Today I dropped off my '68 DeVille, which I affectionately refer to as the Mothership, at the body shop for restoration. I bought the car in the year 2000 B.C. (before children) without any real plans for it except to drive it and have fun.
The previous owner put a cheap paint job on the car to make it sellable, and the top was replaced at some point. Other than that the car was original. When I bought it, I restored the dash pad, steering wheel and surrounding vinyl areas. Then I began restoring and R&R-ing the mechanicals. I just did this as time and budget permitted, one thing at a time, and with the help of many of you. Along the way I put 40,000 miles on it, including 4 road trips from my home here in the LA area to Phoenix (about 387 miles each way), two trips to Palm Springs (about 125 miles each way), and many trips to the beach with dogs, kids and surfboards in the back.
I've always kept the car in the garage, but over the years, the cheap paint job has oxidized beyond repair in certain areas, and picked up some nicks and scratches. Since the mechanical work is finished, now is the time to restore the exterior.
All chrome trim and bumpers will be removed, fenders and hood removed, and the car will be blasted down to bare metal, then it will be built back up with filler, primer, paint and clear coat. The bumpers will be re-chromed while they are off. Also, I need to find a place to send the exterior mirrors out for restoration. The whole process will take about 3 months.
I welcome all of your tips, suggestions and questions. I'm busy with family and work, so it may be few days before I reply.
-Wes
Based on experiences my friends have had with similar restoration work, I would suggest a contract outlining time frames and money that you expect during the process, so you don't wind up in "paint jail".
Thanks for the suggestion. We did that.
Will you paint it in the same color? Or at least an original 68 color?
Nicolas, the original color was Topaz Gold Firemist. I like the dark brown paint with the beige top combination, but I don't like the dark brown color from '68, which is Chestnut Brown Irid. I'm not concerned about this being a matching-numbers car, so I chose a dark brown from the Toyota Tundra 19794-edition Pickup, called Sunset Bronze. Here is a link to a photo of that color: http://www.toyota.com/tundra/photo-gallery/exterior
The car is just about ready for the blaster.
Linco industries
528 S. Central Park West
Anaheim, Ca. 92802
714 635-2800 Dean
They did my chrome and are very good to work with.
Dave
Dave,
I've already talked to South Bay Chrome (also in OC) and am comfortable working with them. Do you know of a good source in the area for the interior?
The car came back from the blaster. The bondo spots are where the filler was too deep for the blaster to remove. The body shop will have to remove them by hand. Overall, I'm pleased. You never know what you'll uncover with a 48-year-old car.
The body shop removed the thick bondo patches that the blaster couldn't. There are some issues in the typical trouble spots â€" behind the front fenders. These two spots cannot be repaired by bondo. Therefore they will have to cut out the decayed sheet metal and weld new sheet metal in place. Ughh! More cost. The photos also show two dents that can be repaired.
Hello Wes
Glad to read you are improving your Cadillac. Have you consulted your Cadillac & LaSalle Club SoCal Region Director Craig Chally cmchally@robertsresorts.com? He is a great guy with a lot of resources.
Here are some pics of the bumpers, disassembled and ready to go to the plater. Also, I resized the photos so they don't blow up so large.
How did the disassembly of the bumpers go? Did you end up with any damage trying to separate the pieces?
Mark,
The body shop did the bumper disassembly and there was no damage during the process. I did notice that they use a compressed air ratchet.
Wes
I am cleaning up the grill by polishing it by hand with steel wool #0000. There is a good thread on this subject from May, 2015. I'm cleaning the horizontal fins first. I found if you use a screwdriver to hold the steel wool down, it cleans the center area well. Just don't let the blade slip off. I haven't found a technique for getting into the corners or the vertical fins yet. After this I plan to polish the grill with Autosol.
Yeah I started doing this too. I was afraid to use the steel wool thinking it would leave a lot of scratches. How did yours look?
It doesn't scratch. I just cleans all the gunk off. Here's a closeup photo.
I wish that there was a solution I could put in the laundry tub and dip the grill into and all of the crap comes off and the grill looks brand new ;D
Check out this thread from last year. Someone recommends hydrochloric acid. I did not try it, however.
http://forums.cadillaclasalleclub.org/index.php?topic=135801.0
I tried cleaning my 65 grill but got frustrated with the slow progress.I showed to my chrome and he suggested having it dipped. We did that,it removed the anodizing,as he said it would.then I clear coated it with satin clear paint.Looks awesome!! I applaud your effort,just wanted to offer an option.Good luck! John Henderson
John,
I kind of wish I had chosen to have the grill chrome plated. My plater said he could do it, but reminded me that it is supposed to be a polished aluminum finish. So I opted to go the steel wool route. I have already invested about 16 hours of scrubbing with steel wool. I finished the grill yesterday. All I have to do next is the final polishing with the AutoSol.
