What's in a wheel - Part 2

In this post, I will discuss how I made a mold.

 

Step 1, acquire a decent condition wheel (the plastic part) to use to create a mold:

As you can see from this picture, some of the banjo parts are broken, but the wheel is essentially intact. This wheel came off a '37, but it's the same size, so as a mold, it should work perfectly. Finding this wheel was a stroke of luck. I happened to check eBay on the last day of the auction and picked this up with no competing bids for a really low price. After I'm done, I will either repair the spokes and re-sell it or just sell it as-is and make my money back.

 

Step 2, acquire some liquid silicone rubber to make a mold of the aformentioned wheel:

For this, I opted for a product by Smooth-on called OOMOO 30. It is a 2-part liquid silicone with a fairly thin consistency which doesn't require a vacuum chamber to degas it. It's designed specifically for amateurs and hobbyists. 

 

Step 3, make the mold box:

 

 

This part was the hardest thing to consider. I was envisioning either making a square box which would waste huge amounts of silicone or require some kind of filler. Or, I would spend weeks or months making a segmented wooden box with lots of small pieces. Somehow, I never considered other materials until I saw a video where someone made mold boxes out of foam board. The dollar-store had the thin stuff which worked quite well to make a round box seen here. The hardest part of this was applying the hot glue to the bottom thick enough to seal it but quick enough to put it down before the glue hardened.

 

 

Step 4, pour the first half of the mold:

For some reason, I don't have a picture of the first half poured, but here's a shot of the first batch mixed up. You need to really stir this stuff until there are no more streaks. Otherwise, it won't set properly. Oh, and plan to have more than you think you'll need because I needed twice as much as I thought I would need for half the mold. In addition, you should also set up mold boxes for anything else you might ever want to cast in case you mix up too much. Once it's mixed, you can't un-mix it so you might as well put it to good use.

 

Step 5, apply a mold release:

No photo here. I considered different options for this. I was going to use petroleum jelly, but I opted to use some craft store mold release instead. You spray it on, brush it with a chip brush, spray it lightly one more time and then let it dry. Using this stuff was a bad idea, as it turns out.

 

Step 6, pour the second half:

Again, no photo. It's just me pouring more purple goo.

Step 7, remove the mold from the mold box:

So, if you look carefully, you will see the issue in the above photo. For those who don't know, the only thing that silicone sticks to is other silicone. The reason for the mold release is to provide a thin film which prevents the adhesion. Here, you can see there is no parting line of any kind. You can see a slight variation in color where I didn't quite have the mix ratio perfect.

 

Step 7a, find a big knife:

Yeah, I had no other way to salvage my 2-part mold other than a big knife. More specifically, I used an old block plane blade which was still sharpened to a shaving-sharp edge. The biggest issue with this is that instead of a nice, clean half-way-up parting line, I will have a jagged, uneven edge. Still better than re-pouring $50 worth of silicone.

 

Step 8, enjoy my handiwork:

Here it is separated in to the two parts. On the left is the "face" of the steering wheel. On the right is the finger-bump back side. The small holes are air holes made by drinking straws with modeling clay in them. You can see how they were placed in Step 7 above. There is also a larger hole for a funnel which is where I will be pouring the resin, eventually.

What's in a wheel? - Part 1

A steering wheel, that is. Well, in the case of my steering wheel, not much. It is a 3-spoke banjo wheel (each spoke is made of 5 thin, shiny stainless rods) with some form of plastic cast over the outer ring. In many wheels, the plastic is cracked and has to be repaired with epoxy putty, sanding, priming and painting. In my case, my wheel looks like this:

You'll notice a distinct lack of plastic. Considering this would have been one of the first plastics used commercially, this is entirely unremarkable. Assuming it was some form of cellulose, it wouldn't be UV, heat or moisture stable. 

So, my options are fairly limited. Option 1 is the sure thing. I could send it out to a professional firm which recasts/restores steering wheels. This option costs between $600 and $2000. Option 2 is that I could look for a wheel from a '38. This was a 1-year part, so I don't like my odds. Option 3 is doing it myself.

I've played around with hobby-scale casting before and it seems doable. The biggest issue is trying to color match the resin. If I fail, I can always paint it, so I'm not too concerned. So, all I need to make this happen is a good condition wheel and some materials and I should be good to go.*

* - Spoiler alert, I alread have a wheel and some materials.

