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1968 DeVille Convertible - Restoration

Started by DeVille68, April 27, 2014, 02:02:45 PM

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DeVille68

wow, I haven't updated my blog in more than half a year! Too much was going on, now I have a little bit more time again. Here are some updates of the work I did a few months back.

I ordered a replacement driver floor, it did fit somewhat, all features were there but not quite right. So, I found a metal guy in the area, with bicycle and train I went to the guy with the large sheet metal under my arms!  ;D :-X

He pounded on it, stretched the metal and bent the channel for the wires correctly. Also on the side the step up portion was not high enough. Turned out great! He was already retired but his Son took over the business. 

Then I carefully cut out the new piece to the hole I cut into the floor. Took quite a few hours, because I did not want to restart again. So, then I welded the cable strap for the speedometer cable and the little stud for the wire strap to the replacement. Those were missing. Make sure you don't loose these!

Then I used the WIG/TIG machine from my father and basically created tack-welds to hold the piece in. Then I used another material called cusi which requires much less heat and is safer / or easier to use on sheet metal. For a beginner as I am there is less risk of burning through the metal. So I filled everything with cusi. You notice that on the front where the original spot welds were, I had to cut relives into the piece to allow to reach the lower metal and induce enough heat for the welding. I then filled everything up with cusi, such that nobody sees.
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

DeVille68

then I cleaned the welds and wire brushed and cleaned the whole floor. After this preparation with metal ready from por15 and I painted everything in two coats with por15 semigloss black. The original color was more darkgrey instead of black, but they don't make the right shade, so semi gloss is close enough.

Next, I applied new seam sealer. I got it from an known company, würth through my buddy in the car business. Worked really well, and looks almost factory now. With the por15 there would not be a reason to use this stuff, but I wanted to redo it just like factory. And it adds a bit of dampening too.
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

DeVille68

next, I reattached a lose corded edge. Make sure to install the backing material first, bend the tangs and then install the piece with new staples. Otherwise you can't slip the backing material in with the tangs half bent out. I had to undo and redo again.

After this, I installed some heavy insulation on the floor with some additional vibre insulation on top. I think this is overkill, but I had it laying around so I though why not use it up. That's what I did. Looked real nice now!   

Next, I wondered since years why there was no hot air coming from the rear seat, because there is a duct and the floor flap was working oke. Well, I noticed that one previous owner installed a new carpet but he did not cut the carpet correctly so the duct was buried below the carpet! There are two metal pieces that hold down the carpet.
As you can see, I cut some windows and secured the carpet.

At one point I though about replacing the door sills, but look how nicely those polished out! Really happy with the result.

Best regards,
Nicolas


P.S: Sorry, some pictures seem to be on the head, but when you click on them to enlarge its in the correct orientation
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

DeVille68

Since years the power seat adjustment was not working right, the switch was wrong, it was for a passenger side of the seat, so the front to back movement was inverted. When the seat moved it would violently rock back and forth.
I removed the tracks and as expected discovered that almost all bushing where crushed. I ordered a round piece of delrin material and created my own bushing using the mill of my father. I took me quite long to get the shape right. But using a profile cutter for a routing machine for wood, I was able to get the radius very close to the rail. Below are some pictures.

Now with these new bushings the seats moves quite and firm again. 
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

Highwayman68

It sure does help to have all of the right tools :)
1968 Fleetwood Purchased in 1981

DeVille68

#485
I sent a leather sample of my dark green interior to a specialized leather shop and ordered colored leather fluid and leather tint. They mixed the color very well. I can't tell the difference. Then I cleaned all cracks with acetone, which is not recommended but worked very well. Since I was going to retint the leather anyways, I was not concerned about bleaching it out a bit. After hours of filling the cracks I applied the tint and the result is very good. I also had to glue in a bit of foam and fill in a big crack. Obviously, you can tell that its 50 year old leather, but for a convertible the leather now looks very good. See below.
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

Roger Zimmermann

Interesting! Nice to have such products more or less locally.
1956 Sedan de Ville (sold)
1956 Eldorado Biarritz
1957 Eldorado Brougham (sold)
1972 Coupe de Ville
2011 DTS
CLCMRC benefactor #101

DeVille68

Next problem was fixing yet again the air conditioning of controls. I had again a big vacuum leak. Turned out that the rotary switch was broken apart in the power servo unit in the engine compartment. The arm must have been bent or something came loose. I had to reattach the two pieces with a special screw that I made. Now it holds vacuum again. I did bent the arm a bit down to prevent it from jumping out again.

