Johnny Cash Tribute Truck

[litew8]

Very cool. I'm wondering if the aluminum absorbed the drain cleaner some.
Or if you can spray/soak a towel and just wipe it on. I'd imagine it wouldn't take much for the stuff to protect.
Either way, I'll be following along to see your progress.

[litew8]

Originally Posted by bundeber

thanks cheby and litew8 I don't get to draw as often as I like!

Wow, that's an actual drawing? Nice! I thought it was a photoshop filter.

[bundeber]

nope, just me and a dozen pencils.

Haven't heard back from the distributor yet... I think I'm going to just do some more test pieces. I doubt the drain cleaner is the culprit, with all the sanding, buffing, and cleaning I don't see it as an issue. Especially since my flat test piece didn't have any issues with the exact same process. The yellowing just happened in the low spots where it sagged on the edges and in the area of that black stripe.

I'm going to run one more test piece through and do three light coats instead of two and see if that levels out. They distributor said they do just two coats, but wondering if the third will level without the buildup. You might be right about wiping it too, this stuff is really thin when I've had to sand it off. Before it cures laquer thinner wipes it right off. I may give that a go to, just to see.

Photos to come tomorrow.

[litew8]

Sweet! Try a wipe test piece and see if it produces orange peel? Thanks for doing these tests bundeber!
The product description says it's an alternative to anodizing, I think that's cool. My other option considered was using clear in a can.

[bundeber]

I couldn't take it any longer, had to quickly polish this back up and try several light coats to see if it would level out. First coat, orange peel, second coat, orange peel, but slightly better, third coat, almost satisfactory, fourth coat, looks pretty good. These are basically dusted on like you'd dust guide coat, definately not full coverage. There's a two minute wait time between coats, I'm actually very satisfied with the smoothness of this, but it does take 4 coats to make it happen.

Now to wait and see if it yellows... Should see signs of it tomorrow morning if it's going to do it again.

[bundeber]

you can see it doesn't have the same polished sheen to it, but this was right after the fourth coat and it's smoothed out just a bit more since the photo.

[nychevyman]

that actually looks pretty good

[Tinkermc]

your work looks very nice

[bundeber]

thanks everyone!

The verdict is, 4 very light coats! I got only one little spot of yellowing, once again down in the low spot where the black stripe will go, but it's getting covered by black anyway so I'm good with all the pieces having this sheen to them. I'll wait on powdercoat samples to make the final decision, but overall this seems to work pretty well!

[67cheby]

looks great ! NICE WORK !

[67c10rustbuket]

Nice job on the trim, looks great. I wonder how the old draino resto would work on aluminum wheels? Nice drawing but we need a pic of the real truck(s) soon . Keep it up thats going to be one shiny trimmed truck!

[bundeber]

Thanks! Picts of the real truck will come in June. Gotta get back to MN, the school year is winding down fast now. So for now, it'll just have to be trim.

as to rims, I'm not sure how it would clean them up, I'm sure it would eat the anodizing off, but the polishing will be the real trick.

[duallyjams]

Great info.

[bundeber]

Litew8 Did a wipe test for you, using a very soft synthetic chamois cloth. I sprayed it on the piece and then lightly wiped, seems to cover a bit too thinly, leave some streaky lines, Did another and sprayed it on the rag, and same story. Couldn't tell them apart. if you try to hit it again after the wait time for a second coat, it makes coricone boogers, I think you'd have to literally dip the rag and rub it into say a cast surface to have this look good. Spray with mist coats seems to be the best, about 15 inches from the surface.

Here is a pic of all the pieces polished and coated. Not too bad, like I said earlier it looses some of it's mirror polish look, but it's still very acceptable. Glad I took the time to do more test runs before I gave up.

Also, I've probably only used 1/3 of the can, it seems to cover really well with not a lot of material.

OH, and I tried the mothers polish and powerball... didn't hold a candle to the jewelers rouge and muslin buffing wheels.

