1958 Caballero

[dei]

Joe, did you manage to get her home before this crappy snow and road salt set in?

[95Cardinal]

5 hours ago, dei said:

Joe, did you manage to get her home before this crappy snow and road salt set in?

 

Unfortunately, no.

 

The interior rear compartment has to be painted tan and then it will be ready to move it home.

I hope to get it home next week.

 

[Flambart]

This projekt is so cool. Just beautiful in any way.

Keep the pictures coming.

Mike (Denmark)

[95Cardinal]

I received the completed park lamp bases and grille extensions from the plater.
Time to assemble the park lamps!

I installed a new socket and pigtail in each lamp base.
The lenses and gaskets are also new.

Here's one side mocked up:

 

Here's the test fit of the park lamp onto the grille extension

 

 

I still need to install the seals on the attaching studs and add the grommets to the conduit where it passes through the grille extension panel. 

The power post was looking tired and worn. Here are a couple of photos of the refurbishing process.
After disassembling and cleaning the part, the insulator was painted semi-gloss black and the base and posts were with a copper layer to prep for a final layer of plating:

Then plated with "Copy Chrome" by Caswell:

 

The second piece in the above image is one of the folding seat back lock posts. It was showing a lot of wear on the post; the "Copy Chrome" is an excellent match to the original plating.

 

 

I recently cleaned up the back side of the aluminum side trim panels. The ribs on the visible surfaces were polished several months ago, but the back surfaces had not been cleaned and sealed.

After cleaning, I found a few spots where the oxidation had penetrated all the way through the aluminum panel. OH NO!

I finished cleaning the back of all 4 panels. Only one panel exhibited any actual penetration.

The parts have been sent to a local plater for anodizing. Hope to have the completed parts back by the end of the year.

 

Back at the paint shop...

The metal interior garnish moldings, the inner rear compartment and the inside surfaces of the tailgate are being painted interior "Tan" before I bring it home. Here's the tailgate with the inner surface painted tan:

 

Weatherstrips installed on the doors.

 

Doors hung on driver's side:

 

Getting close!
 

[95Cardinal]

Today I installed the new headlight pigtails into the headlight housings.

I was able to open the crimps on the original ground lugs, so I crimped and soldered the new ground wires into the original terminals.
With freshly plated adjuster screws, these are ready for headlight buckets.

 

 

The rear bumper trim inserts need to be painted with a silver and black stripe pattern. 
It was interesting to see how the exposed areas of the original bumper inserts look after nearly 60 years of New Mexico UV exposure.

 

 

I used one of my original panels as a test panel.
I painted the matte silver base, then masked off the stripes with 1/8" wide tape.
I was out of flat black rattle can paint, so I used semi-gloss black.

 

This is another one of those million details that still need to get done...

[Mr. Limited]

Hello.

I am also doing a 1958 Caballero.

These rear bumper trim plates are made of stainless steel. If you polich them and paint only the black stripes you will end up with a mutch better looking part.

On all other series in 1958 Buick this is the way its done and i think also on 1958 Caballero.

The black stripes can be bought as a glue on set, but it is easier and better looking to spray on the paint.

 

Regards from Norway by Finn Strøm

[95Cardinal]

Finn, thanks for the tip!

I will try to polish the panels, but mine look like they are galvanized steel.

[KongaMan]

Hit them with a magnet.  If it doesn't stick, it's stainless.  If it does, it might still be stainless.

[95Cardinal]

Home for the Holidays!

 

 

 

 

Beautiful, sunny day with temperature near 50F; perfect day to move the car!

 

[dei]

Xmas came early didn't it Joe!? Are you able to tear yourself out of the garage yet? 

 

On 18/12/2017 at 11:15 PM, 95Cardinal said:

This is another one of those million details that still need to get done...

 

Taking her apart to get things restored to this point seems easy I would imagine compared to putting her all back together (I wouldn't truly know ) but... everyone one of those pieces you put on will have great satisfaction towards the end goal.

 

Have Fun and all the Best of the Holidays to you and your Family Joe!

[95Cardinal]

On 12/20/2017 at 9:38 AM, dei said:

Xmas came early didn't it Joe!? Are you able to tear yourself out of the garage yet? 

 

 

Taking her apart to get things restored to this point seems easy I would imagine compared to putting her all back together (I wouldn't truly know ) but... everyone one of those pieces you put on will have great satisfaction towards the end goal.

