From The Archives #5: Venus Restoration Movies

Hello all. Not much has been accomplished on the Venus, however I threw together some movies that recount my work on the car from 2003 to 2009. These are partially made up of video and photos. Each is about 5 minutes in length.

Part One is of the Engine and Chassis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt6nNJEBfCY

…..and Part Two is of the Venus body:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdhPKlFdhJ0

These are Windows Media Files, and I don’ know how well they will play…still putzing around with the right bit-rate for webcast. I may have to resort to YouTube until I can get them on my own web server. The title sections have no audio; music and montage begins after the dip to black.

As always, thank you for your interest and I welcome your comments.

Patrick McLoad

Venus Update #7: Grille Work Continues

I almost titled this post “Back On The Grill” because I was certainly feeling like a slab of beef on the backyard Weber….this grille just wasn’t coming together as easily as I had hoped. On the last update (#6, below), I had temporarily mounted the four grille blades. It was now time to tie them together as planned (see drawing in Update #6).

To begin with, I discovered that one of the blades was just a bit longer than the rest, which kinda threw everything off. Additionally, notice that the top blade doesn’t taper correctly to the ends, compared to correct blade at the bottom. Luckily, I had an alternate to replace it with. (These pieces are extremely difficult to find in decent shape!)

Then after arriving at what I thought was good positioning, I had the middle sections tack welded together. Since I don’t own a good MIG welder, I had to clamp it all together and carefully take these over to the automotive shop for spot welds.

I then  discovered my next problem: The center “toaster top” cover would not fit because the lower grille protruded outward too much (see photo showing this misalignment with arrows). To fix this, I had to alter the angle of the blades where they attached to the sides of the opening. As you can see, they were flat across the fiberglass surface. Adding a wedge (or even washers) would have cocked them backwards, but a wedge at this point would have simply looked wrong, not to mention the difficulty of machining a wedge out of steel or aluminum. No, that was not an alternative (and neither was changing the angle of the fiberglass surface).

What I ended up doing was partially slicing the mounting tab; bending it in a bit; tacking it in place; then grinding off the excess (see illustration below). I did this on 3 of the blades just to get them as near perfect as possible. Changing the angle of the blades where they mounted effectively cocked them back to the correct position to where the front cover piece could now fit correctly. But since I had changed these angles, the center sections were now also at the wrong angles. So I had to grind off the tack welds; reposition and clamp the center sections, and take them back for yet another tack job.

The next issue to face was that of getting the “rounds” to match up as best I could. This was going to require a lot of heat. I first manufactured a tool out of a sacrificial pair of vice grips to better grab and bent the red-hot sections.

This really turned out to be quite difficult without a second pair of hands. Even at orange-hot, moving the pieces around took a lot of “persuasion”. I finally arrived at what was about as good as I was going to get it, at least for awhile….it still needs work as you can see. Again, I’m just not set up to do this kind of work. I am going to have to send this out to a pro to have all the gaps filled in and ground smooth to where it is one presentable piece. Naturally, it will be chrome plated when I get it as smooth as possible.

And speaking of smooth, recall in a previous update that I had manufactured some hinge arms for the Venus hood. They were really quite ugly so I sent them out to Steve Sellers of Sellers Equipped in California for smoothing and shaping. I wanted the rods to flow smoothly to the base. I had first learned of Steve’s work on the Jalopy Journal (one of my favorite websites), and knew he was the right guy to do this…and indeed, I was right. See the before and after photos of the hinge arms; they really turned out nice…even a work of art! He really did a great job!
(photos of the finish pieces courtesy of Steve Sellers)

It is now early February and simply too cold to be doing any resin application. I do use a portable propane heater to make my garage bearable, but its still too cold for mixing resin…I don’t want to take the chance of applying a bad batch to the car. Perhaps I should start on the windshield posts which have to be made from scratch with only photographs to go by. These will probably be the single, most difficult parts to make for the Venus.

Thanks for visiting!

Regards,
Patrick McLoad

From The Archives #4

It’s mid-January and winter has finally arrived here in Houston. Although I have a bit of heat going into my attached garage along with a portable propane heater, the ambient temperature still hovers in the 55 to 60- degree range. It’s just too cool to be mixing resin at this temperature, and I don’t want to take a chance on applying a bad batch to the Venus body. Of course, I don’t have snow drifts around my house like those of you in the upper mid-west, so I’m thankful to be in Houston.

I thought I’d review some pics of the only other Venus known to be in existence, not but two hours from Houston. It belongs to Jack and Christy Kovar; a couple of really nice folks. As mentioned in my website, Jack’s dad “Eddie” was among the group that took over the mfg. rights of the Venus, the story of which you can read on the website. I have visited the Kovars a few times, and Jack was kind enough to allow me to borrow the original hood from his car to aide in the re-shaping of the one from from my car. Let me add that the Kovar family are a great bunch of folks, and I greatly appreciate their help and hospitality with this Venus project. My thanks to Jack, Christy, Gary, Edward Jr., and Shirley.

Around 1985, Jack purchased his Venus out of an Auto Trader type magazine. Here is that ad.

According to documents, this  particular Venus was initially purchased from my Dad by Mr. Everett Carruth (Houston) on April 10th, 1980, or at least, the title is in my Dad’s name, and dated 10/30/79. I would not have thought that my Dad had a Venus in his possession at that late a date. Ed Carruth then sold this Venus to Jimmy Pond for $900 about a year later, on November 15, 1979. (As you may notice, there’s some confusion in regards to the years that this happened, as they over-lap on the documents). Then, Jack Kovar bought this Venus from a Mr. Bob Hill for $800 (not 2 grand) in May of 1985, presumably in response to the Auto Trader ad. 

 

I don’t think Jack has done much to his Venus from the day of purchase as there is still no engine or transmission in the car (as per the ad). When I first went up to meet Jack and to view this body, I was hoping to find the original windshield posts and grille, but sadly that was not the case. His was a “later” version that had the ‘55 Chevy grille, and, the windshield posts were nothing like what was on the early Venus bodies. But this begs a question or two: I had assumed that the change to the ‘55 Chevy grille occurred AFTER my Dad had sold the mfg. rights, so what was he doing with a later-version vehicle as late as 1979 (as per the above title)? Could it be that he initiated this design change in 1955? Hard to say.

The photos below were taken on my initial visit in Sept. 2005. The body was in a dark barn and I hadn’t brought any additional lighting instruments with me. Jack does have the doors and hood; they just weren’t on the car when these photos were taken.

 

 

 

This Venus (above) DOES have the same rear tail lights as the very early car that had the convertible top, (which was initially owned by D.Y. Gorman), however, D.Y.’s car had a large vent smack dab in the instrument panel, the other style grille, and different instrumentation (see below). After a very close examination of the tail lights from the two, I have determined that these are two different cars. The spacing of the lights on Jack Kovar’s car is different from the one below (see side-by-side comparison). By the way, I have learned from the good folks on the HAMB that these lights are from a 1955 or 1955 Dodge Coronet or Dodge Royal. 

 

 

 

Below are some additional photos of the “other” Venus I took in June of 2007….the body had been moved outside under an awning. Let me state here that this Venus body is NOT for sale, so please don’t go poking around trying to find these people (not that you’d really want a project like this anyway).

The chassis is clearly of the ‘49 Ford shoebox variety, however additional motor mounts and transmission supports have been welded in for what must have been a larger engine. A friend of this blog, Pat Johnston, informs me that the motor mounts resemble those used for a small block Chevy. Too bad someone felt the need to yank it back out. It shouldn’t be too terribly difficult to install any V8 onto the frame as there is simply tons of room in the Venus engine bay. Should Jack want to go back to an original flathead V8, then that may prove to be a little harder in finding a good one.

