by Carrol Jensen
Your Editor has given his dear friend and author of our regular tech notes a break for this issue. Brian will be back for our March edition as he will not want to give up this highly prestigious role. As a guest writer for this issue, we have Carrol Jensen. While this article addresses a project she did on our Jaguar, it provides the steps for flocking that can be done with any vintage car requiring that refurbishment.
What the Flock?
Like many people in lock down during this COVID-19 pandemic, I was looking for a project to occupy my time and turned first to where Carl was already spending much of his time, the garage. We had restored our 1948 3.5L Jaguar several years ago but a project I never finished was the tool kit assembly for the boot.
We have about 50% of the tools for the kit and we had the original wood frame with the old flocking on it which was matted, stained and worn off in many places so first I needed to figure out how to fix that. Most people think of ‘flocking’ a Christmas tree but look inside any jewelry box or watch case and you will also find those small particles of felt that are glued in to create a nice finish. So how do you learn how to flock? Google! The largest supplier of flocking supplies can be ordered via a website called flockit.com.
Because their physical address was in Rockford IL, I drove down one day with my large wooden tool kit frame to ask some questions. Assuming a brick and mortar retail store, I was surprised to find a small one-story office complex with an even smaller mail order only business. They were very surprised to see a customer walk through the door and were very gracious in explaining the process and then sold me everything I needed to re-flock the tool kit.
First step is using sandpaper and my “mouse” electric sander to remove as much of the existing flocking on the wood. You really want to get inside every nook and cranny to remove the existing flocking but not take down too much of the wood. Continuous use of the air compressor helps to see how much you have left to remove.
Sanding off the old flocking material
There are 2 parts to the tool kit assembly; a solid piece of material that lays in the bottom of the boot and the wooden tool frame that fits on top of that and both needed flocking.
Making a flocking mess in the garage!
Step two is to carefully pour the flocking material (almost like sand) inside a small canister that you attach to the air compressor for an even spray of the material onto your project. You need an air compressor that you can dial down pressure so as not to create too much pressure or it will not coat evenly.
Step three before you turn on the air compressor is to paint the wood with a matching color glue and because it dries within 10-15 minutes, it quickly became a two-person job! Because of the size of our project, we filled two canisters so we could easily switch off when one empties and not interrupt the flow of spraying the material within that 10-15 minutes before the glue dries. Wow, what a mess!
Once completed, I looked very carefully in the corners and areas where too much flocking was applied and carefully tried to smooth it out and removed some of the extra flocking. We then let it sit for 72 hours to make sure it dried completely before putting it back together.
For the inside upper section of the boot, I found the closest example of what I needed in pool table felt: it is thin enough to fit within the aluminum molding but had great color choices and was strong and very durable. I ordered several color samples online and other than having to pay for a much longer piece than needed, it worked out very well and matches nicely.
The search for tools continues with use of the internet and Ebay. I now find myself looking for Jaguar tools in addition to Stutz parts and memorabilia…….hmmmmmmm.
Still need a lot of tools!