 

Have Fun and all the Best of the Holidays to you and your Family Joe!

 

Yes, it's very exciting to have it home.

So far, all I've been able to do is clean part of the engine compartment and the frame horns, but I am looking forward to working on it after the holidays.

Stop over and check it out soon.

 

All the best to you and your family as well, Doug!

Joe

[dei]

Joe, I'd love to come over and see the car some day.

In fact, if you need a hand with something requiring an extra hand one day let me know. 

January is usually slow for me (other than snow cleaning) and would be happy to help, especially on a '58 Buick! 

[95Cardinal]

Thanks, Doug.

I know I'll be needing help after the New Year's.

I'll be in touch!

Joe

[95Cardinal]

Happy New Year, everyone!

Here's an update on some recent activities...

I assembled the freshly plated door handles with new seals and lock cylinders.

 

 

Polished all 160 chrome squares in the grille, then masked them all off and painted the grill frame black.
This took a while!

 

 

Here's one half of the grille after polishing and painting:

 

 

I went through all the rollers in the window regulators. About 25% of the rollers had flat spots or cracks, so I replaced those.
The rest of the rollers were in excellent condition. I cleaned and lubricated them; regulators are now ready for installation.

 

 

This was a big day; new tires mounted on painted wheels and installed on the car.

 

[Larry Schramm]

I saw the car this week and the pictures do not do it justice.  This car has an phenomenal over the top paint job. The work is stunning.

Edited January 19, 2018 by Larry Schramm (see edit history)

[dei]

I can't wait to see it in person either! 

Imagine it would be a rush Joe but will it be going to Colorado? 

[95Cardinal]

9 hours ago, dei said:

I can't wait to see it in person either! 

Imagine it would be a rush Joe but will it be going to Colorado? 

We're not planning to go to Denver, but it might be on the road in June if I don't encounter too many delays and setbacks.

[dei]

Sounds like you are doing something every day Joe.

Need a hand?

[95Cardinal]

On 1/21/2018 at 8:41 PM, dei said:

Sounds like you are doing something every day Joe.

Need a hand?

 

Sure!

I'll give you a call this week.

[95Cardinal]

This pic was taken on January 14; temperature hovering around 15F.
Spent 2+ hours removing the power brake pedal, booster, master cylinder and associated parts from this 58 Super.

I had previously acquired a few odds and ends from this car, most importantly a front door window frame that I was able to shorten to fit my car. This visit, I needed the power brake master cylinder in hopes that it would have a usable vacuum cup retainer. The retainer that came in my master cylinder was disintegrated so badly I couldn't even get dimensions to make a replacement piece.

Thankfully, this retainer was slightly pitted, but serviceable.
I used it as a pattern to fabricate a new retainer.

Here is the master cylinder, finally complete and ready for assembly to the booster unit. 

 

The booster housing on the Super is much nicer (no pitting) than the one I planned to use in my car, so I am going to get the housing plated and use it in my car.

 

The interior metal parts are all painted, so I have been able to begin re-assembly of many parts. Here, I have installed the shift lever into the selector housing.

Almost all of my chrome plated parts are back from plating. 
Here, I am drilling and tapping the inner liftgate handle to attach the inner portion of the assembly. 
Originally, these two parts were peened together. The peened surface had to be machined off to enable disassembly, so re-assembly will be an old-fashioned threaded fastener with a drop of threadlocker.

Moving along with steering column assembly. I had to take it apart 3 times before I got the correct gap betwen the fixed column cover and the rotating shift selector.

Here, my helpers are working with me to test the Park-Neutral safety switch and the horn circuit:

Also, recently got to the heater/defroster controls. Here's what the inside of the damper housing looked when I began to clean it up:

I thoroughly cleaned the housing, repaired some small cracks and fabricated a new gasket. Here it is, ready to re-install:

 

Stay tuned...more updates coming!

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

I am certainly glad mine was not that hard, or it would never been finished.  You are a MASTER.

 

  Ben

[95Cardinal]

Assembled the new heater core into the housing and fabricated a new gasket.
Here's the core and outer housing ready to be installed:

 

I started installing a little bling

 

And another layer...

After all the hours of cleaning, polishing and detailing, it feels good to be putting these parts together.
These are the light and blower/heater/defroster controls.

 

 

 

This is a "work in progress" picture, showing the heater and vent control cables. They looked quite rough to begin with, but cleaned up very nicely. A little bit of cable lube and some time and they're all working smoothly.

