Roundtail Restoration: More Odds & Ends, but Epoxy!

Another post in quick succession. A bit more of the same as the last post, but this time I get some actual painting done. So much nicer when the car looks nice and clean and all in one color, even if it's grey. The video is rather long, as I go into the "how I do it" on my paint set up (video time between 25:36 and 29:55), wax and grease removal method (video time between 29:55 and 33:12), and actual painting (video time between 33:12 and 35:55). Of course, feel free to skip around if you don't want to watch that stuff.

I got a lot of work done. Again, some random items, but all with the aim of moving towards final assembly preparations. As I sometimes do, I didn't document it with many pictures, so the video is going to be the best source of information. So, here goes:

First up, I worked on the steering column and the hardware that attaches it to the car. I had previously taken Dorothy's apart at home and the outer tube was in pretty bad shape. It's made of aluminum and easily beat up. There were areas with large gouges and the like. Fortunately, the black car's was in better shape (as with many things) so I'll be using that one.

I also learned how to pronounce the word "escutcheon" and make a joke of it throughout the video. The escutcheons that go around the headlight and turn signal switches were plastic on Dorothy, but metal on the black car. One person mentioned that they changed from metal to plastic early on, so that explains it. I'm sticking with the metal ones for Dorothy, of course.

I also pulled out the horn ring to clean that up. It's held with with two tabs that are bent up to free it. Not quite sure why I took this picture as opposed to others, but there you go.

Horn ring, showing the tabs top and bottom.

There are bushings in the steering shaft tube that provide support for the shaft itself, but they are pressed in in some way that I couldn't undo. I'm sure they will come out (I have a new bushing kit) but I don't know the trick yet. To prevent damage to the tube (aluminium, remember) I decided to wait until I figure out how to do it without potentially causing damage.

I moved next to the bars that run under the dash board. These were in okay shape but very rusty on both Dorothy and the black car. Also, a pair of them was damaged. I didn't mark them so I don't know which came from which car, but I assume the damaged ones were Dorothy's in keeping with the black car being in overall better shape, especially in the interior.

I used a heat gun to loosen up the adhesive and peeled away the vinyl and foam pads. I intend to reuse the foam pads. I may be able to reuse the vinyl as well if it cleans up okay, but I'm looking for a source of vinyl that's easy for me to get because I'll need it for the dash. I can get some from an upholstery place in England called Park Lane Classics (they have a great reputation) and probably from Newton Commercial (the company that I bought my interior from), but don't want to order from across the pond if I can help it. I have some coming from Amazon so we'll see how the grains match up when I get that.

Taken apart, but still dirty.

The vinyl that is in okay shape.

I also briefly worked on the throttle shaft, but never did finish cleaning it all up. The throttle shaft is a pain to install because it starts on the driver's side and goes outside into the engine compartment. Then up and over and down the back of the motor, back through the body on the passenger's side for support, then to the linkage to the carbs. Trick is to install this with the body off the chassis (or at least the engine out) because it's much harder, if not impossible, with the body on. I was able to remove it, however, so maybe I'm wrong.

The throttle shaft. Goes from the driver's side all away across to the carbs.

I fired up the blasting cabinet again got some more parts cleaned up.

Nice and clean.

After sandblasting them, I wash the parts of in warm water and a little bit of soap, then dry them with compressed air. I hit them with wax and grease remover next, then two coats of primer and two coats of black paint. This was regular Rustoleum paint, not epoxy.

In primer.

And in gloss black.

Next up was to get to painting epoxy. Like I mentioned, if you're watching the video, I take about 10 minutes of video time going through all of my setup and prep. One thing I did not do was actual gun setup for epoxy, so I'll make a point of doing this in a future video.