[bundeber]

oops, sorry litew8, forgot your picture of the wipe test.

[bundeber]

Thanks Duallyjams, and everyone else. That's what this forum is all about sharing knowledge. I've gotten a ton of great info here, just glad to be able to pass some on for a change!

[litew8]

You the man bundeber!
Thank you for trying that out! Re-confirms spraying it directly is the way to go!

So this stuff actually hardens up a little?
Enough to protect against bugs hitting it perhaps?
And you polished it afterwards?

Sorry for all the questions, I'll be coating my aluminum grille surround soon but I know how
delecate it is towards being scratched Easily unprotected like it is.

[NewType72]

holy ba**s those strips are shiny I'm lovin it this is the reason I went classic for my first car/truck so following this and wanna see the real truck soon too

[7dee2]

Originally Posted by bundeber

I could probably make a side business out of it! If 67cheby got quoted 1000 to restore his, I'd say that's a bit high, even if they were re-anodizing it.

And yep, I called the them direct to order the coricone, 25 bucks for an aerosol can of it, but it covers 300 square feet. From what I've seen of people using this, it seals really well in salt water conditions, so I imagine it will seal even better in non salt water situations. It also says it takes a caustic bath to remove it after it cures, but cleans up with water before then. Some instrument repair guys are using this on brass instruments too. I'll give it a shot and see how it goes.

Who did you get your can of coricone from?

Did you get any powder coated pieces back yet?

Nice work!

Thanks,

[Tinkermc]

finished parts are killer

[bundeber]

Thanks everyone. Litew8, yes the coricone cures in 8 days, then it's a pita to get off. It literally has to have caustics applied to remove it, or be sanded by hand. Not sure if the drain cleaner will strip it again, I just sanded it off. It seems to have a really nice surface to it, will definately be easy to remove bug guts. And it was polished before I applied the coricone. Polish, then seal. 8 day cure time, can be handled gently before then, but after 8 days it's basically like being anodized.

I got the coricone direct, just googled it and got it coming. was like 32 bucks with shipping. I'll answer any questions I missed tomorrow, spent the day in the mountains and I'm beat.

[bundeber]

No powdercoated pieces back yet. However it would be hard to beat the finish on the pieces I coated with coricone, now that I have it figured out.

However, I did recently purchase the remaining pieces that I need to finish my trim set, if the powdercoating looks good, I may get those powdercoated and run a long term durability test to compare the two of them.

[litew8]

Sweet. Thanks again for the info.

[duallyjams]

Why not post a pic of all the tools and materials that you used.

[bundeber]

That's no problem. Pictures to follow the description of the process in order.

1. Soak your pieces in a coating of Degreaser and Hair remover for 5 minutes.
This will eat of the anodizing. WEAR GOOD RUBBER GLOVES
2. Scrub the piece with a green scotchbrite pad to remove the anodizing and drain cleaner. I ran water over it as I scrubbed it off. Then I used laquer thinner to remove the black stripe.
3. Sand with 400 then 600 grit sandpaper. I did this with a small sanding block on the flat areas so I could see where I needed to hammer out any dings. Then I used a standard pick hammer used on body work to work out small dings and a flat hammer and dolly for the larger areas. It's time consuming, but worth it. Then I used a small file to take off any tiny high spots I formed.
4. once again hit with sandpaper to remove file and hammer marks.
5. Steel Wool the surface with 00 size wool
6. Then use a buffer, mine is a purchased one that I removed from this unit and clamped to a bench for more working area.

Start with green, aluminum oxide, then I followed that with a black compound, followed that up with a red oxide compound, and finally hit it with the little bit of white rouge I had left... That bar is completely gone so I don't have a picture of that. I need to order another one.

7. Clean with a clean VERY SOFT rag and laquer thinner, or acetone and let it air dry

8. 4 misted coats of coricone with a 2-3 minute flash time between coats.