Vintage rides

Do you need an inspiration to start working on something? I usually do… Even worse, I need a REASON…

I was surfing the Internet last week, looking for paint options for my Elan. On one site I found a paint preparation guide, which mentioned Electrolytic Rust Removal (EER) as one of the ways to remove corrosion. No description, nothing… So, I goggled it. Started reading: it took a few seconds to realize – that’s what I need!!! To remove rust you need electricity, electrolyte (washing soda, AKA sodium carbonate, dissolved in water), bath, steel electrode and some wires. I searched some more, and here is the site (http://www.oldengine.org/members/orrin/rustdemo.htm) that I found very useful. No pictures, but very good description.
After some reading and thinking I got inspired to remove rust from Elan’s frame: it got a lot rusty areas with heavy pitting. It would take forever to remove by wire wheel. I can’t afford blasting service right now, so the ERR is the way to go!

So, I started my “need” list: first thing - power supply – checked. I have 50A 27DCV power supply, which just sits in the garage and collects dust – perfect for this job!
Second thing – the bath… Scratched my head: what to use?!? The answer came easy – large Toronto recycle container – perfect candidate for this job! Couple holes needed to be plugged, simple task. Third thing – washing soda… That was surprisingly hard to find! I got it from Grassroots Environmental Products – small store in downtown Toronto. Everything else was easy. I have plenty of steel pieces in the garage, so finding the waste electrode wasn’t a problem. I have plenty of wires to…
So, I cleaned the paint and gunk from the frame with wire wheel and made a set up. The container holds about 350L of water, so I used around 3lb of washing soda and it worked just fine. I started the process with one big waste electrode, but found that several small ones work better, because you can locate them closer to critical areas.
Anyway, I loaded the frame into the container, hooked the wires and turned the power on.

The process started right away, I had an average current about 30-35A. After some time the waste electrode collects a lot of rust on itself, so the current drops by 5-10A.


First signs of rust and grease appeared after on the top of the solution after half an hour of work.

Front of the sled was corroded the most, so I had plenty of rusty foam on the water. I collected it several times just to keep the solution clean. I started the process around 8 in the morning and had a few breaks during the day due to adding another electrodes, current drops or small problems like overloaded electrical breakers on the panel in the basement:) and left it alone until 21:00 when I switched the power off. I had to turn the work piece around in the tank to keep the rust removal under control:) I left the frame in the solution overnight (which is fine because solution is not corrosive to the metal) and turned the system on again in the morning. In the afternoon I fished the frame from the tank and cleaned black oxide flakes, which formed instead of rust. Not bad! Still some rust in the corners, but most of it was gone!






After cleaning with plastic brush I sprayed the first half with WD40 just to prevent surface rusting and dropped the frame in the tank again, now the rear portion went in. This time I had 4 waste electrodes in the container: one on the bottom, big one on the front and two on the sides. Current jumped to 40-45A, but after a few hours it dropped back to 30A. I played with electrodes positioning during the day and left the process overnight.


Next day I decided to locate waste electrodes close to corners along the tunnel and in engine compartment to remove remaining rust spots and installed them using tie wraps and hooks.

Worked wonders! Most of the rust was gone in no time.
I have to admit, that the process took a bit longer then I calculated, but I satisfied with result. Here are some pictures:










After getting some experience it’s much easier to set everything up correctly, so I don’t have to repeat the work again. Also, it’s hard to work with such big pieces of metal. It will be always a corner, which gets less treatment then others due to physics of the electrolytic process. You get best results in the areas where the distance between electrodes is the shortest. Anyway, I am happy with the final result. Now I can continue work on the frame and weld some patches and reinforcements.

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Back to buisness!!! Had a summer break for my projects, but now is time to move on!
This week I am working on Elan chasis, removing corrosion using Electrolytic Rust Removal. Simle enough, but results are great!
Will post in a day or two all the pictures.

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On last Thursday weather was nice and I decided to use this chance to do some more work on the boat. I leveled the bulkheads and stringers, trimmed all the glass and glued in supports for the floor. Next step is drilling the drain holes and installing the drain PVC pipes. After that I can fix top the hull and the top half of the boat and put it back together. Floor could be done in between those operations: final installation of the floor will be done after installation of the top half of the boat. All I need now is some good weather and next 5 galons of resin:)
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Finally I had time to work on my boat. Weather was great for working outside, so I pushed my limits and finished glassing the subframe.






