Roger Zimmermann

The lower part from the pump is ready. Have a look at the previous picture; you will see what I added. There are 14 pieces which are silver soldered together, one after the other. With that syringe for the silver solder paste, no rework is needed to remove the excess solder. This task would be impossible with a soldering rod. Now, I can begin the lower part with the flange attaching the pump to the engine. There will be less tiny parts...

Thank Pat for the kind words. If you are looking at my saga, you will notice that I'm silent each year at the same period!

Thanks Martin, it was fine! Indeed, I have no more vacation, just staying at another place!

This week, I resumed the construction; I'm not after the fuel pump. As it will be seen, I'm trying to make as few shortcuts as possible. I'm attaching a picture showing the unfinished upper part of the pump.

Jeff, another good explanation! We may have from time to time "high" humidity but not in the same sin as you have!

Thanks for the explanation!

Is that correct? I always heard that spraying a primer or paint should not be done with high humidity.

Well, Randy, we are just coming back from our usual summer vacation. The scale model Cadillac will have to wait some time as I'm busy with other duties!

Most of the time, the rubber seals are hard like stones and must be replaced. Those transmissions are not the easiest to work on, but are agreeable when working right. I have now 2 cars with such transmissions and one '72 Cadillac with the TH400. My dream would to adapt an Hydramatic to the '72 car...

There are some salvage places in Switzerland; however, less and less because for cars not too old people prefer to replace them with new ones. Junk yards were profitable once, but no more. When I need parts, I never look in Europe, I'm searching in the US. There could be parts located in Sweden or Finland but, as I don't speak their language, I never tried this route. As their parts are anyway coming from the US, I prefer the direct way.

With so many messages, you deserve it!

For the moment, I cannot continue with the brake system: for that, the axles must be under the frame (or the frame above the axles); for that, I must first do the springs. I will have to buy spring steel, I don't have enough material presently. there are enough element missing at the engine to be busy for a long time. Recently, I did the breather. This part will be aluminum color at the bottom, the part above the base will be black and the cover will be chromed. To drill the necessary holes into the crankcase, I had to remove various elements. The engine will stay that way for a while as I will do now the fuel pump, located just before the breather.

If the pulley has place for two belts, 2 must be used. Cadillacs from the fifties needed also two belts which must be exactly the same length, otherwise only one is working. Later compressor are maybe requiring less power and one belt is enough.

Thanks for your comments prewarnut. For various reasons, I never will do nickel plating at home. I have a good relation with a local plating company; why should I play with chemical products I don't like? Sure, doing plating myself would diminish the loss risk and waiting time. but I can manage it. Many tubes levers and so on are chrome plated on that engine/chassis. I'll do the same via that company.

OK, I understand from where you got the training!

As I wrote, I'm probably not so good with paint. I'm missing a good teacher like you would probably be, but I'm afraid we are too far away from each other! The rule is good for scale 1:1; I used it when I restored my cars. For scale models, with the tiny quantity used, if the can is not perfectly square (and glass jars are not), the rule is a matter of experience which I don't have as I'm not using it enough. And I hate to clean the airbrush or spry gun when using paint with solvent! By the way, you have a nice car with that 1963 Riviera. For years, I had a large quantity of automotive literature; I sold the lot 3 or 4 years ago, without regret. However, I found recently some sales catalogs from Chevrolet and Buick which were well hidden. From the Buick papers, I have one '63 Riviera and two Skylark leaflets. I posted them here in the literature for sale, just in case...

Thanks for your comments Rodney! In fact, I have an airbrush. Don't like it too much...However, I painted the leather from the Mark II with it as I let prepare the color by a company. As this product is water based, it's easy to clean the tool. That the huge advantage from the can: you want to paint just one little part? No problem: do it and put the can away till next use! Doing that with an airbrush can get you in deep trouble. You are right: sometimes the choice of the color is limited; therefore I let prepare from a French company the metallic blue I used for the Mark II's body. It was available from the Duply Color brand, but with a coarse metallic. The French company used the smallest one available according to my request. Another valid point: the airbrush is more apt to spray paint to odd angles due to the dimension. I used the airbrush for the primer on the frame and some body's parts for the Mark II. However, the surface quality is better when I'm using a rattle can. Probably the thickness (or fluidity) of the paint is an important factor and, again, the cans are correctly mixed! Finally about the costs: for 40 - 45 years ago, it could have been a factor but I had not the money to buy a compressor and airbrush. Now, the costs of rattle cans are negligible compared to what the restoration of a real car do cost and I restored 3 Cadillacs from the fifties! Scale modelling is a cheap hobby in comparison. Finally, I suppose I'm better working brass than paint. Hard to be good everywhere!

Brakes, continuation. Indeed, I was almost closing this chapter by finishing the hand brake. And then, the trouble began: when the clevis with the rod was installed on the hand brake lever, I saw to my dismay that the décor on the transmission side was pushing the lever to the side and the pawl was no more contacting the ratchet. I bent a tad the lever to clear the transmission side. No interference anymore, but the pawl did not contact the ratchet anymore. No problem, two thick washer will correct the distance. But...but if I'm doing that, the starter motor will be impossible to install. The sole solution was to diminish the thickness of the décor, which was done after removing the engine from the frame and separating the transmission. After I was thinking there is enough material away, a quick check said that I'm right. The power train was again installer on the frame (it quickly done) and I could try the brake system. Another trouble: by pushing the brake pedal 1/3 of his travel, the rod from the hand brake was contacting the actuating lever for the RH rear brake. Even if I tried to make my parts as precise as possible, I certainly missed some details. I solved the situation by shortening the actuating lever and doing a longer link for the hand brake. Now, it seems that the system is functioning as I hoped it would do. First picture: the brake system is not actuated. Second picture: the hand brake is on; the elongated holes at the clevis from the brake pedal allowed the main rod to go forwards, without disturbing the brake pedal. Third picture: the brake pedal is pushed, moving all actuating levers; the link I had to redo is tilting to the rear, allowing the hand brake lever to stay at his place. Hydraulic brakes eliminated all those problems but created others!

