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Introduction & questions about 49 convertible restoration

Started by justind, July 21, 2014, 04:22:33 PM

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justind

Hi,

My name is Justin and I am involved in and helping a friend restore his favorite car... a 1949 cadillac convertible. It is a black convertible with a red interior and tan top. I am not 100% sure it was originally a red interior car because of the trim tag. Ill have to find a picture of it, but I scoured the internet for hours looking to decode the trim tag and in a very old book I found that it may have had a blue interior according to the tag. Ill have to go look at it againg but I think it said 64

We have started on our frame off restoration in Janurary and we are just now getting paint on the car. We ended up stripping the car to bare metal, pulling the body off, rebuilding the engine, trans etc... now we are getting to the finer details and I am just having a hard time getting some answers to some of these questions.

Would the trunk and floors (top side) been red primer?
What color would the bottom side of the floors have been (I imagine most received some sort of undercoating)

My biggest question is the leather interior. Does anyone have samples of the original interiors? We are trying to do this as correct as possible. I am not sold that the red interior that is in the car which is more of a dark red is the correct shade of red. Also, I anyone have an idea on grain for the leather?

Ohh also, anyone know of a guy who can rebuild the original radio?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

The car is in the paint booth now after weeks if not months of block sanding. Getting excited to see it all come together. I can post some pictures as we go if you guys want

Thanks again!

Justin


Jay Friedman

A '49 convertible with trim code 64 would have had blue leather originally.  The Bill Hirsch company in Newark NJ sells this leather.

The underside of the floors were painted semi-gloss black and, as you surmised, would probably have been undercoated.  I'm not sure about the top side of the trunk and floors but they must have been semi-gloss black too.  On the other hand, since you can't see the top sides because they are all carpeted do them as you see fit in order to prevent corrosion. 

I suggest you get the 48-49 Cadillac Authenticity Manual in which you'll find much of this type of information.  It's 122 pages with over 100 photos.  See "Technical Resources" at the home page of this web site to find out how to buy a copy.
1949 Cadillac 6107 Club Coupe
1932 Ford V8 Phaeton (restored, not a rod).  Sold
Decatur, Georgia
CLC # 3210, since 1984
"If it won't work, get a bigger hammer."

chrisntam

Yes, pics please! 

We like to watch your progress!

8)
1970 Deville Convertible 
Dallas, Texas

49 Convertible

Having done 2 convertibles to concours quality, 1 a 1948 and 1 a 1949 and the fact that I co-authored the Authencity Manual for the CLC along with Jay and others I would be hapy to answer and send picrtures of same.

E-mail me at....herman@dictatrans.com and I will be happy to respond to any questions you might have.

Herman
clc1948
Herman Desser
clc # 19416