Rolls-Royce No Chemicals, No Paint, No Harmful Glues

[David G.]

It took a good bit of time and effort but I'd say you found an excellent solution for the window trim.

It seems that you have the polishing down pat too.

Well done David!

[Anglia105E]

8 hours ago, meechum68 said:

Excellent work .. this is an enjoyable build to watch, from how you fix mistakes to how you do things. Bravo man!!

Thank you Michael . . . Pleased to hear that you are finding this build interesting, and you may find some of my techniques rather unorthodox. Back in the days when I just used the materials and methods that got the job done, including spray paints, airbrush, enamels, glues and cleaning solvents, I never had to consider these alternatives. Maybe this is breaking new ground in a way . . . ?

David

[Anglia105E]

8 hours ago, BERT100 said:

Good job on the front window.  Seems like your getting results you can use.

Well Steve . . . The front window did get done, but I don't really want to spend this amount of time on all of the window trim. Hopefully, your suggestion to restore the silver Sharpie will provide some good results . . . I should be able to try that out later today.

David

[Big Messer]

8 minutes ago, Anglia105E said:

Thank you Michael . . . Pleased to hear that you are finding this build interesting, and you may find some of my techniques rather unorthodox. Back in the days when I just used the materials and methods that got the job done, including spray paints, airbrush, enamels, glues and cleaning solvents, I never had to consider these alternatives. Maybe this is breaking new ground in a way . . . ?

David

Unorthodox techniques open new paths. Keep going!

[Anglia105E]

12 minutes ago, David G. said:

It took a good bit of time and effort but I'd say you found an excellent solution for the window trim.

It seems that you have the polishing down pat too.

Well done David!

If I can get the silver Sharpie working better, then maybe the window trim will eventually get done. Yes David, the polishing technique using baking soda toothpaste, distilled malt vinegar and microfibre cloths seems to be an effective method of polishing. Thanks . . .

David

[MarkJ]

Glad you are getting excellent results from the masking. I never thought about using a sharpie before. I never had good results with the molotov products. If you ever touched them even after they were dry, they dulled out very badly. Maybe the sharpie dries harder.

[Anglia105E]

3 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Glad you are getting excellent results from the masking. I never thought about using a sharpie before. I never had good results with the molotov products. If you ever touched them even after they were dry, they dulled out very badly. Maybe the sharpie dries harder.

Right now Mark, I would prefer to be applying Molotow Liquid Chrome instead of a silver Sharpie . . . Over the past couple of years I researched and had a lot of experience with the Moletow products, which for the most part are the best on today's market. The Liquid Chrome pen is not so great in my opinion, because the nib is too large, and also the flow of the material cannot be applied in a controlled manner. However, the Liquid Chrome refill is a much better product, because you have the choice of applying the material with a fine brush as I did, or you canpour the material into your airbrush, which I also tried with some success. This means that the refill is intended by Molotow for refilling the liquid chrome pens, when actually I would say it is the option to use a hand held brush or an airbrush that is the way to go for the absolute best result.

The liquid chrome product could not be handled shortly after application, and some MCM Forum members stated that they had to wait as long as one or two weeks before handling the model, without harming the delicate finish. Others suggested spraying clear coat over the liquid chrome, or some sort of clear glossy varnish . . .

The Sharpie finished look is probably more realistic than the extremely high gloss ' mirror ' finish of the Molotow Liquid Chrome, but that is debatable of course. The chrome component parts of a 1950's Rolls-Royce motor car, assuming they are the original finish, have the same high quality shiny appearance today as they did back in 1955 to 1959, which is testament to how good they were at that time.

David

[MarkJ]

3 hours ago, Anglia105E said:

Right now Mark, I would prefer to be applying Molotow Liquid Chrome instead of a silver Sharpie . . . Over the past couple of years I researched and had a lot of experience with the Moletow products, which for the most part are the best on today's market. The Liquid Chrome pen is not so great in my opinion, because the nib is too large, and also the flow of the material cannot be applied in a controlled manner. However, the Liquid Chrome refill is a much better product, because you have the choice of applying the material with a fine brush as I did, or you canpour the material into your airbrush, which I also tried with some success. This means that the refill is intended by Molotow for refilling the liquid chrome pens, when actually I would say it is the option to use a hand held brush or an airbrush that is the way to go for the absolute best result.

The liquid chrome product could not be handled shortly after application, and some MCM Forum members stated that they had to wait as long as one or two weeks before handling the model, without harming the delicate finish. Others suggested spraying clear coat over the liquid chrome, or some sort of clear glossy varnish . . .

The Sharpie finished look is probably more realistic than the extremely high gloss ' mirror ' finish of the Molotow Liquid Chrome, but that is debatable of course. The chrome component parts of a 1950's Rolls-Royce motor car, assuming they are the original finish, have the same high quality shiny appearance today as they did back in 1955 to 1959, which is testament to how good they were at that time.

David

We hired a company in Galveston that uses Rolls Royce automobiles as chauffer driven limousines for our 50th wedding anniversary. I believe ours was a white 1964 Silver arrow. It picked us up at our house and drove us 25 miles to Galveston to our favorite restaurant, "Rudy and Pacos". The chauffer waited while we ate and returned us home. It was a wonderful and memorable way to celebrate our 50th anniversary. I have pictures but I will have to make them more anonymous before posting them.

