63 Pinner Hightop

[John ED Renstrom]

Got a call from the boss today; he said, "Take that CB antenna out." I said, "Can't get to it." He said, "Look up." So, I did, and I did. decided to solder the patch in place rather than use a lot of heat. The hard part was finding someone to hold it. While things were cooling off, I blocked off the spots we primed on Wednesday. had to drop everything and go rescue a friend who broke down. Got him towed to a safe spot and finished taping off the car. Put a gallon of primer on the top. Then shot it yellow. Honest, I thought he said yellow. Guess we can sand it off later. The snow arrived right on time. We'll see if we get the 4 inches they ordered for us.

 

[Paul Steinberg]

He Ed, I guess that I misspoke. I went down to the garage to find the antenna, and it was not a CB, but a High Band antenna. Now that I had time to sleep on it, I remember the guys at the Rhinecliff Fire Department telling me that the whip antenna on the front fender was for the fire/police radio, and the one on the roof was for the County radio. Guess that there is no reason to save that antenna. Been throwing out a lot of spare things that I had saved for that car and the 1969 Miller Meteor that I also sold. Heck, I even found some parts from the 1926 Buick Master 54C and the 1934 Dodge KCL pickup truck. There was a time when I would buy and save anything I came across that might fit on one of the old cars I might need one day. Hard to find replacement parts for a 100-year-old 1926 car, a 1934 pickup, a 1963, and a 1969 ambulance. I got the same type of "order" from the boss to get rid of it. Earlier this year, I gave Jim Staruk a bunch of NOS and used parts that I had saved for my 1978 Cadillac Ambulance. Seems no one wants this stuff anymore.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

Sounds about right. It was defenly added later in life. And must have been in back from the length of the lead.

 

[Paul Steinberg]

Sounds about right. It was defenly added later in life. And must have been in back from the length of the lead.

County as in County Hospital?

 

[John ED Renstrom]

That would explain why it was in the rear. So I spent most of Saturday filling out forms for DSS for Kandy's health care. But did slip out and get the wheel wells primed. funny what we procrastinate on. A good brushing of oil-based Rustoleum is as good as 200 bucks' worth of the expensive stuff; I got the tires back on. The car was on 4 wheels and moved back to start on the front end. We even started it; she moved under its own power. Pull the vent cover off so we can run it through the bead blaster. An interesting collection of Texas stuff in there. formed the plan of attack for the front bumper, whether to remove or cover up the siren. Then, I coated the rubber flap under the vent with a little WD-40. It's getting hard, not breaking yet, so if we soften it up, it will LAST longer than a replacement. Then went to 7 degrees out there. a chilly night.

 

[Paul Steinberg]

I came across a pair of inner fender mastecated rubber flaps that go over the control arms. They were missing when I bought the car, and I found a good pair on a car in a pick-a-part yard. I will try to get them off to Rubber The Right Way, since they said that they could reproduce them from the originals. They didn't have a pattern to make them when I checked when I owned the car. I will try to call them this week to see what the current situation is.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

that would be something it needs. got the bumper off and found a big plastic bag to cover the siren with. keep forgetting this is not a GM car. took me a bit to understand how easy it was to pull the headlights. three screws and you have the assemble in your hand. yes, I marked them left and right. then jacked the front up a little so we could get started on the left lower rear fender. it is rusted threw the right maybe be to under the fender molding. we see hen we get over there. gout the holes pushed in and brazed up. if you dimple them, it a lot easier to fill the holes. then we got some filler on before we headed in. supposed to warm up Monday we will see. that emblem is cast don't let it hit you in the head when it falls.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

so yesterday we did get some time to do a few things. got the filler knocked down and a little more striped. I can't believe they painted this car and left most of the moldings in place, but they did. the big reason for striping is its enamel over lacquer. and the chance of curdling the enamel layer is too great to risk painting over it. I didn't do much as we need to get more primer down from the big city. the only keep one gl on hand down here and sold it Saturday. I could have brought the qt but with the pricing if you get a Gl you get a gt free and we will use up another gl. must be the dutchman in me. will looks like that card is full

 

[John ED Renstrom]

These front fenders are something else as you go forward. all compound curves and tight. I may end up doing some chemical stripping around the headlights. Just two tight to get in there. and not able to back it out and sandblast. I'm out of sand, or I would try it. But did get all but the noise stripped and primed. and a little extra playing around. Now, if I can get this computer to find December pictures, I can post some. This is a strange program. The first two were yesterday. They really got this thin on the front lip on the left. The top of the right fender is why we are stripping the car. Laid a rag with thinner on this spot. It penetrated the enamel coat, lifted and wrinkled it. Had we sprayed the car, we would have had this action all over the car. with a waste of 400 bucks. Always test a spot if you don't know what is on it.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

Took the day off to go get supplies for the month and pick up some rollocks or twist locks, whatever they are called by different people, but work the same. Tried some chemical striper; it's one product I don't have the knack for. But we did get it to remove the layer of enamel. Need a stronger one for that lacquer. This stuff only softened a thin layer of it. But I can get it with the rollocks, got about half the fender done, giving it time to work

 

[John ED Renstrom]

finished grinding on the fender, some more on the nose, and the hood. The thinner 3-inch twist-lock pads on the smaller backer work well in tight bends. Just be careful around the edges; they get wild if you cut a chunk off one side. I got the last rust hole filled in on the left fender lip. just the one spot. Good thing to ask, as this is the last stick of the 3 lbs of brass I got. decided to run a little of the rust converter on this wheel, opening a lot of pits under the molding. They are solid, but let's convert rather than grind them out; so long as we have it poured, we use it up. The bottom support of the valance is badly chipped and rusted underneath. We got all of it. You let this set overnight to work before flushing it off the places that were not rusted. so, we'll prime tomorrow. then start blocking the top.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

Got that hood done, finally. The whole car is striped, but for a couple of small places. When doing something like a hood on a car, you need to work around it to avoid heating the panel and risking warping it. If you feel the panel dip or hear it pop, move to the other side. I started by running around the edges first. When we cut in far enough, we closed the hood so it had all the support we could give it. Did run the board file over the flat side of the roof. It came out like I thought, several high spots in the lead. But at least we have a good idea of what needs to be done. Had we used a shorter block than the board file, it would be less, but still as wavy. Lead is filler; we can work it down. The top will have some large ones in it, but we don't need to remove all of the Pinner out of it

 

[John ED Renstrom]

Well, the side panel of the top cleaned up fast. And a lot easier than I thought it would. Put some 80-grit on the board file, and the high spots came right down. You can now wonder where the yellow went. Finished about half the top. Those pods look cool, but they are a pain to do anything with. You have to do them by hand, nested like they are. It's all compound curves with different radiuses from one end to the other double. The inside one is impossible to see. Standing next to it, you need to go to the other side to see if you got it. Found that a roll of the paper works best, you can get it into the tight spots, crush it to the shape you need, and still block. I'm going to get the car sanded, then tape off and prime everything at once. They are calling for 60s as another storm rolls in for the weekend. But the outside Christmas lights up and brought the sprinkler in. I need to fix the front wheel on it. It wore thin and broke off. Mixed a little rosin and after super clueing it filled the indent with it. Might get a year or two more out of it.