1937 Dodge, Ol Bessy Is Coming Home!

[Sharps40]

Email to Dad, 18 Jan 17

Dad,

I recently sent you photos of all of Old Bessy's stainless trim cleaned and polished, ready to reinstall.  As you are aware, all but two of those pieces are original to her.  One piece of cowl trim coming from the Raleigh parts car purchased and towed to PA in 1991.  The other piece was made for the back door from a spare long section for a front door that I'd bought recently.

As for the grill, have not started derusting it.  It seems solid but is heavily rusted at the joints.  It will be getting a long soak to clear the rust....we'll see if it comes back out as a grill or just stainless steel trim teeth.  Not sure if the grill will get a 2 week vinegar soak or if I'll use CLR or rust and blue remover.  Vinegar would likely be the most gentle but the slowest.

After a 72 hour soak in white vinegar, the irreplaceable (as far as I know) clips that hold the D-shaped chrome potmetal surrounds on the grill shell are nearly done.  As you can see, 99% of the 80 year accumulation of rust is removed from these parts and they can be reused. 

These are looking fine and in a couple more days I'll get the clips dried and painted for reinstallation on the D-surrounds.

Here the remainder of the batch in the vinegar.

As for the D-surrounds.  They are 80 year old chromed potmetal.  The years have not treated them well at all.  Overall, I'd say that 50%+ of the show surface consists of pitted chrome, cracks, splits and deep intrusions into the base zinc.  Given the fine condition of the remainder of Old Bessy's trim, both stainless and chrome, I'm hesitant to place these original pieces back on the Grill shell.  For now, I'll be working on bending up some aluminum bar stock on a simple pin bender in an attempt to make polished aluminum D-surrounds for the grill shell.  Should that work out well (at $1 per foot for aluminum, its good for practice) then I may well make up Old Bessy new D-surrounds from half oval stainless steel.  I'll know a bit more in a few days.  There is a revolver to work on and some more hunting to do.....both have a bit of priority this weekend.

Here the D-surrounds.  One cleaned, one with 80 years of patina.

And there, this is actually the best condition portion I could find on either of the D-surrounds.

[Sharps40]

Dads return email...

Richard...I cannot fully appreciate all the work and care. Do what you think best on the D pieces....I am sure they will look great when done up in aluminum. I showed Jim the picture s yesterday. I also stressed with him how excited you were that the primer was applied while you were there. He said the blue corvette will be out of the bay soon and the Dodge would be next in for the frame work. Moving onward..

[Sharps40]

Checking to see what I can do for the D-Surrounds on the nose of the grill.  The potmetal is in poor condition and no way I can afford to have it plated.  So.  Aluminum flat bar, 1/8"x1/2"x8'.  $20 from lowes.

Cold bending with Caveman Skills.  Propane torch nearby if needed.  Decided to use a form, cut slightly tight, for each outside curve and try the cold bend first.  They are not tight bends/folds so I was not worried about cracking....warping was more of a concern.  But, I used many headed nails as the bends progressed to hold the edges down and lots of clamps and I got good flat bends with both pieces nearly perfect. 

To the outside curves.  A form cut small for the upper outer curve....nails and clamps and bumping and pulling like one is using a pin bender.

First fit on the upper outer curve....

Bumping my way around another tight cut form and a bit at a time to bring the bottom curves into place....

Both outer pieces roughed in and it looks not too bad....

And here again, with the original potmetal chrome trim pieces on either side of the new aluminum surrounds....

Both left and right sides are very nearly perfectly the same....I'm pleased....

And a quick touch on the buffer with aluminum/stainless coloring paste.....it'll need a bit of light sanding but the polish comes up nicely...

Whadda know.....I'm a TinSmith!

[casper50]

Nice work

Get the other upright welded in, file and polish and it will look great.  Especially when you know you did it.

[RNR1957NYer]

Very nice! That takes a good eye, patience and finesse. Are you planning on knocking off the edges when you give it a sanding?

 When polishing factory aluminum trim (there is a lot of it on my '66 Satellite) I found it buffed up super shiny, but eventually tarnished again.  I'm about to do some again, but this time I'm going to top coat it with Eastwood's Diamond Clear - it's supposed non-yellowing and a hard finish.  Another option is clear powder coat; in fact, I am considering the trying the "chrome " power coat on smaller pot metal trim pieces.

[Sharps40]

Not sure.  Will get it on and see if I like it.  Dad is excited.  But if its a keeper perhaps a good clear wheel finish to hold the shi 

ne.  For now I'm still running on prayers and by the seat of my pants.  This tinsmithing is deep water!