Last, but not least, it is apparent that the Venus (above pic) had a continental kit on the back. Notice the shaved area in the center bumper area, and what looks like mounting holes for a bracket of some sort. I am almost positive that this is the same car that was in our garage during Hurricane Carla. It also appears that the spacing of the rear tail lights is identical. I do not know the date of the photo below. (The faint line on the rear quarter panel marks the water level from the hurricane’s flood.)

 

So, that’s about it for now gang. I’ll be back with another update as soon as I can make some progress to report on.
Stay warm out there, and thank you for visiting my blog.

Best Regards,
Patrick McLoad

Venus Update #6: Grille Work

Work on the Venus body has been progressing slowly, however I recently moved it to my garage for more convenient access.

 

The task I decided to start on is that of getting the four grille blades properly mounted. To review, the “Massachusetts” Venus had a later-style grille, that being from a ‘55 Chevy (see below). All things considered, it’s not a bad-looking, but my aim was to restore this body back to that of the original prototype which used four rear bumper guards from a 1951 Merc. (I discussed the acquisition of these grille pieces in an earlier post “Diversions”)

 

However, the mounting holes in these ”blade” sections are for big 7/16ths inch bolts. I was not about to drill this size hole(s) in the fiberglass just to mount these puppies….1/4″ bolts will certainly do just fine. So I needed a way to reduce this 7/16ths hole down to 1/4 inch.

 

What I ended up doing was mounting a 7/16th bolt into the lathe; drill and tap a 1/4″ hole in the center, shape the bolt head semi-circular, and cut it off 1/8th from the head to provide a centering shoulder. Good news is that these don’t take more than about 30 minutes to make; bad news is I needed 16 of them! Once all were finished, I brazed one into each respective hole.

 

 

Fitting these blades has opened yet another can of worms. First of all, the fiberglass job on each side of the grille opening is pretty sloppy looking, parts of which interfere with the rear portion of the grill blades (the ‘55 Chevy grille covered all of this mess). The original Venus did not have this flaring, but having it probably does a better job of routing more air through the radiator. I’ve decided that I will need to cut out this slop; get the grille bars mounted, and then do a better job of re-glassing these flarings. (Just what I needed…more body work!) Below are photos of the right and left side before altering.

 

With a portion of this flaring cut away, I located and mounted each blade as best I could to match the original photo. (There will be a rubber piece between the blade and the body). My “hit or miss” method of marking where to drill the holes on the first blade resulted in a mis-drilled hole. So I made a couple of pointed-end bolts to protrude slightly from the end. After locating the exact location of the blade, a sharp rap on the opposite end drove these points into the body, giving me accurate drilling locations. 

 

After mounting all four blades, I then had to trim each outer end to fit against the fiberglass. This outer lip cannot touch the body otherwise it will interfere with the angle of the blade, and, scratch the paint. Additionally, the inner and outer tabs have to be bent (with torch) to match the angle of the mounting surfaces. This is a slow procedure! (Before and after shown below)

 

Next, I used Styrofoam pieces to hold the blades in near perfect symmetrical position. Below photo shows blades in position, with and without a mock wooden cover.

 

Gathering and attaching these blades in the center is somewhat of a mystery to me. Clearly, the “toaster top” piece in the middle is simply a cover, and there is no reason to believe that it served any other purpose. The original photos (below) give no clue as to what’s going on behind this cover or how the blades are attached.

 

I previously posted a number of ideas that included brackets and all-thread rods, but none of them really pleased me as this hardware was going to be very visible just behind the cover….one initial idea is seen below.

Then one very cold morining in my freezing garage…standing VERY near the propane heater with a cup of hot coffee…, I eyed one of the spare blades sitting on the work bench. (I have several spare blades that, for various reasons, aren’t quite good enough to use for the grill assembly itself.) The thought occurred to me that it makes perfect sense to use a portion of these spare blades to span the distance between those in the grille. Custom car gurus cut, weld, and change bumpers all the time, so why not just do the same to these blades? See the illustration below; options A & B (only the upper grille blades are illustrated). The lines represent where a section is fitted and welded.

