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June 25, 2023

To the Beauty Shop

One body surface that I didn't have time to get finished last fall was the front wheel wells.  These are very hostile areas, sometimes home to bad things like driven brackish water carrying dirt, sand, and gravel, so it seemed like a good place for some extra protection on top of the several coats of two part epoxy primer. 




I personally prefer blacked out wheel wells, so it made sense to me to apply a black undercoating.  I use 3M "Schutz", which is a popular "rubberized" product.  It uses a special gun, and goes on pretty thick.  Its overspray also seems to go everywhere, and is really difficult to remove, so I masked the surroundings pretty well.




Looks finished now.




Then, it was time to address the paint.  I'm not a good enough painter to get great looking paint right out of the gun, so I always plan to cut and buff the paint.  This is also why I don't bother with my "tactical paint booth" any more.  It's more trouble than it's worth, and any extra junk in the paint gets fixed in the cut and buff anyway.

I painted the body more than a year ago, and even though the paint looked pretty good from five feet, looking closer revealed noticeable orange peel, and the occasional dust nit.  Even new cars have orange peel, but I was looking for something a notch or two better.




So, out came the sandpaper.  I wet sanded with 1000 until the orange peel was all leveled, then 1500, and finally 2000 grit.




Then buffed with a "compound", then a polish.




Finally, I applied a so-called "ceramic" coating to protect the paint.  I donn't necessarily buy all the hype about these coatings, but this one did add some shine.




With the body looking pretty nice, I could start adding some of the sparkly bits.  I dug out the previously refurbed rear quarter windows.




The hinge rivets to the upper B post. For the seal, I decided to use black, since most of the seal borders on the black headliner.




Next on the shelf was the prettied-up fuel filler.  I bought a foot of that hose made to handle gasoline, but it turned out to be way too stiff to use.  The larger grommet is the original, while the smaller one is what suppliers are offering today.  I thought the cleaned up original looked better.




For the hose, I found a generic "filler neck hose" that had a bend close to what I needed.  I still need to find a way to dress up the inside better.




Looking more finished by the day.




What else?  Oh, Yeah, those stainless strips that run on the seam under the sills.  Mine got pretty bent up during removal.




This is a "roll bender".  Turns out it can be a "roll unbender", too.




I think I can make these strips look good enough to use, but I wonder about the wisdom of placing this kind of trough on the sill seam.  It seems like an invitation for dirty water to enter, and pool.  I'm still thinking about it.

The other trim item on hold is the stainless wing seam strips.  I'll use them, but am mulling whether to polish them, or paint them satin black or body color.

...


At some point in this process, I took the car outside, stepped back, and tried to think of what wasn't right.




"Maybe it's those 50 year old tires," said Inner Engineer, who I hadn't noticed standing next to me.  "And the wheels."

"Yeah, you're right,"  I said, not looking at him.  "I have some new wheels I bought a while ago, but what about tires?"

"What about them?"

"Well, I've been sort of looking at tires, but it's very confusing."

"Why confusing?"  he asked, innocently.

"Well they all have ratings for different categories of performance." I said, getting maybe a little defensive.

"Such as?"

"Well, there are summer, winter, and all-season tires.  Tires have speed ratings, load ratings, and temperature ratings.  And wear and braking traction ratings.  It's confusing."

"You plan on driving this car in the snow?"

"No."

"OK, then summer or all season.  How fast will this car go?"

"Maybe a hundred, I guess."

"Then you don't care what the speed rating is, as long as it's for a passenger car.  How much does the car weigh?"

"Under 2000 pounds, I think."

"Just about any tire for a passenger car will easily handle that. 

"What about the wear rating?" I asked, hoping to stump him.

"Seriously?  I know how you are going to use this car, and believe me, any reasonable tire will age out long before it wears out."

"So what are you saying, then, none of these ratings matter?"

"Not to you they don't."

I couldn't really argue with him.  This car will not conceivably be in any situation that would seriously stress any reasonable passenger car tire.

I went online with a new clarity.  I just wanted a tire that would fit, look decent, and preferably be a brand I've at least heard of, and there was no point in paying for upscale ratings in any category.

I ended up with Hankook 175/70R13s for a decent price.  Many new cars come with Hankook tires, including my Nissan truck. 

When they came in, I had them mounted on my JBW Minilite style wheels.  That made a pretty big difference.  Looks a little high in the front, though.  I'll have to look into that.




By the way, the Hankook tires have a speed rating of 118 MPH, and a load rating of 1047 lbs, but I don't care.


This was fun work, because it makes visible changes.  The wheels and tires came to around $1000.

Comments to Ed at elhollin1@yahoo.com

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