95Cardinal

Over the years, I have successfully used SEM Color Coat products to re-color cloth seats, carpets, vinyl door trim, dash pads and steering wheels. It will work on a cloth or vinyl headliner, but severe discoloration might "bleed through" after painting. If it's a yellow/brownish color, it's probably smoke/nicotine staining. I don't know if that can be covered up. If the staining is due to rodent urine, I wouldn't keep the headliner.

The rest of the headliner installation went well; no broken panels, no cracked or broken retainers. I think it turned out great. I am SO glad this is done! One of the things I forgot to show previously is the "anti-rattle" felt pads I installed on the instrument panel, dash panel and windshield lower garnish moldings. These small pieces of adhesive-backed felt were applied to all the the metal-to-metal interfaces. The fender-mounted rear view mirrors are installed, too. These are the Buick Accessory mirrors; I think they are very cool. Next step is to install the quarter windows. After looking at the fit of the gasket to the inner quarter panel, it appears that the upper reveal molding retainers must be installed before the glass is installed. Here's the driver's side reveal molding in position. There are 2 separate moldings nested together and retained by a set of clips that go through both moldings and through mating holes in the upper sash. The clips have studs approximately 2 1/2" long which are retained to the vehicle with brass barrel nuts. I tried to fit the glass into the openings (with help!) 3 times...no luck. I asked the pro who installed the windshield and liftgate glass to give me some guidance. We tried to load the glass into the opening and he told me that the aftermarket gasket needs to be trimmed. Another project for another day...

Ah yes, the joy of driving 60 year old cars!?

These wagons were equipped with molded, perforated hardboard headliner panels. Pete Phillips (Buick Bugle Editor) had previously posted on the AACA forum about the difficulties he encountered when trying to install the reproduction panels. He used a steamer to soften the hardboard panels, but they still cracked. He also shared that the plastic retainers also fractured when he tried to install them, even though they had been softened with a lengthy exposure to hot, Texas sun. Based on Pete's experience, I asked around for ideas. Larry Schramm and another restorer friend of mine both recommended steaming the panels in a steam chamber to soften them before trying to install them. Here's the steam box I built. In the plastic bag are 57BuickJim's panels from one of his wagons; I planned to use them as patterns. I decided to use the steel retainers as patterns instead of risking any damage to Jim's parts. I used the retainers to make a pattern to pre-form the headliner panels. It's a piece of luaun underlayment, attached to a pair of 1X8 boards in the desired shape of the headliner panels. I didn't worry about making a form for each panel; I knew the parts would be "close enough" if I used an average shape. In this photo, you can see the relief slots I cut to enable bending the luaun to shape. I cut through 2 of the 3 payers of the underlayment so it would easily flex, then screwed the luaun to the 1x8s. Here's the form installed in the steam box. I lined the box with 6 mil plastic film and laid a sheet of plastic film between the pattern and the part being steamed. Lid on the box and steam nozzle inserted in the side of the box: If you look closely at the far corner of the box, close to the roll of blue paper towels, you can see steam wafting out from the lid. The steam generator is this little beauty: It is marketed as a weed killer! It will generate steam at about 300F and up to 65psi. It worked great to supply steam for the chamber. After a few minutes in the box, the panels were quite flexible. I loaded them into the car and help them in position until they dried, using a variety of implements. The crutches worked great! The soft pads helped protect the painted surface of the panels. I also used spring clamps and short pieces of the plastic retainer to keep things in place. After allowing the panels to dry completely, I proceeded to install the retainers. When I looked at the way the panels and retainers are installed, it appeared that the installation sequence had to begin at the windshield and progress to the rear of the car. To begin, I had to button up the dash and install the windshield garnish moldings and visor brackets. Before installing the upper dash panel, I finished up the wiring and added redundant grounds to the instrument panel and radio circuits. My previous experience has taught me that I can't rely on good ground connections through all the epoxy primers, powder coating and layers of paint on restored parts. I add terminal strips that connect the individual device or circuit grounds directly to the body or frame. In this case, the terminal strip is connecting the instrument cluster/gauges/dash lights/radio and antenna ground strap to one of the IP to firewall brace attachments, which was cleaned to provide a good metal-to-metal connection. New speaker mounted to the upper panel It took me a long time - an MANY tries - to install the upper panel to the IP carrier with an acceptable fit to the dash pad. This is one of the early trials: Getting close! Before installing the first (front) panel, the windshield reveal moldings must be installed. The reveal molding clips are attached to the body by studs that go through the windshield header. The attaching nuts are installed through clearance holes in the windshield header, above the headliner panel. Here are 3 of the reveal molding clips and the flange nuts that are used to retain the clips. You can see a little bit of black sealer on one of the nuts; that is how I kept the flange nuts from dropping off the nut driver and falling into the body structure. Here's a close look at one of the clearance holes with the nut installed on the clip stud; not a lot of room to work! Exterior moldings installed... The front headliner panel is retained at the front by the rear view mirror bracket, the windshield header garnish molding and the sun visor brackets. The sides of the panel are retained by the roof rail garnish moldings. The rear edge is retained by the snap-on plastic retainer. First step is to install the mirror support and the two upper header garnish moldings The upper, outboard corners are also supported by the A pillar garnish moldings. The garnish moldings are installed after the lower windshield base moldings. Between each of the headliner panels, there is a metal retainer onto which snaps a plastic retainer molding. I found new moldings from another Buick Club member; painted the back side to replicate the original appearance, and I am installing the first piece here: These parts are quite stiff and need to be heated to allow them to follow the roof contour without breaking. I have tried a home hair dryer and a heat gun to heat the plastic pieces. I found it too easy to overheat the part with the heat gun, so I will use the hair dryer on the remaining parts. Here, you can see the straight, plastic part hanging down from the headliner. Heating the part allowed me to shape it tightly to the roof, and then I had to trim it to the proper length to fit tightly into the end cap at the roof rail molding. Here's the passenger side of the completed installation. And a look at the driver's side, showing the end cap above the roof rail molding: Second panel is retained by the plastic retainer shared with the front panel, the roof rail moldings and another plastic retainer at the rear edge. This is the panel that will hold the dome light. Two panels down, 3 to go!

