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Anyone taking bets on how long I can do the Tip of the Week every week and still be coherent? 
This week I feel the need to discuss the little things that keep guys from really enjoying their vintage ride. Finish items, like interior brackets, closing up unused firewall holes and other custom work along those lines. I am a Stainless Steel fan for a few reasons. First and foremost, it will outlive your great great grandchildren and with no rust ever. Since Preservation is every bit as important as Restoration, this is a huge advantage. Even if you paint it! Secondly, if you do not paint it, you can make it look like bare steel, brush it to give it a brushed look, or polish it to give it a Chrome look. It can be polished so well, even the best of the best can't tell the difference between Stainless and Chrome. And lastly, it has become so popular that the local welding shops have scraps laying around all over the place!
That last point is pretty key to the Tip. Pretty much anything you do with regular steel can be done with Stainless. Of course if you go a step further, you will need to upgrade your MIG welder, a Tip we will leave for another time, but for now, let's concentrate on the little stuff that does not require welding. To make a simple stainless bracket, a 90 degree bend and a few holes drilled are basically all there is to it. While drilling through stainless IS harder than mild steel, if you have a Drill Doctor, you have that problem covered. It is the finish work that takes the time. Another thing that is sort of hard on your tools is tapping. It's a good thing taps are cheap! To make the bracket in the upper left, I drilled with a #21 drill bit, then tapped to 1/4-20 so I could put a button head bolt in from underneath to have a stud sticking up for fastening to the vehicle. Use Cutting Oil (Spray Cooking Oil works wonders) when drilling and tapping. Of course you want to use Stainless hardware as well.
Cutting Stainless Steel is pretty straightforward, the thin cutting disk on the Makita trick works, but my preferred method is the Portaband Bandsaw with SWAG Offroads stationary table. For larger pieces, you can use a belt sander with very fine grit belt to get the metal flat and smooth. For small stuff a very heavily used sanding wheel on the Makita gets me in the ballpark. Do not put any pressure on it or you will have grooves to try and fix. Once it has been shined up that way, a little wet sanding with some 600 grit gets it ready for the buffing wheel.
I am always looking for a "Guest" writer to help make this site everything it needs to be, so if you have the ability to talk and know something, get in touch with me!
This week I feel the need to discuss the little things that keep guys from really enjoying their vintage ride. Finish items, like interior brackets, closing up unused firewall holes and other custom work along those lines. I am a Stainless Steel fan for a few reasons. First and foremost, it will outlive your great great grandchildren and with no rust ever. Since Preservation is every bit as important as Restoration, this is a huge advantage. Even if you paint it! Secondly, if you do not paint it, you can make it look like bare steel, brush it to give it a brushed look, or polish it to give it a Chrome look. It can be polished so well, even the best of the best can't tell the difference between Stainless and Chrome. And lastly, it has become so popular that the local welding shops have scraps laying around all over the place!
That last point is pretty key to the Tip. Pretty much anything you do with regular steel can be done with Stainless. Of course if you go a step further, you will need to upgrade your MIG welder, a Tip we will leave for another time, but for now, let's concentrate on the little stuff that does not require welding. To make a simple stainless bracket, a 90 degree bend and a few holes drilled are basically all there is to it. While drilling through stainless IS harder than mild steel, if you have a Drill Doctor, you have that problem covered. It is the finish work that takes the time. Another thing that is sort of hard on your tools is tapping. It's a good thing taps are cheap! To make the bracket in the upper left, I drilled with a #21 drill bit, then tapped to 1/4-20 so I could put a button head bolt in from underneath to have a stud sticking up for fastening to the vehicle. Use Cutting Oil (Spray Cooking Oil works wonders) when drilling and tapping. Of course you want to use Stainless hardware as well.
Cutting Stainless Steel is pretty straightforward, the thin cutting disk on the Makita trick works, but my preferred method is the Portaband Bandsaw with SWAG Offroads stationary table. For larger pieces, you can use a belt sander with very fine grit belt to get the metal flat and smooth. For small stuff a very heavily used sanding wheel on the Makita gets me in the ballpark. Do not put any pressure on it or you will have grooves to try and fix. Once it has been shined up that way, a little wet sanding with some 600 grit gets it ready for the buffing wheel.
I am always looking for a "Guest" writer to help make this site everything it needs to be, so if you have the ability to talk and know something, get in touch with me!