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That was easy. Where did you learn about that method?

Seems like I saw the technique in a discussion of refinishing antique furniture.

Got sidetracked with a son's kitchen remodel but finally got a bit accomplished today.  The hinge post had years of scars and dents in the wood and this seemed like a good time to see if I could minimize the damage a bit.
The photos really don't show it very well but I "borrowed" my wife's steam iron and a damp cloth to see what effect it would have.  The first two photos show a hammer mark before and after treatment.  I was pleased with the result, the wood in the dent swelled enough to remove the low spot.  Not all of the damage showed as much improvement but every little bit helps.

Remind me to not follow you in June. Don't want to be digging wood chips out of my grill.

What makes you think that your worn out old coupe can keep up with us. I'm not walking down the interstate carrying another battery this time.

Another day in the shop working on the hinge post.  I've had a couple of people suggest building a new door for the car but I will exhaust every effort to repair what is there. The wood is original and in addition to the cost of a new wood kit I don't want to take the car off the road for the time necessary to install new wood.

The post is made up of four different pieces glued together.  The joints have separated in several places, but I don't want to try to pry the pieces apart and risk damaging them.  In the areas where it can be done I've sanded the areas that will be reglued in an attempt to remove whatever residue remains of the old hide glue.

The photos show my effort to get glue into the open seams.  I found syringes with blunt needles on Amazon.  The first thing I learned it that you want to make sure that you purchase syringes that have "luer lock" tips.  This allows the needle to be threaded onto the syringe with a 1/2 twist.  Without the luer-lock feature the thick viscosity of epoxy or glue will cause the needle to "blow off" the syringe because of the pressure generated.  Trust me the mess it makes will convince you about finding the good syringes.

I'm drilling holes along the open seam.  Each hole has a 90 degree hole as well as two holes at opposite 45 degree angles.  So far this seems to work as the glue bubbles up in the adjoining holes since they intersect each other.  I'm using Titebond III glue as this seems to be one of the strongest pva type glues, is reasonably easy to use, and can be pushed through the needles I'm using without too much effort.  It's also waterproof since it seems like it automatically rains every time I open the garage door.  

I guess I won't find out if I'm doing anything wrong until the car is back on the road but hopefully these repairs will outlast me.

Alright the mercury in the thermometer finally peeked out to see what it could see so I went back to work on the woodie door.  This post is really pretty basic.  On the interior side of the door there are screws around the perimeter that secure the plywood interior liner in place.

As these screws have been in and out countless times I decided to plug the screw holes with new wood for the screws to bite into.  First matter was buying new hardware, so I purchased new stainless steel wood screws and polished the heads.  The washers used on  Ford woodies are called cup washers, it's quite common to see owners use finish washers but they are incorrect as well as being larger and kind of ugly.  The cup washers provide a metal countersink contour and dress up the screw without being distracting.

I then moved on to repairing the screw holes.  Since the parent wood is maple and hard as a bat I thought it was a better idea to fill the holes with slender pieces of oak rather than the usual toothpicks and match sticks.  

I used a drill bit to clean out the holes then filled the holes with epoxy and inserted short pieces of oak.  These were allowed to cure then cut off even with the surface and the epoxy that squeezed out was cleaned up.

I'm sure that many of you have done this exact repair but for those that haven't, here it is.  If you look closely at the two photos you will see a small circular area of slightly lighter wood where the original holes have been repaired.

Hi guys, I didn't realize that my project had become it's own topic but I'll start posting updates and photos and the work progresses.  Most of the supplies have arrived.  The West System Epoxy products come highly recommended from the Woodie crowd and since the product was actually designed for marine use it should be able to stand up to rain and road vibration as good or better than any other product.

I did some research on the interweb concerning wood hardeners and ran across a comparison of several products.  The test was for penetration and fiber consolidation and Minwax wood hardener was pretty close to the bottom of the list.  I ordered a product called RotFix which was the highest rated product and Amazon delivered it today as promised.

The weather is back in the high 20's with 30-50 mph wind so my problem with temperature in the garage is back.  I'm still gluing and piecing together broken parts of the finger joints and will post some shots of that tomorrow.

For anyone interested here is a link to the wood hardener comparison test information if anyone wants to see it.
http://www.ewoodcare.com/Epoxy%20Penetration%20Test.pdf

41woodie, it would be nice if you would post pics of the repairs. There are some of us that don't know much about wood repairs and it be enlightening. I have the intake off the 51 and I'm taking a break. Bending over the fenders is not great fun.

