Restoring my 1942-6719

[gary griffin]

I have had two blogs dissapear from here so I will make this one brief in case I lose it also.
Instead of all of the pictures I will just post one showing the car as it looked when I bought it. If the blog does not dissapear I will add more information and Pics later.

[gary griffin]

When I started the car looked like this. The car was originally Bing Crosbys ranch car and he donated it to the military for the war effort and the military auctioned it at a surplus auction in 1951. It has passed through three other partys who made some efforts to restore it but they never got it finished. I bought it last fall and it was running well but looked like "S**T". I am currently correcting that as the following pictures will show.

The interior was a habitat for desert creatures for 30 years whils the car baked in a quonset hut in the Utah desert.

[gary griffin]

Since earlier restoration attempts were made a lot of parts were loose and in boxes and loose in the car. I first sorted out the parts and figured out what I was missing. There were a lot more parts missing than I had been told of but thats the way it goes sometines. I started a parts search through the club  and on the internet. It took almost a year to get the last parts (A special short foot rest used only one year). Since 1942 was a short production year and this model was only made 2 years some of the parts seemed to be impossible to find but eventually I did find everything. I Removed the glass and interior, and cleaned up and painted some areas and then I sent the car to the paint shop to be stripped , repaired, and painted. These pctures show that process.

[gary griffin]

My painter first painted a black primer and then did more body work and applied a light colored primer. I think the two colors were so as he did final sanding he could see the high spots easier

[gary griffin]

Here is the black primer and priming some loose body parts

[gary griffin]

The finish paint was really a problem. This car shipped from Detroit to Reno on December 3rd 1941 (which means it was probably on a train when Pearl Harbor was attacked) and it was originally Antionette Blue which is very dark. I love the color and was happy to paint the car in it's original color.  In bright sunlight it looks dark blue but in less light it offten looks black. The paint companies could not find a current code for the modern paints. Finally I selected a blue based on paint in the trunk, under the cowl, and old paint chips. In these pictures you will see the blue but they were taken on one of the sunniest afternoons in Seattle this year. I will show others taken in less light later on. I have posted the current codes for this color in the authenticity blog if anybody is  interested

[gary griffin]

Here is the Antionette Blue inside a shop and taken with flash. Notice how it looks almost black. From other angles you can catch a glimpse of the blue.

[gary griffin]

   I am preparing to restore a Triumph 1800 roadster and the instruction manual starts out by suggesting you keep all of your receipts so you will know what it cost to restore your car, and then it then says to hide them in the garage so your wife wont find them.
    If I were married I am sure I would need to do that. There is always something new coming up to deal with. My car ran very well when I bought it and the compression check showed no alarming differences in compression, oil pressure looked O K and since I am retired on a budget of sorts I decided to keep on driving without rebuilding the engine. We took the engine out to paint the engine compartment and the engine and all was well until I decided to have the bracket for an old oil filter removed from the engine. These cars had no factory oil filter and they were often added after market and the brackets for this one were held on by head bolts. Two head bolts snapped off in the process. Now the head will need to come off. I am pondering my earlier decision to leave the engine alone. I will probably go forward and rebuild the engine now. I am looking for advice here. Any ideas??

[kkarrer]

Gary,
    Looks very good.  That's a great color.  I'm considering it for the lower aspect of my coupe.  Did all of your leaf spring clamps survive being taken apart or did you go with the later design?  I did order the insulator material from Drake and the shackle kit from Eaton.  My frame's going to the blaster today.
Keep us posted.
Thanks,
Ken 41 6227 coupe

[gary griffin]

Actually my undercarriage is in such good condition and basically rust free that I am cleaning and painting (with POR15) everything that is acessable and doing a brake job and that is all at this time

[scrudge]

White paint on the back-is it normal?  Or it will be removed?

[gary griffin]

The white is residue from the 800 grit wet sanding that is used to take out any imperfections. Thanks for the interest and I hope you are enjoying my Blog. I plan on showing significant progress over the next couple of months.

[scrudge]

Understood. Waiting for photos 

[gary griffin]

I went to the paint shop today to get the exhaust manifolds so I can send them to be refinished. I also picked up the 6 volt battery so I can test the 3 heater fans and instruments and radio and so forth. I was going to get the carbuerator to rebuild it but it was elsewhere. I took all of the locks to a locksmith to get them disassembled for chrome plating and to get them working properly and have keys made.

