Straight 57 Nomad

Show off your work! Anything from final results to full start-to-finish project journals.



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PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:23 am
Doright wrote:Pretty much same thing with solder joints on circuit boards easy to mess up easy to spot too if you know what to look for only thing you can do is start over like you said.
While I believe lead is the right way to go for auto restoration, I think that today's body fillers are far superior to Lead when used properly.


Dennis, you are right on all counts here. :goodjob: :goodjob: I have dabbled a few times using lead on body work many years ago and loved doing it, BTW I was certified at circuit boards soldering which helped. I do note one thing that unless you do a "perfect job " with temperature and cleanliness it will come back and bite you big-time in a few years. Like you said the same would hold true with today's fillers but I do think they are more user friendly that lead. :knockout: :knockout:
it needs to be lowered with big and littles. .



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PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 1:00 pm
I agree that there is nothing wrong with modern fillers when used properly, and I have tried to discourage the use of lead many times. I think the use of solder for circuit boards and wiring is more akin to tinning the metal than applying the lead, in that the metal has to be hot enough to melt the lead when tinning. It has to flow and be spread with a rag to be sure it has the whole surface covered.

But when applying the lead that is not the case, and that is where I messed up. The metal only has to be warm enough to accept the lead. If the metal is not warm enough the lead will crumble or not stick properly, so it is a very delicate balance. If the metal is too hot and the lead melts, then it will be harder to work with the paddle because it changes the structure of the lead. It can also cause pinholes in my opinion and lose of adhesion.

Leaded areas from the factory may also have pinholes, and it is not a major problem as long as the metal at the bottom of the hole is tinned. And I have checked that with a sharp pick and a magnifing glass. Here is a picture of a factory leaded seam and yes it will have to be cleaned up before painting.


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And a close up


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When filing the lead out at the edges it is easier to tell if you have good adhesion or not, when it gets really thin it will curl up.
So as you see in these shots of the hood, that there is no adhesion problem, it feathered out nice, although there are a few small pin holes, just like the factory lead that has been on there for 55 years.



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So I will repeat this again. Lead is very difficult to get right, and I do not recommend that anyone use it.



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PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 6:55 pm
Rock

Someday soon I am going to give it a go as you are doing I wish you could do some videos on it.
Your work is phenomenal!!!

Im just taking a wag at the problems (Wild **** Guess) as I have NO experience playing with the stuff.
Some day Im gonna give it a good try and try to master it as your doing but it will be a while before I do just too much going on right now too even think about cars to much.

This next weekend is the big local car show and I dont even know if Im gonna have enough time to get the Ford cleaned up enough to put it in the show.
Dennis B.
A&P Mechanic, FCC General radio Telephone Operator
Line Maintenance A&P Mechanic and MOC Tech specialist.

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PostPosted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 11:16 pm
I would argue that soldering onto a circuit board would be good practice. I see a lot of people talk about how bad lead is in magazines.

But I see them barely heating the surface,and then trying to melt the lead ONTO the surface,and that's where they go wrong. With the right flux on the surface,at the right temp,when the lead melts,it should *flow* onto the surface. If done wrong,it's gonna "float" on top of it,and give the appearance and maybe the feel of adhesion,but when stressed right,it'll just fall right off.


Also,I've seen them suggest getting rid of all the flux! :knockout:
Probably one of the most important things to make it work right,and they want to get rid of it,what the heck.
My programs never have bugs,they just develop new features!



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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 11:06 am
Rock
Its looking good when do you think youl start moving on to paint?
Dennis B.
A&P Mechanic, FCC General radio Telephone Operator
Line Maintenance A&P Mechanic and MOC Tech specialist.



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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:37 pm
I haven't had much time to spend on it lately and it looks like the next couple months might even offer less time in the shop. That may not be so bad though, because I want to give the primer plenty of time to cure before sanding.



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PostPosted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:58 am
Went to the car show sunday with the 41 Ford I did long story short the hood wouldnt open

Image
Dennis B.
A&P Mechanic, FCC General radio Telephone Operator
Line Maintenance A&P Mechanic and MOC Tech specialist.



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PostPosted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 1:05 pm
Doright wrote:Went to the car show sunday with the 41 Ford I did long story short the hood wouldnt open

Image



Dennis, congratulations. :goodjob: :goodjob: :happy: Must have been a really great car that beat you? :shocked: :rolleyes:
it needs to be lowered with big and littles. .



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PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:29 am
I'm new to the board and have really enjoyed your thread. Your work looks amazing and I really appreciate your taking the time to share this project with us!
I like the way you're removing the factory bowing of the panels. I read in your post that you used a stud gun to do the majority of the panel shrinking, what kind of a pattern or system did you use while shrinking?

Thanks again for your time.
Lance



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PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:23 pm
Nice job Dennis, you make us all proud.

Thank you Itbusa for your compliments on the car, it has certainly been a challenge to get it to this point. Not sure if I would try that again or not, there are a lot things that could go wrong, and I did mess up several panels in the process. But I had all the panels off the car and several replacement panels if needed, so I took a chance on it. I would not try it without sufficient replacements, because it requires shrinking the panels so different than they were from the factory, and there is also a limit to how far you can go and still maintain enough strength in the panels.

It might surprise you how much improvement you can make to the looks of your car just by getting all the panels lined up properly and gaps adjusted right. When I walk through a field of show cars that is the most overlooked thing that I see, and some of it is just minor adjustments. The odd thing is that most of the owners don't seem to even realize the adjustment problems their cars have, but when they see one adjusted correctly, they do see a difference, and consider the car a higher quality even though adjustment may be the only difference in the cars.

These adjustments should be made before paint so you can make what ever little tweaking you have to do. So I would suggest you give that a try and see how it looks before getting ratical. After you make your adjustments and tweaking, you could even spray some cheap gloss paint on to see how it looks, get some pictures of it to study, and then use reducer to wipe it off.
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