Auto Restoration 101

This Readers Rides article comes from Justin who is restoring a 1962 Chevy Impala SS. Justin has his own blog about the restoration and customization of his Impala. Go HERE. It’s a great blog so check it out. He is getting ready to remove the body from the frame.

This is a story that I came across on the internet and thought it would be great to share.
A team of Mustang enthusiast are going to restore a 1988 Mustang GT as a tribute to fallen U.S. Army Special Forces Maj. Jeff Calero. Calero was killed in action by an IED Oct. 29, 2007 while on a combat reconnaissance patrol in Kajaki, Afghanistan. The project was started by Sgt. Fabio Falorni after he inquired about the car sitting behind the Army National Guard Amory in Springfield, MA.

This article comes from the Tewksbury Advocat.

Classic car to be restored in honor of soldier
Sat Jan 03, 2009, 10:00 AM EST

Tewksbury - A team of local Mustang enthusiasts has united to restore the 1988 Ford Mustang GT, belonging to fallen U.S. Army Special Forces Maj. Jeff Calero, as a mobile tribute to him. Ed Yessaian, of Tewksbury was amongst many other Mustang enthusiasts who worked on the car.

Calero was killed in action by an IED Oct. 29, 2007 while on a combat reconnaissance patrol in Kajaki, Afghanistan. He had planned to restore the car himself upon his return from active duty.

The project was founded by Sgt. Fabio Falorni of Methuen. Falorni is a veteran of two tours of duty in Iraq. He is presently assigned to Reserve Duty at the Army National Guard Armory in Hudson. He came across the Mustang belonging to Calero on Oct. 29, 2008 while picking up supplies for his unit at the Army National Guard Amory in Springfield.

Falorni saw the car sitting in a fenced in area behind the Armory. As a long time Mustang enthusiast, it piqued his curiosity as to why the car was there. When he inquired about it, he was told about how the car belonged to Maj. Calero who had been killed in action a year ago to that day. Upon Calero’s passing, the family did not know what to do with the car so it remained at the Springfield Armory where it had been parked since he deployed to Afghanistan in 2006. Falorni was informed that Calero had often talked about his plans for the car upon his return from active duty. He was also told that the Commander of the Armory was looking to have the car towed away since the family didn’t claim it. Falorni requested permission from the commander and the Calero family to restore the car. He also reached out to his fellow Mustang enthusiasts to recruit their help in restoring the Mustang. After 10 anxious days of waiting, he was granted permission to come and pick up the car.

Yessaian and Carol Meyer of Marlborough were amongst the many Mustang enthusiasts who responded to Falorni’s request for help. Together, they formed the team that now leads the restoration project. Meyer and Falorni traveled to the Springfield Armory on Nov. 16 to retrieve the car with her enclosed trailer. They met with Sfc. Ed Diaz at the Springfield Armory that day. Diaz spoke fondly of his friend Calero and his “illogical devotion” to his Mustang. Diaz expressed his and the family’s sincerest gratitude for the undertaking of the project. It is thru Diaz that Falorni learned of the specific plans Calero had for restoring his car.

As they pulled away from the armory with Calero’s car safely secured in the trailer, Diaz saluted them.

Calero’s Mustang was delivered to Falorni’s home in Methuen, where the initial prep work was started. A planning meeting was quickly organized and plans were laid out with Yessaian’s help, whose auto body restoration experience was tapped to coordinate the work.

To promote the project, the team leaders, Falorni, Yessaian and Meyer, decided to enter the car as a display at the Town Fair Tire World of Wheels car show that is being held Jan. 9-11 at the Bayside Expo Center in Boston. The Mustang, in its unrestored condition, and the team will be on hand along with members of Calero’s unit to talk about the project and honor Calero for his service to his country. They will sell t-shirts and wristbands to help raise funds for the completion of the project.

Donations are also being accepted thru Citizen’s Bank. Checks can be made payable to Project Fallen Hero. All proceeds will go to the restoration of the car with any remaining funds to be given to the Maj. Jeff Calero Scholarship Fund.

I found this article on www.seattlepi.com.
It’s an interesting story and I am curious as to how it will turn out. It’s about a Seattle car collector who purchased a car that the French government claims is their national treasure. The car once belonged to the Duc de Montpensier. When the car arrived in the United States it was shown unrestored at Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and took top honors.

