Summershandy

One more bow away from good riddance! There was so much dust coming from the liner my eyes and nose got clogged.

Guess I should have started with the original pics! Sorry, my first project post.

Rusted windlace..... A clean slate to work with. I'm hoping most of the original tack strip will hold staples. Maybe use rivets and glue for the door pillar lace. I think they glued the headliner above the front windshield to hold it before tacking it tight before trimming off the excess. Sure can get in some tight spots with them little tiny tacks! Going to have to clean up the rust and paint above the front windshield. The rust line follows the chrome trim. Be a shame to do all this work only to have rust stains come back.

The door pillars were held by nail type fasteners and a flat crow bar takes care of that. That's cardboard behind the cover with the windlace stitched into it. This is what the installer would have to do one side. Probably the hardest part is getting the front window pillars done. It's kinda funky with rubber moulding and the windlace slides into a metal moulding down by the feet. Which of course is rusted and rotten into place.

The passenger side has clips holding the bows in place and the drivers side has the holes. Don't mix up the clips like I did. They have different bends in them but can be figured out. I marked the holes that the bows were in on the drivers side. The main bow hangs from clips on the roof. Some joker decided to bend a couple in I guess for a better hold. The windlace was interesting. Tacked in a few spots but mostly held by a flange made of cardboard stitched on the back on the hooks above the doors. I just might figure out a material and make my own strips and place them behind the clips as I don't have a sewing machine.

With this COVID thing having my job shut down and all this time on my hands, I thought I might as well finally tackle my headliner. Remember, I have to what I can with as little as possible. Going to the hardware store is near impossible. For starters, get yourself a tack puller or at least make one. Curved needle nose pliers help too. There's a lot of those little buggers to pull. Did you know they used to put the tacks in their mouth and use a magnetic hammer to grab them and also hit the metal behind the strip bending the tips for a better hold? I got intimidated at first with so much of it being stitched but it's rust stained and rotten. It has to come out. I'll have to be creative with the re-install. The retainers will have to be cleaned up of rust and painted to protect the new headliner.

I finally made a battery cover. It may not be as detailed as the original but it works and for zero cost I'm ok with it. Looks like it could use a decal or something delco-ish. Thanks Dave for the pics to give me the idea!

Ya got me there John...read that and thought to myself, what?! No pics of Johns finished car?? I would be a little pissed too! I've got the same tire pressure info as 55'er for my 54'er....

I like it! haha

Hey Phil just curious....is that the stock exhaust? Sounds a lot meaner than mine! People joke how quiet mine is.

Thanks Bloo....I'm kinda with ya on that one. I just appreciate the views and opinions and always love to learn a thing or two even if I don't understand it half the time

When I replaced the wires couple years ago, I don't remember the coil looking like this. It wouldn't be me not to check or clean it before replacing the wires. I've only driven the car once in the rain and that was when we were leaving a show and got caught in it. I can't imagine the coil getting wet. This one shocked me. I had to make the wires and was the first time I've done so. The coil wire looks ok but I'm going to check how well it connects to the coil. I could always make another, it's only about 10" long and I have left over wire. The engine started and ran quite well except for the odd hesitation off start and sometimes a light jerk after a long drive at cruising speed. It'll be interesting to see if Mr coil had any part in it.

Took the coil out tonight. Umm ya, not good. Poor thing. I also forgot one of the terminals were stripped from someone before me. I'll just pick up another.

Trouble is, today's drivers probably know nothing of hand turn signals. I'd be getting a lot of honks and looks or worse a rear ender! This just gave me a flashback of those cats and dogs on the rear deck who's eyes would blink whenever signalling or braking....

My signal switch is probably worn out also. Grounds are all good. I was curious why 2 different style 6 volt flashers cause different results. I still have some playing to do. Thanks!

I remember reading about grounding the 3rd pin and I had tried but it was still plugged in to the flasher. Maybe I can make up a couple short wires with spaded ends and play with it and see if it changes. There must be something internally with the flashers that compensate for this.

I received another flasher which turned out to be a 535. Awesome flash rate and very noticeable. I like it. Trouble is, both indicators flash at the same time on the dash but the proper one is flashing outside. I remember picking up a 535 from NAPA years ago and the same thing happened. Put the P229D back and it flashed fast again but the proper signal was flashing on the dash. I also tried the original flasher that came with the car and it illuminates for only a split second. Why the heck would BOTH indicators flash inside when using the 535 but not the P229D??

Well, ya but I don't know how old it is. I changed most everything electrically and never did change it out. Not sure why I didn't. I still want to check the spark and reinspect the points before summer. New coil was just a thought and didn't know about resistors.

Got a bit a brain fart. Went down to my local NAPA to check on ignition coils for my '54 Pontiac and the counter person asked, "do you have a resistor?" The NAPA coil is printed NO EXTERNAL RESISTOR REQUIRED. So I searched and found: General Motors vehicles used the same 6-volt non-resistor ignition coil from 1923-’54. When they converted to 12-volt in 1955, the coils were 12-volt and externally resisted. So I'm assuming their coil is fine?

I do agree. That's why before my car was road worthy but knowing the engine ran, I decided to rebuild/replace as many parts that I could before heading out and test driving it. I was never a fan of just driving a used vehicle not knowing how good the parts could be, especially a 65 year old one. My coil was one item that was overlooked.

You know now that I think about it, I think that's the coil that came with the car. I pretty much replaced everything but that. I remember taking off the NAPA sticker on it so I assumed it was a newer part. It never hurts to replace old with new especially when it don't break the bank.

Thanks gang, informative as always! I'll double check the points before summer. I always wanted to check the valve clearances. Maybe will do that one day too. I always thought that the engine should work as designed or they wouldn't have designed it to begin with. Adding "whizbangs" just doesn't seem right or turning a 6 volt into a 12 or converting drums to discs.....besides, where's all the fun in that??

I still attribute it to the carburetor Thought dual points or electronics would make a better spark My compression is on the low side when hot but everything still sounds good. I would imagine the engine could use a rebuild one day.

I can only go by memory as my car is in storage. I think it would still hesitate off load.

At times (not every time) I have a hesitation at take off. If I don't feather the throttle it can stall. I've tried both light and heavy throttle. I naturally feather it now when I take off from a stop or red light. Another is after a good hour of cruising around town or on the highway, the engine feels like it's lightly missing. The engine is telling me that's good for the day and it's time to head home. I've cleaned, rebuilt and adjusted the carb best I can. Fuel pump is rebuilt with all new lines and filter. All new plugs/points and wires. All vacuum lines are new and tight. I've pretty much tried everything I've read on this forum aside of an engine rebuild. I can still make it to the shows and go for Sunday cruises without a break down. Sometimes if it ain't broke......I can live with my gremlins and thought maybe dual or electronic ignition could improve performance by the sounds of your results.