This was the last step in the restoration of this Ambassador and the most frustrating. The J hooks of the ash pan were terribly rusted.
Once again I turned to
@harris92 . He recommended I tape off the ash pan and use a gel rust remover. I remembered many years ago using a product called Naval Jelly. Couldn't find it anywhere. Come to find out Naval Jelly was bought out by Loctite and is now marketed under their brand name.
Following the directions, I applied it with a small disposable brush and let it sit for 10 minutes. It removed a little bit, but I could see it would require more time and multiple applications. I found I could leave it on for about 30-40 minutes. Any longer it would dry and then I had to reapply naval jelly to remove what had dried. It took easily over 20 applications of naval jelly. Each time I would remove the naval jelly with a damp paper towel. Found that easier than rinsing and drying as the directions recommended between applications.
Seeing how pitted the J hooks were, I decided to paint them. I taped off all exposed areas of aluminum and sprayed each hook with Rust-Oleum primer. This did not turn out well and led to a disastrous result. I must have applied it to heavily as the hooks ended up with drips. I decided to remove the primer while still wet with a mineral spirits soaked rag. The primer came off two of the hooks easily. By the time I reached the third hook, I guess it had dried and was more stubborn to remove. In attempting to remove the primer from the third hook, it pulled the rivet out of the aluminum, detaching the hook completely. I was devastated. I finished removing the primer from the now loose J hook, put everything away, called it quits for the night. Went to bed that night just feeling sick about it.
With a fresh start the next day, I looked at where the rivet had pulled out of the ash pan. Thankfully there were no tears or splits in the aluminum. The rivet pulled out cleanly, leaving a indented area. I found that by slowly rotating the hook and rivet head around, I was able to find an exact position that allowed the rivet to re-enter the hole. It was almost like threading a nut onto a screw. Once the rivet head was back through the hole, I came up with an idea. I placed the rivet head on the head of a hammer and used a smaller hammer to tap lightly on the hook side of the rivet. This flattened the aluminum of the ash pan enough that the rivet no longer would pull out. I did not take any photos of the J hook separated from the ash pan, nor the process of reattaching it. I was to upset the evening the damage happened and to excited the next day as I was reattaching it. This is after the repair. Can you tell which rivet was the one that pulled out?
For now, I have decided to leave the J hooks as they are. If I decided at some point to attempt painting them again, it will be done with very small model paint brushes, not spray paint.
This is the ash pan as it looked when I picked it up from the CL seller.
And after with all the dents were pounded out, aluminum cleaned with #0000 steel wool and J-hooks cleaned of rust. The dents were removed by placing the ash pan over the bottom of a kettle that had the leg sockets removed. It creates a nice, round surface to pound out the dents with a rubber mallet. I understand a bowling ball can be used but I don't have one.
The reason I included so much detail in this thread is that when I started this restoration, I could not find a detailed guide on how to restore one of these real old kettles. These metal wheel, J-hook kettles require more work. I hope this thread provides help to anyone taking on the challenge of restoring one of these. Thanks for taking the journey with me.
Topic: 1961/62 Ambassador in the wild (yellow ochre) (Read 14034 times)