I get by with a little help from my friends (and family) - 3-16-14

Beatles references not withstanding (You're welcome Mom!) this lyric turned cliche is actually true. This project would not have gotten off the ground without my Dad. Going back as far as the first time I tore something apart in the basement as a kid or the set of tools he got me for Christmas in the 8th grade, Dad's mechanical influence has been with me for essentially my entire life. More directly - This project sat without Dad's dogged determination and I owe him for that. (This post was written in Dad's basement with him present but that has no bearing on my thanks - really! :-))

Dad has been busy:

Both the Crank side wheels have been painted

And remember that not terribly great looking condenser? 

Yup - all the brackets too along with new bolts and a new Gasket

We've shown both of these pieces before but here they are together, ready for some welding and some additional sandblasting. Dad has been straightening the hoop parts some more.

Like most of my projects - it isn't all about Dad - we both pull in other friends and family to help - my adopted Grandfather Neil 'Gramps' is a cabinet maker and makes my wood cutting skills look pathetic. 

That is a piece of oak that Dad had lying around that Neil is planing

See those three pieces - those are all cut to length to be the supports for the top of the 'Engine Box' or 'seat' of the 62. Thanks Neil! For this and for all the other wood work you've done on this car! (Including storing the wood for almost a decade....)

More to come!

Removing Paint, putting some back on and a Broken Bolt. (Arrgh!) 3-8-14

With the weather getting warmer, Cooper and I made the trek to Dad's house for some more work on the #62. Dad had been busy in our absence - as he usually is. 

Dad pulled the glass and gaskets out of the windshield and had applied some chemical paint stripper. 

That's Dad working the die grinder to pull off more paint and rough up the surface. 

Chemical stripper at work on two of the vertical support pieces for the windshield. Careful note will see that the pieces will need to be welded.

That's Dad scraping off additional paint loosened by the chemical stripper

The Vent covers have been removed for their own stripping, priming and painting

After we put that front support tube on, we pulled it back off again and began to prep it for priming and painting. That is Dad going very easily over it with a grinder - just enough to take off the paint. I tried it - I'm not that good at going easy with a grinder....

And here it is a while later - note Cooper keeping watch in the background. 

Here is an example of Dad's great work at priming - this is one of the original lift handle brackets 

Don't recognize the black straps of metal? These hold the gas tank onto the wooden mounts that hold it to the car

Furnace parts not withstanding, here are parts of the braking system, primed and painted

So the story on this sequence is a little longer than the photos would indicate. Dad looked over at the gasket on the Condenser and said 'that really ought to be replaced.' I took it upon myself to take all 14 bolts off. Then I couldn't manage to get the thing unstuck. 

All four metal holding pieces have been removed, but she won't budge

With the help of a putty knife, and Dad's 5-in-1 tool....

It finally came apart. 

Then the gasket scraping began again - this time to clean the surface off to prep for a new gasket

Not sure what we'd do without putty knives...

Not a whole lot of junk in the water hopper in my opinion - pretty clean really

Remember that Broken bolt (arrrgh!) part from the title - here it is - out of 14 3/4" long 5/16th inch bolts, one decided to snap off. This is that one. Theres always one. 

Here is the same spot (different angle) and you can now see the freshly drilled and tapped hole where the bolt was in the previous picture. What should have been an easy job turned into a small journey of frustration.

Remember the front tube from earlier - here is the other side of it where the grinder couldn't quite reach. We're hitting it with the Chemical stripper to loosen it up

One last shot of the now pretty much clean gasket surface. 

More to come!

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The day Cooper showed up to Help - 3-1-14

Cooper went in for knee surgery a few months back and hasn't been up to coming over to help. Then with some schedule conflicts, it just didn't happen. Finally he was able to make it over this day - and I know he did a fair amount to help. Or was it entertain?

Yup - there he is helping or was it supervising? 

First task for the day - pull the font tubing back off and straighten it. Decades of use had put some serious tweaks into the front tubing and we decided to get at least the majority of them straightened out

First step - driving a section of pipe into the end of the worst tube to be able to put force on it without crushing the shape. 

Here was the first attempt - Cooper checking out the 'jig' I setup so I could step on the pipe closest to us and attempt to bend it back. This did work - but not as well as anticipated. I didn't get any shots of the way we actually got it done - we took a metal pipe and placed it underneath one of beams of the house - using a bottle jack we were able to make a makeshift press and put some serious force on that piece of tubing. That worked fairly well. 

Dad attacking the tubing with 'locking pliers' - trying to get them a little straighter. 

Time for some explanation - one of the two reasons for tearing into this restoration in the first place was the aluminum angle iron that I found badly corroded. This is one of the replacement pieces I bought in probably 2005 or 2006 and had cut to fit then drilled holes into. Unfortunately - my method of drilling holes was off. Some were very close - others were a half a hole off in two dimensions. Apparently the steel angle I bought instead of the aluminum used by Fairmont is slightly different in dimension as well - I took a grinder to modify this piece in order to fit square with the rear tubing. 

This was a seriously frustrating piece - the bolt simply did not want to go in - and the hole had to be drilled, then redrilled in order to get it to line up correctly. Finally it did. 

With both front and rear (and side) bolts in we were able to drill the other holes since the spacing was now more or less correct. 

One in - one not so much...

This is why we put the front tubing on - we discovered that the front frame pieces were in different places at different angles then they were supposed to be - Since they were not being supported by the front tubing. Obviously this means that there will be some additional drilling required. 

Last shot of the day - the straightened front tube back on - holes drilled - bolts in them - We made some progress!

More to come!

Three days in a row! 2/25/14

I know what you're thinking - its been 10 years and now you're excited over three days in a row? What can I say - I'm getting more excited by the day as this thing comes back together!

Here we see Dad at work on his painting portion of the project. 

I believe it was this day when he decided that there must be something wrong with the batch of paint he's been using as it refused to cover properly on the second fender.

Even if it isn't covering properly - its still good to see it painted!

Note the obvious color difference between the left and right sides of the blue paint tape. It shouldn't be that way.

Here is the other side - a much smaller difference but still there.

Ok here is some serious progress - we separated the front tubing from the windshield and bolted it - temporarily - onto the front of the car. First time since 2005 that these pieces were together - even temporarily!

Here is a bit of a debate - I've been told where the Fairmont serial numbers should be - the engine in one place, the car in another. What no one seems to be able to identify is where this tag came from - To me it looks unlike something the Railroad would have applied - but no one has come up with any explanations. Post a comment below if you have any thoughts!

More to come!

The Next Day - 2/24/14

Sometimes it isn't how long you work on a project - but how much effort you put into it in a short burst.
That is how things went on 2/24/14

For the first time since 2005 - both fenders and running boards were back on the car!

Dad had been busy earlier in the day with the drill

Here we see some of the bolt holes filling up - a good sign!

Same on the operator's side - more holes and more bolts!

One thing Dad began to realize (and I had my rusty memory refreshed on) was how these cars are so tightly integrated - almost every part connects to another one in some way - its hard to assemble the car without all the pieces. As a result, we went to the shed to get the windshield. Being as it is winter in Maine - there was a considerable amount of ice in front of the shed door. Dad went out and chopped ice for hours in order to get the door open. I showed up for the easy part after work and helped lug the windshield into the workshop.

Upside down it might be - but at least its close by! Behind it are the freshly painted wood pieces for the restoration - something else Dad has worked on. 

More holes and more bolts!

Its great to see this stuff finally getting put back together! Makes me think we're getting somewhere!

More to come!