step by step leading 1/4 panel sail seam on the Scow

[SFRT]

ok so we did a side last night. you will need some stuff:

1. a Charger

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2. the junk from Eastwood...lead ( actually zinc) rods, butter,flux and solder paste and paddles. you will also want an oxy acetlyne setup or an endless supple of mapgas.

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the area needs to be PERFECTLY clean.

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mix the solder/flux goo until it has the consistentcy of toothpaste..evenly brush it on in area a good bit larger than you are going to work. use the copper brush supplied in the kit to avoid contamination. This stuff is a sort of acid paste with metal in it and what it does once heated up is bond into the pores of the steel below it, and allows the lead your going to apply to bond to it, forming an actual mechanical adhesion bond, unlike bondo which just sits on top.

[SFRT]

once your goo is on, and DRY, you apply heat to it in order to flash it. you can see it flash as it turns bright silverm the acid will form on top, so you want to wipe it as you go

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once your entire are is tinned, grab a rod of lead and start to play the heat back and forth between the surface and the rod, the idea is to keep the lowest amount of heat going on your metal while melting the rod...watch the rod and as sson as it start to sag, mush it onto the metal with alittle extra heat on it and it will melt on real nice

[SFRT]

work your way down the seam. apply a little more lead than you think you want,its better to have too much than too little. it files off way easy

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as you go along you want to use the paddles, dipped in the melted butter, to smooth and compress the lead. push it in firmly you want to get rid of any air pockets and so on. you can keep heating, moving and applying more lead as long as you need to , just only on the tinned or leaded areas. you cant do this once you strat to file it, so apply enough. keep the torch moving so you dont overheat any 1 area.

[SFRT]

once all your lead is applied, and cooled, you can start working it. once you do you CANNOT apply any more so make sure your area is covered. the new 'lead' from eastwood is relatively lead free, so you can work it with airtools etc sand it whatever...Brandon used the traditional Vixen files as they cut the big junk off very fast and clean. file in 1 direction only and crosshatch the pattern evenly as you go. it comes off fast and easy so dont get carried away.

[SFRT]

this last pic shows the transition with just the file. its glassy. you then work it further with sandpaper and scotchbrite pads and the result id a PERFECT mechanical bond.

now, paint guys will start to freak out becase of the acid in the flux, but if you clean it REALLY well, and then skim coat..it will last 50 years or more. I personally hate bondo and my insane goal for this car is the only bondo will be the tiniest skin coat....evry repair has been either new metal welded in, lead etc. no rust, no bondo chunks.

[FLG]

Well SFRT...

Guess your going to have to put those up again 

[SFRT]

?

[FLG]

This is what i see

[tan top]

nice work  going on there SFRT  

[FLG]

hmm,

Appear to be working now, that was odd.

Great work man!

[SFRT]

heres the finished passenger side seam

[Charger-Bodie]

This is what i see

Same here. 

[Hemidog]

Looks good from here! 

[Charger-Bodie]

Looks good from here! 

THey show fine here at the shop ,but at my computer at home....not so much.

[khodne]

Thanks for the pictures, very educational.

[Charger-Bodie]

I also am a firm believer in leading,but to be fair your comment about Body filler just sitting on the surface....Thats not true if done right. The filler has a mechanical bond due to the scratch you put in the metal with a grinder or sander. If done over epoxy you have the chemical bond between the two products.

[66FBCharger]

this last pic shows the transition with just the file. its glassy. you then work it further with sandpaper and scotchbrite pads and the result id a PERFECT mechanical bond.

now, paint guys will start to freak out becase of the acid in the flux, but if you clean it REALLY well, and then skim coat..it will last 50 years or more. I personally hate bondo and my insane goal for this car is the only bondo will be the tiniest skin coat....evry repair has been either new metal welded in, lead etc. no rust, no bondo chunks.



Beautiful job!
My paint guy said just what you said. They removed the factory lead from both 1/4 to roof seams and there was a lot of rust underneath. Was it the acid that caused that? I noticed on a lot of original paint cars and you can usually see the seam under the paint. People have said that lead sinks. Is that true?

[SFRT]

xs.to..ugh....

no idea really, we melted out the factory lead and there was no noticable 'sag' ...I dont know if using 'lead' is better than modern body fillers, but , for me, its just way cooler. seems 'realer' . it seems to work easier than bondo as well.

[66FBCharger]

How many times did you have to do it before you got comfortable and turned out the nice results you show in the above picture?

[SFRT]

Brandon did it in 1 go.