Progress on windsheld polishing

[jlaird]

Yup, it's comming along, slowly I may add. Lots of curves, surface and sq inchs.

Another hour or so should see it complete. That will be the end of the cockpit alum. One less thing to do. Wonder what else I can find waiting for the body, long wait yet, maybe four or five weeks anyway.

 

[fmichaels]

great post on the oven cleaner. the alum on my windshield is in okay shape but the glass has many scratches. thinking of having the frame rechromed when glass is replaced. the frame looks like it comes apart easy enough. hopefully the shape and fit of the frame to the car does not change. the alum will be cleaned but not replaced.

 

[jlaird]

Frame does not come apart, but posts do come off. Posts and frame are done in clear anadozing, not chrome.

https://www.davidrussellanodizing.com/Profile.html

About 160 dollars for all the windsheld and cockpit alum. he said. That is with glass out of course.

 

[BWillis]

Are you taking your parts to this guy Jack? Is he local to you?

Ben

 

[jlaird]

No he is not local at all, for the time being I have polished everything. However I supose that when the time comes he is going to get my business.

Will mail to him as he is mid east coast of fla and I am way way west in the north.

 

[msoylemez]

I have wrestled and wrestled with this bugeye windshield frame, pillars and cockpit trim issue. I have now spent weeks if not months and many hundreds of dollars to boot--with more to come. It is perhaps the single most frustrating thing that I have come across. I am writing this to elicit feedback or raise caution (or perhaps gain empathy).

Here is what I have done in chronological order:

1) dismantled glass from windshield frame
2) had frame, pillars and cockpit trim professionally polished to mirror finish. It's amazing--after close to 50 years of build-up, they look like new in a matter of a day or two
3) given that polish will dull over time (3-6 months I am told), and the fact that I simply don't see myself doing touch-up polishing that frequently, I decided to have my painter clear coat (with Glasurit) everything
4) polish/clear coat combo looks good!
5) polish/clear coat combo starts to crackle in a few corners within a matter of a few weeks (most noticeably, rear cockpit trim piece corners)--before I have even installed parts
6) don't like the look, and can't shake what's in store for me in the future (more crackling of clear coat) so I convince myself to start over: I have everything chemically stripped
7) get everything polished (again). Looks good!
8) decide to anodize everything by one of the top anodize guys here in Southern CA
9) cockpit trim turns out dull but pretty good
10) windshield pillars, I am told, turn out to be from cast, so anodizing process does not come out well at all. In fact, they look terrible
11) windshield frame also looks like dog poop. Microscopic corrosion below surface layer (that had been polished) is to blame. I am told that this will be the case until I get down to this sublayer and get it paved-or something like that
12) CURRENT STATE: have decided that I have come too far--and that dog poop frame and pillars will not cut it and so I plan to get frame and pillars chromed, at an exorbitant quoted price.

SO, as you can see, I have spun my wheels wildly here. When I look back at the build, this will go in the "bad" column, or perhaps the "ugly" column. Or both.

Is this normal, or am I dealing with the equivalent of a lemon? Has anyone in their right mind gone through what I have been through with this? Or am I just the unlucky and not too smart one in the corner of the room here??

 

[BWillis]

WOW!

That is very disheartening to hear. I'm in the process of locating a local anodizer myself and have just found one.

www.dragonanodizing.com

Ben

 

[jlaird]

You do understand Ben that we will need all the info like timelyness, prices and such.

Misoylemez or what ever we call you, what is your first name please. That's a bummer of a story, but you must also keep in mind that the posts will never anadoize like the cockpit suround and did not even on new cars. Posts are cast and suround is extruded. Posts always end up looking like they are painted with silver gray paint. I know nothing of the cracking and such but should think it would be the anadoziers problem to prep the item properly.

 

[BWillis]

Im working on prices etc Jack. A local friend who has used them in the past mentioned always being charged a minimum fee of $55. I'm not sure what he had done for that price though.

Ben

 

[jlaird]

The guy in Florida mentioned 160 bucks to me for the works and I sent him pictures.

https://www.davidrussellanodizing.com/Profile.html

 

[msoylemez]

My name is Mustafa, you may remember me from various posts.

My andodizer charged my $125.

The crackling happened after the pieces were polished and then clear coated. Had nothing to do with the anodizing process.

The problem after the andodizing was that there was visible corrosion, which I am told, again, is caused by the layer below the top layer. Short of literally grinding (or the equivalent of) down to this sub-layer, I am told there is not much you can do no matter how much prep an anodizer does. He told me he does not do this deep deep smoothing of the surface.

Again, I am not sure I am just the unlucky one here, or if this is a common problem.

Hope that clears up my earlier post.

Mustafa Soylemez
59 Bugeye

 

[BWillis]

Mustafa,

COuld you post some detailed pictures of how your parts turned out?

If not email them to me and I'll share them.

Ben

 

[jlaird]

Mustafa, yep I remember you but did not know what to call you with that tag and it was hard to type, hehe.

That is the darnedest story. Not that I don't beleive that is what you were told. I just find it hard to beleive. I think he must be putting you on. Clean metal is clean metal in my experience, how in the world could anything get underneath the surface of solid metal. My feeling is he screwed up and is makeing excuses.

Think I would call one of the other outfits linked below as anodizers and check it out. Please let us know what you find. A quick phone call is cheep at this point.


Anodizing is used to provide aluminum with a stable, wear and chemical resistant finish that will never corrode or flake. The coating is harder than aluminum and provides an attractive finish. In most applications, the aluminum part is given a light to moderate etch prior to anodizing. The etch process is an integral part of the anodizing finish.

While paint simply adheres to the aluminum component, anodizing becomes a part of the component a t the molecular level. The anodic coating actually penetrates the part. Approximately 50% of the coating thickness is penetration and 50% of the thickness is buildup, meaning that a typical .0004” thick coating is composed of .0002” thickness added to the surface while the other .0002” is below the original aluminum surface.




https://www.davidrussellanodizing.com/Profile.html

https://www.dragonanodizing.com/

 

[BWillis]

I just spoke with Pam at Dragon Annodizing. She quoted me a price of $55 and about 5 days to annodize my cockpit surround, posts and windscreen frame wiht clear anno.

I plan to finish cleaning and repairinmg my pieces and ship the parts to them hopefully within the next week or so as they are a little to far to drive for such a small order.

Just thought that I would share!

 

[jlaird]

Oh my word, what a super price indeed. That is with you removeing all the old stuff I supoese.

Old stuff comes off prior to polisheing with Easy Off the oven cleaner.

 

[BWillis]

No they put it in a bath to clean the aluminum and 'etch' it prior to annodizing. I plan to clean mine up and repair the small nicks and scratches as the annodizing will just magnify the imperfections.

 

[jlaird]

Aye, I polished all those out after removing the anadozing.