NickPick'sCrew

Tomorrow is Cowboy day at Nicholas's school. I think he's passable, but he wont be happy I posted this ?. The hat is a Resistol (20X White Gold) his Grandpa gave to me a few years back. The bolo was his Great Grandpa's. One he often wore while calling square dances. The boots are an old pair of mine.

He could convert his plymouth into a plyodge

Not at $350+ a set (ebay, Andy B's). $30 maybe

I think we have shared that each year I make up a batch of barrel aged hot sauce. Typically I end up with about 120 bottles and give them away as Christmas gifts or as thank you gifts to individuals that have helped us out on various things. This year I'm trying something a little different. I'm going to sell the sauce and use the proceeds (net cost of making it) for charity. For the past seven or so years, Nicholas (and first his older brother) have been volunteering as hockey assistant coaches for a team made up of children (and some adults) with various cognitive challenges (Ann Arbor Rockets). This year neither of them will be able to help out on ice, so were planning on helping out financially if anyone will buy this stuff. Not going to be cheap -- $20 per bottle -- but most of that will go to charity (I break even at about $5). This year will be hot. Blend of Maruga Scorpion, Habanero, and Scotch Bonnet, add in white wine vinegar, roasted garlic and onion paste, a few sticks of cinnamon and a bit of salt. The oak barrel was seasoned with a few gallons of tequila for about 6 months before this batch and seasoned with rum for six months for the batch that was in this barrel before that -- magic happens in the barrel -- no lie. The sauce will have been down for 12 months by the time I pull it up. Taking early indication of interest right now and will ship around Thanksgiving / Christmas. Respond here or PM me if you're interested.

The high build urethane does goes on light years better than the epoxy, no doubt. Vin your '49 is absolutely beautiful. When the photos with the Yellow paint showed up it really showed the care you put into it. It's a standard Nicholas can aspire to for sure. I suspect he'll have a few more phases in his life where he can take his '47 to the next level. For now we're leaving three very important longer term issues untouched. The lower front cowl section up to the door wells really should be replaced some day. For now we are focusing primarily on structural reinforcement and sealing it off from the elements. Same goes for the trunk deck edge and both of the lower rear panels on either side. We're focusing on cleaning that up and sealing it from the elements, but again, it will need to be replaced in the future. The rear inner fender wells will also need more permanent repair in the future. We're cleaning some, and encapsulating some for now. As solid as the floor seems now, I suspect it will need more attention after it sees a few thousand miles. Not a knock on Nicholas's welding, just a strong suspicion given how we had to modify the braces. For us the priority is getting it safely operable, looking sharp, well sealed from the elements and out of the sprawling project phase. I'm not sure where Nicholas will end up going to college (or for work thereafter), but if it's not local he wont be doing much work on it at all until he's in a position and has the space to make another run at it. Right now he's got his sights set on schools in PA, TN, MA and MI. I'll keep it safe for him as long as he'd like me to, and work on items that allows him to get to other phases, but it is Nicholas's project and he's fallen in love with it so I suspect it will stick with him for a while.

Thanks, It still has its issues, but Nicholas is running into budgetary and time constraints. His help is running into time constraints as well. We're having to pick priorities. Right now we're in a race with the changing seasons. If the weather holds stat for a bit longer, we may see color on this body soon. That would clear his critical path for glass and interior.

Still have no idea why these are loading upside down on this forum. Probably issue with my phone as older photos load correctly. Anyway, we applied Urethane Primer today. From the Omni-smooth (Eastwood) roll on kit. Of course we cheated and used the $30 HPLV sprayer from Harbor Freight. Our skills with the roller did not match up to the instructional video.

Not sure why our photos are loading upside down now with the new software. Doors are back from sandblasting, revealing a nice little crease on the driver side. Going to be fun filling and sanding that.

Our closest macco wouldn't take it. Anyway, I'm having more fun than Nicholas with this right now. He gets filling and sanding while I keep getting the perfect paint days while he is in school. This is another round of epoxy after Nicholas's first round of sanding filling and sanding. Same omniflow product we rolled on last week, but I invested $30 into a gravity feed gun at Harbor Freight. Much more evenly applied and less messy too. I suspect Nicholas has at least one more round of filling and sanding, maybe two.

Now that's the kind of knowledge that only comes from real experience. Thank you for sharing. I cant replicate the collective experience of this forum for Nicholas. I can only pass on a since of skepticism as it relates to price points that seem out of line for the likely work as well as a habit of thinking through priorities, capabilities and self valuation as he considers what he can do himself. What ever value you believe your passing on to the younger members of this forum, I assure you that you're underestimating it by a wide margin.

