My 1939 LaSalle Series 5019 Restoration Blog

[39LaSalleDriver]

I had meant to start this some time back but never seemed to get around to it. Thought it might be fun to brag a bit and potentially help others who are walking down this path.

To begin with, I'm a bit of an odd duck in that I have no interest in displaying my car at shows, but yet would like to take my car back to it's 1939 appearance and operation as much as possible. What that means is I care nothing about points and the like, but my own drive for authenticity keeps me on a pretty straight and narrow path. That being said, my car will be a driver, and I am not slavish to all meticulous details like points cars would be. I just want it to be as close as practicality (and my budget) allows.

I bought this in December from an older guy up in Kentucky. According to him, he had had the car for three years and didn't really do much to it. Added an electric fuel pump, had the gas tank "repaired" (wasn't clear as to what that involved), put in a $20 turn signal rig, and I suspect added in the cheapo aftermarket headlight switch and horn button. He had planned on turning it into a hot rod, but decided he didn't have the time, energy, or finances to drop into doing what he wanted to do with it.

He also related that it had previously been owned by another fellow up in Kentucky who had had it in storage for 25 years. I didn't catch the name, but got the impression that this guy was somebody who is a known collector up in that area. Thus ended the sum total of knowledge I was given regarding the history of this car. No idea if it was ever restored (though obviously the interior upholstery, carpet, door panels, and exterior paint had been redone at some point). Also, parts which I have since discovered to be replacements are the starter, generator, water pump, and gas tank. I have also found evidence of "modern" sealants around where the manifold meets the block, so I know it has been cracked apart to some extent...I just don't know how much.

Here are some photos of the car at the time of purchase and from the first day I had it in my possession. I will follow this up in other posts showing the progression I have made in my project.

[39LaSalleDriver]

More photos from time of sale and my first day of ownership.

[39LaSalleDriver]

Part II - The First Few Days Where I Can Really Study What I Just Bought*

(* In fairness, some of the timeline has been compressed or expanded for sake of readability. Many things were happening concurrently. I would jump around to various tasks based on parts/tools in hand, paint drying times, weather conditions, money availability, etc., etc., etc.)

Now that I had gotten the car home, it was time to really assess what was going to need to be done. I already knew the interior was going to need sprucing up, and that the brakes were a mess when I test drove it. It was also leaking oil from the rear main. On the positive side, the metal all seemed to be in fairly good shape, the tires were acceptable, engine was clean and sounded good from what I could tell, the paint was in decent shape, and there were no issues I could identify with the transmission. Had those things been questionable I would have not bought the car.

Within the first day though, I started having trouble with the electrical system. I had suspected the wiring was going to need a going over, but crawling under the dash really confirmed my fears. The original wiring, other than a snippet here or there, was long since gone. What I found in it's place was a veritable rats nest of original wires, reproduction fabric covered wire, and modern plastic coated wires. Some in good shape, others frayed or on the verge of it, and all manner of sloppy electrical tape and twist connectors. No resemblance to any sort of harness was to be seen. As a result, I had absolutely no idea what went to where, or how reliable it would be once it got there. Right then I decided that it would all have to come out and be replaced with a proper reproduction wiring harness.

Additionally, knowing I couldn't keep driving around the neighborhood using my parking brake to stop the car, I determined to strip all the brake system out and put in all new parts and lines. No good can come from playing with the unknown when it comes to brakes. So on Christmas day 2017 I parked the car and it wouldn't move again for the next three months as I stripped out the interior including seats, dash, carpeting, and all the wiring.

Following are photos of what I had for wiring when I bought the car. The next installment will highlight what I found upon tearing out the interior, and steps to recondition it.

[pmhowe]

That is a handsome car. I had a 1938 LaSalle four door sedan, and loved it. A very nice, reliable, smooth running car. I look forward to seeing your progress. You will love this car!
Phil

[39LaSalleDriver]

That is a handsome car. I had a 1938 LaSalle four door sedan, and loved it. A very nice, reliable, smooth running car. I look forward to seeing your progress. You will love this car!
Phil

Thanks a bunch! I already do love this car...did from the moment I first saw it! From the first day I determined that it would be dubbed "The Shadow" after one of my favorite old time radio shows. A show which was one of the hottest things going on radio in 1939.