Using either option means that I no longer have to worry about ugly hardware, brackets, or all-thread rods. Anyone looking behind the center cover (and they will) will see a finished, chromed, continuous piece. Additionally, I can do most of the cutting and fitting myself. Once all is ready, I can call a welder and have him spot-weld the pieces while in position on the car, then weld all the gaps while off the car. This welding will probably only cost me a couple hundred bucks, if that. I will then grind and sand down the welds until smooth so that there is no visible transition between the two after chrome plating. I think this method will solve all of the cosmetic problems, and will provide a strong, one-piece blade section.

Thanks for tuning in. Sorry for making this molehill into a mountain!

Merry Christmas to you all!!
(Have you been naughty or nice?!)

Patrick McLoad

Venus Update #5: A Mini-Milestone Reached

I am soooo tired of seeing the Venus body on its backside like some poor over-turned box turtle!! As you may know, I have been trying to get the underside finished so that I can flip her over to begin final body prep. But as mentioned in an earlier update, the hood hinge system took quite awhile to get sorted out. I decided to vacate the enclosed storage shed by the end of August, primarily for monetary reasons, but I’m also getting tired of the place…gravel floor and a leaky roof.

Picking up where I left off on my last update, I finally got longer hinge arms made, and the hood plates welded on. The hinge body was first adhered to the nose of the body using 3M 190 epoxy, then covered with a layer of fiberglass. Then, with the hood in a upside down position held by a floor jack and moving blanket for a pad, I adhered the hood plates in position as well. I realize I run the risk of the hinges not fitting when the body is right-side-up, and if that’s the case, then I’ll just re-do them. I think they will be okay. Since the hinge arms will be a very visible piece (below), I sent them to a metal craftsman to have the welds and 3/4″ rod shaped to something a bit more custom. His name is Steve Sellers, and he does awesome work. (Steve is a regular on the HAMB forum & Jalopy Journal website.)
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=139415657

The entire hinge assembly pieces will be painted or powder coated.

With the hinges out of the way, it was time to get the underside of this whale painted. I had used a good spray-on polyester filler/primer, but the damn stuff was a mess to work with. I bought a cheap, throw-away siphon-type spray gun to apply it. The darn vent got plugged up and wouldn’t shoot anymore, so I just brushed on the remainder in the can. Ultimately, I got a coating on the whole underside.

I could have spent another 6-8 months on the underside alone, making every surface smooth and error-free. A layer of gelcoat would have been nice, but it wouldn’t have been original. I had to come to come to grips with the fact that the Venus wasn’t exactly made in a factory like today’s Corvettes or Chris Craft boats. I cleaned it up the best I could while retaining the original “look” of the underside. Remember, this glass was hand-laid in a metal shed, probably approaching 100 degrees, so I doubt they spend a lot of time on underside “beauty”. Realistically, this under surface will never be seen.

So today, 8/16/08, I reached a milestone of sorts….I finally got the underside painted. It took about 2 quarts to get 2 full coats. I used DuPont’s Nason single-stage paint (8-1-2 ratio), and sprayed it with my super-duper SATA HVLP gun. My new Ingersoll-Rand compressor worked like a champ too…this is what I bought it for! Below are pics of the paint job. (Beating my friends to the punch, If the Venus ever looked like a confusing, in-ground hot tub, this is it!

The next day, my son and a friend of his helped me flip the body over without resorting to the overhead contraption with chain hosts. Here it is below, ready for transport in my enclosed trailer. I will then move it to my garage where I can continue with some of the fiberglass repair/fill, such as the tail lights and instrument panel. I’ll also pre-mount the grill pieces.

More to come….stay tuned, and thanks for visiting my blog!

