New to the Shilo Museum:WW1 Cadillac Ambulance

[rob love]

Originally Posted by derk derin

It's amazing what a new set of tires does to improve the look of a vehicle!
The paint on the side stowage lockers looks yellow? Is that the color they are?
Great looking project but dissapointed it's not an ambulance!!!
Regards,Derk

The truck was painted yellow overtop of the Khaki. The Khaki was overtop of the original Cadillac Black on those portions which were factory. On the woodwork it would appear to have been primed in grey, so it ended up being khaki over grey on the wood. The wheels and hubs were painted red overtop of the Khaki overtop of the Cadillac black.

My thoughts are to gorilla glue the wood back together, reinforce and repair any gouges with expoxy, sand it all smooth, paint the wood with POR-15 grey, then paint the wood outside surfaces with semigloss olive while the POR-15 is still tacky. Of course, my plans will depend on what the conservators say. I could be out to lunch...I am but a lowly mechanic so I'll see what the experts say.

Front fenders will be removed if I can and lightly blasted, painted with POR-15 black, then overpainted with the semigloss OD. The hood will be chemically stripped (it is aluminum), then possibly zinc chromate (substitute) followed by the khaki.

I have ordered all the "common sense " fasteners for the tarp from the DOT manufacturer. All those fittings were ordered in government black as per the originals. Only problem with the new stuff is they put the word "DOT" on top of the little turnbuttons. The oval head slot drive screws to hold the fasteners were ordered through Blacksmith supply.

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Rob

I have had hit and miss success with overpainting POR while it is still tacky....... I know they say you can do it and it may depend on how tacky is tacky...... in a few instances it resulted in the top coat of OD to have a crackle finish........ and only a sand blast will get you back to the original surface.

I would suggest you do a test scrap piece first and take notice of the temperature and humidity during your test......

It may also depends of the actual chemical composition of your top coat versus the content of the POR...... would just hate to see you mess up a fantastic vehicle.

Cheers

[rob love]

I know the crackle of which you speak. I have had it on areas where the POR-15 was a little thicker, and had not set far enough yet. As a result I often will wait almost too long on the setting of the POR-15.

I find, in general, 6 hours from application of the POR-15 until I spray the top coat on. I use Xylene as the thinner on my top coat when spraying, and I have successfully used it to thin the POR-15 as well the odd time when I spray it. So I suspect the xylene may be the binder when the top coat is applied over the POR-15.

I did the wood spokes with brushed on POR-15 and sprayed on the Gillespie top coat 6 hours later. Worked perfectly.

Again, I'll wait for the specialist's recommendation prior to going any further on the wood. More to follow in that regard. Tomorrow I'll take the left sideboards off, and I have to level off one of the support brackets. I'll add some more shots at that stage.