Car Restoration: Misunderestimation

So, a week ago, I posted that I would have some new content in a week or two. Based on my progress, it will probably still be another week or two before I have content. I could write up a set of smaller posts but I'll probably hold back a bit. The delay in my content is a small part typical life delays, but, for the most part, it is due to waiting for shipping. A large part of the amateur car restoration "business" is waiting. You don't know exactly what you need so you start something, find that you are missing something, then order that something and wait for it to show up.

As a small reveal, what I am working on is recasting my steering wheel in new plastic. The basic process is as follows: 1. Get a good steering wheel; 2. Make a 2-part silicone mold of the good wheel; 3. Clean any old plastic and rust off the old wheel; 3. Cast new 2-part color-matched urethane; 4. Clean up the flashing, fill voids and buff/polish.

So far, I've done step 1. I ordered the material for making the mold and casting. I only ordered just enough silicone for the mold, based on the site's estimator because silicone is expensive. I only ordered half as much urethane because I figured I would make a few small samples and trial runs and then order exactly how much I would need once I built confidence that the results would be good. Well, turns out that the estimator for how much silicone I would need was way, way off. I mixed up about half the silicone and poured it, only to find that I needed to mix up almost the rest of what I had ordered to finish the first half of the mold. So, I ordered another batch so I can pour the other half of the mold. Since I didn't want to have to wait again, I also ordered more urethane, which will hopefully be enough to pour the whole shebang. Otherwise, there will be more waiting.

So, my plan is to pour the other half of the mold this weekend and then try a test piece to see if I can get a good color match by eye. If that works, I'll mix up a whole batch of urethane and pour it and see what happens. Wish me luck.

Car Restoration: I Shall Overcome

When you read a car restoration journal on the internet, it presents either a terrible misrepresentation of apparent facts (short, frequent posts of nothing but success and impossible accomplishment in a small time window) or an indication of an owner who is retired and independently wealthy and is always sending things out to be restored. A third scenario happens where someone is a professional car restorer with all the right tools and equipment and skills. And then there are the "others." Most often, you come upon a car blog which is informative and well-written. The blogger starts with some barn find, begins to tear into it, and then disappears from the face of the earth. If you read between the lines, you can see that the car either becomes more than the amateur restorer can handle or becomes too expensive or they just lose focus for years until their wife tells them to get rid of the junk car. At face value, I would appear to be one of the last kind.

In my case, I am a textbook example of someone who probably shouldn't take on a full restoration. When I started, I had no kids and a two-income household. Now, I have 3 kids, no money and even less time. However, I have a sentimental connection to the car, so I am determined to finish the restoration. Now that my youngest is 3 years old, I can start to see a time in the not-too-distant-future where I can have time and money to work on the car. So, recently, I have started to make small but forward progress towards the far-off, eventual completion of the car. In the next week or two, I should have some actual updates for what I have been doing in the last week or so. Stay tuned.

1938 Cadillac: Yearly status update

OK, so I didn't realize it had been getting close to a year since I last posted anything related to my car. I also didn't realize how long it had been since I actually did anything on my car. I had the whole chaos of changing jobs last summer. Also, there was the hit on the finances associated with that chaos. Then, of course, there was the Holiday season which is made all the busier by throwing in all of our birthdays. Well, now it's time to get back to work.

So, since my last car-specific post, I have done a bit of work. I have pretty much stripped the block of all of its accessory pieces and removed the heads. I wanted to get an idea of the internal state of the cylinders. To my inexperienced eye, they look pretty good. There is a bit of carbon coating everything, but there is no rust, no apparent ridge and no evidence of detonation happening. I e-mailed a machine shop asking for a rough idea of price for the machine work for the engine parts. The sales guy called me back and told me the heads would be about $500 for a thermal clean, shot peen, pressure test, magnaflux, and surfacing. Considering the heads are just a hollow block of cast iron, it's fairly pricey. For $600 or so, I could get some premium aluminum Cyclone heads that would look killer, although not original. Hmm...

