Cleaning polishing painting

After a several months when there were too many other projects and items that had to be done, I finally got back to the Allied. I had been careful to mark, tag and bag all of the items I took off of the car. I could then spend time cleaning up one piece at a time.

First the frame. Since I believe the frame was never actually completed, I knew from the start that I would have to have some welds finished. I believe that Jud welded up the frame longitudinals and cross bars, but outer supports for the body were just tacked on. In some cases the same happened with the long truss rods that run the length of the body. This frame was made from mild steel, not chrome moly as many Indy car frames used (which is stronger), and I think it was arc welded. The pipe looks to have been bent by hand; he didn't use a pipe bending machine. And while you could compare some of the frame elements to Frank Kurtis' sportsracer frames, it's much more like a sprint car frame from that time.

It was never painted either, so, in order to preserve what I had from further rust, and because I felt that the finish on this would have been "farm machinery" quality, I simply wire brushed down all of it, used a phosphor cleaner, sprayed red primer on it, then finished it with Machinery Gray Rustoleum. Certainly doesn't look like powdercoat, but it's a nice clean finish, and probably not more than what would have been done when it was built.

While painting the frame, I also cleaned up and painted the rear axle, front axle and suspension pieces. For the Halibrand quickchange I simply wirebrushed the center alloy section down to a bright shine, used to fine grit sandpaper to enhance that, and sprayed clear coat on it. I was careful not remove the casting marks. Again, I think this is how it might have looked in the day. I didn't have this plated since I couldn't see the historical president for that, and because I wasn't sure that it wouldn't affect the alloy. I painted the rest of the pieces with a primer, then Rustoleum satin black paint. I also shot a coat of clear over the front axle as an additional preservative measure against stone nicks. The torsion bar ends were painted black as well, but the rods themselves were cleaned up and clearcoated. I then wrapped black electrical tape on them as this is what was done back in the day, it looked cool, and if there should be a failure, I'd be able to see it.

In the end, since I know the frame needs more attention, I know I'm going to need to repaint some areas (there are going to be inevitable scratches just from putting parts together. That's ok, since "fixing" this sort of paintwork is a whole lot easier than dealing with nicked powder coat.

Next: Ride height