I finished the grill. After scrubbing it with steel wool I did a final polish with Auto Sol. I used a sponge paint brush from a craft store to apply the polish. In this photo, the two columns on the left have not been polished, and the four columns on the right have been polished. The Auto Sol product works very well. They also make polishes for chrome and other materials.
That looks great! I intend to remove mine and work on it over the winter to bring it back to the original shine with steel wool and polish.
The bumpers are back from the chrome plater and are being stored in my garage. The grill is finished. Since this is not a concours restoration and the chrome trim parts are in good condition, I am polishing them by hand, instead of having them re-plated. Meanwhile, the doors, hood and trunk lid are off the car, and it went into the spray booth for primer, before coming back out for more block sanding.
Happy New Year everyone. Hope this year brings you peace, health and prosperity. The car is finally in the spray booth now. I had to look at a couple of spray-outs before I got the color I like. This photo shows the two spray-outs. I chose the one on the left.
All of the bright metal trim parts are finished except the two side extensions of the grill. In this photo, the parts wrapped in paper were re-chromed. Mostly the bumpers. The parts wrapped in clear wrap are the ones that I polished by hand.
I finished polishing the front grill a while back, and finally found time to work on the left and right side extensions. The recessed areas get painted black while the raised fins will remain brightly polished aluminum. These photos show the parts after being sanded and cleaned, then you can see the intricate work of masking that is involved here. I wasn't sure how to do this other than place each piece of masking tape down by hand.
Hello Wes,
Very meticulous! How long did it take to clean/sand? How long did it take to mask?
Christopher Winter
Christopher,
I didn't really keep track of my time, but I would estimate I spent 8 to 10 hours cleaning and sanding these two parts, and another 4 to 6 hours masking them.
Wes
The exterior mirror is in pretty good shape so I decided against having it professionally restored. I got the chrome looking good with some polish, but the Cadillac script logo was faded. It should be black. I used an extra fine black Sharpie marker to make the logo black. The letters are recessed into the metal so they make a natural path for the marker ink to follow. I'll investigate some type of sealant to put on over the letters to lock in the black ink. Will probably have to use a really small brush to apply it.
The first photo below shows the two grill side extensions after being painted and with masking tape removed. If you look towards the bottom of the photo, you'll see the part where the extensions curve. I couldn't get the masking tape to follow those contours so there are some areas that are missing paint. To touch these areas up, I sprayed some paint into a plastic pallet until it formed a small puddle. Then I applied the liquid paint with a brush (see second photo).
nice work!
I'll put that work on my todo list! :-)
The car is painted and the doors, trunk lid, hood and front fenders are back on the car. Before they put these back on, they painted and refreshed under the hood. Now they are putting the bumpers, trim parts and rubber seals back on the car. I bought all new rubber seals from Steele Rubber Products. They have just about everything for this model car. I bought new hood and trunk crest emblems from Original Parts Group (Not shown in these photos. They installed the old ones, but they will fix it.) I still need to get new DeVille script logos from OPG for the rear fenders.
Yowser, thats looking good.
WTL, Thanks.
They're working through some issues getting the windows in and working properly, so it has been a delay. And they installed a rebuilt power antenna, and were having some issues with it. Also, the power steering pump and power brake booster went out. This does seem a little suspect, with all of the dust in a body shop environment. But in all fairness, both of these components are over 15 years old. I will have a flatbed pick up the car and haul it to a mechanic to repair these items. Then, it's back to the body shop for a final detailing and inspection, and I'll tender final payment.
from the investigative budget made 6 months ago....are you on task with said / given budget?
Car / progress / build / restoration looks fantastic. slow n steady.
Jeff,
Thanks. For the most part, I've stayed on budget with the bodywork and paint. The only time it went over budget was when the car came back from the blaster and we found rust on the front fenders behind the wheels. I went over budget with the chrome, however.
Here are some more photos. They're still working on the power windows. A new motor that I bought from NAPA did not work, so we're waiting for the replacement.
looks good! I like to color!
I would get a proper car cover as soon as possible! :-D :-X
You rock! Keep us posted on the details. I was surprised that NAPA had the right window motor. On my 68 Eldorado, most of the window slowness was the fact that the old grease needed to be removed and regreased. That with new felt channels and channel rollers made them go up down twice as fast
Chrome has a budget?