From The Archives #3

While I’m getting some work done on the Venus for the next update, I thought I’d post some more photos from the past. These are specifically of the “Massachusetts” Venus as I found it, along with some before/after compositions. You sometimes don’t realize how far you’ve come until you see where you started. Enjoy! (Remember, all photos will enlarge with a simple click on the pic)

These are the initial photos that were sent to me as it sat in the owners driveway, note the enlarged hood scoop and how well-sorted the engine is!

Note the steering linkage rubbing on the oil pan below…think this was a problem? You’re darn tootin’ it was!

Having to deal with a mess like this (below) can cause severe brain-damage folks, though most of my friends already know that occurred many years ago!

Here is the same clutch and brake linkage finally sorted out and returned to original:

More later; thanks for checking in.

A big “thank you” to Dan Strohl of Hemmings Motor News who noticed this blog and gave it a link on the Hemmings Motor News blog, the big-daddy of all auto-blogs:
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2008/07/26/four-links-brazilian-sports-cars-legal-canadian-street-racing-venus-rebirthing-vintage-vehicles-in-vintage-settings/

Patrick McLoad

Venus Update #4: Diversions

You know, it’s one thing to remove a part; clean it up, repaint or plate it, and then put it back on…but still another to have to design, fabricate, and fit whole new parts. This was a diversion that I knew was coming, and it finally reared its ugly head. 

The issue I had to resolve while the body was upside down was that of the hood hinge. This took a lot of time away from body work since I had to start at ground zero. The hinges that were on this car originally were hardware-store grade “gate hinges” which I was not about to re-use.

I designed and fabricated a new hinge assembly, shown below. Probably a bit over-engineered for all practical purposes, but that’s the way I do things. This assembly is welded to a 1/8th” plate. There is an exact duplicate plate under it with studs that have been brazed on. The lower plate will get epoxied and glassed to the body using 3M DP 190 epoxy cement, and then glassed in. However, it will not be quite as simple as just cementing it in place…I have to make sure that the hinge arms land in the exact symmetrical position(s) on the hood, otherwise they will look skewed when the hood was open. And if you’re thinking that 1/8th inch is a bit slim, keep in mind that the hood weight is only 30 pounds. The welding of the hinge bearings on each side did an awful lot to stiffen this piece….and once it’s mated to the other plate, that’s 1/4 inch…far more than needed. 

 
Then I had to design the brackets that were to go onto the underside of the hood. I tried many different shapes and had a difficult time deciding which to use. Ultimately, after deciding on the right shape and size (with thanks from HAMBers), I bought some 3/16ths flat stock, and cut 4 pieces in the cut-off grinder. I then located the centers on one piece, using one of the flat sides of the stock for one of the triangle sides. I then drilled all 1/4″ at the 3 corners. Since I did not want the mess that a cutting torch makes, I fashioned a jig that would allow be to hold the pieces square in the cut-off grinder to cut off the other side of the triangle. All four pieces proved to be too much for the grinder, so I backed off to one at a time. Well, even that was too much to ask of my DeWalt cut-off grinder…I guess I must have glazed the edge or something…jeez! Can’t cut through a piece of 3/16ths steel? WORTHLESS!!

I ended up using my trusty Rigid angle-grinder with a cut-off blade in it….it was like a hot knife thru butta’…and a lot straighter I might add. The cut-outs were ready for individual shaping, again using the angle-grinder and a 36 grit flap disk. Two pieces were bases and received studs; the other two were for eventual welding to the hinge arm. (Not finished here).

The next issue to resolve is shown below. The hinge arms “land” on the hood way too short. Ideally, the triangle brackets need to be about midway between the lip of the hood and the hood scoop opening. By my measurements, I need an additional 3.5″ for these arms to work. By the way, these arms were purchased at Speedway or Summit; trying to save some time and bucks, don’t you know. I’m still trying to resolve this problem, and I have these over at my auto mechanic’s shop right now. He’s going to try to heat and bend these to get the 3 inches, but we don’t know if it’s going to work. These arms are actually tubes, and there’s a chance that bending will collapse the tubing. But nothing ventured; nothing gained. I may have to get some custom tubes (or solids) bent, but we can’t find anyone with a 3/4″ bending die…and these dies are about $250! So hopefully we can come up with a solution to this problem. (The shapes under the arms are just cut-outs of black paper).

