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Before I was introduced to the wonder that is the stud welder, I had a buddy that showed me how to pulled out dents by brazing nail heads to the dent and then pulling the dent out with a slide hammer. Then you just reheat the metal to release the brazing solder.

But of course this introduces much more heat into the affected area.

Zinc Plating

Have been doing my own Zinc plating, and the pics below show a few of the results achieved so far.







Also have the chemicals for bright Copper and Nickel plating, but I haven't had a need to use those yet . . . the time will come.

Have Zinc plated a few dozen small parts (nuts, bolts, washers, body hold-down bolts and tubes etc) so far, with mainly very satisfactory results. On the few pieces where the result has been a bit 'cloudy' the problem has been either insufficient cleaning and buffing of the part before plating, or using too much current from the power supply for the area to be plated. Settings and layout need a bit of experimentation to get it right.

It is fiddly and time-consuming work, I really can't recommend doing it yourself unless (like me) you have a lot of time to spare.

One advantage is that you don't have the problem of sending a bucket of parts off to the plater and getting a bucket full of someone else's parts back! Most people know what I mean. Darned hard to get Packard small bits without having someone lose them for you.

Plus there is quite a lot of satisfaction when you take a shiny 'new-looking' part out of the tank when what you put in a while ago was a very ordinary-looking bit of metal. And the benefit is that the zinc will protect the part for a much longer time than if not plated.

It is also probably about cost-neutral once you have bought the (expensive) chemicals and power supply, as rather than buying new nuts / bolts etc you are using the originals, and getting a more authentic resto job to boot.

In Oz you cannot buy a Chrome plating kit, it's against the law due to the very poisonous nature of Chrome. I think Chroming kits are still available in the US -?

Anyone wanting more information - PM me.

Casting a Pair of Sway Bar Rubber Bushings

After trying to find replacement sway bar rubbers I found there was nothing available so decided to do the same as several people have done and cast my own.







The results were pleasing, and although the product (FLEXANE) is ain't cheap here in Oz I've managed to make the bushings for less than half the cost, and have enough Flexane left to make quite a few more rubbery bits and pieces when needed.







Made the moulds out of PVC sheet and flat, and used WD-40 as a release agent. The WD-40 was a 'reasonable' release agent due to it costing so little. (The recommended agent was - would you believe - a massive $30Aus for a spraycan!). Admittedly I had to destroy the moulds to get the stuff out of them, but that was not a problem and far less expensive than buying the 'million dollar' release agent. Moulds were glued together using Araldite 2-pak and this was a reasonably easy process.

Thanks to the several members (like Keegan, HH56 and PackardV8) who posted valuable and really helpful info which inspired me to give it a go! Just one of several really helpful threads is at

Keegan's Rhino Bushings

Recommend that you give it a go if you can't find the right parts at the right price

Larry,

Nice work. Looks like I just may have to give that a try for the front and rear axle rebound pads for my car.

They are available for my car but I like to be adventurous and try things myself just like the rest of you do.

Thanks all for sharing this with us all.

Very nice bushings. The flexane does seem to hold up very well. Those I did several years ago still look good.

Re the poison and chrome problem, wonder if some of the kits advertised as "environmentally friendly" could be used in Australia. Here are a couple saying no hazardous products -- one can even be shipped by air (at least in US). Haven't seen any work done by the process so can't comment on whether it would be worth trying or would even look like the real stuff next to a piece that was done the old way.

caswellplating.com/kits/copychrome.htm

caswellplating.com/kits/reprochrome.html

That's interesting HH56, thanks for the info. I looked at Caswell's kits a year or so back and noticed they had the Nickel-Cobalt kit back then, which was deemed to give a finish 'like chrome'. (Those are available here).

Had not been to their site recently to see the ReproChrome and CopyChrome kits. These sound pretty good, I wonder if one of them is the former Nickel-Cobalt kit re-named?

Also great to know that if I want either kit I can have one air-freighted to Oz. Will keep that in mind. I want to try out my Nickel system first and see how good a result I can get, then possibly try the 'Nickel-Cobalt' system and see how much better it is. Will post after I have done that!

Edit: Here is the link to a Cobalt-Nickel Kit provider in Oz, I have had dealings with this supplier.

Jane Kits

Cavity Sealing, Rust-proofing, Priming and Painting

Because rust had done quite a lot of damage to the Coupe over its 50 years of life I had to think long and hard about which of the many different products and combinations of primers, undercoats, sealants and cavity waxes etc that could be used.

I wanted to gain the absolute best protection for the car, and cost or hours required was not a big consideration. It is not an easy thing to decide which anti-corrosion and paint systems to use, as there are dozens of supposedly good products available.

