Hand brake

 January 29, 2023

What is your time worth?  What do you think a professional restorer’s time should be worth?  People often ask, “is this worth restoring”? This small collection of hand brake parts represents 3 hours of cleaning, and I haven’t painted or reassembled it yet.  I will have 5 hours in the one small component. This is just one of over 100 different assemblies that will done in the course of a “restoration”.  Do the math?  If you include your labor or someone else’s labor you may be upside down in a Series restoration.  You’d better do it for the love of it.

The "hand brake relay" has a "shaft for hand brake relay" that rides in a brass bushing.  The shaft should rotate in that bushing, but mind was frozen solid.  It too a lot of PB Blast and a lot of force under a 20 Ton Hydraulic press to break mine loose.  I noticed that the threaded portion of the shaft was bent so I've ordered another one for $6.95 from Atlantic British.

Frame

 February 4, 2023

I got my chassis back today.  I had it sand blasted and coated with a zinc based primer.  That will hold it until I get it painted after I do the springs and axles.

This the it primer we used https://tnemec.com/products/series-394-perimeprime/

Before and after

Fuel Tank renewal

 January 25, 2023

Once gain I find that I’m glad I decided to take this all the way down and check everything.  I wire brushed the gas tank today and found some pin holes,  I I need to check with my friends and YouTube to find out how to fix these.  Much of the tank is leaded so I assuming I need to apply lead to these holes.  I have some tanks sealer I’ll use too.

After cleaning the exterior i watch a YouTube video about it and decided to remove the bash plate.  It soldered on but it can bee removed.  I’m glad I did as I found a lot of dirt and rust underneath it.  I’ve cleaned it all of and applied rust converter. Next I will treat the inside of the thank and put it all back to there with a metal adhesive rather than the solder method.

After I seal the pin holes with JB Weld, I’ve decided to use a product called KBS Fuel tank sealer kit.  You can find it on Amazon.  I have a can of Red Kate tank sealer but could not be clear from my research if it is suitable for diesel tanks so I chose KBS.  KBS uses a cleaner, a surface etching prep and then the sealer.

https://www.kbs-coatings.com/auto-fuel-tank-sealer-kit.html

Pin holes filled and openings prepared for the treatment.  I’m putting the screws back in the holes to keep sealer out of the threaded holes.

KBS.  Cleaner, etcher, coating.

BEFORE

AFTER

I made one mistake while coating the inside; once the coating is on all surfaces you have to drain the excess.  I drained it at the filler end but that is also the breather end and I forgot to keep that tube open so the coating filled in the tube and dried.  I had to drill it all out.  Otherwise I’m happy with the outcome and the KBS kit.