Seattle classic-car buff losing prize to France

Paris says American’s $927,500 purchase violated its culture law

By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
P-I REPORTER

Federal officials want to seize an antique automobile bought by a Seattle collector because the French government considers the 1919 Turcat-Mery — once owned by a descendant of the royal Bourbon dynasty — to be a national treasure.

Charles Morse is ready to return the car. He just wants the $927,518 he paid for it.

Morse, a connoisseur of classic cars, was in Paris a few years ago for an automobile event called Retromobile when he learned of the Turcat-Mery and later decided to buy it, according to a court document filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rich Cohen.

“It is a very special car,” said Morse, who was reached this week at his home in Sun Valley, Idaho. “It’s a one-off automobile with a wonderful history to it. It was built for the Duc de Montpensier, an heir to the French throne.

Read the rest HERE

Here is what’s been happening since the last update.

When we started on this car it sat real low in the back end. I thought for sure that some of the leaf springs were broken or just plain wore out. But if you read the earlier articles you might remember that the rear spring mounts on the frame were bent in because of a weak area on the frame. We opted to take our chances and rebuild the old leaf springs hoping that the repairs to the frame would solve the problem of it sitting low. New springs are available but they are somewhat expensive. I thought it would be worth it to take our chances and rebuild the originals. We did an inexpensive rebuild to the springs just in case they don’t work and we have to replace them in the future.

The springs were disassembled and lightly sandblasted to remove the rust scale. We then purchased a quart of Rustoleum satin black from the local hardware store. I thought for this application it would be perfect especially five dollars a quart compared to fifty for automotive paint. We thinned it down a little with some lacquer thinner so that we could spray it through a gun. I was impressed with the paint because it really is tough. The downside is it dries slow. I purchased some Poly-Slide from Macs Auto Parts. It goes in between the leafs to prevent squeaks and makes the springs work better because they slide against each other easier. We then re-assembled them back together. So lets hope they work as good as they look.

This car has a hydraulic pump that runs all four side windows, the front seat and the convertible top. The pump was sent off to get rebuilt at a reputable repair shop. Later they contacted us saying that it couldn’t be rebuilt because the gear inside was frozen but we could update to a newer pump for nine hundred dollars. I really didn’t want to do that because we are trying to keep the car all original plus I want to keep the costs down for the customer.

So a few times a week for about a month I would surf eBay hoping to find something. I was lucky enough to find one in Canada. It was off of a 1951 Lincoln Cosmopolitan. The description in the auction said there was fluid still in the lines when it was unhooked. I kinda doubt that now.

This is the original pump beside the eBay pump. Notice the fluid on the floor when we took the eBay pump apart. The fluid had turned to what appeared to be sand and it smelled horrible.

It all has worked out good so far because with both pumps I will be able to make one good one. The gear in the eBay pump was good.

The frozen gear is in the case on the right. The eBay pump case is the left.

We started the body repairs to the left upper quarter panel. It was a nice panel to begin with but it needs to be nice and straight for the new paint. The body filler is super thin and there was only one small ding on the entire panel. This shows just how straight a factory panel is…..not very straight. A small skim coat of filler is better than a whole lot of primer to fill the factory waves.

Stay tuned!

This is what Ed had to say about his Galaxie Convertible “It’s a Galaxie 500XL Convertible with the 390 4V HP option. I picked it up in Saskatchewan from a guy who kept it mechanically sound, but didn’t do bodywork (my specialty). It was an original poop-brown metallic, so I repainted it the same-year Sunshine Yellow.”

Nice looking car Ed! I think the car looks great with the 5 spokes.

I received a Christmas card that had the art work of Angela Trotta Thomas on it. I had seen her art before and I even have her website bookmarked on my computer. I have always liked her painting called “Out on the town”. I thought it would be a great time to post an article with one of her Christmas paintings. She paints some really great Christmas art with classic cars and also Lionel trains. She is the only artist ever to be licensed by the Lionel Toy Train Company. She also has been chosen four times as the feature artist of the “Concours d’ Elegance of the Eastern United States.

Make sure to visit her sites www.angelatrottathomas.com and also www.angelafineart.com

This one is titled “Christmas Visiting”

Image used with permission