1963 Dart 170 2 Door Post Resto
Been a bit of a lapse in getting to work on the car lately. I was able to get the bumper finished and packed up and sent to chrome. Got the final bits that were left to be done set up and mostly sanded. (dash, inner side rear panels, and lower valance.) Also pulled the column apart to go over it. Got a full new signal switch from a member on here (quality piece, not china repo) and new seals and coupling. Going to repaint and rebuild it all. Removed the steering wheel and as it had a bunch of cracks and gaps I figured it was time to try my hand at restoring it.
Was originally going to use JB weld to fill the cracks but thought better of it after some research. While many have had great results, some varied. The most common suggestion I found was PC-7 so I ordered some. Sanded the entire wheel by hand (NOT fun) and opened up any cracks I found with my dremel (can't tell you how wrong it felt cutting material away from a wheel I was trying to fix...lol.) to allow the epoxy a place to go.
Taped around the cracks to keep the epoxy from getting everywhere and I'm glad I did. This stuff is thick and super sticky. Had a difficult time getting it into the cracks, but eventually got them all filled (did half one night and the rest last night as it was easier to have a place to hold onto while filling the cracks). I highly recommend using neoprene gloves when doing this. Once it was applied I let it sit for a few hours to tack up and then removed the tape. Taking it off right away made the epoxy want to pull out of the cracks. Letting it sit a bit worked much better. This stage is highly recommended as otherwise you have a huge mess of epoxy to sand/file/grind.
I let it sit overnight to cure and used a couple small jeweler files I had to file the epoxy flush, then sanded it to remove any file marks. Sanding alone I don't think is good as the epoxy is harder than the wheel material. I used a curved flat file and a convex curved file for the different contours and it went really nice.
Not bad for my first try I think. After I'm done the other cracks (and the one in the hub that had a couple low spots I added more material to) it will be ready to spray with epoxy, then paint.
Been a bit of a lapse in getting to work on the car lately. I was able to get the bumper finished and packed up and sent to chrome. Got the final bits that were left to be done set up and mostly sanded. (dash, inner side rear panels, and lower valance.) Also pulled the column apart to go over it. Got a full new signal switch from a member on here (quality piece, not china repo) and new seals and coupling. Going to repaint and rebuild it all. Removed the steering wheel and as it had a bunch of cracks and gaps I figured it was time to try my hand at restoring it.
Was originally going to use JB weld to fill the cracks but thought better of it after some research. While many have had great results, some varied. The most common suggestion I found was PC-7 so I ordered some. Sanded the entire wheel by hand (NOT fun) and opened up any cracks I found with my dremel (can't tell you how wrong it felt cutting material away from a wheel I was trying to fix...lol.) to allow the epoxy a place to go.
Taped around the cracks to keep the epoxy from getting everywhere and I'm glad I did. This stuff is thick and super sticky. Had a difficult time getting it into the cracks, but eventually got them all filled (did half one night and the rest last night as it was easier to have a place to hold onto while filling the cracks). I highly recommend using neoprene gloves when doing this. Once it was applied I let it sit for a few hours to tack up and then removed the tape. Taking it off right away made the epoxy want to pull out of the cracks. Letting it sit a bit worked much better. This stage is highly recommended as otherwise you have a huge mess of epoxy to sand/file/grind.
I let it sit overnight to cure and used a couple small jeweler files I had to file the epoxy flush, then sanded it to remove any file marks. Sanding alone I don't think is good as the epoxy is harder than the wheel material. I used a curved flat file and a convex curved file for the different contours and it went really nice.
Not bad for my first try I think. After I'm done the other cracks (and the one in the hub that had a couple low spots I added more material to) it will be ready to spray with epoxy, then paint.
