update on Rich's build

[mustang6984]

Ah...the pics I have seen (all out doors) the sun makes it look darker. Still...looks oh so nice! I should hope mine will when I finish it.
(thanks)

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks guys!.
I'd love another roadtrip in it, but Weather here is too iffy for long trips. I'm definetly going to have to cancel my Florida trip for this year. The actual moving thing is something I'm not looking forward to, but any of the few '57 forum guys that have been to my house will totally understand why I'm happy to move from the immediate area. I'll miss being so close to the old 66 historic district....you never know what you'll see just 2 blocks from my house, but the entire San Jacinto area that was built in the 20's has too many abandoned, decaying properties. Maybe one or two houses on each block has been rebuilt and is kept up. In the block across the street, 4 of the 8 houses have been vacant for years. Most of the properties in San Jacinto have been bought by slumlords for rentals. LOL...one house across the street, maybe 1K sq ft, has had 15 people living in it for 2 or 3 years now....6 adults, 9 kids!
Timing is actually good since I now have the '57 on the road....at least I'll be able to get in a few weekend trips now and then. It would have been really frustrating if I had to stop working on it before it was roadworthy.
Mustang 6984...your name is Hugh? The color is from a 2003 or 2005 Chevy HHR. Dark Tarnished Silver is the name. I like the fact it changes so much with the available light, but it always stays neutral ......something I was paying a lot of attention to when choosing a color. Most silvers will take on a different cast/hue when the lighting changes..greenish, or purple, or ??. This one doesn't. Only the tonal range changes (dark to light).

[mustang6984]

It's a smart looking ride! Hope to get to see it in person one of these days on my travels.

[RICH MUISE]

My lost speedometer fiasco..........I got a call from Speedhut yesterday. The post office delivered the package yesterday postmarked Jan 3rd!!!!!
How's this for customer service........I told William just to ups or Fed Ex them back to me and I'd pay for shipping. He said they'd cover the shipping, but asked if I needed 2 speedometers. When I said no, he told me they would refund the purchase back to my PayPal account!! Especially since I never even asked, that's CUSTOMER SERVICE in anyone's opinion!

[mustang6984]

The U.S. Post Office could take lessons from them...SHOULD take lessons from them! Congrats!

My lost speedometer fiasco..........I got a call from Speedhut yesterday. The post office delivered the package yesterday postmarked Jan 3rd!!!!!
How's this for customer service........I told William just to ups or Fed Ex them back to me and I'd pay for shipping. He said they'd cover the shipping, but asked if I needed 2 speedometers. When I said no, he told me they would refund the purchase back to my PayPal account!! Especially since I never even asked, that's CUSTOMER SERVICE in anyone's opinion!

[hiball3985]

Back in the 80's I used a mail service for developing pictures ( Seattle Filmworks ) My Colorado vacation pictures never arrived, they confirmed they mailed them. I wrote them off as lost, then to my shock the USPS showed up with them exactly one year later. Where the hell were they for a year?

[mustang6984]

Someone's back seat...cause he didn't have time to deliver all the mail one day and still get to the tavern for Taco Tuesday with his buddies! LOL!!!

Back in the 80's I used a mail service for developing pictures ( Seattle Filmworks ) My Colorado vacation pictures never arrived, they confirmed they mailed them. I wrote them off as lost, then to my shock the USPS showed up with them exactly one year later. Where the hell were they for a year?

[RICH MUISE]

Forgot to post this. Instead of having Speedhut refund my money for the speedometer, I told them just to make me a matching tachometer. Works for both of us since I was going to order one when I had the $ anyways.

[mustang6984]

Win-win for all...except the stinking Post Office! If the government runs it...then it is gonna be substandard!

[RICH MUISE]

Got the matching tachometer delivered this week. Probably be a month or so before I can get back to projects on the car. The post office just yesterday sent me another email saying they're still searching for the lost package, lol.
My '57 is over in the new house now to get it out of the way of moving stuff out of the old house. We're hoping to move our furniture and stuff there next weekend. Good thing we were not planning on this week. Wind chill of 19 degrees most of yesterday. Freezing rain, snow, fallen branches all over our old yard/driveway. Almost afraid to see the new house. Had to turn the heat back on yesterday!! URGGG!!!

