Ford Model T Detailing???

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Ford Model T Detailing???

Dykes Encyclopedia was a book printed in the 1920's about how to repair and take care of old cars. It may be very hard to find.Check with your local library, they may be able to find it for you.

Lets see... how about this...



Thank you. I'm always researching early paints, polishes and procedures and will track this book down and obtain it like Indiana Jones looking for the Crystal Skull.

Thank you Larry...

[Nappers]

Re: Ford Model T Detailing???

Dykes Encyclopedia

couple of others in uk ebay.

[TH0001]

Re: Ford Model T Detailing???

Polish it with a machine IMO. If it is really original paint it is likely rock hard and would make a fun project.

[TH0001]

Re: Ford Model T Detailing???

Let me justify my answer....

Obviously if you where going to take a machine to the car would would want
A) To really know what your doing
B) Take every precaution necessary

I wouldn't do it with out a paint gauge and carefully measure the total thickness after each pass.

In the last year I worked on numerous cars with original paint and have had great success including

1) 1967 Mustang Cobra-Jet. This car only had 1.8 mils of paint left, but I wet-sanded it and polished it and was able to achieve 99 percent perfection on 40 year old paint

2) 1967 Ferrari 365 GTC 2+2- 2.5 mils of paint left, came out perfect.

3) 1953 Corvette- Orginal paint and had crazing and fiber glass cracking on the front. Couldn't measure paint depth but I was able to remove "most" of the swirls and chaulking and bring a very bright glow back to the paint.

4) 1979 Ferrari Boxer- Huge amount of paint thickness, no problem.

5) 1954 Fiat Supersonic- Orginally owned my Marylin Monroe, this black car had razor thin paint at only 2 mils. Got it 99 percent perfect.

6) 1974 Lambo Countach- Lacquer checked but polished out. Remove 100 percent of the swirls..

7) 1971 (I think) Lambo Espada- Orginal brown paint. Only had about 1.8 mils but was able to bring the paint all the way back.

8) 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO- 30 year old repaint, wetsanded and polished out.

I have some pictures up loading...

Honestly, I haven't worked on paint quite as old as a Model T's, but if its there, I would machine the heck out of it.

[TH0001]

Re: Ford Model T Detailing???

This 1971 Lamboghini Espada had orginal paint.







1974 Lambo Countach





Afters of Marylin Monroe's Fiat Supersonic











Polishing the original (and VERY THIN) factory race paint on the last Ford GT-40 built.







While I didn't get the GT-40 perfect, I did get it close. Then I used NXT to help fill in the some lighter defects.



This 18,000,000 Ferrari was also not safe from my buffer. It had been resprayed over 30 years ago, but looked amazing when I was done (IMO)



Here is the 68 (or 67) Mustang S/CJ with original paint. It only 1.8 mils of the thickness so I used 3000 grit UniGrit sandpaper to carefully remove as much paint as possible.

Before



After sanding



After polishing



However, you also have to KNOW when to say NO. I had the opportunity to polish this original paint 427 Cobra. This car is extremely rare and a real 427 Cobra, and one of the only left with original paint. The loose in value if I struck through the paint would have been over a million dollars, so I said no.

[Nappers]

Re: Ford Model T Detailing???



There are some true artists who love their jobs on this forum, that's for sure.

[jleonard711]

Re: Ford Model T Detailing???

WOW, those are some incredible cars to have detailed. An $18,000,000 Ferrari!??! I don't think I would even want to sit in that thing in fear of breaking something or getting it dirty, let alone take a rotary buffer to it!!

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Ford Model T Detailing???

Nice pictures... but where's the Model T's? With original paint?

Polish it with a machine IMO. If it is really original paint it is likely rock hard and would make a fun project.

Have you ever polished the paint on any old cars like a Model T? As in the same era?

If this is the original paint, then it's likely very soft, not very hard, especially if it's black.

The Model T, as well as the Model A, have many raised body lines, you have to be careful with any raised body lines or any high points.

The other issue is you don't know how many people have gone before you and you don't know what they used, in other words you don't know if they used an aggressive compound or not, thus you don't know if the paint is whisper thin or not.

Maybe machine the flat panels but around any body lines or edges a safer approach would be to work carefully by hand. Just depends upon how important it is to preserve the original paint and how important it is for the person doing the work to not make a mistake.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Ford Model T Detailing???

Awesome work. I thought this thread was about a model T? What happened to those Pics.

[TH0001]

Re: Ford Model T Detailing???

Nice pictures... but where's the Model T's? With original paint?