John,
My original plan was to replate only the bumpers, and polish all the other trim parts myself, since they looked like they were in pretty good condition. So I had a dollar amount in mind for the chrome. But while polishing the parts I found that the side moldings and the chrome fender skirt pieces (bottom, front of skirts), were too damaged for me to clean up. So I took them to the chrome plater. Also, the chrome trunk lid strip had a dent that I couldn't repair. So I bought a used one in good condition and polished it. These were the extras that I didn't plan for originally.
just kidding Wes! Your project looks great! When I first saw my car I felt bad for it-from a distance it looked bad,flat tires,filthy dirty and sunk into the mud.I assumed it was a rotter,it looked like it had been sitting there for thirty years.We were installing new gas lines on the street and when I got the chance I got the owner to let me look at it and I was amazed it was rust free,perfect interior and the motor turned by hand.The owner wanted to donate it to charity!To get back to my point,he had some idiots yank the car(with froze brakes) from the little garage it had been in for thirty years-they hooked a chain on the rear center bar and nearly ripped in half pulling it out.We made a deal,and I took it home.The brightwork on the car was quite good,very good for a survivor,but when my chromer restored my center bar,the contrast was to much,I chose to do all the bumpers,headlight bezels,sidelights and grill trim.I got the car at a great price,so it was justified,but it shows a point I've always realized,that the chrome budget is always in pencil!
The car is finally finished. It was delayed for 3 months because of the windows. The glass mechanic could not get the driver's side front and right rear windows to go up and down properly. We cleaned and lubricated the regulators, and replaced the motors with rebuilt ones from Cardone, but the windows moved very slowly, if at all. We replaced the motors a second time, again using remanufactured parts by Cardone. Prior to installing them, we bench-tested the motors and the gears spun instantly. But when we installed them, we had the same issue - the windows would barely move. Finally, I found new (not rebuilt) motors from Fusick Automotive Products out of East Windsor, CT. We put them in and the windows go up and down like new. I can only conclude that the remanufactured motors work, but do not meet the factory torque specs.
During the media blast process, they body shop protected the convertible top area, but some of the media found its way down in there and scuffed the glass window. I negotiated a discount from my final payment to help pay for the new glass. I will replace the top with glass as my next project, but not until this winter. I want to enjoy driving the car until then.
We had our California June gloom drizzly weather this morning when I took these photos. Sorry about the low lighting.
Nice color combination, glad to see the work was worth the wait!
Thanks.
Well it's been 1 year since I left off here. Last summer I enjoyed driving the car and taking it to some local cars and coffee events. I had some electrical issues that I finally got worked out (thanks to the help of many of you). And now, after a few months of planning and researching, I am ready to restore the interior.
The car will get new upholstery on the seats, seat backs and door panels, new carpet, a new boot and a new top. I'll send the seat belts out for re-webbing. Previously, I restored and repainted the dash, steering column, glove box, visors and A-pillar covers. So the only work needed on the front part of the interior is to repair/repaint some cracks on the steering wheel, which I have already started on, and to replace the rosewood veneer under the instrument panel.
Here are some photos of the interior in its present condition. I'll post more as the project progresses. Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Looks great. I want to try to clean the grill on my 68 soon
Thanks. It will be a lot easier to clean/polish the grill if you can remove it and work on it on a table or bench.
I'm repairing some cracks in the steering wheel before I bring it into the upholstery shop. I'm using a product called Fuze-It. It bonds like epoxy, but it's easier to work with. You can use your fingers to push it into the cracks. You don't want to do that with epoxy. Once it dries, you can sand it like you would epoxy. It cures a bit rubbery, so you need to start with a coarse sand paper, and work up to a fine one.
nice!
How do you paint it afterwards?
To paint it, I'm using SEM Color Coat paint. According to the 1968 Cadillac Data Book, the vinyl is Dark Beige. I chose SEM # 15723, Monterey as the closest match I could find. The first picture below shows an original unpainted part next to the can of SEM Monterey. It's not exact, but close.
To apply this paint you have to spray many light coats. The instructions say to wait 15 minutes for a coat to dry before applying the next coat. I like to wait about 30. Once you have the area masked off, it's easy to do many coats over a weekend.
The next photo shows the steering wheel sanded and prepped for paint. I cleaned the small grooves on the ring of the wheel with a solution of vinegar and water and a tooth brush. Many years ago, I had previously painted all the vinyl with this same exact paint, so hopefully SEM maintains consistency with their colors and this will match.
nice! Thanks for the details.
That is a winter work for me to do some time.
