"I'm Not a Car Guy." - A 1967.5 1600 Refurb Saga

[Gregs672000]

... the group has given me aspirations that not all humans are mean, nasty and uncaring. The group has opened my young (55 in March) eyes that kindness and compassion is a true blessing that we can give each other as fellow humans.
Thank you all the back and forth banter and critical thinking and sharing to achieve a finish goal is amazing

Thank you

Man, I can't tell you how big a smile you just put on my face. Thank you indeed! I do believe it's the little things... a smile, a hug, a laugh, a hand up, a handshake, an apology given or accepted... they make the difference. Like ripples on a pond, the Love shown radiates outward and is reflected and absorbed by others around us, and we all feel a little bit better, even during our darker days. Spread the light, it just creates more!

Our continued Best to you (and congratulations to your Daughter... Berkly!). I'm glad our goofy family has brought additional sunshine to your world! Does mine!

Now, how about some pics!

[iloveredmeat]

Is elk liver as good as moose liver? Can you send me some backstrap? I grew up on venison, not so much any more. You are a lucky guy. Pat

Well, I've not had moose liver... YOU are a lucky man if you have... Elk liver and heart and everything else are incredible. I'll be able to make two giant batches of elk liver patè which I've been doing for about 5 years (elk and/or venison), and it's been amazing, if I do say so.

Since, you're helping me with a couple of projects, let me see what overnight shipping is...

... the group has given me aspirations that not all humans are mean, nasty and uncaring. The group has opened my young (55 in March) eyes that kindness and compassion is a true blessing that we can give each other as fellow humans.
Thank you all the back and forth banter and critical thinking and sharing to achieve a finish goal is amazing

Thank you

Man, I can't tell you how big a smile you just put on my face. Thank you indeed! I do believe it's the little things... a smile, a hug, a laugh, a hand up, a handshake, an apology given or accepted... they make the difference. Like ripples on a pond, the Love shown radiates outward and is reflected and absorbed by others around us, and we all feel a little bit better, even during our darker days. Spread the light, it just creates more!

Our continued Best to you (and congratulations to your Daughter... Berkly!). I'm glad our goofy family has brought additional sunshine to your world! Does mine!

Now, how about some pics!

Amen, Fellas. I'm so glad to hear from you, been a while, and frankly, I was a bit worried. Congrats to Pauline!!! and on both of you on your progress! Final paint has to be so exciting! Please start a thread and share photos of your final push! Everything about this is such a great father/daughter story, it should be shared...

[iloveredmeat]

Progress!

I finally tackled my wing windows.

It was a bit more difficult than I thought, but I am very happy with the results.

First up, mask and paint all of the appropriate areas with high temp paint. Baked to cure, and that seems to help with adherence. Fingers crossed.

Everything painted up beautifully.

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The next hurdle was actually cleaning the glass of water spots... In short, I ended up having to use a razor blade to get it very nice and clear.

But if you want other ideas, there are lots of options and details are offered up in this thread...
viewtopic.php?p=339057#p339057

Anywho, once that was done, I searched for what to put in between the glass and the channel. DAC21 used some rubber sheet trimmed to size, which looks really nice, but I couldn't find any nearby and was too impatient to order it and wait. So, after searching around for an alternative, I found it! - Finally, an excuse to buy some "Flex Tape" as seen on TV!

This stuff is cool, and very, very sticky. The sticky side is like supercharged rubber cement, and the other side is a smooth 'rubber.' It was a little tedious to work with. Stick to window, trim, clean sticky residue with Acetone, trim again, acetone again... but in the end, it worked very well. Fitment is good and tight, waterproof, and I'm certain it won't 'crawl'.

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Next step was to install the weather stripping. That sucked. Not very easy at all, and I don't know if that was because I was working in the cold evening air, or if it's just supposed to be hard for nice weatherproofing. Anyway, I finally got that in with the help of a few drops of silicon lube and a wooden chopstick. This alone will keep me from ever restoring another car.

Then, the fun part! Assembly. That was pretty straightforward, and I'm so glad that I saved and cleaned my original hardware. Well, not every part... the chromers lost the wavy washers, and the pins for the levers. Luckily I found some not too far away, and I'm really glad I did. I grabbed a couple different kinds of wavy washers – one has more waves and is 'taller,' and that's the one that I needed, because the 'shorter' one doesn't put enough pressure on the lever once everything is put together.

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Put it all together, and they look great to me.

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That's it! Wing windows are done! One not-so-small step forward.

[notoptoy]

That really looks great! You might want to consider putting a small piece of that clear 3M paint protector film, where the striker hits the frame to protect your beautiful paint job.

[iloveredmeat]

That really looks great! You might want to consider putting a small piece of that clear 3M paint protector film, where the striker hits the frame to protect your beautiful paint job.

I've been wondering what to do there.

That is an excellent idea... much better than my plan to just never use the windows!

Thank you.

[notoptoy]

Honestly, that was what I was thinking - those look so good I'd never use them!
I have indeed used them in my car, but definitely not very often!

[S Allen]

Awesome job. Looking good.

Steve

[bajaroadster]

I recently replaced all the rubber in my wing windows on my 67.5 1600 also and I totally agree with you about degree of difficulty. What looks to be a very simple quick job turned out to be a bit more challenging than anticipated. The old adage of how to calculate the time a project will take is "Determine how long the project should take, double it, and then add a day." It certainly rang true for me on that particular project. But as always, once all the cussing was over, it was very satisfying results. Yours look amazing with all the extra steps you took. Keep up the great work.

