Merry Christmas! Everybody in the family "wound down" tonight after eating a second time and playing a few games together, having a Gingerbread House contest, etc so I said, "off to the garage" to install a Christmas present.

Almost 20 years ago my wife bought me an entry level, though very nice, Craftsman tool box combo for Christmas. For years I had been looking for a way to add a riser, or at least something in the middle and finally this year my wife pulled the trigger on this middle chest with drawers. Sears was running that Black Friday, free shipping, deep discount special back in November so I decided to take a shot to see if a newer model would work/fit on what I had kept all these years. Here are some photos of the install...

First I removed the top chest unit with the two bolts that hold it to the lower cabinet and then I removed the one large drawer in the lower cabinet. The new middle chest was put into position to check the hole alignment and position so its lower drawer was also removed. The size and dimensions were perfect - roughly 12 inches deep by 26 inches wide. The holes were way off and so I just marked new locations and drilled away.







The original slotted holes were in the rear of the cabinet, but the new holes had to placed at the front. Easy breezy and to top it off I used nuts with serrated faces so that one wrench was all that was required to tighten it down.

I thought this was pretty telling...



I don't know where the new unit was made but of course the old tool chest/cabinet combo was purchased years ago. A good number of people are saying that the Craftsman tool boxes are now being made overseas...

Next came the mount of the old chest on top of the new middle chest to check the alignment for holes... way off lol.



New holes had to be drilled after measuring. This process was a little more tricky because the original chest had nut inserts so there was not much room for error. Also, lining this up would be problematic because of the location at the back of the chest and I really did not want to remove so many items from the wall to get it out to roll. So... we measured twice, drilled once, and then got out a portable LED to see exactly where the holes were lining up.





Thankfully that worked well and with very little fanfare the new unit has been installed. Obviously the drawer colors are black, but so be it. At the ultra low cost of the new chest who cares?





Took a few minutes to trim some tool mat and then it was time to reorganize my stuffed drawers and put the new space to good use. The unit on the left houses most of my mechanic tools, the one on the right holds most of my woodworking tools.

Anyone else get that deal from Sears for Christmas? I was thankful that a "retro-fit" went pretty well with what I have.

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Sprayed the final parts that needed to be red in color - the body + doors still need red of course.





The "paint booth" really worked well but it did not see that much in overspray. I used a HF detail gun -



It has a .6 tip, and the SSU was mixed 3:1 with a splash of reducer. I turned the PSI down to 22 or so and the paint atomized nicely and flowed well out of the gun. The gun did not leak at all or have any issues - the pieces are a little difficult to clean but they came out nice with Urethane Reducer used as a solvent to remove the residue. I think I will end up painting the door jams and the hood channel with this gun.

One more shot of the fender in better light....



And I had some clear coat delivered just today. The plan is to take on the panels and parts with 800 grit paper before clear coating with a 1.3 tip. Any suggestions on clear coat let me know.



Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Don't want you all to think I've been lazy!

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

I went with a PVC frame up and 5 mil plastic for a make shift paint booth. A box fan to bring air in and a box fan to exhaust the air. The "air replacement" and fume containment was excellent... until the exhaust fan filter clogged up - then it was a blow out as the overspray found its way out every nook and cranny under the plastic.

The paint is an Eastwood SSU color called Pinup Red. The gun I used was a Devilbiss FLG670, with a twin stage 5 HP compressor that has plenty of flow with those High Flow fittings. CFM was not a problem. As a matter of fact, the overspray seemed to be quite a bit much when compared to my cheapie HVLP guns I have. The flow, atomization, and ultimately the finish of what I sprayed was excellent. I am very happy with it, but I am confused at all of the overspray. My Devilbiss gauge showed 23 psi at the gun, and I had the nice cigar shape spray test pattern from the gun. The tip is a 1.5, and the material knob on the gun was wide open. The paint was mixed according to the manufacturer's recommendations. Any ideas or is it just something I need to live with and just replace filters more often?

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Been so long since my last post, almost forgot where this thread was at! The last month has been very busy but hopefully it is showing signs of letting up a bit as we head into the new year soon. I did get around to start putting up a paint booth - pvc and plastic with filtering/ventilation - and have finished prepping the fenders. I am pretty happy with their look and feel after all the blocking and fine prepping. The scissor stands I have been using for the fenders are lightweight and versatile, just not a good fit for actually spraying. I was able to hit the fenders with primer alright but it took some finagling.

So... it was time to consider what to hang the fenders now that we need to spray the SSU. Enter the versatile 2x4!





