1958 Coupe DeVille all original

[fishchipper]

Quick update with a few more pictures:

Some of the other components were test fitted back on the block today just to see how they looked, and it's looking OK.  We still need more paint for the valve covers, and since the AC was after-market at some point, I'm trying to figure out if I should paint those support arms in blue to match the rest of the block, or grey (I think that's what they were), or black.  Any thoughts on that would be appreciated.


Also, I need a new power steering hose.  I got the catalog from the CLC sponsor (Original Parts Group), and they sell them, but the earliest year they have is for years 59-60.  I snapped two pictures of the ends (yes, I know the engine compartment is still filthy), but I am concerned about whether the 59-60 OPG sells will fit.  If anyone else has other suggestions of where to get one, please let me know.



My last questions are about the chassis and paint for that.  I'm getting ready to clean the engine compartment of 57 years of road grime/etc. and was looking at the chassis.  It looks like it may have originally been black, but some of it looks to be bare metal.  The question is whether I should paint that black, or some other color, or leave it alone?  Lastly, if you look at the second to last picture above, the exhaust pipe is structurally fine, but a little discolored on the outside with a rusty look.  I may just leave it alone, but should I paint that to help protect it?  If so, black paint?

As always, thanks again for looking and helping answer my newbie questions.

[Jon S]

Component support arms were black.  So, I'm thinking your after-market AC arms would look best black.  Only the pulley for the Power Steering was blue, but many incorrectly finish those in black also.

[fishchipper]

The 59 power steering pressure hose apparently doesn't fit the 58 models.  Any help on where to look for one of those would be great.

[Jon S]

Chip -

There are guys out there who can make an exact duplicate PS hose reusing your ends. I know a guy on Long Island. There should be some by you. They specialize in truck high pressure hoses.

[PHIL WHYTE CLC 14192]

Thanks, I was going by the previous post on this, I did not go back and look at the plate - yes, I can see the "X". Defiantely a CDV. Phil

[Jon S]

Chip -

The PS Mounting Bracket should also be black.  I see in the above pictures yours is Blue.

[Jeff Rosansky CLC #28373]

Wow, nice car!!

[fishchipper]

Haven't updated in a bit, but the engine re-build is almost complete.  The engine has been put back together and is back home in the engine bay.  I expect it will all be operational/done this week.  We also got the horn working again.  Here's a few pics. 

Getting ready to go back in:


Almost in:


Back home:

[Jon S]

Found you a power steering hose on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1958-Cadillac-Power-Steering-Pressure-Hose-/321698414489?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4ae6b83f99&vxp=mtr

[James Landi]

Incredible! Your pictures show that monster V8 floating into the engine bay without the need of human effort... must take divine intervention-- nothing short of miraculous!  Congrats.  James

[David King (kz78hy)]

I have one NOS steering hose, nice rubber, should be fine.

$100 plus shipping.

David

[fishchipper]

I got a local company to build a new power steering hose for way less.  They were able to re-use the original fittings and install a new hose to those fittings.  The engine was purring like a kitten yesterday.  It's unbelievable how smooth it is running now.  New shocks being installed, and then it's finally time to address the very neglected original paint.  A little waterless wash and a lot of meguiars show glaze to start, and we'll see where we go from there.  I plan on taking lots of pictures for before/after of the paint.  I've got 20 years of dust/dirt to clean off of it.

[Dan LeBlanc]

Chip

What I did with my 61's original paint was the following:

Start with a waterless wash
Go over entire car with Pinnacle clay bar
Hand rub the paint with Pinnacle paint cleanser
Use a Meguiars dual action polisher with a foam polishing pad with Pinnacle advanced swirl remover
Followed that up with a finishing pad and Pinnacle advanced finishing polish
Finished off with four coats of Pinnacle carnauba wax applied by hand

The reflectivity of the paint is incredible.

[fishchipper]

Dan, your car looks great.  That's essentially the plan.  I've been in touch with Mike Phillips (the auto geek guy) and he has taken a personal interest in the car.  His method is essentially the same thing, and he is in the process of using my car for a detailing clinic out here to work on the paint.  The only switch to your/his regular method is waterless wash first, and then go straight to the #7 show glaze before claying.  The reason is that the paint has been neglected for so long and needs to be conditioned before claying. 