The fabrication of all these parts had to be done before I could even begin to fit them to the Venus. It’s very difficult to do this without a proper workshop/garage, and without specific power tools that you’ll probably only use once. Yes, I could take everything to a shop for a custom fit, but that involves taking the upside down Venus body, hood, and parts to a shop…which mean loading up the trailer and probably spending a thousand bucks to have it done. No, this shouldn’t be that difficult a hurdle. If I could just find a 3/4″ bending die….I may end up buying one anyway, but it’s about half of what an entire bending machine costs!

Update:
I have decided there is no way to use the existing hinge arms. I am currently shopping around for someone to make a custom set. Here’s the rough drawing of what I need:

Moving on, I finally have my 4 grill spokes, each of which are from the back bumper of a 1951 Merc. Finding decent pieces has been difficult, expensive, and a long, drawn-out process. Although some sellers will tell you thier piece has a slight bend or a small dent, you really don’t know what you’re getting until its in your hands. Below is a photo of the four “good” pieces on the left, and the three “rejects” on the right. (The best two came from Jim Pullen from the H.A.M.B; thanks Jim!). Below that is a photo showing the underside of the “good” pieces. One is pitted quite heavily with rust, but as long as there are no holes, I should be okay. The bottom part won’t show anyway; and I still have to grind off the license plate light bracket on these.

I need to prefit and pre-drill the holes for these four pieces before I can get the body painted, and before I have the spokes chrome plated. I may do this when the body has been flipped right-side up.

Last but not least, here’s a pic of my friend and fellow HAMB’er Jim Pullen with his ‘51 Merc project…very nice engine work, Jim!!

Not much of a post, but I wanted to get away from the Venus toys post….this in not a “model” blog.

Thanks for your time!

Patrick

From The Archives #2

If you have read the website on the History of the Venus, you will know that in the early 50’s, Japanese toy manufacturer Nomura (“TN”) released a steel friction-toy of the “Ford Venus”. From what I have been able to find, they made 2 different versions in 3 different colors…red, dark blue, and light blue. Over a period of many years, I have been fortunate enough to have been able to purchase an example of each, along with the original box. These are quite rare and not cheap! Below are some photos of the Venus friction toys (please click for larger image)

In the above photo, note the difference between the engines and slight interior change. All three have clear plastic covers for a hood (hard to see). The red and light-blue versions have the same engine design and use a 9v battery. The dark blue version is an older style friction-toy where sparks are made with a flint (I think).

Last but not least, there are 2 styles of boxes:

 

In the first box example, note that everyone is driving a Venus (what a wonderful world THAT would be!), and, there’s a yellow one to boot! (No, I haven’t ever seen a yellow version of these toys).

Yeah, I know….too much information; too much time on my hands…but I think this is just so coool! But now that I have all three versions, I can relax. Sure seems that Nomura went to an awful lot of trouble to replicate a car of which less than a dozen of the real thing were ever made.

Before I forget, here is a link to a very nice article on the Venus, written by my friend Harold Pace for Kit Car magazine:
http://www.kitcarmag.com/preview/0711kc_venus_kit_car/index.html

Thanks for viewing my blog!

Venus Update #3: The Same Ol’ Grind

Well, there it is: the dreaded full-face mask and angle grinder; signifying that nasty work is just ahead. Upon arriving and opening the shed doors, I’m always reluctant grab these and to proceed to envelope my entire body in a cloud of tiny glass shards. I’d much rather sit and drink coffee, but for some reason, simply staring at the body doesn’t get things done.