Wes, swim is a fantastic long lasting product. It’s expensive (well, down here’s it is)
I use it myself for customers vehicles, I work in a body shop doing paint work.
I’ve enjoyed this thread.
Nicolas, Thanks. I've got some more posts coming soon.
BenX13, thanks. I googled Swim, but didn't see it. Is it some type of a plastic filler or adhesive?
The upholstery shop ordered the material for the top. According to the ID tag, my car was built with a beige top color called 'sandalwood'. The Cadillac Data Book says the sandalwood top had a sandalwood liner.
For the top material, I had a couple of choices: vinyl or Stayfast (cloth). The less expensive vinyl material only comes with a black liner. With Stayfast, you can choose the liner color. So, I chose Stayfast, in a color called tan that is the closest match to the original sandalwood color. And it comes with a tan liner.
These kickpanel/trim pieces needed to be painted to match the rest of the vinyl. Carpet is attached from factory with staples. I removed it so I could paint them. I'll have the upholstery shop glue the new carpet on.
I'm repairing a crack in the center of the steering wheel running around most of the circumference. I started with the top side of the wheel. I filled it with Fuze-It and sanded with #100, #220, #320, #400 and finally with #600. Then painted. I'll turn the wheel 180 and do the bottom half next.
I also painted the knobs on the gear selector, flasher, turn signal and tilt wheel levers. I read somewhere on this blog that you can't remove the knobs from the levers, so I left all levers in place and masked everything except the knobs.
When I first bought the car the dash board was cracked beyond repair. I bought a used one in good condition. It was olive green, so I panted it and all the other vinyl at the same time. I didn't know what to do with the area around the chrome Cadillac logo under the center vent. So, I punted and left it green. See the first photo.
I knew now was the only time I would have to try to fix this, as I don't want the car coming near a spray can after the upholstery and carpet is redone. I hatched a little plan to try to fix this. Using a fine brush, I coated the logo with petroleum jelly. Then, I spray painted the area. And when the paint is dry, if all worked out, the paint would peel right of the chrome logo. See next two photos, and next post.
I sprayed it with 10 light coats, letting each coat dry between 15 and 30 minutes, before applying the next coat. Finally it was time to see if my plan would work. I slowly peeled the paint off the letters. It was working. See first photo.
When I removed the masking materials, I was happy with the end result, except for one thing. It wasn't dark enough to match the surrounding dash board. I realized it was because I didn't put enough coats of paint on it. See second photo.
I had to do it a second time to add more coats of paint, and â€" spoiler alert â€" it turned out well. More on that later.
Very impressive work
Thanks, Mark.
nice!
Are you putting your rosewood veneer back into the dash too?
Yes, I will order it from Captain Cadillac. Once I receive it, I will stain and finish the door panels to match.
Here is a photo of the finished steering wheel. This isn't a good photo because the flash on the camera distorted the color. In reality, the color really matches nicely with the rest of the vinyl. I'm happy with SEM products and the consistency they maintain with their color.
I'm pleased with the way the steering wheel turned out. But I had to fill in and paint over the original chrome ring around the circumference of the wheel. After the interior is complete, I might buy a used steering wheel in good condition with no cracks, and with the chrome ring intact. Then I'll paint it with this same SEM paint.
I dropped off the car at the upholstery shop today. More posts to come.
It's been a while since I've updated here so I'll do a few posts, each with a different topic. The first topic is seat belts. When I bought the car the rear seat belts had been removed. So I installed a set of GM belts that I bought from a junk yard. Now that I'm restoring the interior, I learned that the belts on this car had the Cadillac logo in the buckle. I found three buckles at Honest John's Caddy Corner (thanks Nicolas). They needed a little cleaning and polishing. I cleaned them with soap and water, then scrubbed them with steel wool. Then I polished them with AutoSol. I touched up the black part of the push-button with a black Sharpie marker. The first two photos are before and after.
My front seat belts are original and have the Cadillac logo in the buckles. After I clean and polish them, I will send all six sets of buckles to Seat Belt Planet for rewebbing. They have many stock colors of webbing to choose from on their web site. I selected three possible colors and asked them to send me samples.
At the upholstery shop, I attempted find a match for my original Sandalwood leather in the vinyl swatch book. I chose Enduratex # GGR-7220. But when I placed the 3 seat belt swatches next to it, none of them worked. See third photo. The white was too white, and the other 2 colors were in the wrong tonal range. So I called up the nice people at Seat Belt Planet and they sent me another sample. This time I chose #31, Camel. See fourth photo. This matched much better.
