Sunny Boy wrote:
John, Something to keep in mind.
You may get those pattern pieces glass-smooth, but the casting sand grit-size that the foundry uses will determine final finish. If you want as smooth a finish as possible, you might want to first discuss with Al at Tomahawk how fine grit the sand is that he can use.
To give you some idea. I sent out pattern pieces that had some very smooth, original surfaces, such as the gear (cog) faces and areas I had built up with plastic filler and sanded with 100 grit. Then several coats of high-build epoxy primer to seal and further "fatten" the parts to help compensate for shrinkage, made them even smoother.
While I'm very pleased with Tomahawk's work, the parts that came back were not quite as smooth as the smoothest areas of the patterns. The originally rougher areas of the grate bars - the sides of the grate teeth - turned out to have the same texture on the finished parts.
Here's two pictures below to give you some idea of the texture that my new grates and gears came back with.
Paul
BTW: William, your one of the few men I know who would look right siting behind the wheel of a Packard Boat Tail Roadster. It's more than just a ride.