It's been driving me nuts because I've had it out of action for two weeks now having the water pump rebuilt, putting in all new radiator hoses, giving the generator a once over, and cleaning/repainting the front grille and side panel grilles.

More to follow soon...

[39LaSalleDriver]

Part III - The Interior (or at least part of it)

So began the process of tearing out the interior of my car. Pulled the steering wheel, the seats, and finally the dash. In preparation, I had tried to trace the wiring as best I could and mark everything but about halfway through I received my new harness from Narragansett and determined I was wasting my time marking the old wiring. Just tear it out and start fresh using the factory schematics and chart that I got with the new harness. Everything had been rewired and pieced together over the years so bad that the schematics would be useless otherwise.

I started with the steering wheel which was a shambles. It looked like someone had tried to treat/cover the wheel with latex house paint and it was all flaking off everywhere making a mess. Meticulously, I scraped off all this paint and was left unsurprisingly with a badly cracked and gapped steering wheel. Rather than dropping a thousand dollars into a professional restoration, I bought a couple of bottles of Marine Tex and set out to do it myself. After a couple of coatings, some judicious sanding and a lot of patience, I got it to where I was pretty happy with it. I polished the stainless rods, and then painted the wheel portion with an ivory colored paint which closely matched the dash buttons, shifter knob and such. As an added bonus, the underside of the steering wheel had some beautiful paint left that I have every reason to think was from the factory. Untouched and unfaded from what I can tell. I believe it to be the "cocoa brown" used in 39, or at least what color I think was used in my car. This would prove handy as I used it to color match to when I took it to my local auto paint store. At this time, I revamped the whole steering wheel assembly, horn button, bezels and the like. Later I would have to revisit this to get the horn working properly, but essentially I had to use JB Weld to rebuild/fix the ears on the horn button to finally get it all working properly.

I had already decided that the seats and door panels I would leave alone for now other than steam cleaning them up. They are a kind of a cheap micro suede material that I am sure came from a restoration some years back. The expense of proper new upholstery, carpets, door and kick panels, headliner, and windlace just isn't in my budget right now so what I have will just have to do. I did however order some el cheapo carpeting and jute to replace the worn out and filthy cheap carpet that was already in there.

Upon getting the seats out, I discovered that this car at some point had become a squirrel playground. Underneath the back seat were dozens of nut hulls, poop pellets and other assembled nastiness. Also found a couple of mummified mice in the seat coils. Actually, this was all mildly surprising as I would have thought there would have been damage to the upholstery as well, but fortunately that was not the case. After vacuuming the whole mess out and cleaning everything up, I could now assess how much damage to the actual body had taken place. I also removed all the factory underlayment insulation which had in many cases soaked up decades of filth, stink, and animal urine. I kept a smaller pristine piece as something to reference for the future.

Fortunately, while there was a bit of rust in the floor pans, everything seemed to be exceptionally in good shape. A lot of the original paint was brand new looking. I did discover that at some point there had been a long term leak in the back drivers window and quarter window area based on the rusting patterns. Also the dash had basically welded itself to the cowl from leakage around the bottom center of the windshield and cowl vent area. It was a bear to get out using a hammer, putty knives, and thin prying tools to break it all loose.

Now that I had a clear playing field to work with, I started by wire brushing/cleaning up and repainting the parking brake lever and steering column with the color I found on the underside of the steering wheel. I then hit the rusted areas of the floors with a wire brush and then coated it all with a couple of layers of Corroseal and let it do it's thing. I then followed that up with a coat of semi-gloss black paint. By now I had researched what my options were in regards to a new underlayment/insulation/sound deadener material. I really wanted to stay with something as close to factory original as possible, but that didn't really seem like it was going to work out. Instead, I decided to use Noico and have thus far been pleased with that decision.

At this time I also decided to make a pattern for the new carpet. I took brown butcher paper (available at dollar stores for a fraction of the price of even Wal-Mart and the like) and loosely taped and laid it over the entire floor. Using a spray bottle of water, I misted the paper so I could shape it to the contours of the floor pans and let it dry. I then marked every divot, bump and seam in the car on the paper and cut it out. What with wrinkles, minor tears and so forth, I transferred that to fresh sheets of butcher paper and cut that out, fitted it to the car, and made whatever minor adjustments were necessary.

