1931 Ford Restoration Diary

I wanted to paint the windshield frame, all the bumper braces and supports, and the spare tire carrier all at once. That’s about ten pieces.  So I hung them all from sawhorses and 2×4s and started spraying primer.  I quickly realized that there was no way I could maneuver around so much stuff without missing places or bumping into freshly-painted stuff.  So I primered only the windshield frame and gave up on the other stuff for the time being.
The next day I sprayed polyester filler on one particularly pitted part of the windshield frame and sanded it smooth, and the following day I sprayed urethane filler-surfacer on the front part of the frame, where it actually needs to look nice. That was a tiny job- only an ounce or two of paint.  After a few minutes of sanding, the frame will be ready for its finish coat, which will be semi-gloss black on the inside and gloss on the outside.

I want to get back to dealing with the bumper parts, since the car could actually use a rear bumper at this point. The rear of the body overhangs the frame, and it would be easy to accidentally bump it into something when moving the car around.

After bead-blasting the windshield frame, I decided to also bead-blast the front and rear bumper brackets. They can be painted the same time I do the windshield frame. But it is going to be so hot for the next few days, I don’t know if I’ll be able to paint…

I got all the window glass down from the attic and removed the metal channels from the bottom of each piece of door glass. I noticed that a majority of the glass had been replaced at one time or another. The replacement glass was generally thinner than the original. The next step is to visit a couple of glass shops and see if they can make replacements from safety glass.

I also started bead-blasting the windshield frame, and I installed a welting strip that runs around the front of the cowl, to provide cushioning for the rear edge for the hood.

I hung the doors, and painted the exposed heads of the hinge pins. For that, I had to mix about one milliliter each of maroon and black paint. I also sprayed some rustproofing compound in some of the body seams, such as the base of the cowl panels. This could be done only after the entire body was painted.
I need to figure out what to work on next. There are a lot of mechanical assembly steps, but some must be done before others. I will probably look into getting new window glass made locally. Then I could refinish, assemble, and install the windshield.

I finished the paint-a-thon. I did all the masking for the upper body and window reveals, and sprayed them in gloss black. The spraying was tricky, because there were a lot of different areas of the car to be painted, and I had to keep dragging the ladder around, taking care not to bump into the wet paint.
After the paint dried a few hours I removed all the masking tape and paper, two big garbage bags full. The paint job looks quite handsome. In a day or two, after it has fully dried, I will hang the doors.

I painted the door jambs in semi-gloss maroon, and the next day I masked and painted the lower body and the window reveals in gloss maroon. No disasters, except that I used a bit more paint than I expected, and I may not have quite enough maroon paint left for the hood. The stuff is insanely expensive, so I would hate to have to order another quart. Tomorrow I will do more masking, and hopefully paint the upper body in gloss black.

I sprayed epoxy primer on the top moldings, and after it dried, I installed them. Nailing them in place was tricky, because one mis-aimed blow of the hammer could have damaged one of the moldings, and it could not be removed without possibly damaging the surrounding sheet metal or fabric roof top material.  (And of course I would have had to order a new molding strip, drill all the holes in it, and paint it, losing a week or two of time…)
Once the moldings were installed, I carefully cleaned off the entire car body. This was sort of tedious because I had used a butyl rubber caulk (with the consistency of fresh bubble gum) for the roof moldings, and every bit that had oozed out from under the moldings had to be removed.
Once that was done, I masked all the parts of the car that were not getting painted. This had to be carefully done to keep any overspray from getting on the dashboard, engine compartment, front seat, etc.
After the car was masked, I sprayed the entire exterior with a sealer coat of epoxy primer, to cover up the light gray filler-surfacer. Finally, after the epoxy had dried a couple of hours, I painted the rear wheel wells in semi-gloss black.
Three more colors will have to be applied. After each color is sprayed, it will have to dry overnight and get masked before the next color can be sprayed. Hopefully this will all get done during the next week.

I sanded the wheel wells and a couple of other places that still needed it. The trickiest place was inside the rain gutters. To reach inside them, I took a sanding sponge and cut it into a L-shape that would fit inside.
The next step is to start cleaning everything, including the garage floor. Unfortunately we are having another heat wave, which makes it hard to work in the garage except in the morning.

I got the sanding almost done. All the exterior areas are finished, and all that remains is the rear wheel wells and part of the door jambs.
I also finished drilling all the nail holes through the roof molding strips, sanded them smooth, and applied the chromate metal treatment to them. Once I spray them with primer they will be ready to install.

I finished masking the body, and sprayed a coat of epoxy primer on several spots where I had sanded all the way through the primer-surfacer (or even to the metal).  As soon as that had dried,  I sprayed a couple of coats of primer-surfacer everywhere.

Then I started wet-sanding the entire body. Wet-sanding is not at all unpleasant. It does not involve nasty chemicals, foul odors, loud noises, heavy lifting, special clothing, dust, etc. It’s just somewhat boring, and you tend to slowly sand the skin off of your fingertips. You also have to be careful not to overdo it and sand all the way through the primer. I am about halfway finished. Hopefully I will be done in the 3 or 4 days.

Once the wet-sanding is finished, I need to decide how to deal with the aluminum molding strips that go around the edge of the roof fabric.  I can install them before painting the body, or paint them separately and install them afterwards.  There are advantages and disadvantages to either approach.  In any case, I first need to finish preparing the moldings: cutting each piece to the correct length, drilling nail holes, sanding them, and priming them.  I have ordered some special zinc chromate aluminum primer, and some butyl rubber caulk that was recommended for sealing the molding.