Every project has a few hiccups along the way, and mine is no exception. At the upholstery shop the door and rear side panels are off the car and most of the vinyl top is off the frame. They discovered some severe rust on the header beam of the top frame. See first photo. It will need to be ground down and welded. Also the rear side panels are cracked. See second photo. Not a big deal â€" they can repair them with fiberglass. But, of course, extra cost.
Nice!
Yes, my front bow has the same issue. Completely rusted out. But I just put some POR15 over it, then glued the weatherstrip down. So far no issues. Front bow still holds up and is tight.
Have you also sent the base to the guys as Seat Belt Planet?
I am missing the cover for the base and one is cracked. How are yours? I think those covers were attached before webbing the seat belt.
Nicolas, I have not sent the bases out for re-webbing yet. My front bases are good. They just need to be cleaned up. Then I'll send all six sets to Seat Belt Planet. You can get replacement covers from OPGI. I'm not sure how to pop the covers on and off, but I'm sure someone here knows how.
The upholstery shop removed the rosewood side panels for me to refinish. There are four in total - two in the front and two in the rear. The first photo shows the two from the rear, one is up and the other down. What's interesting to me is the stamp from Cadillac's vendor, Evans Products. The next photo shows a date stamp from when these were made, August 17, 1967.
In order to separate the wood panel from the frame, you have to grind off the rivets on the back (third photo). Then you pry the two pieces apart (fourth photo). The last photo shows the two pieces separated. Notice how dark the wood stain was along the edges. That dark red color is the original stain. The lighter color on the wood is from fifty years of oxidation.
jep! Mine looked just the same. Also evans products.
You can see how they turned out in my "restoration blog".
Be careful when sanding those wood veneers because they are quite thin
Hi Nicolas,
Thanks for the tip. I looked at your blog. I will use the same technique with the razor scraper for the outside edges. Yes, these veneers are very thin. What grade of sandpaper should I start with?
Your finished panels came out beautiful. Did you apply the stain and have the boat repair vendor spray the clear coat? I was thinking of applying both the stain and the clear coat with a brush. But after looking at your blog, I realized it looks so much better when the clear coat is sprayed on. I don't have a spray gun or a compressor, so I might take them to a boat or wood refinishing place.
The rosewood dash veneer arrived from Captain Cadillac's Cove (first photo). The grain pattern and the color are correct. It is not wood, but some type of poly material. I checked it for fit on the car and it fits perfectly. When I refinish the four rosewood side panels they will all match with this piece for the dash.
The shop is repairing the cracks in the back side panels with fiberglass (last two photos).
I cleaned up the front seat buckles over the weekend. The first two photos are before and after. I also painted the retractor housings the same color as the vinyl in the front of the interior (third photo). So everything is ready to send to Seat Belt Planet for the 6 new belts. I will send the housings with the buckles so they can thread the retractable lap belts through the housings before they connect them to the retractors.
I brought one of the wood panels pieces into the hardware store to select a stain that would match. I chose Varathane stain in the color Kona. See first two photos attached. One is the wood panel, and the other is the veneer for the dash. Remember, the veneer is a replica, so I tried to find a stain that would match both.
Next, I stripped off the edges of the wood panels. These parts of the panels were protected by the frame and never exposed, so they give you an approximate original color. Because they were never exposed, they are about 1 mil. higher than the rest of the panels. I used a razor scraper to scrape them off. See next two photos.
Finally, I prepped them for paint. Because these wood veneers are only about 1 to 2 mil. thick, I was cautious not to use an overly coarse sandpaper. I started with #220 on the edges only. Then used #320 all over, Then I finished with #400. The last photo is all four pieces prepped for stain.
Enjoying following this thread. Some really good work here.
Blake,
Thanks. Hopefully some of the things I'm learning as I do this also apply to your car
Wes
I applied the stain to the rosewood panels and when it dried it was very uneven. The 50-year old rosewood is so dry that is soaks up the stain like Styrofoam. So I sanded them down again and applied a pre-stain conditioner. This coats the wood so the stain will go on evenly. I let it dry, and applied the stain again. The result was much better. See first photo. The next step is to apply polyurethane clear coat. For this, I'll spray on a light coat, let it dry and sand with 320 before spraying on another coat. Per the manufacturer's directions, I'll do a total of 4 coats.
