Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

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RustyFords
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Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

Post by RustyFords » Fri Mar 29, 2019 8:49 am

I only had a few minutes after work to go stare at my T yesterday before sunset, so I tried a little experiment.

The fender I bought from Mike Lebsack at Chickasha is so very nice, and undoubtedly wearing faded original paint. Mike said it was pulled off a car and put in dry storage many, many years ago and it shows. I made a deal with him before Chickasha for this fender, specifically because of the paint it's wearing.

One section of it is so good that I've spent the last few days wondering if that little section might even buff out to produce a shine. If so, it would give a peak back in time to what original Ford Model T black Gilsonite paint looked like all shined up and pretty.

Sure enough...I hit it with Turtle Wax in a small corner and it came back to life. I'll leave this one little patch shiny to show folks at car shows how pretty and glowing original Model T paint was.

The photo doesn't really do it justice. I was able to hold my driver's license up to the paint and read it in the reflection.
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1924 Touring

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Henry K. Lee
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Re: Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

Post by Henry K. Lee » Fri Mar 29, 2019 9:34 am

After doing paint and bodywork for over 45 years I am still amazed at the durability of old paint and how it can (if enough is remaining) comes back to life!

Nice!

All the Best,

Hank


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Re: Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

Post by BHarper » Fri Mar 29, 2019 10:52 am



Wow Don, that's Great!

Thanks for sharing, Bill


Russ T Fender
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Re: Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

Post by Russ T Fender » Fri Mar 29, 2019 11:47 am

My Centerdoor has original paint and I foolishly rubbed it out to see how it would look. The paint on the vertical panels on the body, as opposed to the fenders, hood and cowel, almost looked like a repaint after I got done. Other than the places where the paint is missing and the small areas where the rust is starting to raise the paint, it buffed out to a decent shiney finish. Now I am trying to figure out how to make it look like it did before I rubbed it out. I should have left well enough alone!

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Re: Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

Post by RustyFords » Fri Mar 29, 2019 12:16 pm

Russ T Fender wrote:
Fri Mar 29, 2019 11:47 am
My Centerdoor has original paint and I foolishly rubbed it out to see how it would look. The paint on the vertical panels on the body, as opposed to the fenders, hood and cowel, almost looked like a repaint after I got done. Other than the places where the paint is missing and the small areas where the rust is starting to raise the paint, it buffed out to a decent shiney finish. Now I am trying to figure out how to make it look like it did before I rubbed it out. I should have left well enough alone!
That may have something to do with the fact that the body paint was originally applied in a different way than the fender and running board paint.

I've noticed that those areas have worn differently on my car too.
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Re: Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

Post by John kuehn » Fri Mar 29, 2019 3:53 pm

I bought a NOS rear fender for my 24 T Coupe several years ago. It had come from a local Ford dealership and had gotten dings and scratches over time. The paint had dulled out.
I got it home and got some turtle wax and rubbed out a portion of the inner skirt.
It looked pretty nice but I did notice a noticeable run or two in the sheen. I guess Ford paint jobs had a few paint runs every so often going down the assembly line.

I did go ahead and used some paint remover to remove the original paint and repainted the fender along with the rest of the Coupe body parts. Having been around T’s for several years l have come to the conclusion we restore and repaint the better than Henry did. Just my opinion of course.

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RustyFords
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Re: Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

Post by RustyFords » Fri Mar 29, 2019 6:02 pm

John...one of the things that tends to give away Model T paint jobs as being non-original is if they’re flawless.

Uneven paint thickness and runs are common on original T paint jobs.
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Re: Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

Post by John kuehn » Fri Mar 29, 2019 8:44 pm

You are correct to be sure. It would be an eye opening experience if we could go back in the 20’s and check out the T’s that had just come off of the assembly line and lined up at the factory lot.

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Re: Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

Post by RustyFords » Fri Mar 29, 2019 9:13 pm

John kuehn wrote:
Fri Mar 29, 2019 8:44 pm
You are correct to be sure. It would be an eye opening experience if we could go back in the 20’s and check out the T’s that had just come off of the assembly line and lined up at the factory lot.
So true.

