63 Pinner Hightop

So it's back to work today. Finished cleaning up the back door and upper lights. Found a little more rust under the right tunnel lights. Got that cleaned out. I'm not sure if I can spray the rust converter. Without pulling the headliner. It's clean and doesn't need a rust stain on it. Cleaned up around the Handel and exposed the edges of the rust problem. We got a decent game plan to make a decent repair there. We need to find some tracing paper to trace out the letters before we mess them up, if we are going to have a chance of recreating them. However, let's remove the trim and assess what needs to be done for repairs at this time. So far, not much on this one. It's in pretty good shape. The back door has more filler than steel in it right now. However, there are only a couple of pinholes on the right front door. The trim is stored out in the PVC pipe. Next time, it will be 4-inch stuff, which doesn't take long to fill up a 3-inch pipe.





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The car was painted once before, so the lettering on it isn't the original. The original was done in gold leaf, and I'm not sure if you will be able to find any remnants of it when you strip down the rest of the paint.
 
Most likely not. What we are thing of is getting them reproduced in a vinyl. There is a place in Rapid that does that and they have a gold leaf design. If I trace it out we can get the size and shape correct.
 
Since we need to run up tomorrow we will stop in a visit with the people at Summit Signs. Found a drop cover that was transparent it worked well for what we needed. They can make the transfers off from a picture. But they need to know how big to make them a direct copy should answer all questions.



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If it is to be a full restoration, I would strongly recommend using the original gold leaf lettering. The vinyl gold leaf lettering doesn't look good unless you are 10 feet away. Up close, it looks tacky. Even painted letters would be a better choice than vinyl lettering.
 
Finely discover the car is real a pro car. Dog out the first mouse nest today. Uncovered a little more then I thought I would getting the trim off the wood under the sill plate is in rough shape. But then it is over 50 years old. So not bad for untreated plywood. We salvaged enough for a decent pattern. Experimented with the needle scaler for cleaning off the tunnels. That will help from tearing up the lead holding them in. That double hump was not going to be fun by hand. Using the chipper will speed that up a lot but the first thing we did was put some stops on the back glass. Last thing we need is to have it pop out and break when closing the door. With out them very little holding it in place. I don't believe the bolted that molding on but it looks like we will be taking off some interior pieces to un-bolt it.


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We'll see what Nick wants to; it's his car. But I did get a sample of the two they have. Made it down the left side today. Got all the cancer exposed. It's in the same place as the right, just a little more of it on the left. So two bad places on the car, the top and the bottom. I was having some trouble rolling up the driver's door, so I fixed the divider sash and lubricated the runners and gear. With no help available, I took one last chance and drilled a hole in the back of the drive gear, added some white grease, and freed it up. The idea of rebuilding another one was not my idea of fun. Getting it in and out would be the hard part. Both the inside top trim pieces are rusty in the same place. It has to be water leaking in the top seal. Don't forget to remind me they are in the blast cabinet. Out of sight is out of mind. The driver has a proper stop for the glass. The 2x4 must have been added after the wreck on that side.






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The block of wood might have been to keep the window from going down too far and coming off the track. It might have been added when the glass was replaced. It cracked while I was driving the car to the pick up point to have it shipped to Nick in Texas. I also sent him a family of New England mice that took up residence after he purchased it and I stopped driving the car.
 
Yes as I got the story it got hit in the right side at a intersection. The glass stop must have been crushed then. I wondered why the right glass went down more then the left they must not have had a 4x4 scrap to use.
 
Re-learned a lesson today. If you're in a hurry to take a car out to see how it runs, put at least one inside door handle back on. Makes getting out a lot easier. Luckily, I still had one up front. But since we got the carb overhauled, I wanted to run the car to make sure it's okay. Will it not flood out? I could get it started without priming, sat there running okay, but still had no pickup, shifted funny, and didn't brake right. Wouldn't go up a slight rise without bogging down and popping up in the carb. Pulled it into the shop, and it felt like it was glowing red hot. Checked it out, it was getting a 40-degree drop from the top of the radiator, 190 at the thermostat, but over 200 at the water pump and front of the block. The only other thing changed was the distributor. So let's check the timing. Looked it up in my book, and it is 12.7 before TDC. Found it on the block and painted the mark on the crank. That thing is hard to find when you're running. It was set at 1/4 of the pulley past the mark in advance. Dropped it close to where it should be, and it gained an additional 200 rpm. The distributor was so tight I had to use the ratchet to loosen it. So it didn't shift; it was set there. took it out again, and what a difference. It shifted right, the brakes worked, it ran smoothly, and you could pick up speed going uphill. But most of all, it ran cooler. Took it out the same route, had it easily up to 80 at less than half throttle without trying. You could gain speed uphill. Like a different car completely. Restarted it when I got back. It fired on the first roll with a crack. Think we found the problem. I'll see how easily it is if it's cold tomorrow.




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The good news is that I pumped the gas once to set the choke, and it rolled over twice and fired right up. Now, to remove the remaining trim. The left side doesn't offer much room. I could get one arm in there. The right for some, the left for the others. Spraying the undercoating on the inside panels didn't make it any easier to remove the plastic nuts. But they need to come off as mine might not be the same shade as theirs. Needed to remove the bench to get into the right side, but it is at least open. The problem with spraying the undercoating over the raw metal panels is that it dries out and cracks, allowing water to seep in and rust. I could knock the right side off with a putty knife, and we'll figure out something on the left. But we'll paint it with a little Rust-Oleum to stop it. After we kill the rust. Stop the action. I'm going to try to address the areas with the bad spots on the flooring. However, it will take some thought. We patch up the outside first while we are mulling it over. I couldn't believe all they could find was a 3-in screw to tie the shore plug on with. Backed them off enough to be able to cut the head off. I'll find some shorter ones. Looks like an early fall is in store for us.