Some issues that I needed to consider were -

- Toxicity of primers and paints (isocyanates in 2-pak systems are very toxic, and special care is needed even when sanding back dry coats). I want a DIY product as I'm intending to do all surface prep and spraying myself. It might not be a 100% finish but cars I've sprayed over the years have probably been around the 90% level, and it is really enjoyable to know the final 'gleam' of the finish is something that you achieved yourself.
- Did I want to stay traditional and use the finish originally used (acrylic), or make use of tougher systems like 2-pak?
- Would I be able to achieve really good results easily if the need arose for re-painting the Coupe's paintwork at some future time? Modern 2-pak paint may prove to be more problematic if fixing a scratch or repainting a few small areas in a year or three.
- Cost of product versus results. Some finishes are four times the cost of others . . .
- Whether to use 'permanently tacky' cavity wax or a rust preventive that will form a dry film. Which is best? The tacky ones will attract dust but work extremely well and last a long time.
- Should I use the traditional 'dum-dum' joint sealer, or a more modern type like a polyurethane??
- How about stone-guard coatings - are the bituminous compounds better than others?
- Should I use epoxy primers etc under stone-guard coatings and on some metal (like floor pans), or go POR-15?

Well, I'm slowly working through these choices, and trying to make sure that I don't choose some incompatible mix of products that will give poor results.

Having seen a good paint job lift off the metal due to a failed etch primer makes me a bit concerned about adhesion of paint systems. I reckon the biggest problem you can encounter (aside from rust forming under a coating) is poor adhesion of paint. So my aim is to get the best adhesion so there will never be a problem in that regard.

So far the 'winning' primer for external surfaces is the PPG Epoxy-Urethane 2-pak primer. It's dear as poison (- probably because it is poison!). It has to be applied in specific ways, and costs a bomb but has great rust prevention and adhesion.

One of the limitations for this PPG primer is that the final paint (base coat) has to be applied within hours of the primer being applied. Otherwise a second coat of the primer needs to be applied just before the colour coat. So if you have your Packard sitting around for a few months or years in primer, it has to be rubbed back and primed again just before final painting. This is not the case with many other single-pak primers.

A problem I have had more than a few times is the quality of information that you get from the technical 'experts' when you call the Helpline of a paint or coatings company. Ring twice and you'll probably get two different answers which is a concern.

For example, when speaking to one 'expert', I told him the car had been grit-blasted and some areas had been primed (with rich zinc primer) but other areas had not been primed yet. According to this person, once a car has been blasted, you need to get it primed within a few hours, or any subsequent primer / paint etc will just trap moisture under it and the metal will rust badly. Well, most automotive paint companies say that is not correct. When you apply their particular primer over any bare metal then there is no chance of rust forming provided the surface was prepared properly.

So technical support often leaves a bit to be desired.

I'm sure that properly prepared bare metal will not rust after a good coat of primer and colour is applied over it, despite sitting around for months after grit blasting. But of course some surface rust is likely to form after a while (depending on climate etc), and this has to be totally removed and the surface treated (Phosphoric acid).

I have been protecting bare metal with a lanolin surface spray which seems to work very well. No rust has formed at all with this coating over the bare metal. The lanolin can easily be removed with water followed by thinners etc.

I still have many decisions to make, but I've made a couple of choices already, having settled on painting the entire underside floor pan with POR-15 (after properly treating with Metal Ready). And various mudguards (fenders), trunk lids etc are getting the PPG Epoxy-Urethane primer even though I'm leaning towards using traditional acrylic as the topcoat, rather than a 2-pak finish. At least I will have the opportunity to go 2-pak if I decide to, by having used the right primer for 2-pak.

The final paint job is still a long time off into the future. Will post about the products chosen later . . . .

Cleaning and Painting Underside

This work completed a couple of months ago . . . I'm running quite a ways behind with my posts, plenty of distractions due to family matters lately.

This result is after days of laying under the body getting covered with the gunk scraped off, then getting dripped on by kerosene and thinners as I wiped every surface several times to get it totally clean. A lot of the surface needed to be sanded as well.

Then there were two washes with Metal Ready before the POR15 was applied (by brush). Not a pleasant job, but really worthwhile and satisfying when you consider how foul the underside of the car was before it was cleaned and painted.

I'm very happy that this work was done with the body on a frame, separated from the chassis. I had plenty of room to get in and under the body, and could get at all the difficult sections.

The finish is two coats of POR15.

Here are pics taken before and after.

What we have here is an awful lot of crud!!













Then after cleaning . . .














And finally - painted

Great job...looks fantastic! Any tips you have to get such a nice paint job using a brush?

The POR15 is a breeze to put on with a brush! Has amazing gloss, about as good as a spray job.You can get some bubbles forming if you put too thick a coat on for the first or second coat but that's rare. I think the biggest cause of problems is a 'bitty' finish. If you brush a place that hasn't been 100% cleaned then the brush picks up some particles and they end up all over the job! Then a rubbing back is mighty hard work, being the toughness of this paint. So the clue is spotless cleaning before starting, and that takes a heap of time. And make sure you use MetalReady thoroughly (twice) before painting.I'm really pleased with the POR finish, it should make future cleaning really easy, and keep any rust away for a long time.How are you progressing with your '51 Charles? You have a big lot to do by the look of it, but at least it is drivable!