Auto Restoration 101

Here are some more pictures of the Mohs Ostentatienne Opera Sedan when the car was picked up for the restoration.

Also here’s some interesting history about this car as copied from an information card.
Specifications: Length 248″ Height 69″ Width 90″ Weight 5740 lbs Tread 74″

Designed and built by Bruce Baldwin Mohs- Mohs Seaplane Corporation, Madison Wisconsin.
This is the one and only prototype which contains 30 unique features including patented safety features not found on other cars of the late 60’s. It was driven to the engineering departments of the big 3 in Detroit to demonstrate and market the features. Some were many years ahead of their time and are now “standard equipment” on cars today. The car was built on a special order chassis by International Corp. and has a 304 cu. in. V8. The tires are 7.50 x 20 Denman custom built wide whitewalls filled with pure nitrogen. (The car was stored for 19 years and the tires still had 20 psi. 12 psi was added as a testament to this technology)

Bruce Mohs turned the car over to Fred Beyer founder of “Hot Rod High” who coordinated the preparation of the car for the 2009 Iola car show. The car was removed from storage and transported
with assistance from Bob Abitz, a retired auto body instructor from Freedom Wisconsin. The mechanical work, brakes and electrical was done with help form students at Shawano High School’s Automotive program. The body work and painting was done by Jay Abitz and students from Freedom High School Auto Club. The final assembly and detailing was by Mike Carnahan and Fred Beyer.

More parts get painted.

The doors are painted. We use baling wire to hang them from a pipe. This lets us spray the jambs along with the exterior.

Close up of the left door.

Here is a shot of the fenders after they were sprayed with the base coat. The base dries out flat with no gloss.

Shown here sprayed with the clear coat. We usually apply 3 to 4 coats of clear. The original paint on the car was “single stage” which means that it had no clear coat. Older cars of this era, especially metallic colors such as this, would fade very quickly and lose their gloss.

When we did the color mapping for the exterior color we found some good paint underneath the dash panel that was not faded. For this car we mixed a “two stage” formula which means base-coat/clear-coat. This will give the car an updated paint finish and also protect the metallic in the color from fading and chalking. No, it’s not 100% original but the paint will last for a very long time and will be easy to take care of, just like the tough finish on a new car. Also since it has clear on it, the color will have more depth to it than it did originally.

Here is the right side inner fender. We painted them a semi-gloss black.

This post is courtesy of Hot Rods

As seen this top area has a low spot down the length of it. Because we know we had it straight during the bare metal phase we know that this is mostly in the copper plating itself. During plating and the electric process that takes place copper tends to build on the outer edges more then the center because of the different amperage draws of the metal closest to the anode. It helps to take photos in the bare metal stage and mark them as to the problem areas you want to hit first. We do this all the time and it really helps the efficiency. When using a straight edge we found it to only be 1/32 of an inch deep and we have plenty of copper to work with.

As we continue blocking the remaining highs and lows come to the surface.

Unlike a car or trucks body where you can pull out a spray gun and apply more primer relatively easy the plating process is much more time consuming and costly, as seen we have a few cut through’s to the bare steel. This will have to be replated, but because it is barely through a “STRIKE” of copper can be applied which is a thin coating compared to a full plate and only takes 15 minutes in the tank.

Sometimes you will encounter a larger area like this top section that needs more then just a strike. Unfortunately you can not just plate a small area like using a primer gun as the whole bumper needs to be submerged in the tank thereby re coating the whole bumper and blocking it again. This is why it is so crucial to find the “enemy low spots” as soon as possible to eliminate sanding too much each phase.

Just recently Jay Abitz sent me a bunch of photos of the restoration work done on the Mohs Opera Sedan from start to finish. This is the first post of many on the restoration process. Along the way we’ll find out more about the history of the car and it’s special features.

The Mohs Rebirth by Jay Abitz

The Mohs Ostentatienne Opera Sedan was brought to Jay Abitz and his auto body class at Freedom High School in January of 2009. The goal of the restoration was to return the Opera Sedan to its original condition. The Opera Sedan came directly from Bruce Mohs personal collection. The Sedan was in rough condition with significant rust damage and poor paint condition. Students began their work by removing the chrome bumpers, body trim, and other extra parts like headlight and tail light bezels. The old lacquer paint was stripped by sanding, grinding, and scraping it off. Once the paint was removed the rust was cut out and replaced with new metal. There were more than 12 rust holes cut out of the car and replaced, along with the fabrication new full rocker panels on each side of the vehicle. When the cutting, welding, and fabrication was over, it was time to shape the body.