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I must have been tired; I forgot to hit the post button yesterday. But today tired of taking things apart i want to fix something. But first, we have to put this interior in place. Out of the car, it takes up as much room as it does in the car. So we have this 74 i need to work on lets use it. Now what to do with the cot in it? Put it in the 72. Now, let's fix something. The rear corner glass rubber grommets are splitting, as old rubber will do. I have been saving this old tube of urethane for just such an occasion. I'll have to cut the tub to find, and that hasn't cured yet, but it will work. Clean the rubber off with a little soap and water with a brass brush, and slide a thin piece of cardboard between it and the body. Then smear a little into the cracks, wipe off the excess, pull the cardboard out, and let it set up. It has a different shine than the rubber, but it will keep the splits together. Went ahead and stripped the rear door; there is a ton of filler on the lower half. Discovered that the door has been patched once before. I don't see Pinner splicing the door skin with a 2-inch strip during the construction process. With that brace in there, bumping the repair to a better contour would be hard. So the 1/2 in of filler. It would burn up in the repair, so out it must come. It ended up like standing in a sand pile. But it should be able to bump the skin closer with it open. Picked around all the black spots to see how thin it was, and it appears to be repairable without replacement.

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The electrical receptacle in the right rear quarter was originally hooked up to the battery, and a charger was plugged into that receptacle. I hunted for a couple of years to find a plug that would fit that receptacle, and never could find one. I tried the electrical supply house that has been in the same building since the early 1920s, and even they didn't have one. I suggest that you find a modern substitute, or if Nick wants it original, then fashion one out of a standard plug and some pourable rubber.
 
broke out my old rocker beater haven't used it in years. It's designed to punch out rocker panels. I rebuilt it a couple years ago and it hasn't been out of the tool box since. But just the thing for rounding out this door. When we got done it pulled the outer skin out just enough to slide the patch panel in place. That will help. Forced into working on the lion trailer, we need to got it out of the garage i have cars to store.


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Went to find my neighbour, who said he could weld up the trailer hitch for me, and he was gone for the day. Lucked out; it was over 100 today. And I was gas welding on the back door. Cause the doctor won't let me touch an electric. It got hot today, and a cold front is pushing in from the west. Cleaning up the gum rubber undercoating is not fun. Warming is the only way to do it, so I started on opening up the pin holes on the lower door. A little heat on the thin metal gets them cherry red in a hurry. This burns the thin spots, which will disappear as soon as they get hot, and melts the undercoating. Keep that spray bottle close to you. We don't want a big fire; the glass is still in it. Then you can scrape the undercoating out. Or most of it. For the larger hole in the corner, we'll cut a strip of steel and push it into the pinch weld, and then insert the brass through the rust holes we burned larger. The brass will creep between the layers and fill the holes. What we are doing is using a backing plate so we can fill the holes, or for the larger spots, surround them with something that doesn't rust. As we do it, if there is a thin spot, it will reveal itself. For the bottom, we just filled the holes and sweated a patch over the big one. Got a good start on the upper handle. There are three layers of overlay patches here; the outer corner was rusted through them, making it difficult to separate them and get the backing panel against the first one, but now we are stuck in place. And can finish it on our next go-round, hopefully on a cooler day. I'm beat.




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John ED Renstrom said:
Went to find my neighbour, who said he could weld up the trailer hitch for me, and he was gone for the day. Lucked out; it was over 100 today. And I was gas welding on the back door. Cause the doctor won't let me touch an electric. It got hot today, and a cold front is pushing in from the west. Cleaning up the gum rubber undercoating is not fun. Warming is the only way to do it, so I started on opening up the pin holes on the lower door. A little heat on the thin metal gets them cherry red in a hurry. This burns the thin spots, which will disappear as soon as they get hot, and melts the undercoating. Keep that spray bottle close to you. We don't want a big fire; the glass is still in it. Then you can scrape the undercoating out. Or most of it. For the larger hole in the corner, we'll cut a strip of steel and push it into the pinch weld, and then insert the brass through the rust holes we burned larger. The brass will creep between the layers and fill the holes. What we are doing is using a backing plate so we can fill the holes, or for the larger spots, surround them with something that doesn't rust. As we do it, if there is a thin spot, it will reveal itself. For the bottom, we just filled the holes and sweated a patch over the big one. Got a good start on the upper handle. There are three layers of overlay patches here; the outer corner was rusted through them, making it difficult to separate them and get the backing panel against the first one, but now we are stuck in place. And can finish it on our next go-round, hopefully on a cooler day. I'm beat.




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WOW!
 
Richard, Ed has a slot open for another restoration once this is finished. Better get your name on the list before he retires.
 
Paul Steinberg said:
Richard, Ed has a slot open for another restoration once this is finished. Better get your name on the list before he retires.
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I would love to but spending my money on motorcycles. Just picked up a beautiful 1971 H1 500 Kawasaki triple just like the one I had in high school. It would not help the value putting another $20,000 in to it to restore but it would be beautiful. .
 
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