Early CE clean up.

[Johnboy72]

Ok, so taking a break from attempting to polish a tub and decided to try cleaning up the Early CE I recently picked up. This car was very complete and in good shape. So far the only thing I've had to replace was one bent tie rod and a broken axle. The rear rims are not the correct rims but have the stock wheels. Luckily I found a guy on Dirtoval that is selling the CE rims and tires in great shape. Also, the bolts in the front nose tube were not right. I'm also trying to match all the screws. Seems like this car had mostly smooth sided hex screws without the grooves. They polish up nicely. Speaking of tie rods, this car had all the factory tie rods. It looks like it was put together, driven lightly (probably on dirt ovals) and then put up.
Here's when I received it.


Since the parts were clean for the most part, just cleaned the parts in soapy water and then did a bath. Maybe during some warmer weather I'll tear it back down and Simplegreen or CLR it then bath.
Decided to hit the dremel to the tubes and springs to see what would happen.

I regretted tearing this gearbox apart because it was sooooo smooth. Now that it's clean and shiny, of course it's not smooth. I didn't do anything to the gears, just removed the plastics and cleaned it.

So I'll continue to burn my fingers up polishing up the washers, bolts, etc....here's so far.

[Stodd16]

Love the polished touches may just have to pull a few things apart now to polish

[myfordcnc]

How do you guys get your parts so white!! I know 'bout the peroxide bathes but mine never come out like that.That looks really nice. So Clean!! Nice Work!!

[Johnboy72]

On my Cadillac I used CLR and scrubbed the heck out of it. Apparently I was told later I used the wrong stuff. I didn't use the yellow bath bottle, I used the silver jug thing. With that and the bath it came out super white. On this one it was already nice so just used dish soap, toothbrush, pipe cleaners and then the bath.

[Johnboy72]

Love the polished touches may just have to pull a few things apart now to polish

Just using the mothers mag polish and white buffing wheel. I did take a file to the tie rod centers.

[lexus-5]

Yes I must say "shiney" is nice! looking good!

[myfordcnc]

So looks like the wrong stuff worked for you. Great pics also by the way. so Crisp and So Clean.

[marlo]

Looking good!...I noticed that you even polished the little washers for the 4-40's, do you know how many flew out of my hand while trying to polish them. You should put some kind of oil, or protector on the steel parts. Now that they're polished, and raw, they might rust up.

[Johnboy72]

The washers look like they are aluminum but will do.

[Asso_man!]

You could use some light sand paper to clean the edges of the shock towers. Nice salvation so far good luck!

[Johnboy72]

Yeah, I wasn't liking the towers but will later try the sandpaper.

Update, purchased a tire lot today just to get the correct rear rims that should ship out tomorrow. So dragging my feet a little as I am waiting on those rims. Also need to purchase an antenna mount and a body. Seems I misplaced my antenna mount on my Cadillac too. Oh well.

[vintage AE]

wow, that's a great job polishing!!!

[Johnboy72]

Thanks. I like that it's forcing me to not have it put back together in 30mins.... But I think my polishing days are numbered. It sucks.

[vintage AE]

I know how ya feel. I was doing some restorations a while back and I was polishing the shock shafts and pins and it did me in. I don't want to do it for a long time. I did appreciate spending more quality time on a single build though.

[jwscab]

Instead of sandpaper if the edges aren't too bad you can scrape them down with an exacto blade to clean the towers up.