BACK AT IT

[RICH MUISE]

OK...nothing exciting here, but posts have been slow recently, so I'll post what I got going on just for grins. My construction remodeling job is winding to an end with just a few days to go after waiting for the the electrical work to be finished and inspected, so I'm finally able to get back to my '57 for a while. Yesterday I was finally able to get all the small parts waiting for paint finished..like door hinges, nosepiece, etc, so as soon as I get the front of my almost-a-garage pushed out another 3 feet I can start assembling some of the sheetmetal. I did get her cleaned up finally..first time ever it's been clean all over, so I gotta post a pic.
Also been working on changing the door pull handle on my door panels..never really liked the ones I had on there. Still working on it, but I think I'll end up with the ones in the pic...the rounded shape will pull into the curved theme I've got going on with the rest of the interior. Of course they'll be covered to match my interior. They are overhead grab handles from a Chrysler Concourse.  When I was in Dallas a few weeks ago for the Goodguys show, I picked up some different color vinyl to change the tan color I had on my dash and console to a tan a little lighter and grayer than what I've had. It'll give a softer overall look. Now if I can get the vinyl off the dash without screwing up the foam/ rubber coated padding that took me forever to make I'll be all set. Getting the old vinyl off my console shouldn't be a problem as threre is no padding.

[Ford Blue blood]

Me too....life has a way of laying aside the best plans you can have.  After two months of dealing with my mom's health issues (89 years old), a friends retirement from the Navy, helping a friend get his 63 Bird on the road, pulling engines for James and dealing with my wife's health issues (torn retina) I managed to get two full days in the shop!

Like you, nothing exciting.  Rebuilt/restored the heater assembly for the 500 2Dr. Ht.  It was really good watching paint dry and sipping on a cold Bud and letting the world go by. 

Did confirm the heater control valve has the cable from the control unit and a vacumn hose to control the amount of water running through the core.  Remember there was a discussion with respect to this (is a vacumn hooked up to the heater).

[RICH MUISE]

"BEST LAID PLANS"...HMMM MAYBE THAT'S WHAT i NEED..a PLAN!
Got to thinking about my remark in the opening post of this thread about the foam and rubber padded dash and got to thinking this was a solution out of necessity that worked out incredibly well and I should share it in case someone else has a similar problem.
My dash as most of you know was reformed quite a bit, and covered with vinyl with no seams because I wanted to do it myself and can't sew. I wanted it padded also with a firm density feel to it. The problem I had was that any foam that was anywhere the density I wanted to use could not even come close to being stretched and glued over the dash. The underneath foam has to be very smooth or the vinyl will telescope any deformities. I did find out in experimenting that a looser density foam could be stretched quite well with a little coaxing. The problem then was how to make it firmer. The solution came in a roofing product called snow roof. It's a white brushable rubber compound used for coating mobil homes and is quite flexible when dry...just like a brush on rubber sheet. I applied 4 or 5 coats over on top of the light foam after it was glued to the dash...about one coat a day. The hard part was that it doesn't flow out very well and there were substantial brush marks that would have shoun thru the vinyl, so I spent a few hours sandind it as smooth as you can sanding rubber. Anyways, the results had exactly the stiff feel I wanted..you have to push quite hard with your thumb to indent it. Hope this was a useful tip for someone out there.
Also..speaking of best laid plans..originally I had planned on making a sheetmetal panel to alter the dash shape. I was in process of making a wooden buck over which I was going to form the sheetmetal when two things occured to me...it was going to be a helacious undertaking to make a buck strong enough to withstand the forming process, and it also occured to me that the portion of the wooden buck that I had made to that point was giving me exactly what I wanted. So I stopped there, glued and screwed the buck into the dash and finished it off. You can see the buck thru the now oval dash opening. Rich

[RICH MUISE]

Another idea I need to follow up on...while I was scouring the salvage yards for a set of door pulls and looking at alot of overhead grab handles, I got to looking at some of the moulded headliners in all of the cars from 70's on. A few years ago I was trying to figure out how to make a moulded headliner for my '57 without getting into a months work of making fiberglass molds and stuff. I spent days reforming the inside of my roof with layers of chipboard and foam...all of which was for not because the first 120 degree day we had brought half of what I had glued to the roof crashing down (does foam crash when it falls?). anyway, I gave up and went back to the original bow setup and ordered a precut brushed cotton headliner, which I haven't installed as of yet.
Now I am wondering if there are any vehicles out there with the moulded headliner that could be adapted to the '57's. The stuff is generally pretty flexible, so may only have to be "close". I just may have to pick a nice day and spend a few hours roaming the yards again. It would be nice to find a "nip-tuck-and recover" alternative for our headliners.
Just a thought.