[hiball3985]

I feel your pain. Two days of high winds but 90 temp, branches and crap all over the yard, lost one small tree. I worked for 2 hours cleaning and haven't made a dent 

[RICH MUISE]

Wow....about 9 months since my last update.
Most of that time was spent on the new '57 house. Lots and lots of mostly redecorating/cosmetic stuff with a few remodelling projects. I've been a plumber, bricklayer, painter, wallpaperer, finish carpenter, electrician, gutterman (?), appliance installer, drywaller, tiler, and probably others I've forgot.
Before we bought the house, my plans for last summer were to repair/repaint the roof on my '57. That obviously didn't happen, but at least I got the new garage about 75% completed. I finally put a hold on the wife's honey-do list to get at least a few things done on the car. Show and cruising season around here starts in the beginning of april, with the DFW Goodguys April 3 I think. I was also getting worried about the roof on the car maybe developing some rust issues bad enough to require welding to fix, so I sure didn't want to put it off any longer and maybe have to get into new headliner removal, etc. Last weekend I finally got over to the old house and picked up my compressor. It's up and running, although not in it's final resting place as that's the one corner of the garage I hadn't restored the drywall as of yet.

The problem with the roof on my '57.........paint around the driprail seam sealer was lifting and bubbling. It started a few years ago, and I made the decision to repair / repaint the roof seperatly from when I repainted the bottom of the car in '16.
Yesterday I lit up the 4" grinder with a flap disc, stood back for a minute, took a deep breath, said sheeeeeeet, and started taking paint off the roof edges at the drip rail.
Up until yesterday, I thought I had made two rookie mistakes way back when I initially did the roof about 8 years ago. I thought I had laid down the seam sealer on metal that had only a coating left from the zinc phosphate treatment. That would have been the two mistakes right there. After cleaning out some of the drip rail last night, I realized I had only made one mistake, and that was leaving the zinc phosphate coating under the epoxy primer. The seam sealer was in fact put over the epoxy primer, as it should have been, and it was the epoxy primer that was having the adhesion problem due to the phosphate coating.
To be continued

[RICH MUISE]

continued.....I do not have an adhesion problem with the paint other than around the driprails because that was the only areas I had left the Zinc Phosphate (Por-15 Metal Ready) coating. The rest of the roof I had jitterbugged to shiney metal prior to the epoxy primer.
The good news is there was only surface rust as expected in those areas where it was lifting, but nothing serious.
Am I going to use the zinc phospate treatment again this time prior to repaint? Absolutely! When I left the coating in the gutters, I was working under the wrong information that the coating would help improve adhesion, something I realized was wrong before I started working on the main body of the car.
The zinc phosphate is needed to convert the rust (I forget the chemistry and technical name), and the coating left will protect metal from rerusting until you get around to painting. The coating can be left on if you're only por-15'ing over it,  but any other automotive primers require the coating to be removed completely.
Understanding that last sentence can make the difference of tons of work and hundreds of dollars in materials.........I found out the hard way.
Whatever seam sealer I used in those driprails was very dood. It stuck very well, very tough and still very elastic, which makes it a chore removing. I almost wished I hadn't done such a good job forcing it into all the nooks and crannies. It took 3 hours yesterday to remove it from about 2 feet. Got all kinds of scrapers, carving tools,picks, etc, but the best one I've found to work well is a carbide grout removal tool that I just bought a few weeks ago for you guessed it.a house project, lol

[djfordmanjack]

Ouch, Rich ! It even hurts to think about cutting into fresh paint and after all the work that you put into finishing the roof.
Those drip rails are one of the weakest points in a 57 Ford, right next to the cowl vent drains. the design of the rain gutters, roof skin and inner reinforcement is plain horrible, especially since Ford did not use primer or any rust protection inside. Sedans are better off than wagons, in that the C pillar slopes down an automatically drains condensed water to the quarter panels. That rain gutter area mostly rusts from INSIDE ! Having a Southern or Western car it might just be a problem with the original seam sealer crackin and letting moisture creep under the paint. anyways what I am trying to say is. the rust is there. And me personally I don't like the thought of 'converting' rust. no good, it's still rust. so you have to remove the rust with either media balsting or chemically. I have had extremely good results with vinegar acid dipping (which can't be done on the roof). In Germany somebody is producing a rust removal paste called RustDelete which works well. it's made of citric acid, sawdust and a few more things to keep it wet. you need to apply a thick  (1/8) layer and leave it overnight, covering with plastic. it eats away the rust and leaves bare metal. then wash off with plenty of fresh water and dry with compressed air. what you have is bare metal and it will be the best foundation for epoxy primer. I am sure that similar stuff is available in the US.

[RICH MUISE]

I may have misspoke when I used the word convert. The Metal Ready product is actually a phosphoric acid etch. It is not like the products that turn the rust black. I use it because there are places you cannot reach mechanically, and I only use it as a final "neutralizer" after as much accessible rust as possible is removed. When something is going to be finish paint topcoated, I prepare the surface removing contaminants including the phosphoric coating.