[Feudin_Wagon]

Awesome stuff! And helping me learn! I had never heard of Floating Power and now have been checking it out for the last half hour. Man, advertising was much better back then.

[Sharps40]

So, hunted in the morning.  Spent 9 to 3 working on the gently curved center pieces and the passenger side.  Drivers side left to do, then polish and clear and I'll know if its a keeper.  Well, if Dad likes it too, it'll be a keeper.  If not, I still have the original D-surrounds.

A quick test fit after finishing the mounting and trimming of the outer loops.  No interference with the grill from the hold down clamps (strips of 1.5" long 1/8" thick aluminum, like big rectangular washers).  And with this in hand, I can move forward.

Fitting up the center strips.  They look straight, but like the rest of the grill trim, they are curved at the top on bottom, both inward and toward the rear of the car.  I focused on the inward curves with a number of fit checks.  The 1/8" aluminum will follow the curves to the rear easily enough with just the screw clamps.  So, just more time with the edge of the strap nailed down and bumping it gently along a curved form screwed to the work table.

I don't weld.  Steel or aluminum.  Its enough to know how to silver solder and after 30 years I still struggle with that.  So, wood working skills.  Secure the ends, one under the other, with half lap joints.  Half laps were not quite enough so the upper and lower ends of the outer curve also received an S-bend right at the edges of the center piece.  Here, the bottom joint on the Passenger Side.

And up top, again the Passenger Side, a similar lap joint with an S-Bend to retain the top end of the center piece.  Just a bit of buffing to go on this side.  But for now, it'll be time enough to have a Mexican Coke (tastes better, real sugar), a cigar, an action movie and go get some cold medicine for GoodWife.  Plus some dinner....hunted and got to work on the grill so have not eaten a bit since last night!  Cigars and coffee keep me going in the shop.  Fuels the creative movements.

[casper50]

Looks good.  Any luck hunting?  I haven't gone since moose season last September.  Been eating moose ever since though.  lol

[Sharps40]

Family has 9 deer in the freezer.  I managed 5 of them this year, been hunting since September.  Still have a couple weeks to go.  Nothing moving during daylight for about 5 or 6 days now.  Perhaps next weekend.  we've had a lot of warm weather here in central NC with many days in the mid 70s.  Plus with rain moving in and out every other day, it kinda changes their feeding and moving habits.....a lot.  Hard to predict but I keep hitting the stand. 

[casper50]

Time in the stand even if not successful is to be cherished.  Even more so when shared with a younster.

[Sharps40]

Another good few hours this morning.  Got the aluminum grill surround complete rough in.  Final tweaks and some polishing is next.

And....started knocking the loose rust off the grill sections to see if there is enough metal left to restore or if not, replace.  So far, the DS grill looks good and solid. 

After knocking off as much loose rust as I can get to (probably still need to soak both shells in a rust remover) I knocked the unavoidable scuffs off the stainless steel bright work on each grill bar and then polished the top one.  Looks like this 80 year old stainless will come back to life pretty well.

[1952B3b23]

Great job on the grille surround, should look very nice polished.

-Chris

[Sharps40]

Tonights email to Dad.

Dad, the D-surrounds are coming along.  If you like them, we'll deliver to the shop that has Old Bessy for use instead of the original pot metal surrounds. 

Not nearly enough surface preparation....just a quick scuff on the Drivers Side center piece to remove some marks.  120 through 400 grit.  Then a quick kiss with red rouge on a medium cotton flap wheel.  It sure looks a bit like chrome to me.  In fact, it makes a pretty good mirror judging from the photos I took. 

What do you think?  Continue with home spun D-surrounds or put on the pot metal originals?  (The aluminum would make it a modified car and the purists would get gassy but maybe we don't care?)

[Sharps40]

It doesn't look like much but with no trim fastners of the right size and shape being located, and the ones listed for 37 dodge not fitting either the trim or the body holes.......Plan B.

Since every single fastner hole in the body, hood, trunk, grill shell, cowl are all accessable before upholstering.....I purchased later model MOPAR trim fasteners in the screw and nut configuration instead of the wire popin/popout type. 

Spend about 30 minutes modifying the smallest of the fasteners (they were a touch too wide to fit properly) on the grinding wheel until each was a snug fit in the narrowest pieces of trim that goes on the hood.  About another hour and a half was spent moving each screw into a position where the trim will fit right onto the applicable body panel and not need any moving around or much fiddling to get it into place over that pending brand spanky new paint job.

