Wayne asks:
>I am in a dilemma about whether to wax my roadster. ...
>I had a body man tell me one time that you should never use wax on
>a car, since the silicones make it impossible to repaint in the future
>without fisheyes and such. In other words, once you've got silicone
>on there, you've got silicone forever.
Pooh! Wax it! The wax will protect your paint from oxidation, make it easier
to clean, and keep crud, salt & water from penetrating to the metal.
Silicone is a problem when painting, but more so if they're doing
shoddy work. ie.- a quick job on existing paint, with little or no prep.
This won't last long anyhow. Some of the "permanent sealers" may be a bit
more tenacious than "wax", but I'm not so sure that would be a problem either.
A fisheye is caused by paint thining/spreading when it hits an isolated
spot of silicone, due to the lubricating/wetting properties of silicone.
When you are going to do a *good* paint job, one of the first things
you do is to thouroughly clean the car with a wax and silicone remover.
This should get *most* of it. If the paint isn't being completly stripped,
it still needs to be surface sanded with a fine grit (400-800) wet/dry
paper to give a bite into the old paint. This will rid you of more deposits.
While it is sometimes possible to spray color at this time, (paint & color
compatibility), in a good job, the next coat will be a primer/sealer. This will
keep old color [and silicone!] from bleeding through. Then primer/surfacer-
a pigment heavy, sandable primer, which is then sanded to yeild a smooth base.
[details on metal prep, scratch & dent repair, etc. ommited]
All of this gets you pretty removed from that old wax... BUT:
This "good" paint job will still include adding a squirt of "Fisheye
Eliminator" to the paint. This stuff actually contains some silicone!
Thus it is pre-contaminated, which helps keep the paint from being affected
ba a foreign contamination. This is more critical in a touch-up job, where
you will be layering new paint on old. If you are planning on painting your
car soon, refraining from waxing will help minimise the clean-up. [And don't
wax new paint for 3 months or so] Otherwise, Wax It!. Make it SHINE! :-)
Progress continues at the SLCFWSC. Got the PA up and running
Saturday, after a good battery charge, a new H.V. wire from the coil,
and a minimun of fiddling. Dynamo has now been successfully extracted
& disassembled, ready to go up to the machine shop to receive new bearings
and shaft keys. Seeing as how it won't run without the dynamo, (with this
vertical generator, the armature shaft is driven by a bevel gear from the
crank, and in turn drives the overhead cam in like manner), I just slid
it off to the side so I could get the '74 B-GT in... (The PA fits almost
anywhere, having a mere 42" track, and being less than 12' long. :-) ).
Infusion of an earilier distributer and fresh HS4 SU's resulted in much
smoother idle & acceleration, and more pleasing torque. Still not as
good as an older engine will be, but closer. There is a bit of fuel
spitting from the front carb when punched from idle, probably an indication
that the valves aren't in top shape. Time to recheck the valve gaps, a bit
of enlightened twiddling may help.
Up & comming events in Central N.Y.:
Saturday, May 12- Ithaca- British car Gymkana & Fun Rally, sponsored by the
Finger Lakes Triumph Club. Gymkana at 9:00 at Treman Marina, and
Rally up the lake to some winery starting after lunch.
Sunday, June 3- Victor NY- (south of Rochester) British Car Show, sponsored
by the Western NY MGCC.
-Very large annual turn out of British cars, as well as
many European makes, a big section of Detroit Iron, and some custom
and home-made stuff. Flea market. We have been up a couple of times
and have seen some real goodies, ie. Invicita, old Rolls, BMW/Isetta
Bubble cars, other Exotics, in addition to a heavy cross section
of the "usual British stuff" :-) I think it's still at the Victor
School, I'll provide more details for anyone who needs them.
________
/___ _ \ Roger Garnett (garnett@tcgould.TN.CORNELL.EDU)
/| || \ \ Agricultural Economics | The All New:
| |___|| _ | 3 Warren Hall | South Lansing Centre For
| | \ | | | Cornell University | Wayward Sports Cars
\| \ |__/ / Ithaca, N.Y. 14853 | (607) 533-7735
\________/ (607) 255-2522 | SAFETY FAST!
|