Have you ever polished the paint on any old cars like a Model T? As in the same era?

If this is the original paint, then it's likely very soft, not very hard, especially if it's black.

The Model T, as well as the Model A, have many raised body lines, you have to be careful with any raised body lines or any high points.

The other issue is you don't know how many people have gone before you and you don't know what they used, in other words you don't know if they used an aggressive compound or not, thus you don't know if the paint is whisper thin or not.

Maybe machine the flat panels but around any body lines or edges a safer approach would be to work carefully by hand. Just depends upon how important it is to preserve the original paint and how important it is for the person doing the work to not make a mistake.

I have polished some cars from the same era, but not with original paint. However every car I have ever polished that had older paint was rock hard. I think that the safe answer is to lightly rub a cleaner/polish on it, then glaze, then wax, and that will provide okay results.

To truely "detail" a car or restore older paint to the maximum potential requires machine polishing (unless your Scottwax and your arms are size of tanks, but even then your still removing paint). I don't know the skill level of the OP, but I think a lot of times people leave the paint far short of its potential because of fear (which can be a very good thing).

With cars such as this, I wouldn't be afraid of polishing it, but I would be very careful. Unfortunately it is a two way street because the only way to truely know whether you can polish the paint is to polish it, and that can lead to issues. I would take every precaution necessary to polish it, including...

A) spending several hours or a full day taping up every seam and high spot.
B) measuring and recording the paint thickness/film build over every panel. I would assume (maybe incorrectly) that older cars had a large amount of priming agent, so these numbers would not give an accurate example of the amount of polishable paint, but they would give a base line
C) starting with the least agressive method, I would polish and re measure the paint.

Obviously with a car of this age (with out knowing the condition) you would have to be careful, but by the same token I think that a lot of the potential of the car could be left uncovered if machine polishing was not attempted.

[TH0001]

Re: Ford Model T Detailing???

WOW, those are some incredible cars to have detailed. An $18,000,000 Ferrari!??! I don't think I would even want to sit in that thing in fear of breaking something or getting it dirty, let alone take a rotary buffer to it!!

In the end it isn't the cars we work on but the paint system we are working with that matters. The car just presents different challanges (as Mike noted, Model T's have a ton of seams). If you work on a lot of cars, they all become cars, and paint just becomes paint.

[TRWRacing]

Re: Ford Model T Detailing???

Hi,

Having an issue trying to upload jpegs to my gallery. Says "invalid file"?

One thing my Ford Model T was an amatuer restoration in the 1960s. It has been repainted at least once. Most Model Ts have been at least repainted once. The finish does have some defects checking in on area and some scratches but it looks good for a 90 year car the was repainted some 40 years ago. I would like to protect it and look good for show for Henry's Universal Car that was first produced in 1908 .

Thanks in advance for any help regarding getting images posted...

[Superior Shine]

Re: Ford Model T Detailing???

Here is the closest thing to a T that I have polished.

I doubt it was orig. paint.

[Tim Lingor]

Re: Ford Model T Detailing???

Hi,

Having an issue trying to upload jpegs to my gallery. Says "invalid file"?

One thing my Ford Model T was an amatuer restoration in the 1960s. It has been repainted at least once. Most Model Ts have been at least repainted once. The finish does have some defects checking in on area and some scratches but it looks good for a 90 year car the was repainted some 40 years ago. I would like to protect it and look good for show for Henry's Universal Car that was first produced in 1908 .

Thanks in advance for any help regarding getting images posted...

Morning,

You are probably trying to upload too large of a file...try and downsize to 700 pixels wide. Here is a link to a free photo resizer and how-to...

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3188&highlight=easy+thumbnails

Tim

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Ford Model T Detailing???

Thanks for posting that picture Joe.

If you look at the design of the sheet-metal over the car body, outside the flat areas on the doors and some places on the hood, everything else starts to become more complicated to try to machine buff without burning through any of the raised body lines especially if the paint is original.

I've been asked to help a friend detail a Model T. The car has the original black paint (supposed). I don't have many details about the car; ie year, options, etc.

Do you have any suggestions in detailing the paint of this car? I wasn't planning on using any sort of abrasive cleaner, compound, or clay. I just don't know what will work. As the paint is supposedly original, I definitely don't want to harm it.

I was planning on doing a simple wash and a coat of GC and #21 by hand.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Chris,

Just focus on the task at hand and use good technique and you're work will come out fine. Do a couple of test spots with the product you plan on using over the entire finish and make sure you're getting good results in your test spots and then duplicate this over the entire finish.

Good luck, have fun and take plenty of pictures.