3 pieces of trim down.  19 pieces of trim to go.

[Sharps40]

Next projects started to arrive.  Rear window garnish.  I have to make a trip up and gather all the window frames/garnish molding but I believe I have all 9 moldings for the 11 windows in the car.  This was the set I was missing, as far as I can remember.   An inventory later will prove me right or wrong.  But.  Wrong color but glad to have them at a very fair price. 

Once the trim and grill is done, I'll start in on cleaning these to bare metal and getting them prepped with prime and base color for wood graining.

[Sharps40]

I think the grill surround is about where I'll be happy with it, half laps and all.   (I was told in a round about way the half laps suck, but I don't think they are bad considering my most complex tools for the job were a c-clamp, a hammer and a file..and then, I wasn't offered any guidance on how to unsuck them with the available tools either.  So....I guess I'll just be happy.)

Edited January 28, 2017 by Sharps40

[Sharps40]

Took the plunge, so to speak.  Last big job on the exterior trim.  I have a bid in on an auction for a spare grill, centerpiece and the elusive crank hole cover.  The crank hole cover is the only thing I need but......gotta bid on it all.  Meantime, trying to get as much rust off the Raleigh Parts Car grill as possible.  Ol Bessy's original grill is long gone lost.  For all I know, its still in the barn up in PA where we used to live.

2 gallons of CLR and balance of hot water.  With luck it'll remove enough rust that I can encapsulate it all with converter and then top coat in black paint....though I believe silver paint was original.  Black should show off the stainless teeth a bit better though.

The beginning of what is likely to be several days soak time.

And here, 20 minutes in to the soak, the rust stain that blead over onto the stainless steel caps on each grill bar is already loose enough to simply wipe away.  I have high hopes the grill sections come out reasonably clean and with sufficient remaining strength to be touched up and reinstalled.

[Sharps40]

About 40 minutes into the CLR Soak and the heavy rust is already softened and in several areas it just wipes away down to bare steel.

Here, the lower tab on the center trim piece, all rust gone, bare steel.

Another tab, mostly clear of rust, a bit more soaking and it'll be fully bare too.

Here the very heavily rusted side of one of the center pieces......already much off the rust is softened and wipes away leaving bare steel.  The pits are still red rusted but I suspect they'll come clean too.

[Sharps40]

After about 18 hours in the CLR I pulled the parts, gave a light scrubbing with brushes in hot water and was quite pleased.  About 90% of the rust is gone and bare metal is shining through.  Put the parts back in the solution to get more working time on the more stubborn rust but I believe with a topcoat of rust converter, the grill will come out well.  This certainty exposes more bare metal with less work and damage than wire brushing or bead blasting.

Here, I flipped the center section.  Except for the top, which is now in solution, its about as clean as I could ask for, though I see some adhering paint bits that I can clean off.  Most of the adhering old paint bits softened up and floated away with the rust.

In the background, the other center section, which was much more heavily rusted, needs more time in solution.  But, even it shows marked improvement.

As for the grill sections, they are looking marvelously clean.  Still soaking, I'll rinse tonight and decide if they need more time on the first end or if its time to flip them over.

[Sharps40]

Grill center piece is done.  It looks excellent.  Cleaner than I thought it'd get and plenty sturdy.  Flash dried it after a thorough rinse at 180F in GoodWife's oven (She's out of the house right now) and set it aside.  I'll straighten the teeth and mask the stainless toppers in preparation for rust block and prime and paint.

As for the grill sections.  Bottom halves are both done, cleaned and rinsed.  The passenger side, normally the wetter side of a car, was more heavily rusted.  But it came out fine and is still plenty strong.  Driver side looks fantastic as shown in the photos below.  Flipped em both over and dropped them back in the CLR to soak the top halves for a day or day and a half.  After that, should be the same, rinse, dry, straighten, encapsulate, prime and paint.  Gonna be a lot of taping before the paint, that's a lot of stainless steel bits to cover.

[Sharps40]

Begin the taping....

And after prime and paint, the vertical centerpiece looks splendid.  Flat black brings out the stainless caps nicely.

[Branded]

2 hours ago, Sharps40 said:

Begin the taping....

And after prime and paint, the vertical centerpiece looks splendid.  Flat black brings out the stainless caps nicely.

Looks good. 

[rb1949]

Good you're keeping those parts behind secure doors.

[Sharps40]

I got an entire stack of spares that will look just as good if anybody wants/needs them and is willing to put in the same effort cleanin em up.  All in the for sale section and prices are OBO.