Basics of polishing aluminum

Or at least how I usually do it...

I have collection of vintage Mallory distributors, this one was back in the day marketed as "Double-Life". It has dual points, so same points have longer life... but you'll be buying two set of points anyway? ;)

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So I picked this from dusty shelfs in my garage. It has looked like this eversince I bought it.
This distributor fits for Pontiac from '55 to '81 until came GM HEI and too much electronic crap bolted under hood. It seems that this one has served in some 60's car, Pontiac used that colour in engine blocks by that time. At least in GTO's.

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As a start, I'm using 120 grit paper, idea is to grind down all casting flaws.

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Care should be taken on which way grinding happens. It should look clean also in this phase.

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Notice that tool has changed, between flaps of sandpaper, there are pieces of material which is good for buffing. Important is to grind just the opposite way than on previous sanding grit. That way you can see when previous grit's grooves disappear, and more fine, smaller grooves takes it's place.

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Even more fine sanding tools... and once again, sanding to opposite direction than on previous grit.

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Next comes felt which I'm using with polishing material...

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Starts to look ready but it is not...

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More fine felt is used for polishing... it makes surface to shine less brightly on this phase, but takes away possible residues of polishing material and that way gives aluminum equal shine around whole piece. Autosol is used to give aluminum it's shining back...

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What happened, where is my shiny distributor?!

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Well ok, here it is... Rubbing with clean cloth gives it that perfect final shine! No need to polish it from places which can't be seen, like underneath.

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Another video from late 40's

This time in colours!
It seems that this is being filmed in 1948

Riding a motorcycle and taking photos

No flames, no maltese crosses, no leather vests, no dragon paintings... but bikes that are being built with more than just bolt-on -parts. People with right attitude, motorcycles with right stance, all them right parts, and most of all... riding with friends!

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Check also part two!

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Drivin' around in Los Angeles in late 40's

This is rear-projection footage from downtown Los Angeles, shot sometime around '48 or '49.
I did not see any car from 1950's.

If this video was ever used, it was propably seen fuzzy and out of focus. Today, however, it's amazing documentation of a lost neighborhood.
Watch the signs and people passing by. This video has evidentiary value that no one ever imagined it would.
Video even has one hot rod!
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What's the difference...

 ...between clichè and a classic?

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Last show for this season

It’s fall, rains are here and season ends. Last possibility to go to a big indoor car show until winter comes! Next big shows are being arranged during spring-time, after a half year from now.

So, I packed my wife, our son, and few of our friends and headed to Helsinki. There was being held X-treme Car Show which now is combined to Petrol Circus motorcycle show. Yes, I know, this car show has possibly worst name of any show ever… but this year cars were great! Since it’s beginning, it has been show for newer plastic-cars, and that is the reason I hadn’t ever been there  before. They’ve changed their direction to more older cars and –referring to advertising- seemed to have interesting cars on display. Ofcourse we had to see what they had to offer…

There were few things that I really wanted to see, like this Futurliner.

Yes, it’s pile of rusty pieces, but how often do you get possibility to buy a Futurliner..? That must have been thought of the owner also.

In case that you didn’t know, The GM Futurliners were a group of stylized buses designed in the 1940s by Harley Earl for General Motors. They were used in GM's Parade of Progress, which traveled the United States exhibiting new cars and technology. The Futurliners were used from 1940 to 1941 and again from 1953 to 1956. A total of 12 were built, and 9 were still known to exist as of 2007. This one is # 8.

It will be rebuilt in it's original condition.

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Syndicate of Wastarannan Kiiski and Old Soul Collective had their own area where they had most of their motorcycles on display.

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       World's happiest uncle!

 

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Panda says hello. This is my friend Jake’s motorcycle, did some electrical work with this bike last winter.

  Sinners, Sweden

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  Best stand of the show, IMO.

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Last winter Tomi built this show-car called El Choco. It has visited all big indoor shows in Finland during this season, few in Sweden, and will be on display in Oslo next month. In my opinion, this might be most beautiful hot rod built in Finland, ever!

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Some Swedish school has some teacher who teaches his/hers students just the right things! Metalshaping for hot rods! It seems that they have Lazze's book where is being taught how to create sheetmetal for '33-'34 Ford from flat sheet.

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.      Talented Finnish pinstriper Nivala took his "Twistin' 28" to the show.

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 "Twistin' -28 Long Drinks" -now in a can!

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Biggest winner of the event was hot rod named Juxtapod. Read more here http://juxtapodhotrod.blogspot.com/

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Some kind of a milestone

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Wanted to share this, I see this as a some kind of milestone on my car-builder’s –life. Hopefully my way of telling this through longer way does not bore you, but for me this means something big.

Remember early 2000’s?

Internet wasn’t available easily & cheap for everyone as it is today.  

Nostalgic stuff wasn’t as common as it is today.

Shades from 90’s could still be seen and billet parts were advertised on most magazines.

Even so,  you can’t say that old parts would’ve been dirt cheap, no way! In my opinion, they just didn’t move as much as they do today, which made them expensive. Lots of used, interesting parts were stored on the shelfs, attics and other places where they could be forgotten. People maybe could not imagine that them old parts would be so eagerly wanted by some nostalgia-freaks.

