Another Build Thread - My '32

[J. Robinson]

I'm not real sure how long Ospho holds up outdoors; I've never left it more than a couple of months, but under roof (out of the rain) it lasts indefinitely. The rust is turned into iron phosphate, but any bare steel is also etched and turned a dull gray. It leaves a hard surface that seems inert unless it's scratched or gouged through to the untreated metal underneath. When you're ready, it only needs a light scuffing with Scotchbrite or fine sandpaper before priming and painting. The stuff goes a long way, too, and never goes bad. I've had that gallon jug for at least 10 years and it's still as strong as when it was new. I might add here, if anybody is going to use this stuff, it is an acid based product - dangerous to your eyes and skin.

OK, I spent todays shop time trimming and grinding the axle. I torched the spring pad edges off yesterday before I quit for the day. Today I finished the job with a trio of grinders. I used my 4" electric grinder with hard grinding wheel for the "heavy" work - material removal on the edges where the spring pads were torched off and grinding the forge parting lines off. I followed that with the pistol grinder with a common 36 grit disc and the angle die grinder with the Roloc disc to soften and smooth any grinder marks left by the hard wheel. I discovered a couple of deep rust pits on the left end on top where they would show that were too deep to remove with the grinder, so I MIG-welded them up and then ground them smooth. The real rust damage (pitting) is, thankfully, on the back of the axle near the center where it will be under the car when it's built. This axle will never be a candidate for chroming, but that's OK. Here is a pic of the freshly ground axle.