Then I still had a very low vacuum signal in various systems. Only about 5'' when the supply was a constant 16''. So somewhere 10'' were escaping. I checked everything but could not find the problem. Then I thought again and when through the system by each component, soon enough I found that the vacuum delay was leaking. However, I could not see from where. But testing it individually it was clear it leaked.

So I removed the crimped aluminum cover, which reveals another clamp ring and the cover with the two fittings. Below it is the membrane and spring separating the two chambers. In one of the fotos you can barely see a  crack on the lower part extending to the outside ring. This part is covered by the aluminum cover under the crimp, so I could not see the crack when assembled.

I opened up the cracked area and used strong marine epoxy to fill it, then filled smooth and reinstalled. Now it holds 20'' no problem. Installed in the car again and I had 16'' of vacuum everywhere. The flaps are moving fast now. Perfect. So simple, just one malfunctioning piece and four system barely works anymore!
So happy I found this vacuum leak. Keep this unit in mind.

I even bought another "nos" unit a couple years ago but it had the same issues. Turns out it had a similar crack under the cover that I could not see! Now I have two working vacuum delay unit.
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

DeVille68

Quote from: Roger Zimmermann on June 30, 2021, 01:54:26 PM
Interesting! Nice to have such products more or less locally.
Yep, the company also sells leather care products that I am using since years. https://www.lederzentrum.ch/
I think the base company is a german business, but the swiss company behind the swiss version is the well known and old company Weidmann & Sohn in Fällanden.

Best regards,
Nicolas
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

DeVille68

Other smaller details, recently I was watching a video on youtube from a guy fixing a loose cadillac mirror. Turns out that I wondered why my view in the mirror was blurred too. So there is one single screw below the mirror which holds the class in. Then you can lift it up and pull on the cable to move the mirror out of the way, then there are two screws securing the top to the frame post. Those were loose and causing the mirror to vibrate. I applied some thread locker and tightened them again.

Then I decided to mount the mirror base correctly. This was annoying me since 10 years but never actually fixed. Turns out there is a c-shaped clamp below the mirror base which grabs the sheet metal. Since I did not wanted to bent that pot metal, I just applied some jb weld and let it cure. Just a little sanding was needed and now the mirror is mounted very tight for maybe the first time in years.

Next up was the kick down switch which suffered from two problems. I fixed it 8 years ago but now the shaft let loose again, so I applied som jb weld and used the milling machine again to make it a rectangle. Then I had to resolder the crimped terminal because from corrosion those lost contact with the internal pieces and it would not make a contact anymore.

Simple fixes but big improvements.

Best regards,
Nicolas
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

DeVille68

Yesterday, I finally repaired to broken seat spring that was annoying me since years, actually since I bought the car. I had yet again to remove the complete front seat and flip it up side down. Had to remove the transmission and seat motor to gain access to the spring. I cut the ends of the broken spring and cleaned the rusted metal. Then I made a small tube on the lathe with inside diameter 3,5mm. I then cut relieve cuts in the middle and bent it with heat to a 90 degree. I welded the bent section. Then I pushed the spring wire into this new 90 tube. I used cusi3 welding material because the temperatures needed are lower and it flows good.
Almost blind and not able to see I did manage to weld the tube in and secured the spring wire. I was quite surprised how well it turned out!
Taking a seat is much comfortable now and driver and passenger now sit a the same level again.
Should have done this years ago...

