Roger Zimmermann

After checking, rechecking and again...it seems that my front end is dimension wise correct, which means +/- 0.5 mm. I could finish the hood lock support; this part changed a lot since my previous post. The only work which must be done is to make the aperture for the lock bolt. This will be done when I am that far with the hood. Now I can continue with the lock support extensions.

According to the pictures, the "new" cats are right at home!

Thanks Art for looking at my thread!

After summer vacation it always takes a long time until the machine (me) is working again...I had an hard time with the planed fenders attachment at the front. I looked at pictures, then at the model, back to pictures and nothing happened. It took one or two days to figure that it would be wiser to begin with the hood lock support and, once this part is ready, continue with the extensions of the support. The support is not yet ready; I still have to do the front flange on which the grille is attached and trim both holes. Prior to that, I have to make a dummy grille (I'm not ready now to do the "right" grille) to help align the hood lock support with the upper grille line.

Handsome kid (maybe no more a kid really) and car! Congratulation Pat!

Interesting report about the LED lights. They are more clever than halogen ones I bought soem years ago: the are using so much current that the rheostat from the dash began to smoke when I reduced the illumination! I'm waiting for your experience before I'm ordering a pack of 10 pieces.

If I'm remembering well, there is a bright molding embedded in the rubber. Usually, sealing agent is applied on the sheet metal before the windshield is installed. Maybe with a fine nozzle the glass shop can inject sealant...

Could be...But the situation is now different: the rubber seal may be a reproduction, the flange not as good as when the car left the factory. I prefer myseld to put a sealing agent between glass and rubber when everything is dry!

Cougar69: it's alread hard enough to restore a car like it was when it left the factory. Now, you intend to "improve" it; the modifications you intend to perform are needed a lot of knowledge and money; it's difficult and costly to make an old car drive like a modern one. However, it's your car...

Never use silicone for that kind of job! 3M is selling a compound for that application.

Nothing interesting to report. I was busy with other matters, got a cold and now, summer vacation are near...

Well, if this construction is failing, the anchorage points at each car should fail too!

But they don't notice it!

'58 to '62 fuel pump on Cadillacs are from the same type: just a fuel pump...The vacuum for the wipers on '54 to '58 Cad is provided by the intake manifold and a vacuum pump located under the oil pump. The vacuum for the brake booster is pure intake manifold vacuum.

Thank you Chris for looking at my Continental thread! Regarding vacuum and brakes: I had a break-down with my '56 Biarritz; (overheating/vapor lock or whatever due to stop and go traffic for about 20 minutes); I had to be towed by an SUV (an Escalade!). We were not driving very fast, about 35 MPH; when we were out of the danger zone, the driver slowed down very gradually and I began to push the brakes as I was "connected" to the Escalade with a rope. To stop the car, I had to push the brake pedal with both feet! Once cooled down, I could continue the trip.

A year left? I'm probably just in the middle! The remaining parts and detail will take a lot of time, but of course it's very difficult to evaluate how many years I still need to complete the model. Most probably I will not begin another project; it depends how well I will be at that time!

It seems that I was a bit lazy last week as only minimal progress was done. Anyway, the hood aperture was finished with the flange. I "massaged" also the upper bar at the radiator; the end gussets will keep the proper distance between the fenders. This is a picture from a real car which was not very clean: To check the proper bar/radiator position, I had to put the body on the frame:

Some years ago, the Fell-Pro kit for the intake had a small tube of sealing paste/liquid which was sufficient if the manifold is not dancing on the heads. I'm not sure, but your gaskets may still have some residue from that blue product. I would never put RTV (as a matter of fact, I hate that kind of product) on those gaskets, it will be burnt at the cross-over port. Why are your gaskets black at the cross-over ports?

No, I'm not getting insane. What is looking like guns are just tubes to guide the front fenders. I soldered a bucket into the fenders and a removable "tool" is inserted into each bucket. This will help for the correct position of the front fenders till the cross over bar at the radiator can be attached. When the guides can be discarded, the headlamps will be installed into the buckets, in a not very conventional manner if my design can be done. As usual with me, the second fender is not done so well as the first one. Imagine if I was doing 2 or 3 models how bad the last part would be!

Explained that way, I agree that's a possibility. Further, as the master cylinder is at the lowest point, if there was once water in the system (due to the hygroscopic nature of the brake fluid), the master cylinder is getting its share.

If the fluid is getting past the master cylinder, there would be a loss of fluid. The master cylinder is connected to the booster by a long brake line.

The master cylinder is down on the frame; the booster assembly is at a different location in the front of the engine compartment. I doubt that the master cylinder is the cause of the problem; to me, the booster is probably at fault; they are rather difficult to rebuilt correctly. By the way, the wheel covers are for a '56 Cad; I believe wire wheels were standard on '54 Eldorados.

The second front fender is coming well. This is the last time the fender is on the wood form because the next job will be to attach the flange at the wheel opening. Unless I'm enlarging the opening from the wood form, the brass part cannot go on it anymore. You can see my interpretation of the rear fender reinforcement at the RH fender. On the real car, that part is going till the end of the fender, but because of the metal thickness I'm using, there is not enough space. The front end is also more or less ready; all subsequent elements will be soft soldered on that fender.

Nice '56 Eldorado Seville! I hope that there is no rust under the vinyl top...

Yesterday was devoted to try building the rear fender reinforcement to attach the fender to the cowl. The Mark II has 3 points at which the front fenders are attached: up, down and, very unusual, in the middle, from inside the car. As the lower attachment point will be useless because I will not have the space to torque the nuts, I'm also using the third attachment point, but lower than the original one. Even if the fender is attached with glue to the reinforcement, I could not resist doing a picture. I still have some work to shorten the fender: it's 1 mm too long. I will not remove that mm entirely, otherwise the wheel aperture will be too much rearwards.