The body was originally made out of four foot sections of sheet metal brazed together and its contour was shaped with metal reinforced filler. Many of the needed materials during the body repair process were donated by 3M. To repair this substrate, students’ straightened metal, replaced old filler, and reshaped the car from front to back and side to side.

Once the body was repaired epoxy primer/surfacer was applied to the vehicle. All of the primer, sealer, and paint materials were donaed by PPG. The Opera Sedan received multiple coats in two stages of primer and was wet sanded between applications to assure a smooth finish. The Opera Sedan was prepped for paint, then the sealer, basecoat, and clear coat was applied. After the paint had cured, students color sanded, buffed, and detailed the Opera Sedan. The custom 20” wheels were also repaired and repainted. The FHS students along with Instructor Jay Abitz and assistant Bob Abitz put in over 400 hours during the repair process.

The Mohs reborn made its debut at the Freedom High School annual car show hosted by the Freedom Auto Club. The restoration project was an effort of FHS students and these four men:
Jay Abitz: FHS automotive instructor and restoration coordinator.
Bob Abitz: Former FHS auto instructor and restoration assistant.
Fred Beyer: Former Shawno HS auto instructor and project coordinator.
Bruce Mohs: Designer and inventor of the Mohs Ostentatienne Opera Sedan.

The Opera Sedan was next featured at the 2009 Iola Car Show in the “teamed to learn” section. Fred Beyer and Bruce Mohs presented to various groups information about the car, its origin, and restoration. Freedom High School and the Freedom Auto Club were represented by instructor Jay Abitz and Bob Abitz. The FHS restoration was also featured in the August 09 issue of Hot Rod Magazine. The Mohs Ostentatienne Opera Sedan now resides in the Wisconsin Automotive Museum in Hartford, WI.

Below are photos of the car being loaded on a trailer for delivery….. the restoration is about to begin.

All photos courtesy of Jay Abitz

I just read on azcentral.com that the 1948 Tucker was bid up to 1.5 million but it didn’t sale. The high bid did not meet the reserve set by Justin Cole of Benchmark Classics.

The Tucker Convertible was very fortunate to only receive minor damages from a severe storm that hit the Russo and Steele Car Auction in Scottsdale on Thursday evening. The storm blew down two tents that contained the collector cars. Damage was estimated at over $1 million.

Justin Cole had guaranteed that the damages to the Tucker convertible would be completely repaired for the new owner. More HERE

This is a paid post from Moneysupermarket.com

Breakdown Cover

In today’s world of commuting and busy roads, it is essential to be prepared for the event of your car breaking down. Having a strategy in place for the event of a breakdown is a good idea and by following these simple steps brought to you by Moneysupermarket, you can be easily prepared. It is particularly important to be prepared over the winter months and by taking these simple steps you can significantly reduce the stress a breakdown can cause you.

-Make sure you give your car a winter ‘health check’, ensuring that your oil levels are adequate, break fluid and water levels are correct and that tyre tread and pressure is within the legal limits. Also be sure to top up the anti freeze in your radiator.

-Keep warm clothes in your car in case you have a breakdown. This may seem extreme but the amount of people who get stranded in their vehicles overnight during the winter has made the news recently.

-If you do break down try to pull over somewhere safe. If this happens to be on the hard shoulder do make sure you get out of your vehicle through the passenger door in order to be safe.

Whilst many people may consider breakdown cover to be an expense purchase, and resent the cost, they do not realise how valuable that this cover is if they break down. The cost of breaking down can be a considerable amount, and in most cases you will not be expecting the extra expenditure. By having breakdown cover you will have piece of mind that if you do have a breakdown you will be covered, making winter driving in particular less daunting. Compare cover from multiple companies with Moneysupermarket, and become closer to getting cheap breakdown cover which is suitable for your needs.

Author: Clare Westwood
Moneysupermarket.com Financial Group