The upholstery shop took the front seat out of the car so now is the time to address the issue of the 6-way power seat motor turning, but the seat barely moving. We removed the transmission so I could take it apart, clean it and re-grease. Art Gardner was right. Even someone mechanically-challenged like me can do this. See second and third photos. I propped up the two halves and put a few drops of oil on each cable, so the oil would seep down (fourth photo). Then I took all the parts out, cleaned them and applied fresh grease. When I put everything back together the cables turn really easily. So, I think the next step will be to put the transmission back in, apply power to the motor and see how well the seat moves.
nice!
The seat belts arrived from Seat Belt Planet. The color matched their sample perfectly. Overall, I'm very pleased with their work.
There was delay over the color of the top material. When I chose the color from the little postage stamp-size sample in the book, it looked about right. But when the material came in, we snipped of a few inches and laid it on the car. It was waaaaaay too dark. The top is supposed to be sandalwood, not brown. I told the shop they would need to send the material back and I selected another swatch. This time I asked for a sample first. It arrived and we laid it on the car. See first photo. This is the correct color.
The only issue is this color ONLY comes with a black lining. And there are no other manufacturers who make a sandalwood top material with a matching lining. The original top was sandalwood on the outside with a sandalwood lining. The frame rails were painted beige from the factory to match the lining. Now that I'll be using a material with a black lining, I'll have to paint the frame rails black to match. I've seen this with many cars from this era and I like the way it looks. But it isn't the original color scheme.
Meanwhile the Dynamat is in. I chose to put it on the floor only. Some builders put it everywhere in the interior to help the acoustics. I might do that if it were a hardtop. But in a convertible driven primarily with the top down, the sound quality isn't that important.
I brought the seat transmission that I had cleaned and lubricated into the upholstery shop. We put the front seat on a bench, and put the transmission back in. We applied voltage to test it. The motor turned perfectly and the seat moved back and forth partially, then stopped. Same thing happened when we tried to move it up and down. It moved, then stopped. So we took the transmission out again.
This time we took apart the portion with the electrical connector. See second photo. The wires are soldered onto the cylinders, so we figured this part must be an electrical field. So we cleaned the cylinders and their mating pins (see third photo) with solvent to allow for a good electrical connection. Then we put it back together and put it back on the seat. This time the seat moved a lot better, but still didn't move all the way. We removed the track, and cleaned and lubricated it, and now it moves completely.
Meanwhile the top frame is prepped for paint.
The upholstery shop got busy with other work, and got behind on my car. I didn't complain because my son wanted to do a haunted house in our garage for Halloween. And with the car out of the garage we had the room to do it. Now they're devoting more time to my project.
Here's what's been done in order of the photos below. The top frame was painted. The padding and carpet were installed. They removed the old vinyl from the rear panels and glued in the new vinyl. As part of this process, they put new foam padding in the arm rests and tops of the panels (next to the windows).
looks good!
I sea a seam along the middle. Did you sew this in? Wouldn't it have been possible to glue the vinyl on like original without a seam?
Nicolas,
Thanks for pointing out that seam. They sewed it. I'll ask about it.
I noticed this, because the previous owner also had the door panel refinished. And they did put a leather on top of the vinyl and also had done this seam. Which looks good on its own, but together with the original passenger door panel, looks quite out of place.
So if your panels are all the same, it may look quite good.
Best regards,
Nicolas
Nicolas,
I asked the upholstery guy about this. He said when the car was built, the factory vacuum formed the material onto the arm rest. So essentially it is a molded material. He removed this material down to the fiberglass panel, and recovered it with vinyl. He says the only way to recover it is to sew a seam. He'll do the same thing with the front door arm rests. So the front arm rests and rear arm rests will all look the same.
All seating is finished, except for installing buttons on the back seat. Seats were rebuilt from the springs up with all new burlap and foam. The side panels for the rear are installed. Today, they will be working on the door panels.
nice!
Coco Cola cleans everything!! lol
We're in the home stretch now. Here's the latest progress.
That top though! Beautiful show room-like 8)
RajeevX7,
Thanks. It's a cloth top. The fabric is Haartz Twillfast.
I picked it up last week, but it has been raining here, and yesterday was the first sunny day I could drive it and take some pictures. I'll do this in a few separate posts.
1. The top material is Haartz Twillfast.
2. I wanted to be sure that the color on the backs of the front seats matched the seating surfaces, so I had them "wrap" the backs in the same vinyl, instead of dying them. They did dye the door pull handles and the cups for the door release latches. These were dyed to match the vinyl color. Also, I had the shop make a set of floor mats from the same carpet so they would match.
3. The convertible top material had only one color available for the liner: black. So I had the frame rails painted black, and the well liner was done in black also. This makes a nice seamless look for the inside top part of the car.