Notes about Omniflow epoxy primer coat, the first step in a DYI roll on this solution from Eastwood. Change rollers often. The epoxy mixes with the activator 1:1 which makes it rather runny, so expect it to be messier than you'd think with a roll on. It dried well enough to touch in about 2 hours and dried very well overnight. A more experienced painter may have been able to make this step go on smoother, but for us it will take more sanding than we have experienced with spray on primer, but again, it dried up well so it should sand well too. The bundled kit comes with one gallon of epoxy and one gallon of activator and then two cans of two-part epoxy primer. The gallon seems sufficient for three exterior coats (body, fenders, hood), but given all the nooks and crannies and curves in the cars from this period, a few more cans of spray would be nice. We'll post more notes about this product as we progress.

Nicholas wont quite like that I painted the first three coats of epoxy primer while he was at school, but we drop into the low 60's tomorrow for about a week so I went ahead. That will allow him to try his hand at guide coat and sanding this week end. Perhaps contouring and seal coat when it's warmer next week.

And if you start smelling the bacon frying...Well then take your bare hand off the rocker panel and put your gloves on.

Dan, We plan on doing this with Nicholas's '47 soon after we get it driving. We were looking closely at Vintage Air as well. He has a '56 230 in it. If you could share the detailed pics and parts list, that would be great (NickPickToo or NichPick'sCrew). Info on the bracket would be most helpful as well as we haven't had much luck finding one.

This notes for Nicholas who indicated I cant weld. I can get a in a weld or two in a pinch ?

I think Nicholas posted pics around two Christmases ago. The cost was donated outside his budget as a Christmas gift from his mom and me. Leather was sourced online, and we used a local shop for the work. I think the darker brown was on liquidation and the tan was moderately priced while both were rated as airplane seat material for whatever that's worth. We have leather from the same batch stored away for the panels.

Exactly ? add that to the engine compartment space and your cruising 300+ miles a charge at normal speeds, or going 0 to 60 in 4 seconds if that your kick.

Sign of the times I guess. Initially tried to steer Nicholas towards the 60's (I wanted him to do a thunderbolt tribute. I worked for Ford for a good bit) but he wasn't having it. He also fell in love with a Super Olds Trombone manufactured right around 1946/1947 so it may some sort of karma thing with him. Some of his friends are taking more interest in his projects as he gets closer to completion. It all comes back around. The real shift will come when gasser repair and maintenance parts get nearly impossible to find. Accordingly, I'm hoping to get both my boys interested in an (hide your eyes if your of weaker constitution) all electric retrofit project. Plan to let Nicholas lead the design on that once he gets some engineering classes under his belt. My older son studies economics and politics so perhaps he can help us with marketing and selling. Frank, Nicholas may be around long enough to see the price come back around on these cars ?

Right now just stripping it down so that the mechanisms don't get locked up with sand blasting. On that, there is a round pattern in the center of the interior of the door skin. I suspect its was for sound dynamics and we may loose it in sand blasting. Any thoughts on how to mimic it? Is it worth trying?

Thanks. It was open-says-me after all. Once the allen key inset on the set screw for the lock cylinder was excavated.

I'm breaking Nicholas's doors down so we can clean 'em up. There seems to be a trick to getting the lock mechanism to release, but I don't know the magic words. I'm researching the manual, but wondering if any one here can give me a tip? Thanks, Ben

Okay, I'm bragging a little. Nicholas ran a cross country race today and then came home and finished up the rockers. Down stairs Practicing trombone right now. Same drill last week too. He may have most of the heavy body work done this weekend. Only has the Quarter panels and some finder weld patching to go. Frank, I'm just about ready to give him his due now....

Gents, thank you all for your encouragement. One of the reasons Nicholas is passing on the rear metal work for now is actually pragmatic. He has no other transportation right now other than borrowing his mom or mine -- and that's done sparingly. If he doesn't have this driving by the time school starts, well....why he doesn't have alternative transportation is a story for another thread ? Now to brag a bit. He's still going to cross country practice every morning during the week, he's tutoring a close friend how to play trombone (this kid hasn't played since Jr High and now want to join the band as a senior in high school because he misses hanging out with Nicholas and his other band friends), and he's been working at Kroger since the pandemic broke out, packing groceries for those of us who would rather not go in. He's also working on college applications (any of you happen to have connections with admissions ?). Getting the car street legal by mid August is a tall order, but I'm betting he gets it done. I'm also betting there will be some work that will wait to be done in his own time (and also on his own dime). Right now we're in a holding pattern waiting for a few key floor parts that should make fitting everything else easier, so he's fabricating and patching bits and pieces here and there to move it things along.

I shot this photo when he asked me to install the clutch fork for him. You would think he'd be interested how I did it...

Update on the brakes. He did a pretty good job going to the rear. Just had to tighten down a few junctions. Tubes leading to the front leak like a public park fountain. Probably going need to re-run these lines. But given this was his first attempt at flaring, not bad work.