[JPotter57]

I looked at an old Ford at Cruisin the Coast, and it had a one piece headliner...I never could figure out how he did it, but it looked great with no seams.  I believe it was a `55 Crown Victoria, chopped top Kustom....

[Zapato]

Rich, first off good idea with the snow roof, do have a couple questions related to its use. Does it expand as it cures? And how did you sand it down? What sort of paper etc............did you use?

Zap-

[RICH MUISE]

Zap..no expansion. I just used a coarse open grit paper...didn't work very well, but that's to be expected. Were I to do it again, I'd look into spraying it or even rolling with a sponge roller...in other words find a way to apply it smoother than brushing with a bristle brush. I used it to seal a problem chimney on my house in Colorado, and after 11 years it was as good as the day I applied it.

[KidKourier]

Rich, How about ABS headliners for trucks,I know LMC Trucks makes them for my '94 F-150 with gauge or stereo openings and could be covered in cloth easily.Check my truck and it measures around 56" wide X 36" deep and contour looks close (heatgun ?) measured the Courier and width is close(trim ?)and the depth goes back to almost my 4th headliner bow(agin trim to suit) and you might check customs vans '70's to present. Not sure this is style your looking for but a couple of ideas! Yes,still lurking,LOL. KID

[RICH MUISE]

I thought about something similar..explorers or the like. The '57's are about 52" wide, and alot of the cars have a narrower roofline because the window areas slope inwards, so something like a van, larger suv, or any of the bigger caddilacs may work. I checked my grand cherrokee for grins and it's only 49" wide. The nice thing about the moulded headliners is the only thing holding them in are the trim pieces like mirrors, dome lights, ect, so they are an easy pull. hopefully the weather will hold until I can spend a few hours at the salvage yards.

[RICH MUISE]

I spent a few hours at the salvage yards this week looking at headliners. Even the big 80's and 90's cadilacs and lincolns are 3 or 4 inches too narrow. Most everything maxed out at 48" wide..the '57's are 52. One that went to the 52" were the pontiac transport mini vans..however they were made with a multilayered fiberous paper-like that was not flexible..maybe because of the aging. Many of the suvs, like the explorers, had vinyl trim above the windows that minimized the actual headliner. There were no gm maxi suv's to look at where I was, so maybe Tahoes, Escalades, etc. may still be a posibility.
I'm going to try and expand my makeshift garage before the snow flies, so I got the '57 up on it's wheels and pushed outside for the first time in 4 years. This was the first time I've actually been able to stand back and look at it since paint. Things can sure look different..the rear fenders look so much shorter than they did in the garage! LOL. I'll post some pics that's stuff you've seen before, just not from a good angle.
oops...my computer security is screwing things up again..can't access my photos to resize. I'll try later
Interesting..I couldn't resize the pics when I was on the internet, but with it closed, it let me do it..Wonder if it's a Macaffee thing again??

[glen b henderson]

I like that color Rich!

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks Glen...I'm glad I made the last minute decision to not paint it red, but I wasn't too wise in choosing a metallic paint for my first full paint job. These photos are more accurate color-wise than what I was able to post before with the inside lighting. I have to laugh at the photos though...my makeshift garage looks so big in the pic...it's only 12 wide, which is why I'm pushing it out 4 feet.
Another reason for putting the car outside for a bit is that when I was putting away the fenders and hood, etc., I uncovered the hood, which I had stored outside under tarps and blankets, and had stripes in the metalics of the paint.!!
It was the first time I had noticed them, even with the hours of wetsanding and buffing. I guess they just didn't show up in the inside lighting, but they sure jumped out in sunlight. Anyway, I was anxious to get everything outside so I could look at it in daylight to see if I had anything else having that problem. Fortunately, I don't, and the only thing I need to repaint is the hood. When I painted the hood, I had loaded the wrong paintgun with the basecoat..(I have 2 identical Iwata's..one for primer and one for basecoat).Rookie mistakes are sure easy to make when you're painting metalics...

[glen b henderson]

Metallics are tough even for experanced painters, to eliminate the tiger stripes. I remember my first experance back in the 70's, looked like crap.

[Ford Blue blood]

One of the ways to prevent "tiger stripes" is to pump the gun pressure up, back off to about 18" and dust the base coat while it is still wet from the final pass.  The "dusting" on the wet dase lets the matalics/pearls settle uniformly.  A slightly slower reducer helps with getting the stripes out too

[JPotter57]

With metallics, you have to watch your overlap also.  Too much overlap is what causes the metallics to pile up, causing stripes. At least thats what caused them the first time I painted metallic, lol.  It looks great Rich.  Cant wait to see it together.