Day 13 - 28 Chev Ute Restoration (8th June 2015)

Very pleased to report progress has been made, and I have reached the first goal I set myself:

1.  Cleaning and prepping all the small bits and pieces and spares, setting up the molasses bath, and   throwing in the parts for de-rusting. (tick this off as completed)

The last few days over a long weekend went like this:

All parts were wire brushed with an angle grinder and washed in petrol to remove any loose rust flakes, paint or grease.

The four spare heads were also cleaned, but due to the weight and molasses not being "kind" to cast iron, these will be soaked for a few days in rust buster. I have had excellent results with rustbuster on heads previously.

To do it once and do it right, the brake cross shaft plates were separated by grinding down the rivets heads to expose concealed rust that needs to be removed.

I ran a die nut down the threads on the U-bolts, which will save any dramas during re-assembly.

Relieved to at last set up the molasses bath, 40 liters plus water to make up just over 400 liters.With the weather being on the cold side and the molasses being very thick, I connected the external hot water service drain pipe to the garden hose, giving me 400 liters of steaming hot water, and flushed the hot water service at the same time.

Each of these wires leads to one mans rusty rubbish, another mans treasure, 1928 Chev wise that is.
I expect the parts will soak for at least one to two weeks, and I will check them every few days.

Even the dog got into the act with all the activity in the back yard. I expect to add more molasses and water when the body panels are due to go in.

 

As I mentioned before the heads will be soaking in rustbuster one at a time for 2 to 3 days. All being well this will leave the internal water jackets a nice shade of gun metal grey.

The next two goals I have set myself are

1. Clean and strip the front and rear axles.

2. Clean and de-rust the chassis. I have decided to use the wire brush and flappy disc on the angle grinder and rust buster approach as opposed to sand blasting. This is being done to:

A/ keep the cost down

B/ I have seen several chassis that have been sand blasted and painted that when hit with a hammer near a cross member produce rust dust. Sand blasting does not get into the metal to metal joins, rustbuster will. It will be more work on my part and may take a bit longer, but hopefully the results will make the effort worthwhile.

That's the theory, stay tuned and I will let you know.