'67.5 SPL311 1600 Roadster Restoration: Let the fun begin!

[Florida Roadster]

Tray full of emblems to be blasted, electro-cleaned and stripped, then nickel plated with the Caswell plating kit. Wish me luck. I plan on nickel-plating as many parts from the car as possible. Er, um, yes, I will have a few spares.

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[Florida Roadster]

Changed speedo pinion gear to 19 tooth for 3.90 rear end and since I had the 90-degree adapter from the 4-speed why not use it? Would this make any difference in choosing the shorter or longer version of the speedo cable?

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[Florida Roadster]

I need to have the two (intake manifold) coolant holes on the cylinder head TIG welded since they are a little enlarged from corrosion and don't match up with the intake manifold or gasket very well. They should be 12mm holes and one is enlarged to 17 mm. I will then have the intake/exhaust side of the head re-surfaced to make sure it is flat and flush.

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[Florida Roadster]

Hello gentlemen, I've been busy, went "back to school", steep learning curve. Chemistry 101. Nickel plating and powder coating. Plating has been a challenge because of the inconsistencies of 56-year-old metal. These cars had lots of pot metal and zinc. The process involves a few more steps for those metals and doesn't come out as well. Sometimes in requires sanding and buffing, and then re-plating. Normal steel, stainless, and aluminum are more straightforward. The powder coating is relatively simple. For nickel plating each piece takes about 2 hours. For powder coating each piece takes about 30 minutes. Need a bigger oven! I have 3 kitchen timers going when the lab is open, running back and forth. In between I have been buffing other small parts, and working on other projects. Only 342 more parts to go!!!

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[SOUPY]

Lookin good! Thought about trying that myself, but I decided too much of a learning curve and time as you are finding out. But challenging and rewarding for sure. When do we start sending our parts to you? Keep up the good work!

[ADR]

Ditto!

[Florida Roadster]

Lookin good! Thought about trying that myself, but I decided too much of a learning curve and time as you are finding out. But challenging and rewarding for sure. When do we start sending our parts to you? Keep up the good work!

I bought the Eastwood powder coating kit and oven, works great. I made a small paint booth to coat the parts. I turned the oven on it's side and drilled a hole so I could hang a swivel hook and be able to hang the parts. It would be way too hard to try and lay parts down to cure. Powder is relatively cheap at $25 per pound which will coat a bunch of parts. Easy clean up too. The Nickel plating kit came from Caswelll plating, they sell a variety of plating kits and have a great support forum and manual. Clean, new, fresh metal plates easily, older, dirty, rusted, pitted metal requires a lot more metal preparation. Give it a shot, you can do it!

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[Florida Roadster]

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[Florida Roadster]

Chrome powder coat. It's very nice.

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[SOUPY]

Nice! You are tempting me to try this! The chrome plate for my 66 switches has been polished so much that the chrome has been rubbed down to the copper? plating, so I took it to a Cosmochrome shop that said they would "try" to cosmochrome it. Left it there for a couple weeks then went back since never heard anything and they never even touched it. Did not have good feelings about them, so glad I picked it up. But thats what got me thinking about powder coating or cosmochrome.

[Florida Roadster]

It's been awhile, life is always crazy. Brief update. The entire chassis has been rebuilt, the engine rebuilt, the 5-speed rebuilt, the metal work is complete, new floors, a new trunk floor, and a few patch panels. The entire car was stripped to bare metal and is now in epoxy primer. Next up is to finish the body work and paint the car, remount the body, and work on the final assembly, interior, trim, glass, etc. I'm going to start the engine and run/test before then just to make sure everything is good. Getting there! I added a new horse to the barn and I've been bouncing back and forth between the 3 cars and sourcing parts, buying and selling parts, cleaning things up, media blasting, powder coating, tagging and bagging, and updating the inventory lists. I hope everyone is moving all along well on all your car related projects. There sure is a LOT of Roadsters for sale out there! Jeff

[notoptoy]

Nice to see the update and completely understand the load of work involved. You’re gonna have one very special Roadster when you’re done. Everything’s looking amazing.

[drieseck]

Jeff, it all looks fantastic. Is the valve cover your powdercoat, nice?! I can see the front a-arms, but quite an effort for the rear axle! Very good stuff. Congrats and thanks for posting the progress.

[Gregs672000]

Looking good! Just wait until you get to put her all together!

[Florida Roadster]

Jeff, it all looks fantastic. Is the valve cover your powdercoat, nice?! I can see the front a-arms, but quite an effort for the rear axle! Very good stuff. Congrats and thanks for posting the progress.

Thanks!

Nice to see the update and completely understand the load of work involved. You’re gonna have one very special Roadster when you’re done. Everything’s looking amazing.

Thanks!

Jeff, it all looks fantastic. Is the valve cover your powdercoat, nice?! I can see the front a-arms, but quite an effort for the rear axle! Very good stuff. Congrats and thanks for posting the progress.

Thanks! Yes, that is powdercoat. The valve cover was quite the mess and did not respond well to polishing so I chose to powder coat it instead. All of the suspension parts were coated EXCEPT the rear axle housing. I only wish I had an oven big enough for that!