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Here I am in the dead of winter and the car projects continue. One of the side benefits to doing little projects is that it gives you a chance to try new things. Not big things just things that you wouldn't try otherwise. I've learned how to spray 3M adhesive cement on door edge moldings without over shooting the target and coating the entire door panel. I will admit that it was not a skill that I learned on the first try. What's really amazing is the way that the glue sort of dries in midair if you overshoot the surface and the trajectory is long enough. Then it looks like you're creating spider webs. At least until you try to wipe it off a tool box or work bench. Boy, that stuff really sticks. Another interesting lesson which I seem to have to keep relearning is how well a little heat works when removing broken fasteners. Not long ago I bought a small propane torch at Home Depot that had an igniter built in to it. I'd seen them for years but since I already had a torch that worked just fine it seemed like a waste of money to go buy another just to get the igniter. Years ago when everyone smoked there were always matches everywhere - on the workbench, in your pants pocket, in your jacket, in your friends jacket, etc. But in recent years every time I needed the torch it took a few minutes just to find a light. Now that I have one with a built in lighter I'm surprised how much I use it. I wonder if I didn't use the old one as much as I would've had it been more convenient. The fact that it's winter and any tool that generates its own heat is attractive, might have something to do with it's increased usage. A 356 window frame bracket had come out easily but only after the top of the bolt broke off during the disassembly process. There was just enough of the bolt showing that I could get a pair of small vice grips on it. Knowing that I only had one shot at this I filed two flat sides on the broken bolt so that I could get a good grip when the time came. The torch leaped to the task with a nice blue flame and in no time at all the paint burned off and the metal glowed a cherry red. With the pliers clamped in place that piece of bolt came out without a bit of hesitation. What a great feeling. One minute you're holding a broken unusable piece of metal, the next minute it's been saved and you feel like a genius, all because of a little heat. Part of the difficulty of restoring a 41 year old car is replacing things that are no longer available. Well OK, maybe they're available but not at a price that I can justify, especially when it comes to parts and pieces that no one will ever see. Besides, it gives you a chance to be creative and try new things. The soundproofing in old cars was made with organic materials like horsehair and fiber. It was inexpensive, easy to work with and readily available. Everywhere they had horses anyway. The trouble is that organic materials decompose. We have all seen upholstery lose its bounce, and floor coverings turn to dust. It's the one thing that gives every old car its distinctive odor, some good, some not so good. I'm trying to think of the good smells but none come readily to mind. But you know what I mean. Some of the horsehair that was soaked in what looked like undercoating had found its final resting place in bottom of the doors of the '63 and I needed a replacement. There are kits available from some vendors that are in the $300 range. Not a lot of money in the scheme of things, but still a lot of money for something that cannot ever be seen. The material in the front luggage compartment was the same material but a little thinner. I took a sample of each down to a local rug company to see if they had and ideas. There was an old guy there that knew in a minute what I was holding in my hand. "Organic," he said, "nobody has used that stuff for years. Besides, it decomposes and smells bad." I asked if he had any suggestions and I got some kind of rug lingo that referred to the relative weight of the material. Everything he had was synthetic, waterproof and mildew resistant, real modern day improvements that would come in handy inside the door of a 41 year old car. He cut off a piece from a huge roll with a large pair of scissors that was enough to do a half a dozen doors. It was the correct thickness and would be a good place to start as long as it wasn't too expensive. It wasn't, as he said the total was $5.00! At that price I could use it to lie under the car when cleaning the undercarriage. The door pieces didn't matter but the front trunk portion could be seen so I experimented a bit with a couple different types of spray on undercoating from the FLAPS (that would be your Friendly Local Auto Parts Store). When the clerk asked what I was using it for I just couldn't tell him. I'm spraying a piece of rug padding to make it look like a dead horse? Nope. It only took a couple of try's to make it look right and I was in business. It did take two shots to cut out the front trunk pattern. I first made a pattern out of newspaper because it's easiest to work with and then cut one out of the thicker material. That turned out to be too thick so I had to cut it again using a thinner grade of padding. By now I had become best friends with the guy from the loading dock of the rug company and was up to $20 worth of various supplies. That was enough to do three cars and the family room. Now with the blisters on my hands from the scissors, I could get a counter job at a fabric store. And I was feeling better all the time about my resourcefulness. As I've always said, it's those little victories that keep you going. Another small victory involved a fabric store when it came time to restore the glove compartment door liner. As any 356 owner will confirm, the elastic glued to the vinyl liner loses its spring after all those years and besides there was orange overspray on the liner itself. Time for clever to kick in again. I tried to get the overspray off with everything but a file. No luck. If paint sticks that well I figured I'd just paint over it. A light gray primer on the shelf was a match and renewed the panel in no time. The elastic strap was a little tougher. My wife got me to the right aisle in the fabric stone the same way that I can walk to the oil display at any FLAPS. It's like bat radar, they just know their way around those kind of stores. All I see is colored sheets, everywhere. The store had the right size and textured elastic but not the right color. They had white, I needed light gray. No problem, step over here to the dye department. Twenty minutes and two dollars later I was standing in the kitchen being instructed on how to dye small amounts of fabric. It’s amazing the things that I never learned as a kid. In less that the time it would take to order a new one, I had an absolutely brand new glove box door liner. That thrill of victory again, what a feeling! And look at all that I learned along the way. KTF |
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