 

Here's one of the vent control cables, along with the ignition power switch and the lighter installed in the lower control panel:

 

The lower control panels with lettering painted and all controls and indicators installed, ready for installation to the dash:

The main dash panel is going to be pre-loaded with the wiring harness, speedometer & gauges, clock and most of the bolt-on components before installation into the body. I've begun installing the harness and some components, but I have to wait for the front chrome panels before I can proceed much further.

The fuse block is one of the few parts that had to be "re-cycled" from the original harness. I purchased new harnesses from YNZ Yesterdays Parts (http://www.ynzyesterdaysparts.com/) early on in the build, when I realized that the insulation on every wire in the car was brittle and crumbled when flexed. So far, the new harnesses appear to be perfect.  

 

One more shot from the garage, showing the latest stainless additions:

 

[neil morse]

Fabulous!

[FireballV8]

The car is looking great and coming along very well. You may want to attach the Caballero script to the aluminum pieces before you go any further. I am not sure how you can attach them later with the trim on the car. Have you figured out a way to attach them later?

thank you

 

[95Cardinal]

4 minutes ago, FireballV8 said:

The car is looking great and coming along very well. You may want to attach the Caballero script to the aluminum pieces before you go any further. I am not sure how you can attach them later with the trim on the car. Have you figured out a way to attach them later?

thank you

 

Glad you mentioned that.

We had to grind off the studs to remove the Caballero emblems. I'm going to bond them on, probably with molding tape.

I don't want to try drilling and tapping the emblem to install studs or screws; the emblem is too thin.

[FireballV8]

I thought of tapping with #3 screws but was afraid of braking the emblem, so on removal I did not grind off, but instead raised the edges of the studs and was able to re roll the stud ends back on the panel. I am not sure how well they will hold, but luckily my scripts somewhat snapped back into the panel. Please let us know what tape you will use.

thanks

Steve

[Smartin]

I epoxied mine from the backside when I had to reattach.  The car looks amazing, btw!

[95Cardinal]

2 hours ago, Smartin said:

I epoxied mine from the backside when I had to reattach.  The car looks amazing, btw!

 

8 hours ago, FireballV8 said:

I thought of tapping with #3 screws but was afraid of braking the emblem, so on removal I did not grind off, but instead raised the edges of the studs and was able to re roll the stud ends back on the panel. I am not sure how well they will hold, but luckily my scripts somewhat snapped back into the panel. Please let us know what tape you will use.

thanks

Steve

 

Thanks for these suggestions.

I looked at my adhesive molding tapes and they all look too thick; the emblem would sit too far above the surface of the ribbed trim panel.

I will take another look at re-attaching the emblems from behind before installing the trim panel.

One step forward, two steps back.

[95Cardinal]

I thought the vent damper door seals were in excellent condition...until I began to install the doors.

I found that the seals were cracked and I didn't want to take a chance that they might crumble with use.

Here's one of the damper doors, as removed from the car:

 

First step was to drill out the spot welds and remove the original foam seal from the doors.

Here are the 3 pieces of the "sandwich"; the inner and outer door and the original foam seal:

 

I used a sheet of 3.0 mm thick, closed-cell foam to replace the original seals.

I didn't have a 5/8" diameter punch, so I made a punch out of a 1/2" galvanized pipe nipple to make the correct diameter holes in the new seals.

 

Here are the inner and outer doors after cleaning:

 

I chose not to weld the doors together, being concerned about igniting the foam inserts.

I used reinforcing washers and rivets to re-assemble the doors.

 

And here they are, back where they belong:

 

[neil morse]

Joe, you are doing a fantastic job here! I am so interested in following both your thread and Gary W.'s thread on his '37 Special.  You are both doing a fabulous job of doing a complete "nut and bolt" restoration, and, at the same time, creating a detailed record of everything you have done.  It is fascinating to watch both threads because we are able to learn so much about how the construction and engineering of automobiles evolved in that 21 year period between 1937 and 1958.  I wonder how many parts your '58 has compared to Gary's '37 -- a big difference, I would imagine!  Keep up the great work!

[95Cardinal]

Thanks, Neil!

I am doing this one to the best of my ability.

 

I am also enjoying Gary's 37 Special thread.

I hope mine turns out a good as his is 37 looking!

 

[kgreen]

Very nice effort, thanks for sharing.  I am amazed at the number of parts that car was assembled with.  Today's production engineers would never consider something of that effort in these times.  You car is a stunning work of art.

[95Cardinal]

Thanks, Ken!

My brother and I were recently joking that "Design for Manufacturing" was obviously not a consideration when these cars were designed.

Many, many unique parts with lots of adjustment and fitting required.

 

[95Cardinal]

It's been several weeks since I updated this thread, but there hasn't been a great amount of progress. Life certainly has a way of stretching our plans out, doesn't it?

Liftgate latches and the upper tailgate panel are installed in the lower gate:

At the other end of the body, I've installed the cowl seal and started working on the windshield wiper system.
When 57BuickJim came over for a visit, he asked me happened to the wiper transmissions.

Look at the tip of the wiper drive shaft in this photo:

Over 3 years ago, I took the wiper transmissions off the car and bagged them. I never noticed that both of the splined drive capstans and shafts had been cut off.
That wonderful little surprise led to a frustrating search for 2 non-Cam-O-Matic transmissions.
I had 3 spare transmissions that came with the parts car. None of them were functional or complete. I got the RH spare working; the lower cable was off the pulley and wrapped around the base of the housing, underneath the pulley. Took a while with dental pick and gentle persuasion to get the cable back onto the pulley. It's now installed in the car.

As for the driver's side, I hoped to make one functional transmission from the three incomplete units I have.
I tried using a spare 57 transmission, but that wasn't successful. Even though the overall length of the transmission appeared to be identical, the distance from the under-cowl mounting surface to the tip of the 1957 shaft is shorter. The 57 part is too short to allow installation of the wiper arm. After taking the shaft out of a 57 transmission, it was clear that it could not be used in a 58 transmission housing; the shaft diameters and designs are very different. I had to find a complete LH transmission. Ordered it from Bob Fricken (wiperman) and it should be here by the end of March.

The heater core, inner and outer cover and plenum with blower motor have all been installed:

I had to install the blower motor housing THREE times because I dropped one of the wiper transmission nuts into the cowl vent when I was installing the wiper transmission. Of course, the nut dropped directly down the plenum and into the drain at the bottom of the firewall, where the plenum mates up to the floor pan. Could NOT get the nut out until I removed the blower motor housing from the firewall. And to top it all off, I did it AGAIN a few days later with another part.

Now, the cowl vent openings are taped off.

Tailgate emblem and letters installed:

Roof moldings were a bit of a challenge.
I pre-positioned all the clips and set the moldings into position on the roof. The moldings were almost perfectly straight, but they had a slight crown; down at each end and up slightly in the center. When I installed the seals and nuts on the first molding, I ended up with a gap between the molding and the roof between each clip position. The molding looked a like a sea serpent, gliding along the surface of the roof.

I had to remove all the moldings and add some curvature to the molding so that the molding would be tight against the roof when the clip nuts were tightened. When I set the center of each molding on the roof, each end was 4" to 6" above the roof surface, as shown by the black arrow in this photo.

It worked perfectly; after tightening the clip nuts, the moldings fit tightly to the roof surface.

Here was another unpleasant surprise...
When I was installing the liftgate strikers and alignment bumpers, I found this broken bolt stuck in the nut plate.
I remember breaking that attaching screw during disassembly. I forgot to drill out the broken bolt before sending the car to the painter and they didn't notice it. Now, I was faced with removing that broken fastener from a painted and polished panel.

I masked it off with masking tape and a layer of rubber gasket material as an additional protective cushion...

I tried to give myself a fighting chance at success by grinding the surface flat and center-punching the bolt.

As soon as I hit the center punch, the nut plate fell off the inner panel. It was being held on to the back side of the inner panel with two miniscule spot welds. Here's the nut plate:

I cleaned the nut plate and painted the exposed surfaces, cleaned the back side of the inner panel through an existing access hole, and used structural adhesive to bond the nut plate to the inner panel.
Done!

More soon!

Edited March 27, 2018 by 95Cardinal (see edit history)

[sherwood3333]

^{love the pictures ! it helps me with my caballero rebuild,}  

[95Cardinal]

The moldings that surround the ribbed aluminum trim panels on the rear doors and quarters require unique attachment clips. The moldings have a triangular cross-section and they straddle the edge of the aluminum panel. The clips have a stepped design to retain the moldings. There are 5 different clips used in various locations; 2 styles of end clips, straight run clips and a special coupling clip for the angled front joint.

