot on it outside of my garage. It did seem to work well but I thought it was not worth the danger.

In case you haven't read the whole thread I think I speculated before that one reason Tommy had Steve use gas was he wanted to paint the truck that evening right after Steve was finished sanding it and didn't wanted to worry about water in the seams. Not sure if they used gas all the time or not. Something I will ask Steve the next time I see him, but don't hold your breath I see him on average maybe every 20 years.

Remember Tommy's shop wasn't just a custom paint shop but a full service body, fender and paint business . His main "bread and butter" was in inexpensive paint jobs. He put a nice two tone paint job on a 54 Olds. for my father and charged him $75 and it had surface rust showing through the old paint. This was in the early '60s.

 

What happened to this thread? I hope it hasn't died. Must be others out there that knew "Tommy" Lets hear from more. I know he would go to "Pete's Transmission" on Lewelling Blvd in San Lorenzo for donuts with Norm.
Bob,

 

I knew Shelly's Uncle, Dennis Mackin. He and I worked at General Electric in Oakland together. That was in 1956 to 1960. It was the wire and cable plant. I grew up in Oakland. Went to Fremont High School.
Bob Pennington.

 

I am sure the 10% ethanol will reek HAVOc on that

 

UMMM...Fish-eyes?