Even my thoroughly original 66 F100 is a case study in factory imperfections. So much so that it would almost certainly be refused by someone who had just paid for a top notch restoration paint job. I suspect that the T's were even more so.
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Re: Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

Post by Burger in Spokane » Fri Mar 29, 2019 10:27 pm

I spent a lot of years being sucked into the hobby paradigm of over-restoration and
perfection. After observing uppity types do the purist dance at car show after car
show, I began to rethink my own place in that attitude. It didn't take long for me to
realize that I got way more "stim" out of a fresh barn find car than I ever did out of a
flawless restoration. I began to think about how I corrected imperfections and made
cars into something they weren't to begin with, thusly altering what I value most - the
history.

When I finally committed to buying a T, one of the most attractive aspects was that
they were so crudely built, and that they look best when NOT perfect. In many ways
it can be harder to restore a car to genuine factory imperfect levels and that 5-year-
-old-used-car look than it is to overdo it.

I enjoy my cars a lot more when I don't worry about scratches and dings.
More people are doing it today than ever before !

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Re: Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

Post by RustyFords » Fri Mar 29, 2019 11:42 pm

Your experience pretty much mirrors mine Brent. I spent too many years chasing the restoration bug and finally came to be honest with myself and admitted that I was doing it so that others in the same car groups would approve of how correct something was.

When I finally started buying and working on old cars the way I wanted them...for me....personally....I realized that I truly loved old cars that showed their usage....cars that had a story to tell. I don't like body rot or cars competely devoid of paint but I do prefer them to be "wearing their work clothes" as John Mays once described it.

That's not to say I don't like to see a nicely restored car. I can appreciate them after having owned a few. And my '54 Ford tudor will end up with a very nice paint job...eventually. But the two that I just adore, and sit and stare at....are my two that are wearing their work clothes.

Last weekend I had the 24 Touring in the driveway and a young couple with two little boys were walking the neighborhood and came up to me in the garage. They were marveling at the Model T and were telling the youngsters about it. The little boys wanted to get in and the mom quickly tried to politely tell them that it wasn't going to be allowed. I stopped her before she completed her sentence and opened the front door and said, "climb on in there and pretend to drive it...honk the horn...make car noises." They did while mom and dad took some photos with their iPhones.

THAT is what this is all about. I simply won't have a perfect car that I'm afraid will get a small imperfection. Perfection like that used to be a goal of mine. It just isn't any more.
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Re: Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

Post by Dallas Landers » Sat Mar 30, 2019 9:35 am

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Wearing his work cloths. Hauling home some auction finds for my amish neighbor.
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Hauling laying boxes for a friend.
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A few other chores that are much more enjoyable with a T. I love a nice restored car and respect every detail and the work put in to get it there but I personally could not enjoy it like the old T. Mine is not in original paint. It was painted many years ago and a poor job at that . I use it but carefully. People cant believe I use it because they are used to people just looking at old cars and not being able to touch or get near them.

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RustyFords
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Re: Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

Post by RustyFords » Sat Mar 30, 2019 10:01 am

I love your car and even more, your attitude about T's.

Model T's and dogs are happier when they have a job to do.
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Re: Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

Post by John kuehn » Sat Mar 30, 2019 2:37 pm

This thread brings back in memory a 1914 Touring that belonged to a local restorer.
His son repainted it after his Father died. I believe he said it was a dark green and being around old cars and hot rods the paint job was fitting for the car or so he thought.

After a while he repainted it again because he had come to the conclusion that the paint job looked to much like “plastic” and glassey.
He had left off the clear coat and just used a single stage paint on it the second time around.
To each his own I guess.

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RustyFords
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Re: Original Black T Paint - Shined Up

Post by RustyFords » Sat Mar 30, 2019 7:34 pm

The counterweight to all of this “original paint” hoopla cane from my dad...who accompanied me to Chickasha this year.

He agreed that the aforementioned fender was beautiful but then said, “Don, don’t get to obsessed about this old paint thing. Your car is just a beat up old Model T. Just get it running and driving, then you can fuss with other details”.

He’s right of course. Leave it to a dad to keep you on the straight and narrow.
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