Somehow, a couple of the unique end clips disappeared in the plating process. I don't know if they just disintegrated or simply got lost in the plating tank, but they are nowhere to be found.

The end clip has a tension "finger" to retain the molding orientation as the screw is tightend into the base of the clip. The clip in the picture is correct for one side on the molding, but I needed one that was for the opposite section. 

Here's some creative material selection for you.
A spring steel binder clip matched the gage of the original clip. I simply cut it to size, punched a hole with a small center punch and extruded the hole to the proper size to accept an 8-32 thread. Tap the hole and it's done.
20180326_155918 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

20180326_165822 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

I broke several clips when removing the moldings from my car, so I needed about 8 more clips to finish the installation. I'ver been looking for clips and have not been able to find any of the original style parts.

I took the best of the original clips that had been cut out of parts car.
20180312_142104 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

You can see where I'm going here...
I ground off the swedged tabs that held the stud to the clip base and knocked the stud out of the clip.
Then I installed a new 10-24 x 3/4" long stud into the body of each clip.

Initially, I used JB Weld "steel" epoxy to retain the stud to the clip head, but that didn't work. I ended up tig welding the studs to the clip bodies.

20180328_083704 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

20180328_114502 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Problem solved.

Next stop: the liftgate!
Here are the 9 stainless steel moldings that mount to the top of the liftgate.
There are 4 pairs of different lengths (shortest parts are furthest outboard) and one longer piece for the center position.

I made a template to help position the end of each molding equidistant from the edge of the window opening.

20180329_102544 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Finicky job, but it turned out great:
20180329_120734 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Have a great week!

 

[GARY F]

Great job. Sometimes you have to think of a different way to get the job done.

[95Cardinal]

It feels good to be making progress!

I had to fabricate several more clips of various designs, but I FINALLY got all the stainless steel trim installed - below the belt line - on the body.

Here's another example of the end clips that I made. It retains one end of the side spear molding to the front door. I didn't get a photo of the completed clip, but I used that "finger" in the middle of the clip to retain a spring wire to retain the clip in the molding.

Finally, here is the driver's side trim on the car.

Adding thermal insulation and deadener to the floors and toe panel.

 

My enthusiastic helpers are rolling the adhesive-backed deadener on the floor pans.

Wiper transmissions installed and tensioned

 

I had the dash parts painted with matte clear and I didn't like it. I disassembled all the dash parts and manually polished everything to a higher gloss level.

 

When I removed the heater controls to polish the painted panel, the epoxy that was holding the lens and bezel assemblies together decided to let go. Better now than on the road somewhere....

I removed the epoxy residue and used a small punch to crimp the edges of the die cast bezels over the metal lens retainers. That's how they were originally assembled, but I used an adhesive instead of crimping when I assembled these parts. I was concerned that crimping the parts would damage the bezels.

Luckily, all the crimps worked and the assembly is complete and tight.

I also wanted to tighten up and improve the fit of these parts into the dash panel. Previously, when I moved the control levers, the bezels would slide in the openings and the bezels felt loose on the panel.

I cut narrow strips of adhesive-backed felt to cushion the edges of the bezels and also cut a short piece of PVC tubing to insert over the rib of the dash panel that engages the lens's spring clip. 

 

Here you can see the felt strip installed along one edge of the bezel:

 

This shows the pvc tubing installed on the dash panel:

Those two additions made a HUGE difference. The lenses are tight and they don't budge when I move the control levers. Glad I decided to re-do these parts; this is much tighter than the initial assembly and it should eliminate any potential rattles.

Edited April 15, 2018 by 95Cardinal
spelling & spacing (see edit history)

[kgreen]

38 minutes ago, 95Cardinal said:

When I removed the heater controls to polish the painted panel, the epoxy that was holding the lens and bezel assemblies together decided to let go. Better now than on the road somewhere....

 

Wait...

 

You're going to drive this car?

 

Good for you, I can't wait to get road grime on mine.

[95Cardinal]

56 minutes ago, kgreen said:

 

Wait...

 

You're going to drive this car?

 

Good for you, I can't wait to get road grime on mine.

 

Yep, I want to drive it.

I plan trailer it to a couple of shows initially.

I would like to get it judged at a few major AACA and Buick Club of America events, but then it's going on the road.