I rolled my pagoda last night...

[johnk]

And I couldn't be more excited!

The under body is very solid and it will be so much easier to work on now. Hope to have it blasted/stripped and primed in two weeks. Spend the summer sorting and cleaning parts for coating, finish paint this late fall, and spend two years putting it all back together again..... I hope!

[kampala]

Alright, I will admit - You made me look.   Glad to see it was a good kind of "rolled"

Keep sending updates.   Looks like you got the space for this major undertaking.   

Enjoy and best of luck,

[johnk]

Thanks Oz.

Yes my brother tore down and rebuilt in his back yard a 1865 slate-roofed barn so we could restore cars when we get close to retirement like we did when we were in school. He stocked it with all of the used tools we could need over the years. My wife is happy because the mess is in his barn rather than our garage.

[IXLR8]

Hi-

I'm no expert on this, but is there a risk of bending the structure of the body with this type of roller?

Many times I've seen pictures of cars on the roller with a brace fitted/welded across the top of the door opening to maintain dimension.

the other Joe

[johnk]

Hi Other Joe,

Good question. I asked the same question of this site. Given that I am not doing any panel or structure replacement it was suggested that the door support jacks were not needed because the chassis is so light. I've had no problem so far but I must admit I was a bit nervous at first.

JohnK

[johnk]

I haven't posted any progress on my restoration since last summer as there is nothing exciting to show about stripping down parts for coating as well as body work and primer blocking when you have no significant rust and panel repairs. But finally I have somethings to show that get me more motivated again.  I started powder coating this last weekend and its very easy and rewarding. I set up a make-shift spray booth for the powder shown below and have pulled my first parts out of the oven. Unfortunately as you can see in the pics the coating is too dull. The salesman at eastwood recommended I use the satin finish when I should have used the semi-gloss. Should be no problem to fix as there is a method to recote powder a second time.

The biggest time consumer with powder coating is the sandblasting so I cheated and took all of my large suspensiona and other parts to a blaster who did them all for $50 in an afternoon. Wife permitting I hope to finish most all of the powder coating this weekend and will post pics of how they look with the correct semi-gloss finish.

I posted a copy of my aluminum and pot finishing (except the valve cover) a few weeks ago under a different post. I will post the valve cover when its done hopefully with no sand in the baffles. I bought a new gun for my blast cabinet that hopefully will enable me to use walnut shells and get a little shinier finish that I did with just glass beads on the other parts.

Having fun now

John

[neelyrc]

Thanks for sharing John.  The quality looks outstanding.  Keep us posted.

[doitwright]

Do you plan to remove the dull powder coating or refinish over the existing? I wonder how much of a challenge you will have to remove the powder coating?

[johnk]

I am a one week internet expert in powder coating so far but from what I understand you can apply one second coat to powder coating by heating it in the oven and then spraying the second coat on the piece while its still warm. That is how they apply a clear powder coat over a base coat or even making a pearl or chrome-like finish. I will let you know how it works out.

I am very particular in following the directions regarding cleaning, etching, pre-heating all types of metal not just alloys or cast, and not touching them with your hands before baking. It actually very fun because you get a quick satisfaction pulling the like-new parts out of the oven.

I also found out that Eastwood has a filler made specifically for powder coating. Very helpful already as I dented my air cleaner canister when taking it to get blasted. I will let you know how that works as well.

[johnk]

I finished most of what I plan on powder coating yesterday. There are a few parts that didn't turn out as good as the rest as I was learning this fairly simple process. I can strip and recoat them later if I don't like how they look in the assembly process. With some pieces like the lower suspension A frames it can be difficult to attract the powder to small cracks and corners. Extensive spraying to cover the corners and cracks can end up with uneven build up on the areas that attract the powder easily. If that happens just brush off the areas with the excess powder and lightly respray before baking.

I learned a few other tricks in the process that I will be happy to share if anyone else is interested in doing their own powder coating. I am very pleased with the results and enjoyed the process much more than painting.

The subframe is too big for my blast cabinet and oven so I am dropping that off at a real powder coating shop. I will come back later and use chassis black on the components that can't be powder coated. With warm weather coming its time to shift my attention back to getting the body ready for paint.

[450sl]

Hij John,
Great job; keep us informed of the progression.
Could you give more info please about the Filler you used ?
Mark

[johnk]

I used Alvin Lab-Metal sold by Eastwood in their powder coating section. (lucky for me, one of Eastwood's two retail stores in the US is 15 minutes from my office). The powder coat stuck right to the material without any pre-heating. If you are going to try it make sure you also buy their Lab-Solvent to thin the filler before application. The filler doesn't spread smoothly without it making it harder to get the feathered-in finish you need.

https://www.eastwood.com/lab-metal-24-oz.html

[Shvegel]

Looking good John. 

[450sl]

Thanks for the link John; now looking for a European alternative for the Alvin Lab-metal...there seems to be a Alvin-dealer in the UK but they dont sell it to the continent...

[johnk]

I haven't posted my progress for a while. Most of the summer was spent boating and just getting the car primered and final block sanded. My goal is the get the final color shot in about three weeks. This weeks I hope to finish the underside, next week final sand of primer, build the paint booth the week after than and then spray.

