2008 at the Hammond Barn

[RHClarke]

While this thread has been somewhat quiet of late, a lot of activity has taken place at the Hammond Barn (despite the absence of our fearless leader). Grant is restoring the roof for his truck, and by the looks of it, he is getting it right. It is too bad I don't have a "before" shot, but here is the "during" shot showing Grant's handywork from afar:



Bob made an appearance this weekend on Sunday. He was down east eating Maine lobster and drag racing Phil Waterman's Beauty. More to follow on that. It is funny to hear our Bob speaking with a Maine accent with French inflections...It is good to see his sense of humour has not left him, although his choice of headwear leaves one wondering...



Since I was too lazy to tackle the HUP, I decided to start stripping down the ambulance to assess the rust damage - there was significant damage, so I will be using the ambulance to kit out Jesse's radio truck, with a view to restoring the ambulance in the distant future.



We also chatted about the BBQ - which is on the near horizon. Get your steak orders in ASAP, or you will be left chewing the fat only...More from the barn later.

[Mark W. Tonner]

Originally Posted by RHClarke

... although his choice of headwear leaves one wondering ...

... after seeing a man and woman (whoses names are withheld, although they are on the wife's side of the family ... ) wearing full length fur coats in Sarsfield last week just after sunset, Bob's headwear looks normal to me for the area ...

[sth65pac]

I know just where you guys are at now.... Slow going eh!

[Bob Carriere]

Last weekend Grant actually sand blasted the whole top assembly and gave it two coats of red primer...... now he still has a few ripples and small dings are now visible but what an improvement. Grant is a very patient and meticulous.... they will be ironed out before he is finished.

He has the updated pictures on his camera and will probably post them soon.

The big remaining job is replacing a strip of sheet metal at the joint line which has rust perforation..... we will be trying our skills at butt welding to make the seam invisible.... or nearly invisible.

Bob

[Grant Bowker]

As Bob said, there are still some areas that need work but the roof is much better now than it was a few weeks ago. Some are in places that can't be reached from behind for hammer and dolly work so I will either have to live with those or apply a thin swipe of Bondo to level the low spots, I refuse to take the reinforcing ribs off the inside of the roof so I can remove a minor ding and then create more mess as I wel the rib back on. There are also some gentle waves that might be from the original stamping process, but more likely were made worse or caused by decades of use and abuse. There was so much paint built up on the outside of the roof that I used a grinder to remove the bulk of the paint, otherwise I would have used a massive amount of sand to clean off the roof. Sandblasting followed and revealed a couple of areas (over the door, surprisingly not the drip rails) where all that had been making a smooth surface was paint, no metal. The rear lower edge of the assembly has suffered rusting where the sheet metal had water trapped by the angle iron frame. There is no cure except replacement along there. Red oxide primer was applied to preserve the metal. as the remaining dents get worked on, I'm going to have to apply more to maintain protection.

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Grant Bowker

As Bob said, there are still some areas that need work but the roof is much better now than it was a few weeks ago. Some are in places that can't be reached from behind for hammer and dolly work so I will either have to live with those or apply a thin swipe of Bondo to level the low spots, I refuse to take the reinforcing ribs off the inside of the roof so I can remove a minor ding and then create more mess as I wel the rib back on. There are also some gentle waves that might be from the original stamping process, but more likely were made worse or caused by decades of use and abuse. There was so much paint built up on the outside of the roof that I used a grinder to remove the bulk of the paint, otherwise I would have used a massive amount of sand to clean off the roof. Sandblasting followed and revealed a couple of areas (over the door, surprisingly not the drip rails) where all that had been making a smooth surface was paint, no metal. The rear lower edge of the assembly has suffered rusting where the sheet metal had water trapped by the angle iron frame. There is no cure except replacement along there. Red oxide primer was applied to preserve the metal. as the remaining dents get worked on, I'm going to have to apply more to maintain protection.

Grant
When you have little dings like you described using the red wrench with a slightly oxidizing flame,and a pin point flame envelope,start heating the ding about 1/2 inch out from the ding and using a quick movement ,start heating around the ding working your way into the center..The metal expansion and contraction should level out the ding..Works well on hail damaged vehicles..Ask any farm boy from Saskatchewan..
If that doesn't strike your fancy,screw a sheet metal screw into the center of the ding,,then grab the screw with the old vice grips ..then grab that set of VG's with another 90 degrees from the first so that you can impact it with a hammer to pull the dastardly ding out..then spot weld the hole closed and grind smooth..

"Beater" Blair

[Grant Bowker]

Alex, thanks for the suggestions, I will consider the heat and shrink method, the screw and heave method will make more mess than it will cure. The large dings are cured, I'm now looking at small dimples that weren't really obvious until I started to sand on the primer..