I am picking it up on Friday, so hopefully I will have some new shots.  The exterior paint/chrome cleaning won't happen until later this month.

[marty55cdv]

  Chip, I just finished my grill on my 58 I used Autosol Polish and a toothbrush as well as 0000 steel wool for bad spots and lots of elbow grease and time. I wanted to avoid dismantling and stripping then polishing and re anodizing . I think it turned out well considering what I started with, yours appears to be in better shape. Good luck and beautiful car !

[fishchipper]

marty, that looks great.  What a difference!  Mine's in pretty good shape overall.  The bumpers are going to need some steel wool though.  I did a small test spot and it cleaned right up.  I get it back tomorrow after being in the shop for 3+ months, so I'm excited to get to work on some of the detailing issues. 

[fishchipper]

Quick update, sorry no photos. 

The car is out of the shop and the engine is working flawlessly.  I'm waiting to get a few more photos, but this weekend is the big detail/paint restoration attempt, so we'll have lots of before and after pics soon.  OK, so after the engine the rebuild, the shop put in 5 gallons of gas.  I knew the fuel gauge was not working (it's still not) but I thought that the 5 gallons would be enough to get me the 2.6 miles down the street to get to the tire shop to have the new tires put on.  I had a total newbie moment of non-clarity, and forgot to realize that 5 galling being put into a totally empty/new engine/lines is nothing.  As you might image, I got about 2.4 miles of my 2.6 mile destination and ran out of gas.  That's the first time in my life that it has happened, but made for an amusing story.

New tires are on now, and we're just about ready to go for paint salvation/restoration.  The idiots who put the tires on tried to "help" me by adjusting the wheels and now my left front wheel is not on right and is grinding, so it's back getting a slight adjustment from my regular mechanic, and then we're all set.  Stay tuned for lots of before/after photos.

[fishchipper]

I’m finally back with a LOT of pictures after finishing the paint restoration.  Several months ago Mike Phillips from Auto Geek in Florida contacted me.  He was very interested in trying to restore the paint on my car without having to re-paint the whole thing.  So often people will strip the cars down to bare metal and start over because the paint is beyond salvation.  I was concerned mine was too, but he assured me the lion’s share of it was salvageable.  It did not work out for him to personally come work on the car, but we assembled a team of volunteers who wanted the opportunity to work on restoring a single-stage paint classic vehicle.  All of the people in these pictures below volunteered their time, experience, tools, and a local detail shop in Houston volunteered their amazing space for this event.  It ended up being a lot of fun.

The paint will never be perfect again, but it is absolutely a head-turner at this point.  I tried my best to show the documentation from start to finish and reveal the transformation.  This is something you all can do without anything more than some product and a lot of elbow grease.  I apologize for the photo intensive post, but I think seeing the process from start to finish might help some others with what to do.

Here we are with the original condition of the vehicle as it had been for 20+ years sitting in a storage shed.  This is the day we opened the door to reveal this beast.


As you can see from the following photos, she was pink, but covered in a ton of dust, and her paint was very dry.  So dry that it had cracks in some areas. I had my doubts about whether this was even remotely salvageable. 







The paint was also very thin in several places such that the bare metal was beginning to show through.


The chrome bumpers weren’t in much better shape too.  They had some pitting, early stages of rust, oxidation, etc.  The wheels weren’t much to look at either.




The white top of the car was in some of the best shape, but as you can hopefully see in this picture, it still left a lot to be desired.


So, the day arrived and it was time to take the car to Clarity Auto Detailing in Houston who graciously agreed to host this event.  Curtis and Beth at Clarity are great folks and have a wonderful facility.  Before taking it in, I decided to get a few more of those “money shots” of just how bad/oxidized/dirty/etc this was.  My pictures did not disappoint.




As you can see, there is no reflection this paint right now.







Here’s some more of the condition of the bumpers:



I arrived at Clarity and am happy to report this monster did actually fit into their white detail room.  This room brought out every imperfection you could imagine, and it did not take much imagination to see all the flaws. 




Here’s an unfortunately blurry shot of Curtis beginning the waterless wash on the top of the car as a test spot to see how it clean up.  Surprisingly, it cleaned up nice from the start.  Beth was documenting everything as well and the amount of dirt removed was pretty great.




OK, so the time came to begin the rub down process with the Meguiars 7 show car glaze.  Of course, here is the obligatory product photo (on a towel for all you purists out there).