Anyway, one of the big things I have been doing is scoring parts that I am going to need for the eventual restoration. I now have the original water pump plus a replacement. I have an original Stromberg AAV-25 in need of a rebuild. I got a new set of radiator shutters and some random bits and pieces. One of my most successful acquisitions was a radio. It is in much worse condition than the one in my car, but it is complete. Having this radio means two things. Most importantly, I now have an original replacement cover that I can use for my radio. Secondarily, I have a case that I can play with to try to create a modern radio inside the original case which is powered and controlled with the original connections. That should be a fun project.

My pile of parts ready for restoration/repair is getting a little large. One of the big things holding me back is the fact that I still don't have my compressor hooked up. Just yesterday, I finally got the circut breaker hooked up. I still have to pull the wire down to the spot I mount the 220 V outlet. Once I get that done, I can go buy all the parts and pieces I need to hook up my pressure blaster. That's where the fun begins.

I'm not sure what I should tackle first. One thing I need to do for my car is recast the steering wheel. A while back, I got a '37 wheel with the rim in good condition. I figured I could recast my wheel by creating a mould from the good wheel. A little epoxy should give me a nice shinny new wheel. Except, I have never done anything like this before. I was a little hesitant that I would screw up my good wheel core trying to cast the new part. As such, I managed to get a spare '38 steering wheel core in good condition which I can use as practice. If it works well, then I can sell the new recast wheel for a hefty profit. If not, I sell it for what I paid for it. Either way, I can't loose.

Well, that's all I have for now. Hopefully I won't be writing my next car post a year from now. I would like to start with some more regular work. Maybe, now that Laura is getting old enough to help, I can start getting her into car restoration and repair. Little girls like that sort of stuf, right?

Oh, one other thing. Here is the gallery link to the photos since my last post: http://www.therhodeislandreview.com/?page_id=260&g2_itemId=13258

1938 Cadillac: A big hole

I managed to cut about 3/4 of the required opening in the ceiling yesterday.  I realized that I already have a hole big enough to feed the conduit through for the width of the garage. That means that I only have to open half the length to finish it. If I can get another hour or so to finish the cuts, drill the holes and run the cable, I should be up and running. I would say that I would have it working by the end of the weekend, but I can't readily drill holes right below my sleeping baby, so I have to find some time to do it when she is awake. Maybe I can convince my smart, wonderful, attractive and loving wife to give me an insignificant amount garage time. :)

1938 Cadillac: I really want to work!

I was able to get a small bit of time this past weekend to try to wire up my compressor. When we first moved in, I thought the drywalled garage was a feature. Now, I can't stand it! For starters, it would have taken me 15 minutes to run a 220 V line in my garage for the oven and compressor. Now, instead, I am trying to figure out a clean and safe way of running it behind the drywall. First though was to run it in conduit on top of the drywall. I changed my mind because I would have to punch a hole in the wall to mate up to the breaker box anyway. Next, I decided to run the conduit inside the wall with a few small access holes. The problem here is that the ceiling is dropped with 2"x3" lumber which line up with the cross blocking. The only way I could manage that is to drill through every cross piece. That, in turn, would require access holes every 16". In other words, I would have to make a very large hole in the ceiling. If I'm going to do that, it isn't even worth using conduit.

At this point, I am thinking I will cut a hole in the drywall over the entire run and just install it without conduit. What that means is that I have to find my keyhole saw (unlikely), or buy a new one. I had been using a very flexible shark saw which makes nice clean cuts that arc and snake as the saw bends. That would be a fun patch to explain to people.

In any case, I now am planning to cut a hole from midway up my wall where the outlet will be mounted, up to the ceiling, 25 feet across the garage, 12 feet down the side of the garage, 3 feet around the corned and down into the 2 foot wide cavity I already opened up above the breaker box. If I'm lucky I will get most/all the pieces out intact so I can patch the holes. If I'm not lucky, I will have to buy new drywall, cut patch panels and fit them in. I suppose I could also take care of the section under the master bath that was missing due to a leak from the cracked shower base that the previous owners ignored while I am at it.

So, now that I have vented, I have to summarize. I really want to work on the car. I am eager to try out the compressor, blaster, and powder coating equipment. I could actually make real progress on the car even if I only get small amounts of time because the tools would quickly do the work that I do slowly. Also, I would have the ability to refinish something that I can only clean at this point.