[Anglia105E]

24 minutes ago, MarkJ said:

We hired a company in Galveston that uses Rolls Royce automobiles as chauffer driven limousines for our 50th wedding anniversary. I believe ours was a white 1964 Silver arrow. It picked us up at our house and drove us 25 miles to Galveston to our favorite restaurant, "Rudy and Pacos". The chauffer waited while we ate and returned us home. It was a wonderful and memorable way to celebrate our 50th anniversary. I have pictures but I will have to make them more anonymous before posting them.

What a fantastic story Mark . . . That was so special for your 50th wedding anniversary. You mentioned a 1964 Silver Arrow, but as far as I am aware there was no Arrow model within the Rolls-Royce range ( not even the Springfield produced cars in the US ). There is a Pierce-Arrow car, but that was pre - 1938 . . . . Do you think perhaps your hire car was a 1964 Silver Cloud? These were frequently used as wedding cars, and still are in the U.K.

Yes, I would like to see the photos, once you have edited them of course.

David

[MarkJ]

1 hour ago, Anglia105E said:

What a fantastic story Mark . . . That was so special for your 50th wedding anniversary. You mentioned a 1964 Silver Arrow, but as far as I am aware there was no Arrow model within the Rolls-Royce range ( not even the Springfield produced cars in the US ). There is a Pierce-Arrow car, but that was pre - 1938 . . . . Do you think perhaps your hire car was a 1964 Silver Cloud? These were frequently used as wedding cars, and still are in the U.K.

Yes, I would like to see the photos, once you have edited them of course.

David

David, that's why I said I believed it was a Silver Arrow but actually I forgot, so it must have been a Silver Cloud. I said I would post a picture, but I forgot that I should not so when I can private message you with the photo you can confirm if it was a Silver Cloud. It sure was a beautiful car and maintained very well. 

[Anglia105E]

2 minutes ago, MarkJ said:

David, that's why I said I believed it was a Silver Arrow but actually I forgot, so it must have been a Silver Cloud. I said I would post a picture, but I forgot that I should not so when I can private message you with the photo you can confirm if it was a Silver Cloud. It sure was a beautiful car and maintained very well. 

Okay thanks, I understand . . .

David

[MarkJ]

David, check your private messages. I finally got the photo of the Rolls edited. You cand see what kind of Rolls itis

[Anglia105E]

The silver Sharpie marker pen was placed into a plastic shot glass for 30 minutes, during which time there was no sign of any silver ink running into the Isopropyl Alcohol, only a few tiny air bubbles rising from the nib every few minutes or so . . . The pen was removed from the solution and placed upright, with the cap on and nib end down for well over one hour, but further testing revealed no progress. This Sharpie is not working for me !

While I take time out to think about what to do next, I removed the badly crinkled BMF from the top surface of the rear number plate plinth. The surface was sanded down smooth with 2000 grit ( dry ), and a new piece of BMF was applied on top. This looks much better, so for the photo I used a glue dot to hold the plinth in place on the boot lid.

One of the following photos shows the passenger side front door window frame masked off with blue tape. I had hoped to apply silver Sharpie to the frame, but that was not to be just yet . . .

David

[Anglia105E]

Following the failed attempt to revive the silver Sharpie using Isopropyl Alcohol, my next step was to watch several YouTube videos, and one in particular got me thinking . . . The test that was presented showed a selection of different chemicals being tried to get dried out Sharpies writing again. Only three of the methods worked; one was IPA, one was acetone and the third was hand sanitiser ( rubbing alcohol )

[Anglia105E]

IPA did not work for me, and I would rather not handle acetone as it will dissolve the plastic shot glass container as part of the process. So, I decided to give the third option a try.

I placed my dried up silver Sharpie in a container of hand sanitiser, just enough to cover the nib of the pen. This was allowed to stand for 4 hours, and I could see  that a small amount of ink had flowed into the hand sanitiser solution, so I removed the pen from the container and replaced the cap.

[Anglia105E]

The Sharpie was placed in a vertical position, tip downwards, for 2 hours . . .

To be honest, I wasn't expecting this method to work either, and at first there was nothing. The nib of the pen was visibly dry and no ink came out. Then I shook the pen vigorously up and down vertically, and after doing this two or three times there was a blob of silver ink material there on my piece of scrap card.

[Anglia105E]

Moving over to the door window frame of the Silver Cloud body, I found that the silver ink flowed out of the Sharpie nib as I ran it along the styrene frame. This reminded me of the way that Molotow Liquid Chrome would do the same thing, as it flows from the tip of a fine brush.

After chroming part of the window frame, the pen did stop working once more, but with a little more vigorous shaking the ink resumed flowing.

[Anglia105E]

Eventually I was able to apply silver ink to all of the door window frame. The odd thing is that the gold and the bronze Sharpies are working fine, so it is only the silver pen that is giving me so much trouble. Of course, it had to be the silver one that is problematic, as it is the one that I must use for the chrome effect.

David

[Anglia105E]

The following five photos show my progress so far.

David W.

[MarkJ]

That left front door window frame looks excellent from where I'm standing. Just do that to the rest of them and you will be all set.

[Anglia105E]

14 minutes ago, MarkJ said:

That left front door window frame looks excellent from where I'm standing. Just do that to the rest of them and you will be all set.

Yep, that is the plan Mark . . . The silver Sharpie worked without any shaking needed tonight, but it only managed to cover half of the door strips, before the ink stopped flowing. I have returned the pen to the container of hand sanitiser, and I shall leave it overnight to soak. Getting there, slowly !

David