Thanks! Hopefully you'll see it somewhere in our travels.

We'll be at the Home2 Suites. Planning to have the Caballero in attendance!

Beautiful work, Gary!!!

Hopefully, it will be a long time before the kids have to deal with it! I plan to use it for this car and the next 2 cars that are waiting "on deck". The machine's co-owner also has 2 interiors to do. We'll keep it busy for a while!

If you want to look at other options, Jim Hughes in Perrysburg, Ohio specializes in Dynaflow transmissions. I think he's been building them for over 25 years now. Phone: 419-874-2393 He did mine about 3 years ago. It cost me less than half what was quoted in post #8 above.

Work continues on the rear door trim panels.... Test fitting the upper trim assembly. All the tan and beige vinyl components are mounted to a .030" thick hardboard foundation, which is then mounted to the main substrate panel. Mocked up in the car: Those wrinkles around the upper, front and rear edges are there because the perimeter vinyl hasn't been edgefolded to the main substrate yet. Satisfied with the progress on the right rear door, I started on the left rear. Then, mocked up quarter trim panels to verify the shape and the color split lines. This is what came in the car, so I had to do a lot of interpolation: I didn't like the loose appearance of the cover, so I kept fine-tuning the substrate and cover to improve the fit. More progress on the rear door trim. I pre-assembled the 2 bottom sections in preparation for sewing them to the main panel. I've been looking for an industrial sewing machine to be able to do more of my own trim work. 57BuickJim and I went in on this Singer 111W155 "walking foot" machine. It will sew stuff that my little home machine could only dream of! Pre-installed the lower trim to the door panel with staples that will be removed after sewing. Ready for edgefolding and moldings! With the sewing done, I installed the metal edging to the substrates. I had to stop all the sew lines short of the edges to allow for installation of the edging. I tied off the stitch lines to keep them from unraveling and handstitched the outermost inch of the trim so the edgefolded panels would have the correct appearance. I also had to replace several of the attaching "nails" where the originals were broken or missing. Turns out they are standard 1" ring shank nails! The steel edging gives a smooth appearance to the perimeter of the panel and also incorporates barbs to retain the vinyl as it is edgefolded around the back of the panel.