[Gregs672000]

Baja is right... it always takes longer than you thought it would. Those look fantastic Peter. When this car is done, like me you're going to know nearly every single nut, bolt and screw. That's so much different than buying a car, and it's an intimacy that will enhance your enjoyment of the car on every drive... I DID THIS!

[iloveredmeat]

Hello. No posts lately, but I have been chipping away in incremental ways.

Traveling and taking time off from work and family to fiddle on my car has taken a back trunk (further aft than the back seat...) to all of my other responsibilities. Motivation and enthusiasm waned.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, my cousin announced a family reunion in late July up in Northern California. My wheels start turning... hmmm... this may be an opportunity to say hi to my car...

The first thing I did was to call the body and paint guy (who has not touched my car due to a bad winter) and asked if there is any chance that the body and/or paint can be completed by when I come up in late July.

He said, “I don't see why it can't be done."

He is a quiet man.

And not exactly erupting with confidence.

Soooo… naturally, I am full-bore 1,000,000% positive that it WILL be done. Fingers and toes crossed.

And if body and paint are going to be finished, that means at least two important things need to happen fairly quickly.

1. Paint color – I need to confirm what color I want this car to be. A few trips back, I picked a color and painted my engine bay. My color is based on 531 – but 531 if it oxidized over 50 years – which tweaks it subtly from bronze to green. I really, really like the color I painted the engine bay, bordering on love it. But I just need to make sure. And since I won't actually see my car until it's completely done, I have to do this remotely. So, I called the place in Northern CA where I got the paint and asked them to send me samples of 2 options – the color I painted the engine bay, and another color very close, with a touch less green. I got the two samples, sprayed them and it confirms my choice. You can see more about the colors further down this post when I update about my headrests.

2. Scratch – I need to raise some money to pay the Quiet Man. Which means I need to sell some stuff. First item, I'm sending to guru Dave Premo for restoration an awesome, completely original U20 Mikuni Type 3 setup and all original linkage and manifold. Dave is walking me through it and will be doing all of the important work. I couldn't be more appreciative of his help, and when he's done, these things will be amazing. So, I've been working on that fun project, my first ever dig into carburetors. I now know what venturis are! And I am currently taking orders.

So that’s exciting stuff and has re-motivated me a bit to work on what I still have down here.

I just took my (hopefully) last batch of little bits to get zinc plated with the carb parts before I send them to Dave. Lots of additional little parts for my car and some restoration projects I hope to do soon (center consoles, gas caps, grills, antenna etc.).

I have sent my valve cover off to get vapor honed.

And, I finally got back to working on my headrests! I have already done the back plates, but am now getting to the upholstery and painting the frames…

I was originally planning to paint them to match my gauge bezels which I had painted dull aluminum – as God intended them to be – but then as I looked more closely at the headrests, they’re in very good condition with only some surface rust and lots of good original paint. I now realize that the headrest frames are very clearly factory painted the 531 color. My headrests are not original to my car, so does anyone know if all headrests were painted 531? I can’t imagine that they were painted the body color (white and red would look particularly odd).

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Anyway, since I have a sample of my paint down here, I’m going to paint them the same as my body color – which would be extremely close to original, and any easy fix if it doesn’t look good.

You can see in this photo, the paint sample that is virtually identical to 531.

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And this photo shows the color I will be painting my car – a little less bronze, a little more silver, and a little more green. I think I’ll be happy with it.

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That’s it, hopefully more soon.
pm

[JohnnyB66311]

Thank you all again I have pic and pic and pic I’ll start sending it thread soon promise a bit awkward for me from phone as now I left laptop in Santa Fe and Pau took her computer so life little scuffs challenging again these are what I have on my phone the car going to the 1st paint two years ago since then we desmantele down to fram duevto rusted area under. Horse hairs 2nd painter much better still question but hey post more soon

[iloveredmeat]

I spent the last couple of evenings working on my dash control panels and toggle switch stuff.

Cleaned everything, polished toggles and paddles and face plates, and finally painted the lettering of the face plates.

I can't wait to see these all assembled in place.

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[S Allen]

They look awesome. Your attention to detail is remarkable.

S

[iloveredmeat]

They look awesome. Your attention to detail is remarkable.

S

Thank you Steve! I reckon it's because these small bits are the only parts I have down here to work on, so I tend to hyper-focus... but I guess that's the silver lining to being away from my actual car.

I think I'm actually running out of little bits to work on... uh-oh.

[iloveredmeat]

Well, I made some more progress on my headrests.

In the last episode, I talked about having two paint samples sent down so I could finalize my color choice.

I’m trying to replicate factory "Beige Grey Metallic 531" after it has oxidized for 56 years. Like a fine wine that gets better with age, 531 matures into a beautiful, complex color that is green-forward with a silver undertone, and just a whiff of beige. (I have some wine-enthusiast friends).

I picked the color I like most, and I’m committed to it. So, I painted the headrests with the rest of the sample paint. It just so happens that it was very, very close to the original headrest paint color - which I'm convinced was factory 531. Anyway, prepped ‘em and painted ‘em.

I bought a reupholstery kit from Dean, and for the most part, it's a good kit.

But there were some issues...

Note: I am NOT an upholsterer, so take this as a complete rookie's review.

It’s difficult. Really difficult.

I reached out to Pjackb to ask what it takes: "Beer, patience, and lots of swearing."

I'm very good at two of those.

At least I had a kit to start with. After a heaping portion of tequila, cussing, and some aggressive trimming, I wrestled the covers on. And in the end, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out... so far...

But, the hard part is next... compression-fit-cramming the upper back panels into the thick wrap-around material.

Fingers crossed. Conserving patience.

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