How To: C15a Wire-3 restoration

[Bob Carriere]

not being unhung up with part numbers and.....

....if you cannot find the part make your own.

Kudos.

Cheers

[Jordan Baker]

Thought I would do a trial fit of the new to me roof and lower rear wall. Everything seems to line up pretty close. The next step will be removing the old sheet metal and welding in new. The roof is pretty solid but it will need new rain gutters and some spots replaced due to rust. I also took advantage of the really nice and warm day yesterday to POR15 my front window frames. Any ideas on how I can get the POR15 down the insides of the frame and where the weather strip goes?

[Bob Carriere]

It's a messy job but thin out the POR by 5 paint one thinner....use only POR thinner.

Wear rubber gloves..... and a drip pan.....

pour the paint down the hole .... a large syringe from TSC for cattle will work best.

Blow your channels both way first..... pour the paint collect and repour in the other direction and let it drip...... you may have to cut off solid drips with a pocket knife.

Try not to get any on you or take a picture of the mess.

You are doing a good job.
Cheers

[Bob Carriere]

the rain gutters are a one shot assembly with a large spot welder......Roof section window frame and gutter. Would be very hard to salvage a used one.

Carefully cut off the old one.

And have a sheet metal shop do you a couple of sections and mig weld inplace with drilled holes in the new section 1/4 inch and do a rosette weld that you can sand down.

When you do the grinding of the welds on your roof watch for heat build up that can cause warping.......we orefer trhe course flap wheel to a disk...... leave the little pinholes you find and fill them with a then coat of JB weld..... works well on clean metal and can be sanded flush.

We use it at the barn and prefer it to glazing compound

[Jordan Baker]

Thanks Bob

Once I get to taking apart the roof rear panel I will be adding in the window I got from you. Much appreciated. The roof will need a lot of little bits redone and fixed.

For using JB Weld would you sandblast, then JB, then POR15?

I will try out the drip process when I get the chance.

[Bob Carriere]

Do all your welding, patching, grinding and JB, etc then do the sand blast.

Be carefull around the JB.... may need to lask it off or the sand will take it away faster than the surrounding steel. Even smal bolt holes welded and grinded.... get to shinny for the POR to really bind to the surface....... watch body oil from your fingers or dirty leather gloves...use blue ot thicker black nitrile and change as often as necessary. You may wabt to lower the pressure on the blaster and use the fine with sand from TSC so as not to be too agressive. Don't forget to spray a litght coat of paint prep aka Phosphoric acid and let air dry

The dilemma is we use the finest flap wheels to dress up butt welds to a smooth mirror like finish than we need to roughen it up for the POR....Duh!!!!

You are on the right track.

[Alex van de Wetering]

Jordan,

I don't have any experience with POR15 .....and don't think they have spray cans (?), but maybe this is an alternative.....I used Rustoleum rusty metal primer inside a hollow crossmember, with help of a small nozzle and thin hose.
The nozzle and hose came with a can of (Valvoline) bodysafe protective coat for sills and other hollow areas. While I am not a fan of this stuff and don't use it on the Chev, I did like the hose and nozzle.
I had to search my collection of spray can caps for a suitable one that would allow the hose to slide over the end....and fit the top of the Rustoleum can.

I sprayed a quick thin coat every evening of the week and cleaned the nozzle and hose afterwards by fitting the hose to a second cap that would fit a spray can of brake cleaner. A quick clean with brake cleaner and the hose and nozzle were ready to be used again.

Alex