Best regards,
Nicolas
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

DeVille68

I finally gave up trying to make the exhaust leak free where it attached from the cross over tubes coming down from the manifolds. So I bought a steel band clamp from summit, quite surprised about the quality. It only costs 9 dollars but is very well made. Unfortunately, the front tube diameter is a bit smaller than the clamp expects, so there would no way to have a nice seal.

Hence I decided to use epoxy and fill this once and for all and make it leak free. I was really tired of those hissing sounds from underneath the car. As you can see, I applied epoxy around the tube and then tightened the clamp a bit.  I cut the excess off and let it cure for 4 hours, then I tightened a bit more, but not much. Now the rear part of the clamp perfectly embraces the tube and in the front the epoxy fills the space perfectly.
I will let it cure over night and test tomorrow. I hope this fixes my exhaust leaks, otherwise the problem must be coming from the attaching point of the manifold to the pipes.

Best regards,
Nicolas
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

DeVille68

Today, I had to drop the gas tank for the third time. Hopefully the last time.
The second time the gas tank was dropped was because the fuel gauge suddenly dropped to zero and remained there. So there must have been a short to ground of the sensor circuit. I then removed the tank suspecting I had done some error installing the sensor and float. However, I did not find anything wrong and the sensor worked again as soon as removed from the tank. So I just reinstalled it. Then shortly after about 50 miles, the gauge dropped again to zero.
So this time I removed the gas tank knowing that there must be an issue in the wiring or ground or something toughing the ground / metal. I keep an ohmmeter attached while dropping the tank to see if a wire was pinched but the meter remained reading zero ohm. Then I carefully removed the sensor and discovered that it too showed zero ohm. So there must be a short to ground somewhere. Turns out that this replacement unit had a bad plastic around the stud, preventing the rubber gasket to seat correctly. While driving it just happened to push the stud slightly to one side and it made contact with the metal, hence shorting the circuit and the gauge dropped to zero.

To solve this once and for all I created a special washer out of delrin, with a hole and collar that slides over the stud and into the base plate. On top is another washer just slightly larger thickness than the collar such that the nut pulls these two pieces together. It worked perfectly, tank installed again and gauge is working nicely.


Next problem was a squealing left tire on sharp left turns. I already noticed that the recommended 0 camber for the left side is probably too little for a radial tire. So I had to turn the camber eccentric a bit. These are usually very tight, the best way I found is to lift up the car such that the full spring force pushes against the ball joints, unscrew the nut one turn and then tap the side of the upper knuckle with a brass piece and a hammer. Much better as the factory recommendation in the shop manual which tells you to tap the stud of the balljoint with the risk of damaging the threads and slipping.
So, then almost all crawfoot adapter are to large to slide in between the ball joint and frame, or its difficult to get a tool in. Therefore I just made a steel bar that I could slide in an turn the eccentric a bit towards more negative camber.
The following test drive showed that the tire was holding on better. Maybe I need to change the setup a bit further but for now its good.

Best regards,
Nicolas 
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

DeVille68

Today I painted the inside of the front bow of my convertible top. It was sad looking and a bit rusty. The edge guard at the front bow is also rusty and lost color. How do you call that textile piece sliding over the edge of the front bow? edge guard?
Anyways, I reused my old one.
First I cleaned and sanded the front bow a bit to remove the loose paint and a bit of rust. I applied a first coat of semi gloss black paint and then I cleaned the edge guard and applied some adhesive to the inside.
Then I slid it over the still somewhat wet paint, then I added two other coats of paint.
I am quite happy with the result, however the front bow is now much shinier than the rest of the top frame. So I guess I have to repaint those pieces as well.