4. The seat belts were all rewebbed by Seat Belt Planet.
5. The simulated rosewood veneer for the dash is from Captain Cadillac's Cove. He also supplied some other misc. parts.
6. I had a nice drive for about 30 minutes at highway speed to get the engine good and warmed up after all that sitting at the upholstery shop. I have to leave the top up for two weeks so the material can relax, so this drive was with top up. The car seems 20 decibles quieter now with the Dynamat, new padding and carpet on the floors. Also, the front third of the inside top has a panel of extra material. This helps dampen sound. The top seals perfectly at the header; I didn't feel any air coming in. There is an issue with one of the power vent windows not sealing properly, and that's causing some wind noise. But that should be an easy adjustment. The car is so well-sealed, that if all windows are up, I have to slam the door to close it. If I lower the window about an inch, the door closes much easier.
Here's a picture of me driving with 3 fingers. Do any of you drive your Caddys like this. You can't do it with a modern car.
Thanks to all of you who have helped with this project. I couldn't have done it without you. Looking forward to a fun summer car show season.
Ha! ;D Funny. This is EXACTLY my seating position as well! 8)
Best regards,
Nicolas
Thanks Nicolas. And keep us posted on your engine rebuild. I'm sure you're getting anxious to get behind the wheel of it again soon.
Quote from: Bentley on February 11, 2019, 04:37:33 PM
Thanks Nicolas. And keep us posted on your engine rebuild. I'm sure you're getting anxious to get behind the wheel of it again soon.
Yeah, since 1 year and 10 months now! This weekend I will try to paint the engine! 8)
Best regards,
Nicolas
I finally got around to restoring the hubcaps. These two photos are the "before" of the hubcap and emblem.
You can buy repro emblems, but I wanted to take a shot at repainting them myself. I chose these colors for the gold, blue, black and red in the emblem. I bought them at a local craft store.
First, I soaked the emblems in a solution of water and Mr. Clean. I used a hubcap to hold the emblem while I painted it. Using a #2 brush, I painted one color at a time, beginning with red. When I got to the gold part, I painted over the ducks, and then lightly sanded the paint off them because they are supposed to be bare metal. When I did this sanding, I accidentally sanded off some of the red and had to repaint it, For this reason, I recommend you paint the red last
I needed a sealer, but the water-based sealers they sell at the craft store would not hold up. I found this glue that said "crystal clear" on its packaging. It's made by Loctitie, so I was willing to try it. I tested it on the back of an emblem. When it dried, it really was crystal clear. So, I brushed it on the finished, painted emblems. Below is a photo of the finished emblems with the glue applied.
I didn't know how to repaint the concentric black rings on the hubcap. I tired using a Sharpie and painting a ring freehand, but it didn't look very good. I do have an idea on a fixture I can build to paint these rings on perfectly. But that will take some time and engineering. So for now, I decided to remove all the remaining black rings with 0000 steel wool. Then I polished the hubaps with Autosol. Here are a couple of finished hubcaps.
I plan to have a pinstriper take a shot at painting the circular lines if I can find one who will try it.
Place the cap on one of those Lazy Susans that you can get at a homewares shop, and with a brush in hand, spin the cap whilst sitting down with your hand resting on something clear of the spinning cap and lower the paint-laden brush to apply the paint.
Bruce. >:D
PS. The above was just a thought, but it should work.
Quote from: The Tassie Devil(le) on May 28, 2019, 08:41:50 PM
Place the cap on one of those Lazy Susans that you can get at a homewares shop, and with a brush in hand, spin the cap whilst sitting down with your hand resting on something clear of the spinning cap and lower the paint-laden brush to apply the paint.
Bruce. >:D
PS. The above was just a thought, but it should work.
This is actually a very good thought, I might look into building something like this.
I can attache the lazy Susan to a flat board. Then attached a vertical arm that can be moved along the edge of the board to line up with each of the circles. Then make an adjustable horizontal arm that can hold a paint brush that applies paint perfectly in the right place and spin the hubcap.
Bruce, that's a good idea. Maybe I would need some sort of fixture to rest my hand on to keep it steady while applying the paint.
Mark, that was my idea also. Attached is a sketch. Lots of pieces to hobble together, but it should work. Let me know if you build it
Quote from: Bentley on May 29, 2019, 04:32:37 PM
Bruce, that's a good idea. Maybe I would need some sort of fixture to rest my hand on to keep it steady while applying the paint.
Mark, that was my idea also. Attached is a sketch. Lots of pieces to hobble together, but it should work. Let me know if you build it
I am thinking about attaching the vertical arm on the outside to obtain more stability of the brush and not needing to hold the brush and only rotate the outer edge of the hubcap.
