: The radiator shell on my 1930 Murray Sedan has a few dings and
: small tears, but otherwise is in good shape.Does anyone
: have experience making their own repairs of this sort?I am
: primarily interested in knowing if the shell can be welded.
: If so, what alloy of Mig wire and type of gas are most appropriate?
: Finally, does anyone know of a company or individual that
: restores the shells?Is there a ballpark figure for
: the cost of this type of work?Thanks for any help.Doug HandranG'Day Doug,
I can't help with any companies or individuals doing this work & if I could I think it would be a little far out of town/state to be of any use to you, but I can tell you that any good fabrication shop that's able to weld stainless steel will be capable of doing the job. The kind of place to look for is one that manufactures items which need to be visually appealing, either for the food industry, or else stainless steel sanitary ware such as sinks & urinals. The rods they used for mine were a grade 316 stainless, but the bloke doing the welding would best be able to judge the grade to use. Once the welding is done, the job looks really ugly around the weld as there will be a major amount of heat discolouration & possibly a little distortion. Don't worry, it will polish/hammer out. Be careful of letting anyone do the polishing for you on a powerful industrial machine, as if the job gets too hot it will buckle & warp & become wavy beyond repair, in fact Rick Black's suggestion of buying "How To Restore Your Model A" is a good one. I used a 4" grinder with an 80 grit disc (To stop the grinding disc from being too agressive, take the edge off the grit at the outer circumference of the new disc by grinding it on an old disc for a second or two) to rough dress the weld, then a 220 grit water paper on a rubbing block & finally the two different buffing wheels & compounds described in the Restorer book. You should take great care during any grinding or polishing operations not to create too much heat as it will both discolour & distort the cowl. As far as straightening the cowl, especially where it may have been damaged by the headlight bar, I found the easiest way was to make a former the same shape as a good section of the shell & use it to knock it back into shape. I used the square shank off an old machine tool & ground, shaped & chamfered it to follow the pressed shape of the inside of the front section of the cowl & then with the damaged area face down on a piece of conveyor belting, gave it a few good taps from behind until it came back into shape. You'll find that the material is pretty strong & you'll have to hit it a little harder than you thought was necessary before you see any change, but once you get the feel for it, it's not that difficult. The sides of the cowl can be straightened in the same way, except make the former from a piece of fairly hard wood, then you may need "Your Helper" to hold the cowl so the surface to be straightened is "FLAT" on theworking surface or you may do more harm than good. To get smaller dents out I used the rounded back end of a plastic handled screwdriver, once again with the surface flat on the belting. The repaired area can then be lightly ground or sanded. I found that buffing the area before grinding highligted & any low or high spots that may have needed a little more hammer work. Try to remove as little material as possible when grinding. Once you're satisfied with your handywork, the job can then be polished as described in the Restorer book. A cheap set of panel beaters hammers & dollies would be a help as they're designed for this type of work, & a new or sharp file (not too coarse) saves on the elbow grease in finishing off some of the welded areas. This procedure can be used for repairing any of the rustless or stainless steel components on the A & a by product (apart from the blood sweat & tears) is the great sense of achievement derived from the completed work. Have fun.
Regardz
DJ.
OutOfAfrica A's
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