I built them on a scissor principle, but much higher. The top sits about 55" off the floor level. These were built so I could have access to both sides, tall enough to be able to shoot the bottom of the fender comfortably, and with a dog leg attached so that the bottom portion of the fender will "stick out" a bit for easier access. They are 40" wide and are obviously built for 55/56 fenders. The good thing is they fold up just about as flat as 4" give or take.



For those of you concerned about the dust... YES, I did wipe down the wood and prime the stands once they were all bolted together and functional.



What have you guys used in the past? I have seen some good stands manufactured by different companies, but I really didn't want to spend the dough because I don't do this full time and I am not sure how many cars i will ever do in my lifetime. Any more DIY on fenders, hood, trunk lid, doors??? your pics would give us good ideas if you have some available.


Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Thanks for the reminder... I work it pretty good and never stay in one place too long. I would hate to have to deal with oil canning.



Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Oh man what a night! :mad:

My plan was to spend a few minutes removing the rear glass. I had stripped up to the edges of the stainless trim as not to scuff them up so to get the rest of the metal there and underneath of the seal (windshield and the doors/quarter windows will come next) the glass and SS trim needed to be removed. Right. A few minutes. Jessup don't kid yourself.

On with the "show"

First off, I say to myself, "Jessup, you better get out the manual and read up just to check it out, there may be a hidden clip or screw or retainer that you can't see."

Now mind you, I have installed and removed the windshield 4-5 times and was very familiar with that and felt pretty confident about the rear glass. I read up on the pages in the manual.



Good, got it, ready to go. Now out to the garage to remove the rear glass.



The seal was still on the soft side, but you could also see places where it had split or come apart and just needed to be replaced.






I used the tool above to pry the edge of the seal along the length of the sheet metal edges and tried to push the glass out like the manual says to do. I spent over an hour trying to nudge, push, tug, shove, cajole, tap, move, slide, pry, coax, cut, pull this 62 year old installation of rear glass from FoMoCo. I decided to cut the seal on the inside of the car.





and it finally started to budge.

How, I have no idea. For some reason it seemed that the passenger side was glued in heavily.



Let me just say that through all of this frustration I was glad of one thing... I did not gorilla the thing out. If I had done so, I would have surely cracked the glass. Look what was hiding under the side trim on the passenger side.



Thank you Ford, no help there lol.

I thought there would be one on the driver's side but there wasn't.



It all came out fine but I am concerned about how to that screw back in there and then put that side trim over the screw after everything is fitted. How will that work?



Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

You still need to take care even with those discs as they still create some heat and it doesn't take much to get warping.

Man this thread is huge! A few more photos of continued progress.
 
 
 
Hopefully I can get all glass out, the door guts out, and then strip the edges underneath the glass seals, etc. They have not been done since the car was new. I do have new seals, but wanted to remove all of the old stuff and then paint. That last paint job about 25 years ago was just taped up to the edges of the trim and sprayed. Surprised things have held up this long.

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

After another several hours of block, prime, block, etc, I am reminding myself that we are saving quite a bit of money by going DIY.

The previous issue with the glaze showing through the primer was just simply too much reducer. Problem easily saved with the most recent coat of primer/surfacer.







Passenger side is almost ready for a top coat, but the driver's side needs a little more attention. I did get around to mechanically stripping most of the white today. Some of the places I stripped on the door had over 1/4" of Bondo 3M Putty! I guess someone years ago had decided the best way to fill the mounting holes for mirrors on either door was to simply hammer the metal down and fill the dent they made.



The plan next is to simply get some primer on this unprotected metal, remove all of the glass and door guts, and strip those edges without getting too much in the interior.







The stripping was done with a couple of these...
http://www.harborfreight.com/4-12-in-polycarbide-abrasive-wheel-60571.html

and a few of these 80 grit...
http://www.harborfreight.com/7-in-80-grit-sanding-discs-3-pc-69983.html

inexpensive tools to strip so much paint, no warp to the panels, and no sand all over the place - although there was quite a bit of dust. Most of the layers underneath of the crow's feet white paint were just fine, but there were places where pitted rust shown up. For those places I did spot blast with sand to get it all out, but things seem very solid and pretty straight.

Once we get going on these doors, it will be time to attempt an installation of 55-57 Thunderbird door handles. I read about the mild custom modification on another site somewhere and it seems pretty simple to do. (well, when I look at it anyway) The irony in the mod is that they are actually cheaper brand new than the passenger car door handles. Go figure.

the only thing I am missing is the video footage of the people that drove by the house and slowed down as they watched me work on this thing half the day :p. One guy with a 66 Fairlane showed up though - had a 427 cammer installed and that thing had ever appearance of an original restoration car (minus the keystones and nice tires) ... of course when you heard the thing coming down the street you lost any inkling that it was stock!


Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com