Sorry for hijacking the thread with this.
Quote from: Highwayman68 on May 29, 2019, 06:24:53 PM
Sorry for hijacking the thread with this.
That's okay.
I remember seeing an article in Car Life Magazine on the mid '60's Pontiacs being built, and they had a full length jig that went on the side of the car, and the "painter" simply ran a small paint roller straight down the length of the vehicle, applying the pinstripe.
This meant that they didn't have to have a dedicated "Pinstriper" to apply the stripes.
I would dig up the photo, but alas, couldn't post it here.
Bruce. >:D
I finished the third stage of the restoration – the trunk. I knew what had to be done, but didn't know the correct order. So, of course, I did all the steps in the wrong order. If you're considering restoring yours I'll save you some time and share with you what I learned here. I'll go into detail with photos next.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
I recommend doing these steps in this order:
1. Remove the old lining, pressboards and rubber pads and clean the trunk floor.
2. Glue the liner material to the rear wheel inner fenders. Put it all the way down to the floor. You'll cover it up when you put the lining on the floor.
3. Put the pressboaord pieces in place.
4. Put the liner padding in place.
5. Cut and put the liner material on the floor. Cover the bases of the pressboards and the liner material from the rear inner fenders.
6. Put the liner material on the back wall of the trunk (the rear bumper side).
Okay, here's the long version. I bought the pressboard kit from OPGI. I placed each new panel on top of its corresponding old panel to see how it fit. Each panel matched perfectly.
Next I cleaned the bare floor of the trunk. There was some surface rust under the spare tire area from a spilled beverage, so I sanded down the whole floor surface. Note, that pink looking stuff on the rear inner fenders is actually the original glue. Then I coated the whole trunk floor with POR 15.
I bought both the liner and padding at A-1 Foam and Fabric in Santa Ana, CA, https://a1foamandfabrics.com/. I brought a swatch of my original trunk liner to them and it turns out they had a near perfect match. Their part #/ description is TL-DG trunkliner, dark grey 54" R50 CPT. I bought 4 yards.
If you use this material look carefully at both sides before you cut it. You'll see that they are slightly different, with one side slightly darker than the other. When you cut the liner material, make sure you cut it with the correct side up. I cut it upside down and had to go back and buy more liner material.
I took some of the new liner material and the old spare tire cover to the upholstery shop so they could make a new spare tire cover.
Next, I cleaned up the original rubber mats and put them into place. Then I made a paper template of the floor area and used it to cut the liner padding, and glued it down. Then I put the liner material down on the floor. I glued everything down with contact cement.
Next I put the pressboard panels in. As I said earlier, this was the wrong order, but fortunately everything worked out. The panels scratch and scuff easily. In retrospect, I wish I had sprayed them with a matte-finish protective spray first.
The back panel is easy to figure out as are the hinge boxes. But the side panels are counterintuitive. The big side goes at the top and the small side goes on the floor. I had to really bend the tops of these to make them fit into place. Also, back ends stuck out, and I could not figure out where to put them. So I carefully cut part of them off.
Finally I repositioned the liner material over the bases of the pressboard panels. Then I cut and glued the liner material on the back wall of the trunk, next to the rear bumper.
I'm pleased with the way it turned out. The only issue I'm having is the hinge boxes won't stay up. With one closing of the trunk, they fall down. I talked to a guy at a car show who had an Oldsmoblile with similar panels in the trunk. He said he had to buy special clips to fasten the hinge boxes in place. If anyone has any info on this or any tips on how to keep them in place I would appreciate it.
Each pressboard hinge panel had two special fasteners which held it to the metal hinge box. Small barbs dug into the pressboard. I'll try to round up a couple of them, and post a photo here.
In my 1968 Coupe DeVille's trunk, one of the carpet liners for the wall of the trunk nearest the bumper, was cut long, so as to cover the body sheet metal aft of the trunk latch.
-Charles Fares
Charles I will need 3 of these clips also. I am also redoing my trunk now on my 68. I have one clip.
Charles,
Thanks for clarifying the hinge box question.
I agree the sheet metal behind the trunk latch should not be exposed. I'll either put a small patch there, or replace that entire strip of liner. It will be easy to remove. I didn't put much glue on this piece of liner in case I ever have to work on the wiring it covers.
hello, hope someone sees this. I am doing my trunk over. I am trying to figure out where the largest pressboard goes. The one that is in the photo laid over the old one. Does it go between the hinges? and if so how is it held in place? thanks