Well kb426 remember you asked for it.  I'm still waiting for supplies to arrive next week but thought I'd post a few photos of the damaged areas I plan on repairing.  The structural wood is Maple and hard as a rock except for where there is dry rot present.  In those areas the wood is quite soft and pulpy.

I'm using Minwax Wood Hardener (no it won't help with your personal problem).  According to their website the product soaks into side grain and works up end grain by capillary action and when cured returns most of the structural strength to the dried out wood.  I don't know if I believe the hype but I can't see where it would hurt anything to try it.

The area I'm working on is the hinge post on the drivers door.  The factory hardware had pretty much rusted away over the years and when I removed the remnants the joints simply pulled apart.  I believe the factory used hide glue to make all of the finger and lap joints and 75 years of being pounded down the road has taken it's toll.

In the photos you can see that the finger joints have deteriorated badly but the broken pieces were still in place so I'm starting out by gluing everything back together. The tenon joints have dried out and shrunken badly so it will require a lot of West Marine Epoxy to renew these joints.

What can I say?

I believed you but I have to agree I've never seen anything like that.

41woodie, it would be nice if you would post pics of the repairs. There are some of us that don't know much about wood repairs and it be enlightening. I have the intake off the 51 and I'm taking a break. Bending over the fenders is not great fun.

Can't imagine anyone would be interested but glad to do it.  My supplies are arriving the first of the week and we're looking at a gradual warmup in temps so I'll be putting more time into it.  So far I've been gluing up some broken pieces but I'll start taking photos to document the joys of owning a woodie.

Just before Christmas the driver's door on the woodie finally reached a point where it would not latch at all.  After studying things for a couple of cups of hot cider I decided that the various finger joints, butt joints and rusted wood screws had reached a point of disrepair that I could no longer ignore.
Removed the door and found that all of the fasteners that pin the tenon joints had rusted to a point that they were completely loose in the holes causing all of the joints to be floppy loose.
I'm ordering stainless steel boat hardware, West System Epoxy, clamps etc to start the repairs but the first thing that has to happen is it get warm enough that the epoxy will cure properly.  I can heat the garage using portable propane heaters but I refuse to leave them running at night when I'm snug in my bed so I'll just have to sit in front of the fireplace and read until this cold snap is finally over.

Alas recently I ordered a couple compact flash chips from China in a deal 'too good to be true' and it was. Ebay informed me it was a compromised account and the order was canceled. Unfortunately ebay resolution couldn't do anything and neither could Paypal either, both just said contact the compromised sellers account to complain. So it appears I'm out the funds. Since Paypal did a direct withdrawal out of my bank account the bank just looks at it like a cash withdrawal.

So I gambled and lost.

Unless there is something here I don't understand, Paypal should refund your money unless too much time has elapsed.  I buy and sell using Paypal several times a week.  When I make a purchase through Paypal by default it uses the Paypal balance to fund the payment.  You can change the funding method by clicking on "change".  I try to always change mine to my Amex card as it's been my experience that Amex is very good at protecting their consumer clients. When I've had a problem I call Amex, their first action is to remove the funds from the sellers balance and credit it to mine, then they go after the seller.

I've had a pass for a long time but we picked up one for my wife while we were in Estes Park a couple of weeks ago.  Drove to the Rocky Mountain National Park entrance, showed the nice person her drivers license and handed over $10, they handed us the pass.  No application, no waiting just took maybe a minute or possibly two.

Looks good John, just drive it up here the end of June. Only a few inches on the map.

The theme of this car is one that is built for long distance travel.  We plan to return to your area for a revisit of Glacier Park along with a float trip on the Missouri River.  I hope to take the Chevy on some of these future trips.  We will see what the future has in store for us.

In early October we are flying in to Bozeman for a quick trip to Yellowstone and Jackson.  I have always wanted to go there in the winter but realistically this is probably a better time for us at our age.

It would be nice to see you again and I hope that our paths will cross in the future.

John

You might want to  check into what is still open in Yellowstone after October 1st.  A lot of the facilities shut down for the season.

Probably half my car working time is taken up repairing threads on nuts and bolts.  Looks like a handy tool.

I was mistaken, the dirt and general nastiness on the neutral safety switch was hiding things from me.  There are actually four contacts on the safety switch, two are screw type that accept ring terminals and two are male push-on type.  That allows for two different sources of + voltage.  One is carried on to the starter solenoid, the other powers the backup lights when the car is in reverse.