Projects A Speedster Comes Out of the Weeds—Build Thread

Cool body...

 

Looking good sir.Please keep the updates coming.
Leo

 

So your weather is like ours then, cucumber: 92% water,
Jelly fish: 96% water,
Danish summer: 98% water
Lol
I don't expect you to put it out, I expect you to stand out and take a pic in through the barn door
Double Lol
No just kidding.

Now you postede that pic of a Bugatti, I'm thinking;how would it look in blue?

 

That's funny as heck!

I'm gonna steal it for today's weather here in Michigan: 90 degrees, 98% humidity. We all carry machetes to chop chunks of air out of the way.

 

Thanks for all the interest, everyone. Here’s a recent little problem-solving exercise you might like.

As I said in my response to Volvobrynk last night, I’ll be running fenderless for a while. This introduces a visual problem, because the wide rear of Model A frame extends well outside the boat tail. Without fenders to hide them, the frame corners look awkward, and sort of kill the flow. Here’s what I’m talking about:


The proper approach would be to pinch the frame, but that’s a bigger undertaking than I’m ready for. Right now I’m about getting the car on the road. Plus, the frame corners are a good spot to mount my taillights. So what to do?

The solution presented itself at the Portland Swap Meet in the form of this 1936 humpback deck lid (a score at $10):


After stripping and de-rusting, I butchered the thing:


Then traced a template:


And finally cut myself two matching covers for the frame:


Installed it looks like this:


And here’s how it looks mocked up with a taillight:


OK, it’s not exactly stunning metal work. Nothing like, say, sectioning a ’54 DeSoto. But I think it looks good and will serve until I’m ready for fenders. I like the rolled edges—much better than anything I could have hammered out with my shot bag and stump.

Of course, in the final version, the light will be supported by something more elegant than the hockey puck seen here.

 

Cool speedster .have a great time with the build . try to keep it orgianal .you will have one of the very few cars and a piece of history . Please keep sending pictures .regards miff

 

Fenderettes.

 

That's funny considering it was raining monday...

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^^^LOL, Hey Hitch, I was thinking the same thing. We are only a few hours north of you and our July has sucked so far. Rained again last night. Fingers crossed for deuce days this weekend.
Clark, the car is looking great. Keep it up.

 

Hmm... Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about that frame cover but it works for now. I would probably think about something along the lines of a modified splash apron. A cut up 40's/50's truck cab corner could give you a rounded end cap for the rear of it, the side could be formed with some "body english" around a pipe. Just some food for thought.

 

Awesome work, even more considering you knew very little when you started. I vote the original panel at the rear because it looks so much like the Auburn boat tail. Unlike everyone else, I think those original fenders are awesome.Excellent work!

 

Funny you should ask. Here's a picture of the last remaining flecks of blue paint, which I believe to be the original color. My wife's reply to your comment? "I look good in blue." So now it seems there are two color choices in the running, green and blue.

 

What, you don't like the "fenderettes"? Believe it or not, they look better in person. But yeah, they're just temporary until I have time to try something better with the "original" splash aprons--meaning, the homemade ones it came with. Here's what I've got to work with.


Hand formed from galvanized steel, probably heater ducting. And no, I won't be reusing the chrome spears. I'm intrigued by your suggestion of cutting some old cab corners that I could graft onto them to cover the frame corners. That would have never occured to me.

Good to hear a vote for the original fenders. I think you're not the only one. Nothing's decided yet--another reason why I'll be running in primer for a while. Afer things settle down (read that: winter) I'll do a mock up in various fender configurations. But my big push now is just to get the car on the road. When I started the project my buddies set the over and under at 7 years. I bet the under, and I don't have a lot of time left!

 

Very cool

 

Seems to me like blue is the only color choice in the running...

 

X2. If Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

 

This thing is awesome. Great job of preserving previous owners work and at the same time making it your own.

 

Just sat and read thru the whole thread. You are making great progress, glad to see it coming back together.
One of a kind for sure, I cant wait to see you tearing up the streets in it. A beach somewhere would be cool too
Will be watching for sure!!!

 

I haven’t had time to post for a while, and the reason will become clear in a moment. Last time I checked in, I said the plan was to run in primer for a few years. Well, change of plans.

Without further ado… she’s blue!



Details to come!

 

Dude!!

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I'm green with envy. So cool!

 

Right on!! On the road soon it looks like.

 

That's what I'm hoping. I've got my winter work cut out for me. Assembly, wiring, and figuring out a seat solution. I'm currently on the hunt for a pair of narrow vintage seats out of an MG, Austin, or something of that ilk.

 

Very impressive.