Next, I cut out the carpet and jute for the rear seat. I spray glued them lightly into place as I fully intend to replace it all within the next year or two. I will cover the front floorpan treatments in a later posting as I had to fabricate rubber matting to go in that area. In the next installment I will try to describe the process I went through in restoring the dashboard and instrument gauges.

[39LaSalleDriver]

Part IV - The Dash and Instruments

Getting the dash out was quite a chore. I first removed the heater and then the radio components. My radio is not the standard type and was instead a huge box mounted to the firewall underneath the center of the dash. After removing every screw I could find holding it in and disconnecting everything that should be disconnected, I hoped the dash would pop out. It did not. As I previously mentioned, extensive water seepage and damage from where the cowl/windshield/dash met had essentially fused the dash in with rust. After several hours of chiseling with putty knives, box knives, and thin prying tools (along with a fair degree of rust and crud falling into my eyes, nose, and mouth) I was able to get it free.

Now I could see what was going on and begin removing all the instruments and panels. Each component got its own box so that I could keep everything separated and straight. Everything was going to need a thorough cleaning, some degree of repainting, and restoration. Each item (clock, radio, speedometer, etc.) was disassembled as much as I dared. Cracking open the speedometer cluster was perhaps the scariest. I am nowhere near qualified to take one of those apart, so I basically cleaned up what I could get to with qtips and decided to put it aside. Perhaps someday down the road I will have it reworked.*

Since the numbers and lettering on my instrument cluster were a blurry mess, I had to break open the case which houses them. A trick unto itself. In all of this process I was super extra cautious when it came to anything involving any of the glass parts. The last thing I needed was to break some of that and be jacked. Finally, I was able to get the case open and remove the glass which was painted with all the numbers and lettering. In a previous career I had been a graphic designer and this expertise would prove a great benefit. After a great deal of studying on the topic I decided the best way to redo all the gauges would be to scan them into Photoshop at a high resolution. I then meticulously recreated each of the letters and numbers by "hand." What I was then able to do (after several failed attempts with several companies) was to have the new artwork printed out in reverse onto transfer decals much like those used on storefronts with glass windows which have the hours posted. Relatively new technology exists which uses lasers to even duplicate fine lettering which this project called for. After thoroughly cleaning the original glass, I was able to position the decal(s), rub them firmly onto the glass, and very carefully pull off the backing layer. The result was a perfect duplication of the lettering and numbers on all the instruments!

The same procedure was basically used for the radio and clock faces. All needles were spruced up with a thinned out layer of white paint, housings repainted where necessary, glass carefully cleaned, chrome polished with Mothers Mag polish, and the pieces reassembled. Perhaps the hardest part was getting the fine metal trim back onto the curved glass pieces...that took a lot of trial and error. I also had to fabricate some thin rubber gaskets to go around the clock and radio dial faces.

Concurrent to all of this, I had stripped the entire dash (front and back) down to bare metal. The only portion which I left intact was underneath the radio grill where I happily discovered the original grained paint scheme. I figure if somewhere on down the road somebody wants to redo the dash again, they will at least have a good 4 x 6 section of the original finish to work with. Because of the rust damage (which was luckily mainly surface level rust), there was some minor pitting along the top of the dash around the wiper button area. Heavier pitting occurred in the area that would go under the garnish molding so I didn't fret that too much. Rather than getting involved with putties, grinding, or anything else, I determined to just use filler primer and hope for the best. 

Now...how to redo the dash? I had done an extensive amount of research on the topic and investigated several different means to recreate the original finish. Specifically, the options offered by Grain-It Technologies held my interest the most. The problem with them was, none of their colors and patterns matched what was in my car. If I was going to have a finish which I would consider "close, but not really right" why should I spend hundreds of dollars for their system, when I could achieve the same results for a fraction of the cost and do it myself.

So, I laid down a basecoat of paint, and decided to grain paint the dash myself. After numerous attempts with various colors of stains, I came upon a combination that I feel I can live with for the time being, if not for as long as I own the car. At least I feel it is every bit as comparable to what was on there originally as the expensive stuff is. Granted the technique is different, but the end result is all I cared about.