Right after the first coat went on, our first volunteer, Harris, showed up to help with the task of rubbing on a THICK coat of the #7. 


You can see it here hazing up a bit and soaking in the good stuff it so desperately needed.  Not having done this before, I was amazed at how fast it improved the look and feel of the paint.  This old/dry paint absolutely drank this stuff up. 




Since this was Friday afternoon and we needed to let that soak in all night, Harris and I decided to try and have some fun with the 8 miles of chrome the car has on it.  With a little bit of rubbing on some compound on the bumpers, they shined up nicely. 
Before:


After:


Saturday morning arrived and these 5 brave souls (Harris, Vargas, AJ, Christian, and Brian) in addition to Curtis and Beth who worked in/out since they actually had other work to attend to outside this room got ready to get to work with the elbow grease.  However, they first had to admire the size of the beast they were about to get to work on.


With even just one application/removal of #7, you could absolutely see the since coming back into this paint.



You could even start to see a reflection coming back into the picture here.


Again, while waiting to let the #7 soak in some more, the team decided to hit the wheels with some 0000 steel wool and some of the compound to try and polish them up.  They turned out great and shined right up.  Here’s some before/after:





So, break time was over, and it was back to rubbing on/off more #7:


At this point, the paint was really starting to pop.  You could begin to see reflections of the junk in the room off the paint at this point.



So, the age old question came up of whether to Machine polish or not came up.  Vargas was the fist to step up to the task and grabbed some of the Pinnacle Finishing Polish to try out. 


After properly priming the pad (or whatever that was called), we tried a test spot on the hood.  Of course, it was not without a little bit of ribbing from me and everyone else about how Vargas was getting ready to mess it up. 



None of us thought the machine polisher did any better on the paint than hand-rubbing, so Harris was brave enough to step up to the plate with a different DA polisher to see if the brand of the polisher made any difference.  Again, with some more ribbing about he would be the second person to “mess it up” he stepped up to the plate to give it a shot in a different test spot.



At that point, we all unanimously agreed that our hand rubbing seemed to bring out a deeper and more vibrant color than the machine polishing.  So, it was time to rub on some more #7 and buff out by hand.  However, Curtis at Clarity had this amazing little compressed air-powered micro-polisher (I’m sure there is some brand specific name that I am missing), but this little thing was awesome.  We hooked it up to the air hose and went to town on all of the little strips of metal/chrome all over the car for a great polish.  Here’s AJ hooking it up to the air hose and getting started:



Our 16-year-old phenom, Brian, was next up on it:


Christian couldn’t resist either, so he took to polishing out some of the metal on the fins:


While not pictured, I got in on the action with the little polisher and hit some of the trim in the front.  The right side was done, and the left was not.  I think you can really see the difference this little thing did.



The tires were new whitewalls from Diamondback tires (I’m a big fan) and we had to remove the protective blue coating on them and get them all cleaned up and shiny too.


The before/after of the wheels is as amazing of a transformation as the paint too:
Before:



After:



We were finally nearing the end, and after 5-6 applications of the #7, it was time to apply some of the Souveran wax. 
Another few gratuitous product shots here:




Again, I’m not a pro, enthusiast, etc.  I am a novice, but can say this stuff rocks.  It was the finishing touch that this car needed.
I love these photos.  I rotated the second one upside down to show the success shot of reflection in the paint that was so good, you could see teeth at this point.  I think we were all super happy to really be seeing the finishing results of nearly a whole day of work.



It was finally time to remove the final coat of Souveran.  We broke out the very nice Gold Plus Jr. Microfiber Towels and Microfiber Gloves for the final removal.




And just to prove I was actually there and worked and didn’t just take pictures, I had Vargas snap a few shots of me taking off the final coat of wax.



I don’t need to say much more (I’ve said enough), but the final photos will do all the talking.  What a transformation!







The final gratuitous photos of all the wonderful products used, and a great product shot courtesy of Clarity (Curtis), who is way better with a camera than I am.



Here’s a big group photo of everyone involved in the extreme makeover.

[Jon S]

Beautiful!!!

[marty55cdv]

  Chip this was all done with just #7 ?  No Compound ?  I have not tried leaving the polish on old paint , I usually get rid of the oxidation first and then feed it the polish, this is amazing. Looks great !