Not all wire wheels for a 4 inch angle grinder are created equal. Or I should say created the same. I’ve encountered 4 types: Cupped braided, cupped unbraided, flat braided, and flat unbraided. Since the cupped wheels spin in a smaller circle, they usually are less aggressive. Unbraided is less aggressive than braided, so the cupped unbraided is the least aggressive. I’ve heard people say that wire wheels don’t actually remove rust, they merely polish the surface. There is a lot of truth to that, but not always. The nice thing about a wire wheel is that it can conform to, or reach places that other tools won’t; such as around large rivet heads. The wire wheel is a tool I use a lot.
In these pictures, I’m cleaning some bronze mechanical parts, for the sake of appearance. That’s why it’s not necessary to polish the entire piece. In the first picture the bronze piece has been cleaned with the flat braided wire wheel visible at the bottom of the picture. The unbraided wire wheel is mounted on the angle grinder. The next pictures show what a difference the softer wire makes. The braided wheel is indispensable for steel, but not as good for softer metal.
There is no way the painters would have left the surface in that condition, besides, I’ve seen it on other equipment, I doubt there would be widespread mistakes of the same kind. Lately I’ve been wanting to start making period paints, so I’ve been investigating how they were made. Some were made with iron oxide mixed into linseed oil. The pictures I’ve seen of the pigment vary quite a bit in color, so at this point, I think it’s likely that this was primed with an iron oxide paint. The paint stripper probably broke down the binder (linseed oil) and left the powder.
Here’s what the powder looks like:
In the next picture, you can get a better idea of the size of the tool. The length and weight of the handle make it work very well. It the middle of the picture is the paste made by grinding the powder with linseed oil. The plate I’m grinding on is a piece of leaf spring from a 1946 diesel locomotive. What’s interesting is how heavy the paste is. The powder takes up less space when wet. Grinding is mostly making sure there aren’t lumps in the paste. In the last picture, I’ve added more oil to the paste, along with some Japan drier, then applied it to the tool itself. My plan is to see if I can wet sand this primer, and use it to fill small pits in the steel surface. I’ll post the results later.
The dryer that Colleen worked on is extra, my wife bought a new one, this one still works, but we’re free to use it as a teaching project. That we will, it will have flames and maybe pinstripes when we’re finished. In the first picture, she’s sanding it with a power sander and 320 grit paper. Then she blew it off, and wiped it with solvent and a tack cloth. In the second picture, she is spray painting with an HVLP sprayer. This was a good learning project, as there is some technique involved. The third picture shows the result, a very nice finish, clean, white, shiny, and no runs, She did a great job.
In the next picture, I’ve used a 4 inch angle grinder with a flap disk to clean the rust, a with a wire wheel to get down into stamped lettering and rust pits, then a small wire brush on a drill to clean the inside of the hole. 
I used my homemade card scarper to remove the old finish and dark wood from the handle.
I’m also experimenting with winding copper wire around the handle at the top and maybe the bottom, to prevent splitting the handle. here’s the finished short maul, and the kindling I tested it on. It works like greased lightening. It’s funny how a simple tool that’s usually disregarded can perform a lot better with a little thought. 
Next, I had a surprise Christmas gift, a new splitting maul! This one is better though. It’s bigger, 8 lbs, it has a fiberglass handle, and the handle is bigger, like a mattocks. When I got it, the sides were rough, but painted. I tore off the paper sticker, ground off the paint and sand cast roughness, then coated it with candle wax. It too works very well.
We cut this sheet metal out, as well as the box tube steel supports behind it. They were rusted too. I used one of the old corner pieces as a guide for bending the new ones. I have a pretty nice pipe bender, which works well for the box tube steel.
My oldest son Earl bought a new piece of sheet steel, and rounded the corners with a section of utility pole. Then, him and his brother Sean welded it in place. I was using a wire wheel on rust spots; and wiping the trailer down with solvent to prep for white primer. I used white primer because the cold night air would wreck fresh paint. If it caused a problem in the primer, I would just sand and reprime later. Two younger brothers, Greggory and Luke, helped with the wire wheel work, and removed the old tires from the wheels. Then they prepped and painted the wheels silver. Sometime late at night Earl helped then put the new tires we bought on the wheels. The next morning, I primed the new sheet metal, and Earl made a plywood floor for the front area. I also mixed up a dark green paint similar to the color of the towing van, and painted in the strip area that used to be black. We still have more work to complete it, but it worked really well for the trip. I didn’t want an old junky looking trailer attracting the attention of Law Enforcement. 
This trailer was damaged by neglect; the previous owner left a roof vent open, and wet hay inside the front compartment for years. Nonetheless, steel is always reverting to its oxidized state, if it has no protective coating. Job security aside, the process can look like a curse. Maintenance, here, maintenance there, maintenance everywhere.
Here’s another little idea I had, and it…worked. The fence boards at the nearby horse show arena badly needed painting. So I ended up working on that project. The first picture is the fence in its needy condition. the picture doesn’t show it very well, but there are lots of old paint chips stuck on the wood.
The next picture isn’t really about restoration, but I just wanted to show what a good problem looks like. In the right of the picture is a 1945 dump truck that I’ve been asked to put lettering on (after covering the existing lettering.) In the left of the picture is my own 1951 2 ton truck, which I was trying to back into a parking space. I couldn’t make the turn, so I had to first move the dump truck. Highlight of the working day.
In the picture below, you can see the back end of a “Mustang” three wheeled motorcycle made in 1947. It was owned by a gulf station, and used for parts delivery. We put the original phone number, address, and cartoon back on it. That’s when work is rewarding. 
In the last two pictures is the 1930 railroad coach that I’m finishing up. I wanted to show why I clean the windows and brush the aluminum window frames before I mask them off. That way, when the masking paper is pulled off, it all looks neat and clean. There are a couple of Bible verses that come to mind. The first is from the book of Jude; chapter 1, verses 23, 24, & 25:
