Archive for September, 2010
Interior Work
Posted by: | CommentsAs I described before, the headliner is up, all the trim polished and installed and now the carpet is in. 
The carpet set ordered from SMS Auto Fabrics when we ordered the seat and trunk fabrics was about the biggest piece of crap I’ve seen or experienced since beginning this project. The plush carpet supplied is nothing close to what was originally installed in the car and their version of a custom cut and sewn carpet is about as far from the truth as one could possibly get. 
None of the sewn seams are anywhere close to being where they belong and the back and front pieces do not even overlap under the front seat. there is at least a 10″ section under the seat un-covered. Not only that, there is no material to cover the door posts like the original set. A huge disappointment to say the least and surely not worth anywhere close to the $250.00 charged. I could have done the same job buying $40.00 worth of roll goods from Home Depot. I had to hack the whole set up to make it fit and it’s done for now but next Spring I’ll take the seats back out and send it to a shop and get it done with the proper carpet.
I made up new cardboard kick panels for the front, installed all of the duct work and vents, upholstered the panels with new vinyl and put everything back in. The back seat is back from the shop and now installed in the car,
the package shelf has been re-covered and the radio parts finally arrived. The dash is now complete, glove box installed along with the 2 front ashtrays. Soon I will install the front seat tracks and then we will be ready to put the front seat back in. Once that is in, she will actually be a driveable car, though there will be a lot of adjustment and fit issues to deal with. The door panels will still need to be recovered too.
Till then.….….
Adirondack Nationals
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Mary Lee and I are back from our first trip up to Lake George, NY to go to the Adirondack Nationals Car Show, we had a great time and the weather was perfect. Probably about half of the 1500 cars on display on the grounds of Fort McHenry would probably fall into the category of custom hotrods. We saw a bunch of ’60’s era Chevelle’s, Camaro’s, GTO’s and the like along with many, many 50’s era Chevrolets many of them ruined in my view by customization. 
I once again was amazed to see only 3 Cadillacs, all of which were customized in some way.
First car through the gate was a really nice ’57 Eldorado Seville that looked original, but had a vinyl top, I can’t imagine that was factory, but it might have been. Further down the line was a 60’s convertible that had a Hurst shifter on the floor and what looked to be about 22″ chromed wheels. Another 40’s cadillac convertible was completely customed with purple paint and a totally tricked out engine compartment. There were some really cool originals, 
a ’32 Packard, a 50’s era telephone lineman’s truck and even a Woodie or two. The nicest Caddy I saw was later on in the Village driving down Canada Street, a black 1958 Eldorado Seville convertible with a red leather interior.
For those of you who are Orange County Chopper fans, we ran across Paul, Sr. twice while touring the grounds.
Despite having 1500 cars on the site, there were hundreds more parked along both sides of Canada Street throughout the Village. I’ll get more photos up on the site when I get a chance. Great time was had by all, we’ll go back next year and maybe even bring the “Gray Lady” with us.
Heads Up !!
Posted by: | CommentsWell the headliner is in! Looks pretty good if I do say so myself, I’ve had it hanging in the car to try and get it to acclimate itself to the car. I had no idea where to start, posted a message on the Cadillac Lasalle Club Forum and got no response, talked to my upholstery gal and everyone else I could think of, got many opinions from start at the back, and start at the front to take it to a pro, where is the fun in that.…
The liner is supported by 9 ribs, with the middle one, number five, being the only one attached directly to the roof rib. I decided to start there and work towards the back and then again from there to the front. After much stretching, tugging, pulling, stapling then pulling it out, re-stretching, re-stapling I rapidly figured out that you cannot stretch from front to back. When I had it all in and pulled from front to back, I pulled all of the seams out of line and it looked like the town drunk did all of the sewing. Not happy, I pulled the staples one more time and the third time was a charm. The trick was to pull it down from side to side at the seams and secure them, insuring that they were in a straight line, then pulling it down and securing it between the ribs also going side to side trying to keep all of the tension the same. Finally, the last step is to tension it between the first rib and the windshield, and the last rib and the back window being careful not to pull so tight as to pull the seam out of line. The final step was to polish and re-install all 10 pieces of the chrome trim, including the rear view mirror and then it was done.
I am pleased with the end result, is it perfect, in a word no but nearly so, and knowing I learned how to do it and did it myself gives me a great amount of satisfaction. The photo really doesn’t show well because of shadows and chrome reflections from the flash. I’ll post a better one once we get her out in the daylight again. Next up on the roster is to install the new carpet.
Until then.….…..
She’s Starting To Look Like A Real Car
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s coming together, slowly but surely,
the past week has seen us install the new rubber, hang the front bumper and we also hung the headliner up on the bows. I’m still trying to figure out how to stretch it out, never having done a project like this before I don’t know whether to start in the middle, front, back or sides. If it proves to tough I’ll send her over to the upholstery shop and let them tack it in.
It felt good to get her down off the jackstands, roll her outside and give the garage a good cleaning, it was turning out to be quite a mess. I spent the day today cleaning both her and the garage floor. All in all a good day!
Soon.…
