1936 Morgan 4/4

[richy]

This is the car I had posted for feedback about polishing the raw aluminum. The car has painted fenders that had been painted about 6 weeks ago and then were wrapped in plastic by the guy who transported them..big mistake!
The history on this car is cool. Prior to 1936, Morgan made 3 wheeled cars with 2 wheels up front driven by a sideways "V" engine (a JAP engine) and a single wheel in the back. 1936 was the first year for 4 wheeled cars from Morgan. This one is authenticated by the Morgan factory as serial #123.
I started doing a bit of disassembly prior to taking the before shots. My father restored this car and is taking it to an auction to sell. He removed the windscreens and I did the wheels at the back. Here are the before shots when I did them:















Polishing the Raw Aluminum:

This was a real education for me. I have never tried polishing raw aluminum before. My father had taken 0000 steel wool to it and there were a lot of marks in it. The other issue was time. I had the weekend to do it but most of it was already spoken for.
I planned to treat it like rough paint, namely start with M105 and either a yellow B & S pad or wool. The yellow pad did nothing except turn black. I then stepped up to wool and the surface turned black. The problem I experienced is that the surface was inconsistent. What I mean by that is that one section would have the oxidization wipe right off whereas another it wouldn't budge. After trying some different things, I discovered a trick that worked: Varsol and a terry towel. After doing a section with 105 and black TB wool, I would saturate a section of terry towel and wipe the area down and then dry it with a mf. That worked every time. I tried also using Collinite metal wax with a foam pad. I was disappointed in its outcome. The best results came from using 105 with wool followed by 205 and my purple foamed wool, both with Varsol wipedowns. The sections did not all look the same. My issue was time. If I had another 20 hours to work on this car, I would have done a 2 stage wet sand refining the surface prior to polishing. The car had to go to the next stage of its restoration on Monday morning so that was not to be. As it was I stayed up to 4 am on Monday morning and then got back on it at 7:30 and worked till 11 am. It was gone by 12:30. I got 11 hours into it, that's all.

Sealing in the work:

Permanon. Permanon is a spray sealant that instantly bonds when it is sprayed onto a surface. I'll explain the very cool chemistry behind it when I do my future review, but for now just know it instantly bonds with the surface it is sprayed onto.
So, after polishing, I immediately sprayed the area with Permanon Platinum in a pump spray bottle and then wiped the area down with a ww drying mf. The surface was slick, water repellent and resisted finger prints better. (they just wiped off easily rather than staining the surface like they would before).
Here is a 50/50 shot of me seeing what would work on the aluminum:




Paint Correction:

The fenders got M105 and a brand new yellow B & S pad followed by M205 and a white B & S pad followed by a black B & S pad with Ultrafina (Heath, I still got a bit left, LOL). All polishing was done with my Dyna except for the inner front fenders which needed my UDM due to the lack of space. I need to keep an eye out for a Griot's sale on their little 3" polisher! The paint was then sealed with CQ applied with block and mf. This was then topped hours later with DG nano clear via UDM at 4 with black foam LCC pad.

Wheels & Chrome:

I used my proprietary mix (haha) of DG 501/601/Beta Polish on the black wheels and centre chrome caps. The wheels were powder coated on this car and it really helped amp up the shine on them. The chrome headlights and side markers got the same as did the exposed suspension pieces up front.

Tires:

The rear tires are really visible on this car and they needed to look great. I dressed all the tires on the car with Forever Black gel tire dye to blacken them up. The sheen was not there after they dried so they were subsequently dressed with DG 281. That really made them look great IMO.


AFTER SHOTS:

Rare Early Morgan emblem:













































Thanks for looking!

[rwright]

Great job Richy! What I would have given to fly up there to help out... Thanks for sharing such a wonderful piece of history .

[CEE DOG]

Lookin good Richy! You work on some awesome cars buddy

[dad07]

Very cool car Richy! Nice work and thanks for sharing!

With amount of time you had it came out great! I think it will sell quickly and go to a good home.

Love the old British Imports....had a few triumphs in my early days.

[Mike Phillips]

Awesome, awesome, awesome work!

Now that'a a car and a rolling work of art!


The closest thing I've ever buffed out like this was a 1951 Allard J2 at Barrett-Jackson around 2005...

Nice work and excellent photography as usual.

[C. Charles Hahn]

Wow... now THAT is a cool car!

Great work Richy.

[RaskyR1]

Great work Richy on a very cool car!

[richy]

Thanks so much guys!! If I had time this week, I could have done a black 1926 Packard as well. Damn!! If the Packard doesn't sell, I will be able to do it.

[TLMitchell]

If I had time this week, I could have done a black 1926 Packard as well.

Packards? Someone say Packards? Something like these?













The National Packard Museum is a scant 8 miles from me. I drove by it for 10+ years before I dropped in because they had some sort of motorcycle display. For a small place they sure have some real nuggets!

National Packard Museum - Warren Ohio

Every year in July they have a soiree with Packards driving in from all over the country. The place is lousy with Packards! I couldn't believe how many are left, driveable and pristine!

TL

[Flash Gordon]

Nice work Richy