Auto Restoration 101

The next step in our restoration was to disassemble the chassis and prepare it to get sandblasted.
We removed all of the front suspension and the rear axle. I also removed the pedal assembly, brake lines, master cylinder, and the steering column assembly.

I used a spring compressor that compresses the front coil springs and keeps them attached to the lower a-arm for removal. Once the lower a-arm is unbolted from the frame, I then let the pressure off of the springs to remove them from the a-arm. These suspensions are fairly simple to work on and everything came apart very easily. The threads for the lower spindle pivots on the lower a-arms are worn out so I will be looking for some replacement a-arms. The king pins, tie rod ends and upper a-arm shafts are also worn out and will need replacing.

This shows the lower a-arm removed and the upper a-arm still attached to the frame.

Here is the brake drum assembly with the spindle still attached. I will rebuild these as well. Also shown is the coil spring and the lower a-arm.

I removed the rear axle as an assembly for now. Later I will tear it down for a rebuild.

This is the frame attached to my “low buck frame rotisserie“. We are ready to do some cleaning on the frame to remove the heavy grease and undercoating. This will make it easier for the sandblaster to do his job and also make the frame clean up a lot better.

My apologies for the website technical problems. It seems that my hosting company has been working on some server problems. Hopefully it will be resolved soon. Stay tuned…… More articles coming soon.

The Stout Scarab was a very unique car especially for the 1930’s. They had a futuristic design for their time with Art Deco styling. The car was made by William B. Stout and designed by John Tjaarda. There were only nine made and possibly only five that still exist. The Scarab had a lot of unique features such as unibody construction, independent suspension with four coil springs, and a rear engine flathead Ford mated to a Stout built three-speed transaxle.

William B. Stout (1880-1956) was known for his help with the Ford Tri-motor aircraft.

For further reading visit these sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stout_Scarab

http://www.ohtm.org/35stout.html

http://www.automotivehistoryonline.com/stout.htm

http://barista.media2.org/?p=3063

This was about 2 years ago……A friend handed me this pack of sanding blocks that he had just got at the SEMA show. I looked at them and thought “yeah, right…. like I would use these funny looking things on anything” and said “thanks” and then we went on about some car repairs. So I have had these things lying around in the shop for a while and never used them. Mostly because I really hadn’t found a need for them until a few days ago. I was sanding primer on the underside of some 1929 Rolls Royce fenders. Why would I sand the underside? Well, it’s a special car and they have to be really, really nice. While I was sanding I kept thinking to myself “I wish I had some sort of soft sander that would conform to the shape I needed”. You know how it is, a light went off in my head and I grabbed a Soft Sander and they sure made it a lot easier. Would I use them to block sand the outside of the car straight? Probably not, but I do know that I wll use them for concave parts that are hard to sand and also tight areas that are hard to use a regular sanding block on. They will also work great for sanding inner fender panels, door jambs, and the undersides of hoods and trunk lids.

Check out their website Soft Sanders

Well, I hate to tell you this…….but really there is no easy way. No matter what you use it’s still a lot of hard work.
I have yet to try Eastwoods “Under Gone”. Their website says it is for undercoating that can be imprinted with a thumbnail. It comes in an aerosol can, it’s also biodegradable and loosens the undercoating from the metal. Most of the undercoating that I have to remove is over forty years old and hard as a rock.

Photo courtesy of The Eastwood Company

The method that I use most often is with a scraper and nothing else. A real sharp scraper that will get under it and pop it loose from the metal.

I have also used a heat gun which works fairly well because it softens it up making it easier to scrape off. I have also used a torch which works really good. The only problem with using a torch is it catches the undercoating on fire, which really smokes up the shop. The smoke smells really bad and is not good to breathe. Then it falls on the floor burning so you have all of these little tar fires on the floor. To add to the fun, you have to be careful where you step or you will have hot tar stuck to the soles of your shoes. This is really bad if you forget to take your shoes off before you walk into the house.

So no matter which way you want to try, you are still going to need a scraper, some time, and some muscle. And if you have a big job like this to do. I know how you feel!

If you have never replaced brake shoes on a car with drum brakes you might be a little overwhelmed when you remove the hub and see all of the springs. It’s really not that hard if you take your time. It’s best to do only one side at a time. That way you can look at the opposite side for reference. If you are doing a total rebuild of the rear axle and are removing both sides it would be a good idea to take some pictures with a digital camera and download them onto your computer for future reference.
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