On September 10, 2021, we put the finishing touches on the Michigan. (Well…… except for the top, but that is coming.) It was a fully assembled vehicle, with more parts attached than when we pulled it out of Steve Dickie’s family barn back in 2011. Unfortunately Dad was feeling poorly and did not make the photo session.
The MICHIGAN is complete. (nearly)
Janet with Steve Dickey, Sept. 17, 2011. Both are great grand children of Michael Fleck – the original owner of the car.
As instructed by our upholsterer, Ernie Romero, I created a missing rear seat support platform in the style of the original front seat supports.
Rear seat support.
On September 5, 2021, my Dad, Vince, came south from Fresno along with my sister, Susan, and her daughter, Amanda. The plan was to assemble all the fenders, splash guards, dash trim, hood sections, windshield and other bits into a restored automobile. And so we proceeded to do that.
Susan, Pop, Amanda, Me & Janet with the long selfie arm.
Dad unwraps the nickel plated dash trim.
Over the next few days, Dad & I put the fenders, splash guards and other bits & pieces that had been painted, plated, polished, or preserved back on the car. And my cluttered workshop became somewhat more spacious. One forgets that the most compact version of an automobile is the fully assembled version. (Oh….. and it suddenly looks like a real car instead of an exploded view of a car – filling the workshop.)
Dad tests the upholstery as I lock down the hood on a mostly assembled automobile.
Following the return of the newly upholstered body, I commenced polishing out some of the orange peel finish in the green paint. I blame the orange peel (bumpy texture) partly on my inexperience as a painter and partly on the $14 Harbor Freight spray gun that refused to shut off 3/4 of the way through the spray job back on July 27, 2020. You move fast and carefully when the trigger is stuck ON.
I used several types of buffers and compounds to remove the orange peel. Chief among the equipment was a 5.5″ denim (yes, just like Levi’s jeans) with Meguiar’s M100 Pro Speed Compound. This was on a Bauer (HF) dual action polisher that operates from 2000 – 6400 rpm. The denim & the M100 really cut the high spots down. The denim loaded up with spent cleaner & paint in about 2 applications of cleaner and needed to be cleaned out frequently. This was done with a soft nylon brush in warm running water. My main complaint is that the adhesive for the denim to the foam disk was NOT up to repeated washings and soon started to delaminate. Another potential problem was that high areas had to be taped so that I didn’t scrub through the layer of green paint. That worked pretty well by taping the high spots with blue masking tape. I also did some block sanding with 1000 and 1500 grit sand paper that worked pretty well in big flat areas.
Sanded, buffed & polished.
The result looks pretty nice (not perfect) but, hey I’m new at this.
On August 10, 2021, I was able to get my crew together to go and retrieve our newly upholstered body from Ernie Romero’s workshop. Janet, Tori, Chris Presley & I all packed into the F-250 and headed South. Getting the body back into the truck was slightly more exciting than originally taking it to Ernie’s place. We had to remove the lifter pistons from the camper shell back window so the plump upholstery would fit in. It seems that during its visit to Ernie’s workshop, our body put on a few pounds (about 200+ in addition to the original 500+ or so) and bulked up a bit. We all exhaled, and the body squeezed in. No scratches, tears or ruptures.The drive home was uneventful but we had yet to extract the body from the pickup and take it down the hill to my workshop. During our struggles to get the body out, one of our Scout dads from Carlsbad Boy Scout Troop 748 (Joel Tarman), happened to drive by and slow down to see what the commotion was. “Do you need some help?” Um….. Yes! Next I went next door and drafted both Charles & Mary Essex to add their combined lifting power to the growing group of Michigan sherpas. With 6 people hoisting and groaning, we got the now much heavier body down the hill without incident. We pushed the chassis out and prepared to walk the body on to the shop floor.
We walked the body in and set it on top of blocks and I inserted the specially constructed lifting bracket into the back seat area.The bracket was attached to my hydraulic engine hoist and raised the carefully balanced body up so we could roll the chassis in and lower the body into place.
It soon became apparent to us all that the hoist arm was bumping the top of the back seat and pitching the entire body up at strange angles that wouldn’t allow us to align anything. The chain needed to be lengthened. After several tries, we got the chain long enough and the body lowered into place perfectly.
While most of the restoration process is fairly solitary work, this particular operation required a crew. And I’m very happy we were able to have ALL their help. It was time for a well deserved malted adult beverage…….. Whew!
I have added some contemporary literature from Shapleigh’s Hardware catalog that has a concise listing of Stromberg carburetor parts for the “B” carburetors. Be sure to click on the photos to enlarge the information. https://michiganmotorcar.com/nuts-bolts-2/carburetor/
In the last week of September I got a call from Ernie Romero. He had the slot open in his shop for our body. We agreed that I would bring it down on October 2, 2020. But first I had to get it loaded into my pickup. I’d taken measurements and it appeared that, yes, it would fit. Snugly and with the back end hanging out over the tail gate. But that was MUCH more convenient than trying to get a trailer down the narrow little road to Ernie’s shop. So I drafted my daughter, Tori; her boyfriend, Chris; our housekeeper, Juana to all help transport the body on temporary 2×4 skids with lifting poles up the hill from my shop to the pick-up.