Fantastic, Ron!

Sent a PM

I have always liked the second generation Corvairs; that's a great looking example, Doug!

I bought the vinyl from Original Interiors and I had it embossed by a manufacturer who makes automotive trim. If you search for embossed vinyl boat trim, you should be able to find a distributor of embossed marine vinyl.

Before installing the vinyl cover on the left rear inner wheelhouse, I did a little body work to smooth out a few dents and battle scars. After another adventure with 57BuickJim, spray adhesive and heat gun! Shortly after Labor Day, I visited my friend Pat. He is building the seats and helping me with the door trim panels. The seat covers are looking great! He developed patterns for the door armrest covers and he sewed the parts while I was there. We were not able to build any of the main seat parts, but we determined what still needed to be done before we could install the covers on the frame & spring assemblies. When I got back home with the armrest covers, I started assembling the door trim panels. I began with the right, rear door. I installed the armrest base to the main panel with the original steel tabs and rivets where the tabs were broken or missing. Then I added a layer of batting and the trim cover Mocked up the armrest with the upper sub-assembly The right front door armrest had significant corrosion damage around the upper pull handle and the entire bottom perimeter area. I was not looking forward to all that welding repair, but on a recent visit to CARS (Chevrolet reproduction supplier) in Auburn Hills, MI, I noticed several armrest bases that looked a lot like the Caballero armrests. Surprise! 1955 Chevy Nomad front armrest bases are the SAME as the 58 Buick Century bases. The reproduction parts are made of ABS plastic, so I fabricated 3 retainer tabs to duplicate the original retaining tab designs. The molded armrest upper pad might need minor modification, but the contour and size is correct. I've also been working on the upper "C" pillar trim panels. These are steel substrates, covered with a thin layer of padding and a vinyl cover. Earlier this year, I installed the clock after having it refurbished and it only worked for a few minutes. I recently pulled the clock out of the dash and was surprised to see a piece of gasket material trapped under the clock's second hand. As I removed the clock from the car, the gasket dropped away from the second hand and the clock began to run. I dis-assembled the clock and found that the gasket between the housing and the lens had been glued in by the rebuilder, but it he had re-installed the pieces of the original, brittle gasket. I removed the gasket pieces, cleaned and re-painted the black bezel under the lens, made a new gasket and re-assembled the clock. It is back in the dash and working perfectly.

The interior of this car was typical of a desert car that spent too much of its life in the sun... These are the driver's side door trim panels; crispy critters! Notice that the rear door "Century" script emblem is slanted rearward and the front door script is slanted forward... The rear door is correct; the car was built with 3 of the forward-slanted emblems. Having come from the OEM interior trim business, I suspect that someone pierced the driver's door panel in the wrong punch press or upside down in the die, depending on how the tooling was constructed. They either had to scrap the panel or install the forward slant emblem and ship the part. Obviously, they chose the latter course. I will correct the error when I make the replacement part, but part of me wants to build it wrong because that's the way it was done 60 years ago... I disassembled the panels to understand how they were built; the sequence of assembly is critical to re-creating the original appearance. This is a de-constructed rear door trim panel: I used heavy kraft paper to create patterns from the original parts. and made test parts using scrap vinyl from previous projects. The ivory colored material is excess from a 68 GTO vinyl roof cover... After verifying the contours and shape of the main panel, I traced the original part shape onto new "100 point" (0.100" thick) hardboard. I laid out the patterns on the main panel, along with the moldings to verify the seam positions, cut lines and armrest & molding attachment points. I still wasn't ready to cut the vinyl parts, so I used some of the flawed areas of the correct vinyl material to cut my "final" test parts. Here, I have peeled the laminated padding back from the outermost edges of the dielectrically embossed inserts to exactly match the way the original pieces were cut. Everything looked correct, so I proceeded to cut the "production" parts... And also cut the loft pads for the door panels and pre-punched the holes for the window regulator and latch control spindles, as well as all the attachment holes for the armrests and moldings. I also straightened the perimeter metal edge-fold pieces and replaced the corroded parts by modifying tri-five Chevy components: I bonded the pads to the main panel substrate with permanent contact adhesive Verifying position of the sub-assembled panels onto the main panel with the trim moldings One of the "Century" emblems had a missing stud, so I fashioned and threaded a replacement stud and drilled and tapped a blind hole in the emblem into which the new stud was epoxied. If anyone has one of these rearward slanting emblems, I need another one!

