Volvo P1800ES...kinda

In reply to NOHOME :

Oh believe me - the thought has crossed my mind. Beyond the financial incentive, there is simple fact I have a ton of emotional investment into that car. I still have the issue of where to put it, but I have that problem now.  If I did that, I'd probably just build my ES into a vintage racer eventually since the rust repairs wouldn't need to be very pretty for that use. The other problem is I really don't want to get rid of much of the current fleet except for the big van and maybe the TDI.

Still following over here, Pete-

Glad to see you're back on the Molvo. Amazing how difficult it can be to just pick up the wrench/bondo/sandpaper/welder, but once you do, the proverbial dam is broken and it doesn't seem so dire after all. Static vs dynamic friction and all that...

damen

I mean, who here does not enjoy a relaxing spell of paint stripping! Decided that the time had come to remove the paint from the hood since the plan is to be shooting epoxy on stuff soon. ( the word "soon" being open to interpretation in my world)  Epoxy is meant for bare metal and the hood needed to be made bare.

Weapon of choice this time was "Aircraft Paint Stripper" Not cheap at over $50 a gallon, but hey, if its good enough for airplanes, it must be good right?

And it is. It only does one layer at a time, but it goes fast; you can actually hear the paint come off as it crackles and bubbles. Seems to be mostly one layer at a time, and this car had three paint layers plus primer to get off, so it took a bit of time. But hardly any effort and no dust! Apply, drink half a beer, scrape off the loose stuff, reapply and finish beer. Repeat as necessary.

Going to guess about 3 lbs of stuff came off the car. It does have an odor about it!

Happy to see zero rust and no damage to the panel. Stripping this by hand with abrasives would have been no fun. As it I have about 1.5 hours into both sides of the panel and half an hour to go to finish.

Pete

Very nice.  Chemical paint stripper is oddly satisfying to use.

Does the "Aircraft" stuff have much odor? 

NOHOME said:

In reply to Ian F :

Any chance she would cut you a good deal on the ES? A major liquidation of the stationary automotive art collection  to fund the purchase would put you in a good place as far as cleaning up the car hobby side.

At worst, if your project horde is worth  only 10k  altogether, and her ES is worth 20k, the 10k difference is a LOT less than you are going to need to get your ES on the road. Added bonus, you will have cleared the Gordian knot of cars in the stable.

This is all assuming that her ES up to your standards already and would not become a project?

 

Pete

YES!

In reply to USERNAMETAKEN :

Do you like the smell of ammonia?  Myself, I prefer the smell of solvents, which is good because I will be using a lot of solvent to wipe the non-catalized paint out of the engine compartment using rags soaked in laquer thinner.

If anyone knows why the "aircraft" moniker is applied to this stuff, pray tell.

NOHOME said:

In reply to USERNAMETAKEN :

Do you like the smell of ammonia?  Myself, I prefer the smell of solvents, which is good because I will be using a lot of solvent to wipe the non-catalized paint out of the engine compartment using rags soaked in laquer thinner.

 

If anyone knows why the "aircraft" moniker is applied to this stuff, pray tell.

I believe that mostly comes from being compatible with aluminum. 

Does not necessarily mean it’s compatible with magnesium, however. 

In reply to NOHOME :

Most aircraft paints are epoxy based which reacts with dichloromethane (the ammonia smell). The paint is epoxy based for durability and weight reasons as paint is heavy on something the size of a commercial jet. The downside is that when you strip an aircraft, you have to be really careful to clean up afterwards because dichloromethane reacts with aluminum, magnesium, and titanium.

In reply to The0retical :

Brings up the question of how best to proceed after the scraping of paint is done? I was going to go with the garden hose and wash the stuff off then blast air to dry.

Pete

NOHOME said:

In reply to USERNAMETAKEN :

Do you like the smell of ammonia? 

Reminds me of cleaning the bathroom...

I've actually had good luck on the TVR with the citrus stripper so far.  Seems to cut thru the paint and primer just fine, but leaves the fiberglass alone.  And I prefer citrus-smell to pee-smell.

NOHOME said:

In reply to The0retical :

Brings up the question of how best to proceed after the scraping of paint is done? I was going to go with the garden hose and wash the stuff off then blast air to dry.

 

Pete

That's how they clean the aircraft when they're fully repainted, though typically with a pressure washer. I usually only did  touch ups when I had to pull panels and I'd just use a spray bottle with 99% isopropyl alcohol. That's primarily because we ordered it in 55 gallon drums and didn't have to tow the plane off to the wash station.

Most aerospace strippers are hydrogen peroxide based now as it doesn't react with aluminum or titanium (though it still reacts with magnesium.) The dichloromethane based strippers are old school and fell out of favor since it was possible to not get it all then have it lead to corrosion. It's also why most of them carry the "*Not for Aircraft Use" warning.

Well, it got the lotion AND the hose!