Transporting the body
Pallbearers
Ready to offload at Ernie’s shop.
Once we had the body on the work cart, we left the body for Ernie to do his skilled magic. That means I needed to seriously get to work on the hood, the wheels and other sundry parts that still need work. All before the body is finished. The plan is to immediately install the body on the car when the upholstery is finished.
Once we had the paint on the doors and the body, it was time to get the upholstery installed.
No upholstery
I checked with my advisory counsel at the La Jolla Regional Group of the Horseless Carriage Club. The consensus was – “See if Ernie Romero is available. He’s very busy and usually fully booked for a year or more, but check anyway. He’s the best.” So I checked. And Ernie had a block of time coming up. But first he needed to see what the remaining upholstery and other bits looked like. So August 17th, I took the remaining seat bottoms and thoroughly trashed seat backs, one door and the top bows (and remaining top fabric) down to Ernie’s place in El Cajon (about 45 miles away) so he would see what materials we had for patterns.
Old upholstery laid out with front seats & back seats in correct positions.
Top Bows extended
Back & sides of top
We talked a while and figured out a price for new upholstery using patterns that he would need to make from the old material. We wanted to retain the original stitching style and use curled horse hair for the padding, not foam. We also spoke about what I’d need to do to obtain fabric for the top, which would be a separate project. (I’ll go into more detail about the top in another posting.) While I waited for the slot to open in Ernie’s shop, I’d needed to figure out how to get the body to him. He figured a slot would be available sometime around the end of September or early October 2020.
I have added the rather lengthy BUDA service Bulletin #422, under the Nuts & Bolts Buda Motor heading. This will be an invaluable resource for anyone doing work on early BUDA engines. https://michiganmotorcar.com/nuts-bolts-2/engine/
Several years ago when I last wrote about colors for our Michigan, we were strongly headed for grey. Since that time, we have learned that there are several other grey Michigans. So, nope, we aren’t doing that. We’d rather not be too common in a rather narrow field of surviving Michigans, so we looked closer at browns and greens. We are aware of only one Michigan that is green, and that one appears to have been repainted and is sitting in a remote barn, unrestored.
The MIchigan Paint brochure (in the Nuts & Bolts, Paint section) indicates that they manufactured cars in “golden auto-brown” and “deep olive green”. That description is both helpful and spectacularly vague all at the same time. We started trying to figure out colors in November of 2015, by contacting Jim (Jimmy Chips) Wells at the Auto Color Library at TCP Global. We were fortunate enough to have this unique resource for AUTHENTIC old automobile colors here in San Diego.
Jim helped us using another remarkable resource, the Horseless Carriage Club Gazette of March/April 2005 (Vol.67, No.2) which collects together an amazing spectrum of colors for early cars & buggies. It is probably one of the best, if not THE best collection of color chips available for folks with cars before the 1930’s, with a focus on the 1910’s.
HCCA Gazette March/April 2005, page 32
Using The Auto Color Library and the Gazette, we had TCP Global do several spray outs of different colors. Then time passed……………………………… it does that. With no regard to what YOU may think about it.
By November of 2018, Janet & I, (along with the encouragement of my Dad and a trip or two to the Nethercutt Museum in Sylmar, California to look at beautifully painted vintage cars) had finally settled on olive green as the color for our car. Time for an interesting story that has nothing to do with paint. (Well, I think it’s interesting and this is MY blog, so here goes.) The Nethercutt is a great automobile (and other things) museum. https://www.nethercuttcollection.org
My Dad & I have a connection to the Nethercutt and its founder, J.B. Nethercutt. My Dad, Vince, was a elementary school principal in Santa Monica from the early 1950’s until 1968, when he became an assistant superintendent in Santa Ana. During the 1950’s & 1960’s Dr. Sydney Wittorf was the dentist for the Santa Monica Schools. My Dad met Dr. Wittorf in the process of being a principal there and Dr. Wittorf became our dentist. He was a really fine dentist who was genuinely interested in kids. I remember getting some small blobs of mercury from him (with appropriate cautionary instructions not to eat it and wash hands after touching it) for my home chemistry lab. Anyway, Dr. Wittorf grew up in Santa Monica, and so did J.B. Nethercutt who worked for his aunt, the creator of a small cosmetics company named after her called Merle Norman. The story I was told is that both Sydney & J.B. used to spoon cosmetics into jars and do deliveries of Merle Norman Cosmetics. https://www.merlenorman.com/page-show?cid=our-history
They and their respective families became life long friends. From my earliest memories of going to the dentist up to about age 20, when I was in the dentist’s chair with my mouth full of tools, Dr. Wittorf would tell me stories about fancy old cars with names I’d never heard of. “Craig, you won’t believe this. Last weekend I got to drive two Duesenbergs.” I knew Dr. Wittorf. I knew about Duesenberg cars. I’d heard of Merle Norman Cosmetics. But I didn’t know the name Nethercutt until many years later. I understand that J.B. Nethercutt died in 2004 at age 91. Dr. Wittorf died in 2014, aged 101. If Nethercutt was as fine a person as Dr. Wittorf, he must have been a great guy. And what a museum!