I am waiting for thr 29 pcs of interior metal trim to come back from having wood grain painted on them

I am waiting for 44 pcs of chrom trim to come back from the chrome plater
I have all of the new rubber seals and new wiring harness and basically all of the other parts I need. The steering wheel is being rebuilt in New Jersey
I have 9 boxes inventoried on the computer and numbered in the garage in order of reassembly.

[Paul Tesone]

Great job Gary - keep the pictures coming . I know how much effort goes into documenting the progress .   Paul Tesone CLC # 6876

[gary griffin]

   I have ran into a few problems, and my Christmas completion date is in doubt.

    I decided to rebuild the engine after we broke a few head bolts and had to take it apart anyway. We ended up breaking all but 6 head bolts and the block is at the machinest now for removing the bolts and doing the machinest work necessary to rebuild the engine.
 
   When cleaning everything up I found a large hole in the side of the bell housing so I need to aquire one of those also. 


  Is it possible the hole in the bell housing is for the clutch release mechanism? It seems regular on top like it was cast into the housing but eneven on the bottom like it was put in later?? It is on the drivers side.


I have new pictures but I am having trouble adding them but will try again later.

    I picked up 44 pcs. of re chromed parts last week and left a few more there and when I was putting the 44 pcs. away I found  a few more needing chrome.

    I notived some failure of the chrome on my rear bumper and there are holes for a trailer  hitch and wires so I am procuring a fresh bumper.
   
    It seemed the end was in sight but it keeps moving. I will just keep plugging away.  The process is slowed down to some degree by the funds required

    Some of the simplest things take longer than one would think and some tasks that seem like they will take a while actually go by fast.

    I took the three heaters apart and primed them. I know the interior parts get a special dark brown trim color paint and assume the under hood parts get painted body color. I want to have the heater motors checked out and repaired due to frayed wires and strange sounds. Anybody know of a good place to send them the for that?
   
    I have been cleaning up and painting my light buckets and find I need a few things. I have been using black enginne enamel as it is good to 500 degrees and white engine enamel inside those buckets that were white inside.

    I am approaching 100 % of parts needed on hand but have had to use a few non authentic 1942 parts. If I can aquire them later I guess I can change them out.

    I thank Jeff Hansen for leading me to the authenticity manual. It has made my job much mre difficult but the satisfaction of keeping it authentic is my reward I guess.

[Jeff Hansen]

Gary,

Under hood portions of the fresh air ducts and defroster diverter should be semi-gloss black.

Jeff

[gary griffin]

Thanks again Jeff, I feel like I have a big brother looking over my shoulder keeping me out of trouble.

[tozerco]

Gary,

This is what your bell housing should look like. All three of mine have a hole - two of them cast and one cut (though on the other side because we drive on the "right" (left) side of the road!

Hope those broken head bolts came out OK. Don't forget to get your re-builder to add some Permatex #2 to the ends of the new head bolts so they don't rust in again - that's what causes the broken bolt syndrome in the first place - the bolts protrude into the water jacket, rust and swell, becoming too big to screw back out again.

[gary griffin]

Update time.  Body is almost complete. Holding on from installing front end until engine is complete and installed. Trying to get an update on that but not able to find out yet. New pictures include body from the rear, and one with Mark my body and paint guy, and one of the fenders and misc parts awaiting finish and installation.

I am working on preparing heaters, electrical buckets and some misc wiring issues. The supplioers of wiring harness's use previously provided harness's as patterns. I knew this but was unaware that my harness would have no heating or foglight wiring. We worked it out and they are making the same as a 1941 series 67.

Steeringwheel getting fixed in New Jersey by Steering Wheel Bob. He is also painting all ot the cabin plastic knobs and buttons to match the steering wheel.

I took my 1942 radio apart and don't beleive I wil be able to save the push button mechanism which I was palnning on installing on a 1946 radio. 1942 radio is different from others of the era because it had plastic buttons. Hopefully I can find a 1942 radio?

I just received my exhaust manifolds back from Independence Porcelean and they look great.

Iwill probably get everything at the same time and have to reallyhump to get it together.

Thanks to those of you who have had suggestions ans I hope you all are enjoying my blog.

The first picture is from the rear, notice how dark the Antionette blue is.

The second pic shows the car from the front and includes Mark Zuevella who is quite  a mechanic and body guy

The third pic shows the painted front fenders and the unpainted rear fenders