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March
9, 2003 PowdercoatingBefore I get to the restoration stuff, I want to address something that just came to my attention and really makes me angry: plagarism. Last night, a friend from the BCA message board gave me a heads-up about an outfit in Canada using my writing to advertise a '41 Buick Special both on their site and on Ebay (click on the 1941 Century Info to see my text). Since it's a weekend, I haven't gotten a response to my E-mail yet, but I expect to first thing Monday morning. If they had asked, I would have gladly given permission to use the stuff, no questions asked. But to just take it without credit or permission really isn't cool. Then they have the nerve to put big copyright notices all over their site and claim that everything on it is their property and cannot be used without express written permission. I wish they would have extended me the same courtesy. As a professional writer myself, I take plagarism very seriously. I'm not uptight about it--they could have used it for free--but to steal like that just bothers me. Maybe I'm overreacting, but I don't think so. I'm going to refrain from naming the outfit or linking to their site or their Ebay auction (but it's a blue 1941 Special sedan, really nice, but way, way overpriced) and see if they make things right by me. If not, then I'll decide what to do about it. OK, on to today's projects. I decided I was going to powder coat all these blasted parts I had lying around. I received a fresh order of powder from Eastwood this week: satin black, gold (for some brass hardware around the house), some deglossing additive, and cast iron gray. I plan to do most of the underhood components in the satin black (the cooling fan, the radiator shroud, etc.), and thought I would try it out today since I already had the fan and shroud blasted and ready to go. I also wanted to finish the uprights and spindles so I could start getting the front suspension moving towards completion. I finished the spindles and uprights without a problem using the same color I have been using for the other suspension components (do you need to see them?), then moved on to the radiator shroud.
The shroud is about the biggest object I can fit in my oven, and it was tight. I actually brushed up against the sides when I was putting it in there and scuffed the edge. I'm going to try a second coat and repositioning the piece on the rack and see if I can touch up those spots. A second coat of powder might be a good idea for a high-visibility item like this. I may even sand the first coat to get it extra smooth before spraying the second coat. But I like the gloss and color of the satin (I was initially concerned that it would be too flat). On the down side, the black is REALLY STINKY when you cook it. I don't know why. I'm going to install my vent fan over the powder coating station before I powder coat again. I have a high-performance oven hood with a monster fan on it that I'm going to use. I got it for free, brand new, from a buddy of mine in construction who couldn't use it (thanks, Ken!). For this reason, I didn't get the car's cooling fan done today. It'll be next, probably Wednesday night at the earliest. Oh, I also ordered a cadmium plating kit from Caswell Plating last week. It should be here tomorrow (Monday). I plan to use it to plate all the cadmium pieces and bolts on the car. That way I can keep them separated into their components without having to figure out where they go after the fact. I also want to plate the brake backing plates and fan pulley so they'll be the correct finish. I may use clear satin powdercoat to finish them off and prevent corrosion. I'll report on this when I have some time to experiment. That's about it until I can get the vent fan installed and my plating kit shows up. It's again too cold to do anything outside in the garage. Spring is coming, spring is coming, spring is coming...
E-mail me at toolman8@sbcglobal.net This page accessed Thanks, Fidget!
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