O.K., back to car paint. Deep olive green.
We had TCP Global do a few more spray outs to focus solely on olive greens and eventually decided on a color called “Olive Green Deep” that was manufactured by Valentine & Company (later the Valspar company). The color was found on page 32 of the Horseless Carriage Gazette from March/April 2005.
Fast forward to August 2019, I had gotten a pint can of acrylic paint left over from the TCP Global spray outs. It wasn’t a full pint, but enough to do one door of the Michigan and a bit more. I sprayed it to see what “olive green deep” looked like. We liked it. Bandit (the dog) didn’t really express an opinion, although I am sure she will want to ride in the Michigan when it is finished.)
Ignore the orange peel, it polished out. And the dog doesn’t care.
Green door on original black body (not sanded).
Fast forward again to July 2020, I’m sanding and getting ready to paint the body. A gallon of Acrylic Urethane “Restoration Shop” paint (HC-32-10 Olive Green Deep, 1912 Michigan) was ordered from TCP Global. My Dad got a “Covid-free” ride down from Fresno with my sister, Susan & niece, Amanda to help me sand, shoot primer, sand, and maybe shoot green over the next week.
Block sanding primer on the body. Notice crouched awkward sanding position – even sitting on a bucket.
My Dad, Susan & Amanda arrived on July 19, 2020, avoiding all Covid exposure and doing recon on where you can find a bathroom on the 350 mile trip between Fresno and Carlsbad. (Hey! Pitstops are a real thing. Covid-19 has made many things rather difficult.) We celebrated Susan’s birthday #LXV, (that’s in Latin) and then got to work. First we raised the height of the body on its platform to a better working height. My back is LXVI years old and my Dad’s is XCIII, so a comfortable working height is important. I re-used the box my Motor Rotor came in (see Blog Post: Getting Ready for Re-Assembly, January 5, 2018)
Pop & Motor Rotor box.
Body hovers over box on rolling platform.
Sanders take a break to say, Hi!
Plastic sheet spray booth is ready to prime.
Spray bunny heads for the doors. Pop keeps the bunny’s air lines untangled.
Primed body.
On July 27, 2020 we shot the green paint. All went pretty well until my fabulously expensive Harbor Freight – Maximo Cheapo #62300, purple paint shooter decided to take a dump and simply stay ON. (And yes, it had been scrupulously cleaned in solvent.) When this happened, I opted to just keep moving and smile. Fortunately there was only a small amount of paint left in the gun and I finished about 2 minutes later. The paint was green, the air could have turned blue. But I behaved myself. Dad would not approve. A new — many times more expensive — paint shooter has been ordered.
GREEN!
Green doors three. Or, Behind the Green Doors.
So what is left to paint? Door hinges, the four hood panels and the left rear door (the first painted green, but it had a chip when the molding was re-attached.) All will be shot when the new shooter arrives.
My first project after the months long landscaping hiatus, was an assessment of the leather door cards. Here is what they looked like – pretty much the way we found them back in Steve Dickey’s Hebron barn in September 2011. (Yeah…. a while ago.)
Door Card – Right Front
Door Card – Right Rear
Door Card – Left Front
Door card – Left rear
Each leather door card had issues. The right front was in the best condition – by far, but even it was stiff, brittle and had some minor tears. My quest was to see if some of the supposed “leather rejuvenators” and leather repair methods worked. My assessment is – sort of. After considerable effort, NONE of these things look new or un-flawed. But, they are original to the car. The right rear door card is a complete loss. Portions had been EATEN by some of the numerous rodents and other vermin that called our MICHIGAN’s upholstery home for decades.
I used backing material (blue jean patches) in areas that had holes kicked into them and long tears and filler materials where the tears came together. Black leather dye was applied in places where the original surface was gone and where the filler showed.
All of the material was saturated with neats foot oil multiple times. It was truly amazing how thirsty this 108 year old leather was. I did as many as 10 applications and it all soaked in (when left overnight or in the sun).
Neats foot oil & right front door card.
Here’s what the completed (but not installed) door cards looked like:
Left front door card, after repair, before installation.
Left rear door card repaired & installed with nickel plated trims.
What you cannot see or feel is that these door cards are now much more flexible and usable. Before treatment they were almost as brittle as crackers. The flaps bend upwards when the twist lock / turn button fasteners are opened, allowing for storage between the inside of the door card and the metal door panel. All of the doors on the MICHIGAN have this feature except the right front door which is immediately adjacent to the gear shifter & hand brake lever. (Remember, this is a right hand drive automobile.) We will see what our upholsterer wants for new door cards. We will have to replace one of them – the right rear door. The others may stay or go, depending on cost. Our goal is to have a fairly original car, but the contrast may be so much that we will be compelled to replace them all. We will see.
