An A.C.Williams Cast Iron Truck Restoration

Tuesday April 24, 2012

An A.C.Williams

Cast Iron Truck Restoration

(Part 1)

     I purchased the A.C. Williams Cast Iron truck last week with the intention of restoring it.  Fortunately, the price was very good, so I won't lose any sleep about the restoration. If you've been following this blog, you'll know that I go to Dunkin' Donuts often in the morning. Naturally, you meet people and you chat. I met a person who works at a large company where they recondition and repair train locomotives. His name is Steve, and the conversation naturally came to talking about  toys.  I asked Steve if he had access to a sandblaster at work, and sure enough he did. So I asked if he could sandblast this old toy truck and he said yes.

 Here's a composite photo of the truck before sandblasting.

For those who might not know what sandblasting is, here's a brief explanation. A fine silica sand is sprayed with a pressurized hose at objects needing to have rust removed.This is done inside a metal cabinet, with the hose and special gloves that are attached to the cabinet. An air filter on the machine filters small dust particles so that they don'y jam the compressor, nor escape form the cabinet. The cabinet has a light for you to see inside,  and a shatterproof glass windowpane for viewing what you are going.

 As you can see, Steve did a great job!

I told him to remove the wooden wheels and rubber tires in order to sandblast the tire wheel wells.

If I'm going to repaint the truck, I might as well do a very good job. I'll just have to replace the old axles with new ones, as Steve has to cut the axles.

 I noticed that there is more damage in the right rear area of the truck.

The damage most-likely was there already., but sandblasting might have done  some damage. However, if that's the case, then it's a good lesson learned for next time.

I wondered why the A.C.Williams company didn't decide to make the stake wall thicker, but then the proportions of the truck might not have been accurate had they did so.

 After I took the truck photos, I used the LePage's Steel Epoxy to fill in the missing part above, as well as to fill in the cracks and the open areas.  When the glue dries, I'll carefully use my high-speed Dremel to remove the excess glue. I placed a piece of plastic on the inside of the repair area in order to keep the glue from seeping down. I also placed another piece of plastic on the outside to act like a "sandwich". When everything cries I'll take some photos of the sandwich, and the subsequent machining of the holes. I just hope that the clear plastic holding the glue won't be hard to remove. That "Epoxy Steel" is the strongest glue I've ever found. I'm sure though that the epoxy on the Space Shuttle is even better, but I don't know if that's available to the public!

I hope the weather where you are is better than here in Montreal.  It's another cold day with some rain,sleet, and hail.

Thanks for dropping by, and wherever you may be, have a good morning, afternoon, or evening.