By that time, E-bay was new thing, and when you could find some old parts from there, they were sold for unbelieveable prices. Think about it, seven or eight hundered dollars for valve covers!
But that was the way how you could get them old, rare parts by that time; with money or luck, often you needed both.
Nowadays we have repops of old covers –such as Eelco- but ten years ago… well, I checked Moon, but did not like what they offered; fins were low and whole valve cover looked wayyy too much computer-designed. Offenhauser had quite good looking valve cover. I really, really, liked the ends of that cover but on the center it has big logo, it has hole for oil filler cap, it has place for bolts… hey c’mon, there ain’t room for fins anymore! I want fins!
FINS damn it! Forms!
Figures!
Shapes!
Form before function!


So, what to do? Break a bank and buy old covers -or- buy a cover that has shape that I don’t like?

My friend Jouni told me that he had idea of casting some aluminum parts as a window  frames of his chopped ’59 Dodge. That was when I started thinking casting and it’s possibilities. Thinking-phase took long time, possibly two years.
Seeking info ‘bout casting through internet did not bring much… but luckily, at the time, I was working as a carpenter at workshop where we had one ex- casting pattern –maker. He had made casting patterns for ship parts during sixties (how cool is that!) and told me trick or two. He had unbelievably high skills in woodworking and unbelievably low skills in social life and delivery of speech… so back to search Google.
I also found small foundry (big ones possibly would’ve not helped with this one) that would cast aluminum, and went there to ask “stupid questions”.
Did not check library back then, now I’ve been there too, haha.
As told earlier, I worked as a carpenter back then and had possibility to use woodworking machines during daytime.  I did something every once in a while, took part home to sand it, and back to work again to do something. Not keeping horry with it, only doing this occasionally. Noticed that at home with my own peace –without possibility of boss coming to lurk behind my neck- I’d be able to do shaping and sanding more concentrated. Creating shape is not something that you (or at least I) don’t wan’t to do in a horry.Now when I know how pattern making happens, it would be faster to accomplish similar project… but now I don’t have access to them machines anymore!
Took photos of every phase of project and wanted to share whole thing at Hokey Ass Message Board. It was strictly coincidental that it happened to be Tech Week when I wrote the text. 
Thread got many comments and I won number one prize on the Tech Week.

At that point I thought this would’ve been highest point of attention that  my valve covers would get. Did not have many thoughts about covers or written thread, not until I logged in. People from everywhere around United States and some from Europe wanted to buy valve covers from me! Few of private mails were also about selling original buck.
Tried to arrange more valve covers to sell, and I sold most –but not all- covers that I had.
Foundry made them for me once in a while, between bigger jobs, and I sold what I could get.

During the years, thread at HAMB  brought few people who wanted valve covers and I arranged them. This was possibly for reason that when you write “nailhead valve covers” to Google, first option that Google offers is my thread at HAMB.

There had passed five years since my post at HAMB. I had made ten-to-fifteen pairs of covers during that time, leaving three pairs for myself. One pair for my ’57, one pair for my ’31, and one pair as an extra.
So, not really a goldmine…

Last winter I was contacted again by Dennis O’Brien from O’Brien Truckers. He makes living with cast alloy parts, has made it since seventies. Many parts –but not all- that MOON sells are originally made by him.
He still was interested on my original pattern for valve covers.
His question got me thinking; Is it better to sell whole thing or keep original  for myself? I possibly could make money on that, or possibly not… seemly not much, it seemed. I needed valve covers for my both nailhead-equipped cars, and now I had them.
Being a private person –not a company- I don’t have resources to keep pairs and pairs and pairs of valve covers stored. If I’d go to swap-meet to sell them, I’d only have one product for one engine… that would possibly bring more cost than profit. Selling these from Finland (euros…) to United States (dollars…) is not easy task when exchange rate is about 1,5.
And last of all, I had (still have…) few other thoughts and ideas what I might do with cast aluminum, so this time original buck had to go, and it was time to move to another project in life.
Earlier I had thought that if I’ll sell casting pattern for someone, it’ll be Dennis… but not at just any price!
We started writing e-mails to each other, and quite quickly were able to make deal that we both were happy with.
One of the details in our deal is that my name is being cast inside each valve cover! Also I’m being mentioned at their web-shop as a designer of original pattern. I’m thinking this as a good benchmark for the future, what ever it brings!

And what future might bring for me? Well, nobody knows –ofcourse- but now, already, I’ve seen them for sale at Ebay for higher price that they are being sold at O'Brien Truckers.

Like my friend Larsen said;
“Maybe 30-50 years from now people will be bidding ridiculous amounts for these on
whatever Future-E-Gay they might have then.”

Didn’t originally think that it might go that way, but at that point… circle will be closed.

Walls of stone

Found old pic...
Photo was taken 2006 at Uhlu during Do'Dads Offbeat Weekend.

It's good day to start writing blog!

Why? Because today is birthday of Hank Williams Sr.