One note: The Authenticity Manual says that the top mechanism should be semi gloss black and the inside (inside liner) should be color keyed to the top color. In my case it should be Sandalwood, that is a color which is quite white but has some brown and grey in it.  A bit hard to describe.
However, I found that color on almost every piece of the top frame. Someone painted over with a matt black paint. So, I am not sure what happened here. The sandalwood paint seems to be the first paint of the top frames and the black on top. So either the my top mechanism stems from a different year where they color keyed the top frame too or someone really cleaned the frame well before spraying that Sandalwood color on it.

Anyone can tell me if there were other years that had the top frame color keyed? The Authenticity Manual specifies semi gloss black for 67 through 70.

Best regards,
Nicolas
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

Ralph Messina CLC 4937

For many years, 56 into the 70's the lining of the convertible was similar, but not identical to, the outside color; that is green/green, blue/blue, beige/beige etc. The exception is white. In some cases white had a light e beige liner, while in others the liner was black. In all cases the roof bows were painted an approximate color to the liner. In this way the interior had a harmonious finish with the balance to the car. The majority of  today's replacement tops have black liners regardless of the outside color. In that case, the bows should be painted black so they don't stand out. Recently, a member was looking for a 76 Firethorn top and the discussion lead to a vendor who had color matched liners. Search the threads for "Joe Northrop posts" for the vendor's name.

If you are going to keep your current top you should find a paint color similar to the top's liner.
HTH
1966 Fleetwood Brougham-with a new caretaker http://bit.ly/1GCn8I4
1966 Eldorado-with a new caretaker  http://bit.ly/1OrxLoY
2018 GMC Yukon

Chuck Swanson

Quote from: DeVille68 on June 30, 2021, 01:27:05 PM
Since years the power seat adjustment was not working right, the switch was wrong, it was for a passenger side of the seat, so the front to back movement was inverted. When the seat moved it would violently rock back and forth.
I removed the tracks and as expected discovered that almost all bushing where crushed. I ordered a round piece of delrin material and created my own bushing using the mill of my father. I took me quite long to get the shape right. But using a profile cutter for a routing machine for wood, I was able to get the radius very close to the rail. Below are some pictures.

Now with these new bushings the seats moves quite and firm again.

Nice work.  For those that don't have access to the same setup, these seat sliders are also reproduced with delrin, and sold by a guy on eBay.   
https://www.ebay.com/itm/332334620478
Chuck
CLC Lifetime
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66 DeVille Convertible-CLC Sr Wreath, (AACA 1st Jr 2021, Senior 2022, 1st GN 2022 Sr GN 2023), Audrain Concours '22 3rd in Class.
66 Sedan DeVille hdtp
66 Calais pillar sedan
66 Series 75 9-pass limo
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69 Dodge Coronet R/T

DeVille68

Hi Chuck,
ah nice, when I started this task, those were more expensive and not available! So I had no choice of creating those myself.

Hi Ralph,
oke, hm... the liner of my replacement top (from electron top) is a faded black. I might need to redye the fabric to a nice black again. I probably repaint the rest of the top frame with semi gloss black.

Best regards,
Nicolas
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

DeVille68

#497
Hello guys and girls,

I haven't updated my blog in a while, but I was constantly working on the car. But not project came to an end where I could report it here. I was having issues with my quadrajet again, hard cold start and also hard hot start. Turned out that I made some mistakes when I added the additional idle air according to the book of Cliff Ruggles. Actually one side of the quadrajet was drawing its idle air from beneath the venturi below the choke flap but the other side from the outside of the carb. Hence not affected by the choke, thus the hard starting.

I used epoxy to fill the wholes I made and used epoxy to build walls and drilled new ones to make the idle air path as equal as I could. This way the pressure drop should be about the same and the air is sucked in below the the choke flap.

I started the car a couple of times and it seemed to be better. However the car is already in winter storage again, because I need to finish the cleaning and painting of the underside of the body and frame. I am about to drop the transmission, I already removed all the lines and hardware. I need to restore the shift linkage, replace the drive shaft and find the engine oil leak.

Here are a few pictures of the rochester quadrajet idle air modifications. The book from cliff ruggles does not discuss those details.

Best regards,
Nicolas
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)