A few small items while stripping the top this summer I decided to remove the rear window seal. Certainly was glad I did as I found rust starting to have its way with my top under the seal.

[johnk]

I spent a good bit of time rubbing my Pagoda's belly today getting it ready for the the correct color PPG primer and clear coat this week. I wen though every seam and crack looking for any potential rust and when I found any i stripped the undercoating back to clean paint, sandblasted. applied metal conditioner and either applied POR 15 or primer on the repair area. All seam sealer should be applied by tomorrow.

[johnk]

One bad spot that had me procrastinating for a while on how to fix it. Its heavily pitted inside where the soft top compartment drain tube empties out water into the rear portion of rocker panel on passengetr side.  Thanks  to ScottsCorvette's detail repair photo's I now know how to repair this section, starting with removing a portion of the crossmember under the passenger seat.

I can do all of the cutting and fitting but I may have someone else do the MIG welding. Not my MIG welding can be trusted enough yet for structurall welding. It may have to wait until after I finish painting the body as I am fraid it will take much more time than I would guess.

[johnk]

Shvegel reminded me about painting the firewall plugs so I ordered them last week from K&K manufacturing.

Look at what the surpise the put in the box! Im going to order something else now.

[johnk]

Thanks to the detailed steps and photos' posted by ScotCorvette I was able to see how to attack my dreaded cancer section in the rear of the left rocker rail caused by the drainage from the soft top. I was able to get access to the rusted area by cutting out a section of the cross member under the passengers seat, a portion of the inner door post and then remove a secion of the frame rail that goes from the rocker rail back and over the rear axle. I was a little nervous at first but I took it slow making sure I cut too little each time rather than too much.

As you can see below the inner wall of the rocker rail is pretty rusted. Inside the rail is very solid including the jack support mount so I will be able to get away with just replacing about on foot of the inner pannel. I pushed the car outside and sandlblasted most of the rust and scale off the inside and then treated it to a generous helping of POR 15. The metal of the rocker rail seemed to measure 15 guage. I couldn't find any 15 guage metal so I ordered 16 guage online. If I can find 15 guage before the 16 arrives I will use that. I have a short time frame to get this car painted before the weather starts to turn in October.

[johnk]

While waiting for the 16 guage metal to arrive I started to fit the frame repair panet. What a bugger getting that in there whithout having to cut too much surrounding metal out of the way. Scottcorvette showed how he had to make special provisions because his repair pannel was not deep enough to extend all the way to inner fender well. Mine looked deep enough but just to be sure I did not cut the original pannel back all the way to the fender well. I'm glad I did because when I finally was abe to get the repair panel in place I found it to be about a half inch short. Instead of having to cut and widen my repair panel, I will just cut the spott weld lip off and weld to the reamining section of the old panel left below. Thankyou Scott. You have saved me so much time and effort.

Given that I count beans for a living and don't have the skills of and experianced welder I am going to lap weld or cut holes to spot weld these frame sections. It seems that is the way to go given that all of the frame sections are lapped and spot welded in the factory. I woudl rather swallow my pride and use a little bondo to make the visable joints look smooth rather than worrying about my but welds later on.

[johnk]

So my chasis is finally whole again! Started to get the knack of Mig Welding. My welds aren't pretty but I made sure they are all very strong. I didn't gring down the cross member weld to be flush as I wanted to leave it with the maximm sgtrengh given that its a bit weld on a frame section.

Now I get back to the final wet sanding.

[johnk]

So the body work is all done and I am building the paint booth now. Total cost of about $500 incuding lights, fans, lumber and filters. If anyone wants spray booth filters I have 16 of them left. Had to buy 20 just to get 4 intake filters. We hope to reuse the booth when my brother (who owns this barn, retires in a few years and starts to restore cars for a hobby).

Problem is we are out of 70 degree weather here now. I hope to be able to use a propane heater to bring the barn above 70 to paint in a few weeks. If the spray booth works it should be safe to heat outside the booth, or atleast before and after I spray.

Lighting is my biggest concern. I am using bright florescent strips but have to keep them outside the boothshining through the clear plastic  for safety purposes. I do have some LED lights to add inside the booth. Hope to get the plastic up tomorrow and finish the lighting so I can try it all out.

For the fans I bought 8 20 inch fans from Walmart.com delivered to my house in two days for $16.66 US each. I am sure the delivery cost them more than $16.66 each. I truly don't understand this new online world. I actually liked going to Sears.

[johnk]

Paint booth is just about done. Taking longer than I thought to figure out the lighting. The filters don’t allow as much air blow in as I expected. I am hoping that when I finish the exhaust fans they will help pull more air through. The booth. If not I may need to add a larger intake fan.

[Bonnyboy]

Careful heating with propane - my experience is that they introduce lots of moisture into the air which you don't want if you are spraying.  Unless you have an airdryer. 

[johnk]

Careful heating with propane - my experience is that they introduce lots of moisture into the air which you don't want if you are spraying.  Unless you have an airdryer.

Good point thank you. I do have a separator and a dryer which I was debating if its worth it. I will be spraying the less conspicuous areas first that I can verify  if there will be any moisture problems.