Not much to report I’m afraid, and the Venus body looks as helpless and as desperate as ever. However I have been spending many consecutive days trying to get this underside finished. For the most part, I’ve been replacing fiberglass bonds on the four wheelwells that have let go. These bonds are on only one side, the bond on the opposite side remains quite strong and will not need replacing. Laying the new mat fiberglass was easy; grinding off the old glass was quite nasty. (I sometimes feel like a dentist working on cavities). Below is an example of the problem. Not only does the loose section have to be ground off (brown part), but also the adjoining portion adhered to the body (black).  Below is a lousy photo that shows the replaced section, made with 2 layers of mat glass. (Click to enlarge)

As of this writing, I am completely finished with replacing bonds such as these. Below is another section just before mat and resin were applied, however ALL paint along joint was removed.

 I had an interesting meeting a couple days ago. I met with DeWitt Gorman, the young guy in the photo with the hat on that used to make Venus bodies by hand (scroll down to “A Look Back”). We talked about those days and the processes he went through in making a body. He did say that they didn’t use epoxy resin, nor gelcoat (which wasn’t around at that time). I’d really like to interview him on camera for my documentary.

He brought along a very cool artifact: a fiberglass “client” chair that was in the original Ratio Manufacturing offices (below). It was not made by anyone he knows, but clearly, it is vintage mid-50’s design. Notice how deep the bucket is compared to those of today. This is a good thing as it fits my fat a***.

I’ve decided to not spray it with a clear-coat; just leave it original. This will be a neat addition to the Venus display, and I thank him for giving it to me.

Kinda’ interesting to think that this same chair may have been used by Dewitt Gorman over 50 years ago when he was possibly making THIS Venus body!! 

With exception to a few more body details, I now need to fabricate the bracket that will hold the hood hinges. A simple bracket with studs will be adhered and glassed onto the body. The assembly that holds both hinges will bolt onto this bracket as a single, removable unit. I have yet to design and draw it out, but I know what is needed. As I recall. a previous owner simply used a gate hinge from a hardware store for the hood….I have something a bit more sophisticated than that!

I’m very close to power-washing the inside tub and spraying primer and then paint. Like most things in life, you have to take the bad with the good. This is the kind of work that sometimes causes people to quit, and the car just remains a basket case. This is the hard, unglamorous part of classic car restoration, but it’s gotta get done. It wasn’t that long ago that I was looking at a dirty engine compartment atop a dirty chassis, but now, the chassis and engine work is behind me….just as this will soon be.

Venus Update #2: The Hard Part Continues

Sanding

It was a hot, dirty, hard, and annoying job, but I didn’t see any volunteers standing around to help. Perhaps that’s what I need to do: get a good fiberglass man and a few of his workers to knock this out for me!! Ultimately, I’m trying to get the underside repaired, primered and painted so that I can turn the body over and start on the side that matters most. I’m really not that far away; I just need to persevere.

I now have a profound respect for ANYONE in the fiberglass bodywork business (or boats for that matter). Saying it and doing it are two completely different things. I needed to get some brown-colored paint off of some of the wheel-well panels. I had tried using small palm-size orbital sander and I got nowhere with it. I needed some serious speed with serious grit to get this stuff off.

So I bought a cheap little Chicago Pneumatic air sander, and strapped an 80-grit disk onto this hummer. #80 was the finest grit I could find at Lowes. Knowing that I was going to be doing a lot of sanding and painting, I invested in a really nice Ingersoll-Rand upright air compressor last Christmas, so it was time to put it to work. (This compressor is about all I can handle in regards to size and weight as it has a cast-iron pump). Even though you take on this kind of work yourself to save money (and to learn), you’ve GOT to have the proper tools and equipment otherwise you’re just spinning your wheels. 

So I start using this little sander, but it bogs down fairly easily; not much power to it. But man does it throw the dust!! The dust got so bad in the shed that I had to pull the Venus out into the open. Of course, I use a full-face air mask. After finishing one side, I tried the angle-grinder with a 120-grit flap wheel on it. This did a much better job, had power, and didn’t gouge like the little air sander did. So using the angle grinder, I finished both rear inner sides of the panels.