I eventually remounted the dash in the car, reinstalled all the gauges, a new glove box. Next would come the rewiring of the car process.

* Fortunately, the speedometer works fine and the odometer seems okay. Trip odometer is hit or miss. It works well enough for me to not consider this a priority in my restoration.

[39LaSalleDriver]

A work in progress.

[39LaSalleDriver]

Progress is finally made. This is a far cry from what I started out with.

[acedriale]

Thank you for sharing the update and the pictures!
Alex

[39LaSalleDriver]

Thanks! More on the way soon.

[z3skybolt]

Wow,

You have done a really nice job.  I admire persons like yourself with patience and talent.  Enjoy your car!

Bob

[savemy67]

Hello USNTar,

It is nice to see a post showing the DIY nitty-grity of a pre-war restoration.  While I like the coupe body style of these years more than the sedan, the two profile views of your car are appealing.  Keep up the good work.  Lamont would be proud to ride in this car.

Christopher Winter

[Tom Boehm]

Hello Jon, Your dashboard turned out very nice. Yours is among the better ones I have seen done by hand. (not by the Grain-it technique) I used multiple coats of filler primer on mine too.   Tom Boehm   1940 Lasalle

[39LaSalleDriver]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the compliments. It has been a real passion...okay, obsession   

I am pretty pleased with the way the dash and garnish moldings turned out. I'll try to get some pictures of those.

I really need to get back to documenting some more of what all I have done here. There has just been so much that I have fixed/restored. I honestly didn't start out with the intentions of putting this much time, money, and effort into this project. Then again, does anybody?

When I first got it in December, I had only planned on cleaning it up some to where I thought it looked decent, getting it stabilized and running to my satisfaction, and letting it go with that. It's funny how one's goals and objectives change. I know initially I had all these grand plans and concerns about things like putting an alternator in, putting on radial tires, or installing an electronic ignition system, etc., etc., etc. Now that I have had it for a while and run it somewhat...I'm not interested in any of that. I have grown accustomed to it in it's stock form and wish to keep it that way. Okay, I'll admit that the sealed beam headlight replacements which came with the car, and me adding LED taillights and turn signals is a compromise, but I'll sleep comfortably anyway. 

I knew from the get-go that the brake and electrical system needed to be replaced, as well as stripping out the interior and redoing all of that. But the further I got into it and progressing from idling in the driveway, to driving around the block, to driving it around the neighborhood, to driving it around town, to driving it out of town some, the more I learned. I started learning the signs of what was wrong when it wasn't running right, what parts needed replacing, which parts I had that were not original to the car or were flat out missing. Most importantly, I learned that I wanted to fix all those issues and make it as close to factory original as I can, or can afford. 

I've still got a long ways to go, but I'm pretty pleased with it as it sits right now. Every week I work on various issues as they crop up, or as I encounter them. For example, in the last three weeks alone I have performed its first complete lube job from me, a complete tune up including putting in NOS spark plugs and new, correct spark plug wires, replaced damaged exhaust pipe from manifold to muffler and installed fake asbestos insulation, replaced the u-joints, cleaned up and repaired the mess that was my drive shaft, completely stripped and repainted the garnish moldings, installed new window channels and weatherstrip beltlines, replaced the starter solenoid with a correct one which I first had to clean up and repaint, and repainted the starter. Tomorrow I plan on finishing cleaning the engine and repainting it with the correct color. And I am proud to say that except for the exhaust pipe replacement (because they wouldn't just let me bring in the old pipe), I have done every bit of that work myself using the shop manuals and helpful posts on this forum to guide me. I won't brag and say my workmanship is perfect, and will more than admit my skills are sometimes lacking, but overall, it has turned out pretty good. Especially for someone who HATES working on cars! Other than changing a flat tire, I haven't turned a wrench on a car in years.

I still have no intentions of being in any judged competitions or things like that, but I'd like to get it in such shape that if I choose to do so I'd have nothing to be ashamed of. I have done one cruise in and had a good time with that, so who knows what the future will bring. I will say this though...It's a heck of a lot of fun wheeling around town in such a sharp ride!

Attached is a photo from the 4th of July cruise in I attended.