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Congratulations on a terrific looking job. Almost a shame to see the leather going over the box frame in the rear with fine woodworking job.

Thanks, Stephen, I thought that, too. We're leaving the box exposed inside the trunk. It has spar var on it.

WOODGRAIN After putting on a clear coat this morning, wet sanded with 2000 and polished with scratch remover and plastic cleaner/polish.

CONVERTIBLE TOP: The new top will arrive next week, so the Duchess is coming home for the long weekend and I hope to accomplish much.
1. Install Quiet Ride sound and heat barrier and carpet from SMS Fabrics. Arrived this morning. Beautiful, plush Wilton wool in dark taupe.

2. Woodgrain the dash and redo the windshield moulding.

3. Assemble dash.

4. Bolt on fenders.

5. Assemble and hang doors and trunk lid.

6. Mount bumpers

Hey, I have a trip permit. May have to go with one old running board.

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I went to check the recs on tires since I decided to replace mine. But the thread is locked. I'd sure like to hear what Coker says about radials since, when you use their search for my car for instance, they offer radials. Too bad only a 3.5" white wall. I'll get the Firestones with a 4" white wall. My choice has nothing to do with safety, but I am surprised that Coker would assume such liability. Don't they read industry reports? Maybe 50-era Chevy drivers careen around more than old Packard guys. This is an important issue and it would be good to put our heads together and get the best information, esp from sources like tire distributors and manufacturers. Cutting off discussion doesn't seem like the best way to deal with someone like me who is stubborn or grumpy.

Something to sleep on.

Hey Joe
Do you need my help this weekend? Your woodgraining job looks great and the upholstery is incredible. The combination with the gray body color will really stand out. On the tires, years ago you used to be able to go to a dealer and they could turn the whitewall wider by cutting away some rubber around the outside edge. Half an inch sounds possible so you might talk to the company that makes the radials and see if that is possible today.
Call me if you need me as I have some time this weekend.
Vaughn

I have to add my congratulations. In spite of the rough start, the woodgraining looks like it turned out to be a very nicely done job.

Joe,

Your woodgraining work looks great!
We are always happy to see Woodgrain restored properly.
We are all following your progress and enjoying the interchange of encouragement and knowledge that this forum provides.
Keep up the good work!

Evan Westlake
Grain-It Technologies

Thanks, Howard, It's not perfect, but I think the paint shop can help me correct it. I'm afraid to buff it because I could lose the woodgrain. I don't want to put more urethane on it either. But 90% of it does look great to me and close up it really looks like wood.

Vaughn, I will call you when I get to the office. Running behind plus only 7:30 am now. I could use your help for sure. I haven't heard from John at all. I'll call him again. I plan to hide all weekend and push this through as far as I can before the car goes back.But any help would be appreciated.

WOODGRAINING

Evan, I can admit now that I read the written instructions but hadn't watch the video for a long, long time, until I did this last group of parts. This explains why I thought woodgraining was a wet and messy process.

The written instructions said to wash the roller to remove manufacturing powder and to clean the roller and to have a lint free towel to wipe it off after every application. Therefore, I thought the roller had to be washed off with water (the reason I set up in the laundry room) and dried with a lint free towel every time I applied the wood grain. After I watched the latest video doing that flat 30s dashboard, I realized that cleaning the roller means rolling it on something clean, like heavy paper.

The 320 sand paper/blending paper works, but it would be help to know what it accomplishes and why. Why not just paper? Why not 100 grit sandpaper?

Also a few tricks when you have to use a small roller like the one in my kit. Maybe you need an even smaller roller like 1/4" wide for getting into corners with out messing up the grain from a big roller?

And actually seeing someone shoot urethane and wet sand (how much), and polish. What level of rubbing compound or plastic polish to use? The paint store told me to use Meguiar's clean and polish on clear urethane after wet sanding, but I really needed Novus scratch remover. Plastic Clean/Polish didn't cut it.

As mentioned before. I'm very happy. I didn't wreck anything. (I was worried the urethane might get under the masking tape and melt the dash plastic. That didn't happen.

WINDSHIELD It's in.

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Joe,

The idea behind the 320 sand paper is that the "grit" separates the the paper itself from the wet ink and the grit dose not disturb the print.
Plain paper would wick up the ink and would create a light spot on your woodgrain.
A more coarse grit like 100 will work O.K. but if it happens to move or slide it is more likely to scuff your parts.
A very fine grit will let the paper make contact with the wet ink.
320 just seems to be the best grit for woodgraining.
That is what the "old timers" that I learned from used.

We have an inexpensive corner tool that helps with very tight corners like 90 degree ones found on many 20's cars.

Also here is a link to a video showing a little trick on how to get into the corners.

http://www.woodgraining.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=40&sid=faccefc232d70d4dad303dc6ae7e00e9

Here is a link to a video on the finishing of the clear coat to show quality standards, with JDee going into the exact procedures and products we use in our shop.

http://www.youtube.com/user/JdeeRat#p/u/5/6sQmkP6utoQ

Evan