First day I was filling the voids and making nice radiused beams. I was using talc as the thickener for resin this time: was kinda disappointed. Compare to cabosil, it's terrible!!! (It's cheap, though: $40 for 50Lb) Hard to get the right ratio, problematic to make it smooth, really fragile... I had to ad in to mix some wood dust and chips - it helped a bit to hold mixture together. Anyway, I finished with that on Thursday, on Friday early in the morning I started glassing. With all fiberglass precut the process was really straight forward: mix new batch of resin, glass, mix again, etc... It was a bit too hot in the afternoon: boat warmed up and the resin working time shortened to 5 minutes! I just started to use smaller batches of resin.
Anyway, big job is done. Next time I will fix all the air bubbles and dry spots and install drainage pipes. After that I could move to the next step and start work with the floor.
Here are some pictures:

















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Middle of June already... I slowed down with my main projects: just got lazy... I was trying to find excuses, but I don't have any:)Somehow I switched my attention to paintball again. Was working with my main marker - Phantom. Got the under cocking kit for it from Rainman 229, but I couldn't stay the quality of it, so I had to turn the bushing for the handle, mill the mounting block, etc. It's getting there, but still not done. Today I am going to finish this small project and work on the Elan's frame. Just want to cut and weld in the patches. In the evening I am going to the cottage. It suppose to be nice outside for next two days, so I can work with my boat.
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Not that many things happened lately. I added to the blog list of labels, so it's much easier to find the information on specific topics: Elan, Boat, etc. Also, I added "Read more" option, so the posts on the front page are a bit more manageable. I did some work in the house and spent some time shopping for boat-sled-paintball supplies. Yesterday I bought a sheet of 16 gauge steel, so I can start welding on the Elan frame. Metal supplier charged me $30 for 28”x48” piece– not that bad.
I bottled the second beer brew yesterday as well. This time I added more priming sugar, because the previous batch wasn’t carbonated evenly: one bottle is good, two – flat… Let’s see what happen…
Also I need to get some resin filler for my boat project. Hopefully I will get chance to work on it this week – most likely on the weekend. I am thinking about buying some talc – that’s the cheapest option.
Now, I am back to house renovation… Need to make a trip to Home Depot…
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I am getting used to stay alone at the cottage:) Nice and quiet; do what I like... I miss the city though: family, dogs, Internet... Anyway, I stayed there 3 nights, made a good progress on the boat.
Here is the picture of 1708 - fiberglass material I use for reinforsing stringers and bulkheads. I will use one layer of it on bulkheads and two layers on stringers.

Here is my working area: all fiberglass cut to size, wood is ready for fireplace:)



I used all the resin filler... Had to use some wood "dust" - not the best filler, but worked as temporary (read permanent) replacement. Need to buy some talc now...

Some pictures of fiberglassed subframe:










Some extra glass here to reinforce the transom:




Some more pictures:











I have a little problem here: thick fiberglass doesn't like corners and points... I needed to cup the plywood with something on the top. I rounded all the edges, thinking that I can wrap the glass around - that was a mistake. Fiberglass doesn't want to stay on the radius... Decided just to cover it with resin for now. On the rest of the subframe I will try to keep tops as flat as possible...
Here are the pictures of the glassed tops...

This one is just covered with resin. I am thinking about thickening the resin with some fibers before applying. Should stay in place better:

Here is the picture of the nose part: same work has to be done... I started from sanding and vacuuming... Hate that part...

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I had nothing to post lately... Nothing mentionable...
Worked on the Elan frame: removed some paint, etc.
Bought some suppluies for boat project: 5 gal. of resin, 8 kg. of 1708 8" fiberglass tape, etc.
Tomorrow going to the cottage to get some work done: will laminate the stringers and bulkheads to the hull.
Also, started another batch of beer today. Stout again. Bottling in two weeks.

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I had a great chance to make some progress on the boat today: nice day and free ride to the cottage:)
Today's mantra is "sanding"... Spent four hours sanding the subframe. Vacuumed everything, checked the result and finished missed areas.
After sanding was done...

Raccoon got the grinder!!!


My feet are sore, hands are shaky...
Also, I tried the new for me way to fill the gaps: dispersing compound with a plastic bag. Like the cooks use on the cakes to spread the cream... Worked perfect! All you need to do after - just smooth the bead with a finger:)
Here are some pictures of the beads:


Another angle:


One more shot:

One more:

And the last one...


Next time I will start fiberglassing the subframe to the hull.
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