Could I ask for advice on improving #50's heater?

[fireguywtc]

I just washed mine really well and painted it. You shouldn't have a problem with paint sticking on there.

btw, way to get on this project. You are quick! and just in time for summer!!

[robroy]

Fordman and Bill, thanks for your awesome replies!

i used shoe polish on them. and then litghttly brushed white hobby paint over the letters with a thin model brush.

OK, good to know--thanks! Maybe this is the route I'll go.

I just washed mine really well and painted it. You shouldn't have a problem with paint sticking on there.

OK, interesting!

btw, way to get on this project. You are quick! and just in time for summer!!

Thanks!!! I know that you're probably shocked by my Ryan-like speed on this!

Fordman and Bill, thanks for replying!
Robroy

[fitzwell]

on the plastic stuff, you're halfway there. Lost of soapy water, rinse well & air dry. Napa has an adhesion promoter for plastic, 6384 i believe. spray a thin coat & let dry, preferably overnight (do this with LOTS of ventilation... trust me) Then a couple of coats of Krylon semi flat black. Did the box for the 68 like that & was real pleased with the results. As for the lettering, possibly a small ink roller & some white ink? just a thought.

[robroy]

Good day Fitzwell, thank you for replying!

on the plastic stuff, you're halfway there. Lost of soapy water, rinse well & air dry. Napa has an adhesion promoter for plastic, 6384 i believe. spray a thin coat & let dry, preferably overnight (do this with LOTS of ventilation... trust me) Then a couple of coats of Krylon semi flat black. Did the box for the 68 like that & was real pleased with the results.

OK, thanks Fitzwell!!! I like this idea, since it might allow me to achieve better coverage than I could easily get with shoe polish.

As for the lettering, possibly a small ink roller & some white ink? just a thought.

That's a good idea! I'm pretty sure I'd do a messy job with a brush, but a roller might work great. Or even some kind of makeshift stamp.

Today's Update:

After letting the Rust Encapsulator dry overnight, I hit the parts with some hardware-store white paint. I didn't have any higher quality paint on hand, and I figured that these parts wouldn't need to stand up to any kind of abrasion, so the paint didn't need to be tough-as-nails or anything.



I wasn't sure about making these parts white a first, but I thought it over and figured that they're not even visible once the thing's installed. And the truck's white after all.

Fitzwell, thank you again for your excellent reply!!!
Robroy

[robroy]

Good evening,

Although the Salinas NAPA didn't have any special plastic paint, I was able to find some at Home Depot. I wound up using the white primer, followed up by the satin black.



The pieces before paint:



The white primer. The can said to spray on a single thin coat, so that's what I did. That weird purple patch is where I foolishly experimented with a fat permanent marker to see how that would work. Thankfully the black top-coat took care of that sin!



Here's how the top coat turned out--I was pleased!!!




The next step's to put it all together again. I also need to devise a way of white-washing those raised letters!

Thanks for all the superb words of wisdom!
Robroy

[robroy]

Good morning Jamie!

Wow, an eraser; that sounds like a great thing to use!

I've been vaguely aware of the grease method, yet I haven't been brave enough to try it yet. Next time I'll give that a whirl since it might be easier than the stamping approach.

Thanks very much for replying Jamie!
Robroy

[robroy]

Good evening!

Since I couldn't find an eraser around the house, I went ahead and used the small plastic roller that came with the Zillamat. In retrospect an eraser might have worked better, since it might have been easier to control--I accidentally got a couple of tiny dabs of white paint on the nice black finish, and haven't managed to un-do that mistake perfectly yet.

But here's how it looks:



Those two funny smudges around the lettering are where I messed up with the white paint dabs! I'm not sure how to make those spots glossy again to match their surroundings, but I figured I'd better let the white paint thoroughly dry before trying any more tricks.

Thanks for all the excellent guidance!!!
Robroy

[robroy]

Good evening,

Now that paint's dry and I have a little time, I printed some photos of how this box goes together and started in.



Here's the Dennis Carpenter C7TZ-18500-A kit.



The place to start seemed to be with the fully hydrated llama tongues. They came cut just right for a perfect fit.



Here I'm holding the larger of the two llama tongues up to the metal flap. What an upgrade from the original, dehydrated llam' tongues.




I figured the best substance to stick the t's to the flaps would be a spray bomb of clear adhesive. Since I had none I decided to try the black gorilla snot instead.



I was afraid this would be major over-kill, but the tongue material really soaked this stuff up. I could have used even more.



Tongue #1 stuck down.



Tongue #2 looked like a pretty good cut too.



I slathered more of this great-smelling stuff on this time.



And pressed tongue #2 in to place.



I did a little trimming to make tongue #2 look like a perfect fit (right).



Other cool parts in the bag:




After letting my printed photos soak in to my primal brain for a minute or two, I stabbed the small flap in to its backing piece. I hope it's right! I think it is.



Thanks for the excellent advice!!!
Robroy

[robroy]

Good evening,

I scanned this cool drawing that came with the D.C. seal kit, made all the way back in 1992.



Robroy

[67mann]

Robroy.....you our an educator beyond belief Every project you take upon yourself..you do to the fullest and with great detail(pic's included)of the process. Your post are pricless and some should be sticky'd...so there easier to find when the time comes for some of these projects

[Joshpow]

You can make a masterpiece outta mine! Only thing is I want silver lettering instead of white!! Just kidding. Nearly a masterpiece you got there.

[robroy]

Good evening Josh, thanks very much!!!

Oddly, the thought did cross my mind, "Hey, these things are kind of simple. Maybe I could get super good at restoring them, then offer that as a service, so folks could mail me their old boxes and I'd return them better-than-new." Oh well, just a fun thought for now since I don't think I'll allocate time towards that idea. And I'd have to actually know what I was doing to pull that off too.

After much photo examining I figured out how the other flap went together.




Then I readied the fiberglass piece, and fitted the sheet metal piece together with it. It took a few minutes of poking around to get the control rods poked in the right holes.




There photos show where the control rods poked through the bottom:



I replaced the rivets with from-Taiwan #10-24 cap-head machine screws and stainless nuts. I used stainless washers where there was enough clearance in the fiberglass piece for them to fit.





Here's the worst spot on the big fiberglass piece. I'd like to do something to bridge the crack to keep it from coming apart more, but I'm not sure how to handle it. Some kind of glue?



Josh, thanks again for your most excellent reply!!!
Robroy

[Joshpow]

you can buy fiberglass repair kits. Be tough but you could resin the corner back.

[70_F100]

you can buy fiberglass repair kits. Be tough but you could resin the corner back.

[dantheman71]

Wow, found this on a search. Great detail!! Just starting to tackle this part of my project and this will make it much easier!