One of the other tool investments was an in-line body sander (two-piston) made by Ingersoll-Rand. I tried it on a rear section of the body, and it did a beautiful job of taking off old primer without loading up the sandpaper…and the results were very flat. I can tell this tool will be very useful in keeping the bodywork straight. In the second photo you can see where the original glass is just starting to show through…this is where I will stop.

 

 

  

Glass Work

Having had enough sanding for one day, I pushed the body back inside to do some glass /resin work. For a few weeks now, I had been coming out to lay in some glass and then letting it cure overnight. I’ve been buying my fiberglass supplies from an outfit called Fibre Glast. There are specific instructions for the resin: 13 drops of hardener per once ounce of resin. I use a small digital postal scale which is perfect for weighing the exact amount of resin. After adding the hardener, I only have about 15-18 minutes before it starts to set up, so you have to work fast, and in small batches. I generally mix about 6 ozs. of resin at a time. I always clean the area first with acetone, sand if necessary, and then pre-cut any glass I’m going to lay down. I realize that there will be fiberglass experts yelling at me by the end of this post, but I’m doing this the best way I know how in the shortest amount of time. I am fully aware that holes are supposed to be tapered outward and that you lay down successive layers of glass to create a bond that uses as much surface area as possible. However, the proximity of the holes in the instrument panel just won’t allow for that. And besides, this is really more of a cosmetic fill than it is a strength issue.

As you can see below, I’ve placed a sheet of glass behind the instrument panel, and behind the large opening in the tailight sections. Although I think I am suppose to be filling from the back, there simply isn’t any room to work to do that. So, for these areas, I will feather out the holes and fill with mat from the front, which is more of a loose, choppy kind of fiberglass than the typical woven sheet that most are familiar with.

Did you notice what a careful job a previous owner did when cutting the hole for the tail light? Just because its fiberglass doesn’t mean you can butcher it. Jeez!

Keep in mind that the body is upside down, and I’m taking advantage of the accessability of these areas. Working on your back in a tight overhead area with sticky resin is not my idea of a good time.

Below is a photo of the driveshaft tunnel before repair. These areas were cut out to allow for a floor shifter and linkage. Since I am going back to a column shift, these sections need to be filled in. There is nothing in the tunnel that requires access from the top, such as a gearbox, so these areas need to be completetly filled.

Below, I started by laying a piece of scrim over these sections. (This scrim is identical to the stuff you put on a seam when you float sheetrock). This scrim follows the contour of the tunnel and provides support to keep the glass fabric from sagging in the middle. After overnight curing, this was followed by a layer of 10 oz. glass fabric. Remember, we’re looking at the very bottom side of the floor…more filling will occur when the body is flipped rightside up. For small holes and the like, I’m using a product that incorporates Kevlar as its filler material….supposed to be very strong…but’s an ugly bright green in color. Fifty years from now, someone will be re-painting this body (hopefully) and will wonder just what the heck this green stuff is!

On the firewall (below), another piece of scrim followed by glass fabric. Once this cured, I marked and cut the contour of the tunnel, and followed this with 1″ strips of mat to bridge the span between the two areas. I will continue to fill and reinforce until satisfied with the shape and amount of glass. This floor is only about 1/8th to 3/16th’s inch thick, so it won’t take much when I fill from the top. This bottom section will probably get a final finishing layer of glass fabric from one side to the other.

Ultimately, at least for now, I plan on covering the entire engine-side of the firewall with 1/8″ polished aluminum, so cosmetics are not all that critical here. Once I get all of the reapirs and sanding done, I’ll bring out a power washer and thoroughly clean the entire bottom side before spraying the primer and paint. I had done this once before while in my driveway, but it looks like I missed a few spots.

Hopefully, my next update will show the finished underside. Thanks for checking in!