Fantastic job!

A really lovely job. As you may have seen. I too re-Duco'd my Leedy Broadway a few months ago as the paint was in too bad a condition for me to live with. I went down the rattle can route and can honestly say that the success of the outcome is really down to the quality of the nozzle. I had a few issues with tiny specks of paint that accumulated in the nozzle and then flicked onto the drum. I managed to lose most of these in the between-coat rub downs but it is frustrating. Did you use a turntable to rotate the drum as you sprayed?

I used a lazy susan (hand powered) to rotate the shell. A motorized turntable would have made the job easier, I think, but I didn't have one and I did have the lazy susan.

My suspicion was that the greater control of the airbrush vs. the spray can would make up for the loss in smoothness and evenness of the rotation, and I think I was correct.

If I find some way to motorize it (like finding an old record player for free), I'll do that.

For the rattle can method, I would think that the motorized turntable is the only way to go.

I've never used an airbrush but I imagine that you're right. I built a turntable based upon a bicycle wheel bolted through a plywood base which worked really well, largely due to the smoothness of the bearings. Also the weight of the wheel (and drum shell) provided some impetus which made the wheel continue turning for a significant period with little loss of speed. Either way it's great to see these Duco shells brought back to life again after years of neglect and abuse.

I'll just take this opportunity to re-mention my idea of a sheet of wood or something with a horizontal slit in it, where you'd spray through the slit for a 100% perfectly even line of middle colour. The width of the slit and distance between can and shell would determine the width of the colour line.

Just an idea....

Mitch

Erik real nice job on this one! Interesting the duco had the gold over the black. Great way to do it. Good to know thanks and enjoy the drum!

That is a good idea; masks are used all the time in airbrushing, according to the books I read.

Funny thing, though, is that a perfect width straight line with no overspray would be less "period correct." The original gold stripe had the width varying all over the place, with overspray reaching almost to the bearing edge.

If it were too perfect, it wouldn't look like a vintage WFL. That's why the rattle can is such a cool technique: it's inherently imperfect, therefore, an accurate restoration. Get the drum spinning, press the button, and let the paint fly, which is very likely how they did it at the factory.

Check out the black/gold Duco in the gallery from a few weeks back. Look at how much wider the stripe gets around the vent hole. Possibly intentional on the part of the painter, but probably not "as-designed."

Observing the unevenness of the line on my drum helped give me confidence that I could make an acceptable stripe with my meager airbrushing skills.

...and that, is a very good point!

Mitch

Awesome job! It looks great.

You've inspired me to start working on my Rogers Blue/Silver duco kit again.

-Tim

Beautiful job there. What did you do to the bearing edge to bring it up to code?