Ended up leaving the last coat of stripper to soak overnight. Then used the hose to blast off the gunk and remove as much of the stripper as possible. The ribbed side was a PITA because everything hides under the ribs, including the water. Ended up flooding and sloshing the underside with lacquer thinner to flush out the water. Wont mix like alcohol but it does congeal and make blobs that can me mopped up. LOT of lacquer thinner and lots of compressed air in a not so well ventilated shop is a fun experience.

Will finish from here with 80 grit then epoxy primer.

Pete

So this happened on Friday

It feels like 2018 has seen this project going backwards rather than forward. The original plan called for driving the car as a primer rat rod this summer and then blow it apart for paint next year.  Realizing that I would not want to blow the car apart once it was running, I started on the body.  The engine got yanked because it was in the way of repainting the engine bay. The brakes and lines will now come out for the same reason.  The good news is that it will let me do a better job of painting the engine bay.  

On the positive note side, the engine was a doodle to extract. All the bellhousing bolts are accessible and nothing really gets in the way of anything else.  

And as I do every year when the Volvo starts to feel like a chore, I go fishing. first time I have gone for Walley in the mouth of the St Clair river. It was a fun day and not bad results for a "first time in a new spot"

Pete

I once caught a fish so big that we didn't have anything big enough to lift and weigh it; so we took a picture of it --- and the picture weighed 28 lbs.

Nice progress on the car.  I've been helping my best buddy from college get his '62 Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2 running/braking again after a 10 year slumber.  Fun stuff - old skool!

And about six hours of beer, lacquer thinner and sandpaper later we are this far along. See that neat grinder with the long proboscis? It is a life saver when trying to sand in this kind of environment. Another four or five hours and it should be ready to coat.

Speaking of painting, if I shoot primer, I have 24 hours to topcoat it before I have to scuff the stuff before I can paint it. Getting paint from my BASF contact is a month long process. I am not that patient of a person. Since I still have a lot of the Valspar paint tha did not harden, I think I will mix some up and do a test panel; hope is that the failure to harden was something I did and it will work out after all. Thinking a blue English wheel mayhaps?

Edit:

Apologize for the somewhat endless and tedious bodywork post. The work is not that exciting  ( kinda the definition of watching paint not dry) and progress feels like it is just not happening, but being able to look back and see where I have been, kind keeps me motivated to keep trucking along.

Pete

In reply to NOHOME :

Looks real good, Pete.  Not everyone has the patience for body-work.  My arthritic back usually gets cranky about half-way thru the project, which makes me speed thru the remainder.

So what's the deal with the V8 pics above?  You just happen to have it on the hook for something else?  Clean motor, btw.

Scott

In reply to USERNAMETAKEN :

The engine is the one that I just yanked from the Molvo. Had to pull it out in order to redo the engine compartment paint since the paint never fully cured.

NOHOME said:

See that neat grinder with the long proboscis? It is a life saver when trying to sand in this kind of environment.

Pete

 

If you aren't aware 3M makes belts that work for that $35 Harbour freight bandfile, great for knocking down welds in hard to reach places. They aren't cheap but they work really well .

https://www.amazon.com/3M-33446-Cubitron-File-Belt/dp/B00PB3OFSO

Adam

In reply to NOHOME :

My mistake.  I've not gotten around to reading the entire build thread.  I started following it when you were part way into the bodywork.

All one color for the first time in who knows how long! That color being green. The epoxy only needed to cover the bare metal spots, but by the time I did that it was going to be pretty much covered anyways, and the $tuff is paid for, so I went for full epoxy coverage. Gives me a bit of gun time also so I can remember how that works.

Waiting a couple of hours and it will then become gray. That will be the Featherfill poly high fill. I have like 48 hours to lay that on or else I have to scuff the epoxy for adhesion. 

this weekend is the Concours of America or whatever it's called, right here in Plymouth MI.   I've seen a ton of fantastic cars driving around all weekend, but the one that jumped out at me today was a P1800ES.  Fantastic styling.   I have loved the looks of these since i was a kid.

All is well that ends well....last night did not go well with the featherfill poly primer. I mixed up a half gallon and set at at. Then it would not come out of the gun, so I tried another gun. Then I ran out of time and the stuff set up in the gun(s) and the pail that I had mixed up cause this was going to go so fast and easy

So, I made this $50 paperweight. This brick was hot enough that you could not pick it up with bare hands. I actually let it cure outside.

After spending a lot of time cleaning the guns I had one seemingly working. So I headed out early this moring and tried it with some non-catalyzed primer. Encouraged that it was working, I did this.

Truth be told, I was more excited by the green epoxy primer! But it is one color and it is another step toward paint. Figure another two sessions of blocking with the featherfill and a layer of urethane and it will be done. The featherfill is much like bodyfill in that 90% of what you put on ends up on the floor.

Pete

Oh hell yes

Is momentum building? It feels like momentum is building...