Work continues in the Shadetree Garage ….

Monday night, June 10, 2024Today I continued work on my oil bath air cleaner. I had applied glazing putty to parts of the lid and the main housing, and sanding it all down and have it ready for what I hope will be the final coat of primer.

So far I’ve been sanding with 180 grit. The last coat of primer I’ll sand with 320. I’m having a couple of minor issues on the lid due I believe to the damn oil contamination. I’ll wash all of it down with wax and grease remover prior to the next coat of primer. I just ordered a quart of sealer that should be here in a couple of days. I don’t want there to be issues with oil contamination, etc. so I figured a coat or primer before painting would be a good move.

Any experience I can get with spraying primer/sealer/paint is good practice.

WHAT GUN AM I USING? I had a couple of the cheapest Harbor Freight “purple” spray guns that I used when I painted my brother’s Simplicity Power Max tractor. They didn’t get clean as well as they should have been, and that’s the secret to keeping any spray gun in good working order.

I purchased two of the next-step-up (in the Harbor Freight World of spray guns) and bought two of the green spray guns. These guns have the pattern control on the end of the gun just above the fluid control knob. And so far, the one gun I’ve been using for primer does a very good job of laying down a smooth coat of primer.

I bought an R500 clone spray gun, which comes highly recommended for an LVLP gun. I have enough compressor capacity to run any regular spray gun, HTE or HVLP. For now I’ll plan to use the green Harbor Freight guns for primer and sealer, then we’ll see how the R500 runs.

THOUGHTS … OF FIBER REINFORCED FILLER?? Yeah,, I had thoughts last night of why don’t I simply make as many of my less major rust repairs with fiber reinforced filler. Cut out the rust damaged areas, and fill that bitch! Now there’s a larger area behind the driver’s door that’s going to need metal, but the smaller spots visible now could probably give me 10 years or so of service with cutting the rest and using fiberglass filler.

In the end, the Plymouth is NOT giong to be a restomod car. I just want a nice paint job and repairs of the rust.

Anyway, the real concern is I want to make sure I get the car completed and back on the road. Right now, I’m still thinking of delaying body work until the fall.

FIRST REPAIRS? As mentioned earlier, the fuel leak at the filler tube is job 1; the second change will be to install seat belts.