Several great pics in these 2 threads. I am not a Deuce expert, but I don't recall ever seeing the multiple indentations along the perimeter on an original Ford shell. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/original-1932-ford-grill-shell-and-insert.922565/ https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/early-1932-ford-grill-shell-sold.1037106/

I think that's 1941-42 Pontiac.

I need one of these door trim emblems for my 58 Caballero. I have a spare of the "forward" slanting emblem for the other side if you want to trade. Please send me a PM if you have one or know of one. Thanks Joe Tonietto

I agree; this is a GREAT event! Shown above: Larry Schramm and my wife rolling through the village in Larry's 1915 Buick truck.

I plan to use custom mixed SEM color coat. I've had great luck - on many projects - with that product.

After repairing the broken weld, I installed the ventilator and lined it up to the A pillar. On this side of the car, window alignment was easier and took a lot less time then the passenger side. Part of the time savings was due to what I learned on the passenger side, but the other big time-saver was being able to get the glass aligned without dis-assembling the window sashes to re-position the glass in the perimeter frames. All 3 of the windows on the driver's side (vent, front door and rear door), were correctly seated in the sashes. Now, on to one of the challenges I face with the interior... These cars were built with a molded trim cover over the inner rear wheel wells. Most of the restored cars have had those molded covers replaced with sewn vinyl covers. I want my wheel wells to look like the originals....so... 57BuickJim and I agreed to work on this little project together. Jim found some supported vinyl with a very stretchy, knit backing. The grain is a very close match to the original grain, as it appeared under the folding seat latches. We thought about this a long time before we took the first step... We cut a piece of the vinyl with enough extra material to allow us to hold the perimeter and we attached the lower, front corner to the inner fender, at the floor. It took us a couple of hours over two evenings, but with me pulling at the rear and along the perimeter and Jim applying the adhesive, warming the vinyl with a heat gun and stretching the vinyl into position, we were able to get a very nice result. The puckers around the perimeter will be trimmed away and any wrinkles near the edges of the wheel well will be completely hidden by the load floor and the trim moldings that surround the floor. Now, I have to touch up a scuff mark and dye the vinyl to match the dark tan color of the interior. This is exactly what I hoped to accomplish! One down, one to go!

Doug, glad to see that the days of temporary fuel systems are over. The tank looks great. Congratulations to your wife on her retirement!

My helpers finishing up the deadener in the rear compartment. Now that the passenger side windows are adjusted, I am moving to the driver's side. I am still missing one of the reveal moldings, but I can get everything lined up and ready. I started by aligning the ventilator frame to the A pillar. I noticed that the inner panel moved when I tried to tighten the attaching bolts. I found that there were 3 spot welds holding the 3 layers (inner panel, reinforcement and outer panel) together. One of the 3 welds only held 2 layers together, causing a fatigue failure adjacent to the weld. Got some advice from some VERY experienced friends... They recommended drilling and tapping 3 holes in the 3 layers, then using 3 fine thread set screws to lock the layers together. The set screws and the interfaces between all 3 layers are coated with JB Weld epoxy. Repair worked great!

There are many, but these are a few that I've utilized over the years: Ames Performance Frank's Pontiac Parts Year One NPD Inline Tube The Right Stuff Rock Auto OPGI