Oh! Thanks for the comments! @ Pat: Those two models cannot be compared. Autos from the fifties were already more or less sleek with simple parts. With many castings, the cars from the thirties are more spectacular and more difficult to reproduce. When I first saw the frame in Germany almost two years ago, I saw a forest of rods, levers tubes and so on. I had no idea about the purpose of each element; I had no time to search as I was there to take measurements. With my pictures and the ones from Johan from the Netherland, I finally understood the whole. The shop manual did help somewhat, but not too much. I suppose that all cars from that time with mechanical brakes were more or less built the same. It was just new to me! A brake job could be a nightmare, I would not do it either! @ Randy: Roads were most probably narrower than now. On the other side, there were trucks which had to share the roads with other trucks or cars. There were probably more US cars (at least in Switzerland) here than now because the European models were either small cars or high end products. Since 1936 GM Bienne assembled many US cars next to Opel and Vauxhall, therefore there was a demand. I'm attaching a listing of the production from Switzerland. Unfortunately, there is no breakdown in models; usually the cars assembled were 4 door sedans. Coupes and convertibles were imported as complete cars. Some roads are still narrow and twisty, but the main roads are wide enough now for larger cars and truck which can be up to 2.5 meters wide (98.5"). I just drove once in a 1949 Cadillac convertible; I don't remember how it drive, I was just disturbed by the archaic noise from the manual transmission. @ prewarnut: there is no secret, except that for painting, all will be removed and each part will be painted separately. I usually paint my models with spray cans; usually the paint thickness is marginal except with base/clear: when I painted the Toronado body with that process, I could no more close the trunk! I had to scrap the clearcoat to close the lid. I had no issue with that when the body had the primer coat; obviously, I was very generous with the color coat! With all the levers and other mechanical elements from this model, there will be some issues with the paint. Most probably I will have to scrap the paint on some articulations. However, I'm not that far!

Still working on the brakes. Both rocker shafts are now complete and temporarily installed. I saw that the levers actuating the front brakes were too short and the rods going to the front wheels would interfere with the cross member #2. Probably my measurement in Germany was correct, but the rocker shaft may be located too low or the crossmember not 100% correct. To avoid the issue, I made the a tad longer with some modification. The cotter pins you may be able to see are not the definitive ones; I had to do something simple for the testing. As far as I can see it, the brake system will be really functioning. Certainly not perfectly, but at the speed the model will be used, there is no danger and no recall will be issued!

My store room is not that large. Years ago, I sold all I had on paper. Recently, I found some Buick catalogs: 1963 Buick Riviera: nice brochure, 6.5" x 7" 16 pages; excellent condition $ 20.00 or best offer. Only one available. 1963 Buick Skylark: NOS brochures; two available. 8.25" x 10.85", 18 pages; $ 15.00 each or best offer. Even if I'm located in Switzerland, the shipping will not be that expensive: $ 9.00 for the large brochure in a rigid envelope.

The previous picture was showing the rear rocker shaft which is responsible for the rear brakes. Now I did the one for the front brakes. As the actuating levers are located outside the bearings, they must be removable. Fortunately, I kept the "tooling" for the actuators located at each drum, so I could do the necessary splines. Maybe the shaft is a tad too small (0.2 - 0.3mm) and on those levers, there are more than 6 splines. To reproduce that exactly would be too much work. However, I noticed a strange detail when looking at my pictures: the LH actuating lever is looking like a blade (mine is probably too thick) while the RH actuating lever is a more conventional in design. And this is not an error on that car: I have also pictures from a 1932 V-8 brake system, it's identical. The parts book is also clear; the RH lever has not the same part number as the LH one. My theory is the following: the LH actuating lever must have some flexibility, and the RH one is rigid. Maybe when doing an heavy braking, the LH lever is flexing if the RH one can go further, like a differential actuation. I don't see a different explanation but I don't know everything!

Still working at the brake system. I added 3 lever on the rear rocker shaft and did the clevis for the booster. There should be a rubber boot between the brake pedal lever and the booster; it will be added later. More levers/small pieces will next be added to the system.

Oh! I'm really from this planet, with all the positive and negative aspects from life! Those cars were probably more comfortable than low price models, but I don't have any experience and not eager to have one. Compared to modern cars, their comfort was probably totally different, especially cars with live axle in the front. During a meet with the Swiss Cadillac club, I had the opportunity to see how much effort was needed to make a 90° curve in a city on a 1938 V-16 convertible sedan. This impressive view did confirm that those cars are not for me. I'm convinced that those cars were well built for the time, but their frames had a poor torsional resistance. Not good for a good driving behavior. On other aspects, those cars were overbuilt with needle bearings at most unusual places!

My preference is white walls! Maybe not on a roadster, but a limousine, yes. Costs more, but anyway those cars are costing more than a simple transportation vehicle.