'59 Plymouth Forum

Looks like I found someone to do the upholstery work- I had a rear clip that I had promised to get down to the port of Long Beach for a customer, my friend Jim in Bakersfield usually would transport things like this and charge the customer, but, sadly, he passed away last month. Dean may remember Jim, as he helped inspect and deliver his Plymouth to the port. R.I.P, Jim, you'll be missed!

I was committed to bringing the rear clip down for my Swedish customer, so I arranged the trip with other deliveries as well to help pay for it. I delivered a '57 Cadillac transmission to Visalia, a '62 Galaxie front clip to Burbank, three bumpers to the Bumper shop in downtown Los Angeles, and finally, a front seat from a '62 Dodge 880 to Orange, Ca.
Next, I drove down near the Mexico border to San Diego, I had a set of '57 Savoy seats that a good friend asked me to drop off at his friend's place there, he has a private collection of cars, and his own upholsterer that does top notch work. I made arrangements to drop my door panels, and seats for the '59, and they would be upholstered in the original patterns with the original material I had supplied. Joe will bring them back up to me in April.

Oooooh, lookin' good, John! How about you switch up plans and bring the '59 to Carlisle?

The nice summery weather allowed me to complete some more sandblasting and painting, but found a few more things to repair first.

The header bow after blasting revealed multiple pinholes, so I cut the weak metal out, fabricated a patch panel, carefully welded it in and metal-finished it.

The rearward bow was a bugger, I never could find a replacement, so weak sections had to be cut out and replaced, thin metal was brazed back together to regain rigidity.

After sandblasting, the swivel seat frame and five wheels were painted argent.

Faulkner wrote:Oooooh, lookin' good, John! How about you switch up plans and bring the '59 to Carlisle?

I'm trying hard for that goal, Dan. Waiting on an order from Gary Goers, the upholstery, and some chrome parts yet.

---John

Great work! Really hope you can bring it to Carlisle.

Did you already swapped the heater hoses at the heater control valve?

John - Looking good, you are a lucky guy, you header bow looks brand new compared to the one I had to work with.
Dick.

I can't say it was the original, Dick, as it was rusted into two pieces. This one took a year and a half to locate, and cost more than the car!

I wouldn't doubt it. With your contacts that was quick, the only other person in the world that has one is Matthew.
Dick.

The top framework is all fitted now, aside from some minor adjustments. Next will be the hydro-electric lift system.

John - I'm curious, did you use the shoulder bolts I sent you.
Dick.

Dick Koch wrote:John - I'm curious, did you use the shoulder bolts I sent you.
Dick.

I used nearly all of them, Dick. You pretty much saved my butt with those! So much easier than trying to refurbish the rusty junk I had.

---John

Beautiful John, what color have you picked for the interior, red or blue.
Dick.