 

Dude you have been holding out on us Looks pretty good LOL

 

Thanks for the positive comments, everyone. What you see here are the results of traditional DIY driveway painting. And there’s no way I could have pulled it off without the help of my good friend Steve, a professional painter who did cars for many years early in his career.

Here’s the rest of the story on Operation Blue. I expect this will provide more than a few chuckles for the experienced, but I think there’s some useful information for people new to this.

My original plan was to run it in primer for a few years. Never having used a spray gun in my life, I used those 2K epoxy rattle cans where you pop a button to mix the activator with the paint. Thankfully, I knew from Hamb research that I needed to etch the metal first with Phosphoric. The 2K cans spray nice, and you apply them just like a spray gun in long overlapping stokes, not the rattle-can whoosh-it-everywhere approach—learned that the hard way.

When I was done, I rolled it inside and just kind of stared at it for a while.


Frankly, all I could say was, “Ugh!” The damn thing looked like a charcoal briquette.

Try as I might, I was having a hard time imagining myself driving it that way for a couple years. And I was pretty sure my wife hated it, but was too nice to say so. Screw it, I decided. I’m going to paint it. It was another of those decisions where I didn’t quite know where the journey would take me, but I had 6 weeks of decent weather left to figure it out.

So I ordered the paint (color chosen by my wife—no surprise there) and also a 10 gal/2hp air compressor. I got a brand called “California Quiet” that totally lives up to its name—no sense annoying the neighbors any more than I had to.



While waiting for everything to arrive, I enclosed my carport in plastic and installed 2 box fans and 2 industrial blowers, shielded with furnace filters. I also poured over Hamb threads and Youtube videos. Finally the big day arrived, and I chose a few less important pieces for my first try at spray painting.

Well, it was a disaster. I didn’t even take pictures, I was so disgusted. The old general-purpose spray gun I’d borrowed didn’t flow paint worth a shit, and even so, the compressor couldn’t keep up. The solution was a LVLP gun (low volume low pressure), which are expressly designed for use with smaller air compressors. Cost under $100 with a regulator, cleaning kit and extra tips and needles.

Gun on left = bad. Gun on right = good.

Steve came by and gave me a crash course in working with the gun, and also convinced me that when it came to primer I could sand my way out of most problems. It went great. I put down a nice thick coat of build primer and figured I had everything under control…




...that is, until I blocked it and discovered I had a long way to go. I wound up shooting three coats of build primer, and came to grips with the usual amateur issues along the way, such as…

Unexpected low areas to fix:


“You missed a spot…”: touchup:


Checklist after checklist of stuff to deal with:


Finally, the car was ready for color. And God love him, Steve took a day off to come over and shoot it for me. By now I knew damn well I did not have anywhere near the talent for a color coat. If it hadn’t been for Steve, I would have had to load everything on a trailer and take it to a pro.

Remember when I said I figured I had six weeks of good weather to do this in? Well, I more than used them all up in education, rework and prep. By a miracle, we managed to grab the last 70-degree day of the year and took care of the body and parts in one extended session.




That’s Steve in the pictures. He was amazing to watch in action. The guy is ambidextrous, shifting the gun from hand to hand as he works across the car. The gun never stopped except when he would pause at the end of a panel to check the reflection. He laid the third coat on so incredibly thick that I was cringing in fear of paint runs. Not a one.




Here’s the final tally. We painted the car body and 20 separate parts. All told, each got a layer of epoxy sealer, three coats of build primer (one gallon), and three coats of color (one gallon). Seven weeks transpired from the day I decided to go for it until the day it was done. Toward the end of that time I was obsessed, sanding and painting in my sleep.

I couldn’t be happier with the results. Sure, there are a few imperfections here and there, but nothing you wouldn’t expect from a 90-year-old metal car that spent 50 years in the bushes. Overall, it looks good.

So there’s the story. And I still can’t believe it. She’s BLUE!

 

OMG, You rock!! You clear did good, and Steve help you do better, and step in at the right time!
That is awesome, so you didn't go with green.
But two things is important to remember;

1. Happy wife, happy life!
2. Good tools makes half of the work for you!

And FYI, good call on paint!! Do wonders for the car! Going silver wheels?
For the Bugatti look?

 

That looks awesome! Been missing this thread. How cool when you came back with this. I think that color will pay off in the end. Next question is wheel color? I like the red myself.


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That looks great. Excited to see this thing on the road!

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Thanks volvobrnk. Yeah, green was off the boards after you posted that picture of a Bugatti back in July. Suddenly my wife was doing Google searches on blue Bugattis, and the decision was made. I'm happy with it, and like I said, as near as I can tell, blue is this particular car's orgiginal color.