Greetings list,
OK, So I didn't send an update yesterday. I just couldn't make washing
and sanding lots of little parts sound too interesting.
Now I realize why so many of you guys have project cars sitting in
garages for years. Once you take them apart, you gotta put them back
together again! I am now at that familair old "gosh, I didn't expect
that to be so much work" stage. Certainly not at the "wish I hadn't
done that" stage - this project is a gas (no pun intended).
Today I got about 95% of the new carpet underlayment done. The carpet
kit I got from Curt at Classic Sunbeam has 13 pieces and is very nice.
It has padding adhered to the underside of the major pieces, but I
wanted a thicker sound, heat barrier, so I layed another pad over the
entire newly undercoated floor pan and clear up to the furthest reaches
of the firewall. I put it in as one large piece forming and fitting it
to the curves as I went along. That is a bit tricky and by the end I
had to make one large slit along the transmission hump to get the
drivers side pad to lay flat and curl slightly up to the door
threasholds. I used spray adhesive to stick the stuff down as I went
along, making cuts to form the inside angles and expose the seat mount
rails. I also cut out where the transmission inspection covers fit and
will pad over them so they fit tightly together but remain removable
without having to remove or further cut the underlayment. This method
proved to be a several hour job and turned out very nice. Eliminating
the old tar paper in favor of undercoater and hair pad makes a very
clean installation.
Gone is all of the old moldy smell and grunge. Now crawling around
under the dash smells like a new car and your nose faces nice new paint,
clean wires, and mount holes ready to accept the reconditioned mount
brackets and accessories.
Next comes fabricating new upholstery panels before fitting the carpet
kit. The panels will be made from standard automotive "waterproof"
cardboard - black stuff made especially for the purpose. After
researching options such as light plastic, the stuff most all upholstery
shops use turns out to be about as good as any, but there are different
grades. A cheap shop will sell you cheap material that is not
"waterproof". Upholstery material will be made out of what shops here
call a "snow" grade naugahide. (Yeah, I know, it takes a lot of Naugas
to get enough hide to do a car.) This stuff is thicker than "automotive
grade" slightly and supposed to stand up better to adverse weather.
I decided to take you folks advice on the seats. Ordered new lower
foam, membranes, and complete upholstery kit from Curt. Total cost
around $300, which was what the local shop quoted for doing the seat
covers alone. Still haven't figured out the dashboard, but plan on
going to Spokane (the big smoke) to try and find a nice piece of solid
walnut, maple, or similar pretty wood plank.
Just got the new right door glass and a couple extra carbs from Tom
Wiencek <t_wiencek(at)qmgate.anl.gov> today. Nice door glass for $25.00
and very well packed. Thanks Tom. By the way you asked me to post
something about who I am and how I manage to have time for this project?
OK, Check out my web site at <http://www.nidlink.com/~glblitnpwr> There
you will find my business (solar electric systems and electric cars).
It is a one horse shop without a horse. My business is home run and
also one of my main hobbies. How do I have time to do this
restoration? Simple, the bank would not give me a loan to buy a car,
which I need, so I had to buy one I could afford and build it up. If I
am going to do that much work on a car (especially a gas car) I am going
to do one I like. I just gotta run back and forth to answer the phone a
lot.
Take care,
Steve Van Ronk
glblitnpwr(at)nidlink.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Sep 05 2000 - 09:40:37 CDT