Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Post-War (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/post-war/)

-   -   Daimler Tales - 1947 Daimler DB18 Luxury Saloon (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/post-war/182200-daimler-tales-1947-daimler-db18-luxury-saloon-7.html)

I have not decided yet. Most probably it will be done outside Bangalore, as only the bumpers, trim below the door and hubcaps will be chromed. Want to retain the original chrome for the other parts.


Cross posting from the Mysore Thread

Here is an article written on 23rd October 1955, on the auction of some of the Mysore cars. Interestingly, the article touches upon a Daimler DB18. This was not sold on account of the low bid of Rs. 6350!

Probability that this is my car is high, consider it is the only recorded DB18 from the Mysore stables! It also adds up, as K N Srinivasan bought this car in 1957.



Cheers

KPS

The Daimler is off to get new paint job. Will paint the car a combination of black and white. More updates as we start our work





Cheers

KPS

Nice to see the car moving to the final phase.

Why has the plated trims of the front grill been lift on ?? Wouldn't the paint job been easier with those off ??

Best Regards & Drive Safe

Ram

Thanks Ram for checking

You may recollect we had fitted the panels back, to check the body alignment. We will remove the same when the painting starts. Just that it is easier to transport a whole car.

Cheers

KPS

IMHO, with a combination of black a shade of creme/ivory/brown would better suit than white !

More an English White (Creme) as seen in the picture below



Picture sourced from the net.

Cheers

KPS

Thanks KPS - wonderful to know that work is progressing apace! And in my modest view, the English know their cars best!
And so, my vote too goes for the Creme or English White. I had thought of canary yellow earlier, but looking at the photograph
I changed my view!

:thumbs up

Bulletboy has been kind enough to take up my request to paint the car. Pankaj knows my passion and my father's drive for perfection. We have agreed that we would take our time to do this job, as both understand the importance of this car.

We have started to take the paint off. We are scrapping the paint off the body using a air operated ceramic brush. The progress is slow but the results are good and the metal work is not stressed.

Here are the results on the front right fender


The metal is largely in great shape


Period lead filling is revealed.


Cheers

KPS

KPS, thanks to you and others on the forum, this whole world of restoring vintage cars (which was a sealed book to me & perhaps to others too) is slowly giving us a glimpse into the arcane craft. For this (if for no other reason!:)) I'm grateful to you & T-BHP.

And what is a ceramic brush? I'm hearing about it just now! Would it be alright to attach a photo the next time you update this thread - I'm completely fascinated with the job you have undertaken. The exposed bare metal does indeed look undamaged - unstressed! - and in excellent condition.

Looking forward to your further updates - all the best!

Regards,
Shashanka

Technically it's a 'pneumatic random orbit palm sander". Since that's a mouthfull, we just refer to it as an air brush around the garage, as the same device can also be used as a wire brush, a polishing brush etc

We use the device with carbon fibre or nylon abrasive discs. Due to their inherent softness they don't damage metal, though of course, working each panel takes longer than traditional sand paper based abrasive discs, which could also leave the surface scratched.

Thanks bulletboy for this interesting nugget of info! Using carbon fibre/nylon derived abrasives is a neat idea - remove the paint without eating into the metal like traditional sanders.
As you said it must take longer than traditional methods, but for rare jewels like the Daimler it is certainly worth it.

Here is the device in action for removing the paint




The door, after the paint has been completely removed. You will notice the absence of any swirl marks on the surface, as we used softer disks to remove the paint.


The yellow portion has "Japan Putty" applied in the past! This was something new to me. I understand that this is very hard putty and that is why it was preferred in the past. Unfortunately it retains water and cracks when it dries out over the years. We had a lot of small cracks in the yellow paint.


To rempve the hard Japan Putty, we need to more than a few iterations with this device.


Once we strip the each section to bare metal we will paint it with red oxide. This will help in detection and removal of dents


Later we will sand down to metal again, spray a couple of coats of epoxy primer. Followed by 3M body filler to fill small dents, we cannot remove. We will use seam sealants from 3M for all welds and joints.

Cheers

KPS

Hello KPS and thanks once again for the explanatory photographs & accompanying text. One picture = a thousand words!
Once again a new term - Japan Putty! Does the name have something to do with the point of origin - were the first samples imported from Japan?

Regards,
Shashanka

Perhaps. It was popular much before my time. I've only seen it on cars that we've stripped. Never in a tin.
It feels similar to metal paste, but has a greenish-whitish colour.

Thanks bulletboy, fascinating stuff! Another small query - the lead filling seen on the fender, is it an alloy containing lead or is it plain lead used as a filler?

Regards,
Shashanka