I thought all the CASO folks would appreciate this. I did some touch up paint work on my recently acquired '35 Dictator 4 door. An advantage to owning a black car is that you needn't be too concerned about color matching when the inevitable touch up time comes. The fellow I got the car from told me he bought it from the family of the original owner (no way to prove it, of course, but I trust him), and he put it in dry storage from 1975 to 2010 when he finally got around to tinkering with it (he has several cars). He got the car running and did what he deemed necessary mechanical work--tune up, put a new exhaust on it, put in a replacement gas tank (12 gal. aluminum as opposed to the original 14 gal.). When I asked about the brakes, he said he put new shoes on all four wheels, but didn't touch the cylinders or hoses since they looked good. This, of course, told me the car needed a brake job, especially since the brake pedal travels halfway to the floorboard before there's any resistance. That might also occur if the shoes aren't properly adjusted, too. The tranny whines a bit in first gear but it fires right up (usually--see my posting on the Tech page about the Stromberg carb problem). He redid the interior but not 100% authentic from what I can tell. What impressed me most about the car was the body and sheet metal. He repainted the fenders (the right rear fender is a bit rough--you can readily tell it was pounded out and bondoed) and the upper roof area when he installed the new vinyl insert. The rest of the paint appears to be original. The only dent is a small crease in the trunk by the left tail light. The top of the hood on the driver's side show a few minor dents. And there was very little rust on the body which brings me to the CASO paint touch up. Sorry for the long digression!
The paint, while original, is awfully tired. I don't think it's seen a coat of wax for at least a half century. There was a lot of road rash on the body--hundreds of little nicks, scratches, and chips. It must have seen a lot of gravel roads in its day. The paint had chipped away around the trim piece where the trunk meets the body with some minor surface rust forming. And there was some bubbling, crusting surface rust on both sides where the body meets the frame, mostly in cowl area. The PO removed the fenders to paint them (the fenders have new welting). Why he didn't touch up the cowl while the fenders were off is a mystery to me. To keep things from getting worse, I decided to do a little touch up work. Walmart was out of the $5.95 gloss black touch up paint, so I sprung for the $16.00 Duplicolor at the AutoZone (which does have a handy little abrasive tip for lightly rusted areas). This worked fine on the chips and scratches but not so good for the bigger stuff around the trunk and the cowl area. So back I go to Walmart for a half pint can of gloss black Rust-Oleum ($3.97) and a couple of toss-away 1" foam brushes ($0.53 each). I also found a few cheap Crayola brand artists paint brushes around the house and some sandpaper. With supplies in hand, I tackled the paint job today (It got up to 80 degrees here today--just had to mention that for the folks dealing with the current winter storm). Granted, up close the car looks like "The Great Speckled Bird" (remember that old Roy Acuff song?) but from 20 feet, ain't she sweet. This weekend I will put on a little "color back" wax to remove the heavy oxidation on it and see what happens. Sure beat a couple grand for a new paint job. Pics of the car are before the touch up job today.
The paint, while original, is awfully tired. I don't think it's seen a coat of wax for at least a half century. There was a lot of road rash on the body--hundreds of little nicks, scratches, and chips. It must have seen a lot of gravel roads in its day. The paint had chipped away around the trim piece where the trunk meets the body with some minor surface rust forming. And there was some bubbling, crusting surface rust on both sides where the body meets the frame, mostly in cowl area. The PO removed the fenders to paint them (the fenders have new welting). Why he didn't touch up the cowl while the fenders were off is a mystery to me. To keep things from getting worse, I decided to do a little touch up work. Walmart was out of the $5.95 gloss black touch up paint, so I sprung for the $16.00 Duplicolor at the AutoZone (which does have a handy little abrasive tip for lightly rusted areas). This worked fine on the chips and scratches but not so good for the bigger stuff around the trunk and the cowl area. So back I go to Walmart for a half pint can of gloss black Rust-Oleum ($3.97) and a couple of toss-away 1" foam brushes ($0.53 each). I also found a few cheap Crayola brand artists paint brushes around the house and some sandpaper. With supplies in hand, I tackled the paint job today (It got up to 80 degrees here today--just had to mention that for the folks dealing with the current winter storm). Granted, up close the car looks like "The Great Speckled Bird" (remember that old Roy Acuff song?) but from 20 feet, ain't she sweet. This weekend I will put on a little "color back" wax to remove the heavy oxidation on it and see what happens. Sure beat a couple grand for a new paint job. Pics of the car are before the touch up job today.
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