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.
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.
Heavy primer was then shot on both pieces, then sanded off with 600 grit paper. This will fill the remaining pits in the metal for a better finish.
Got the Goodyear Super cushions mounted and balanced, and on the car.Last Saturday I fired the engine up, Sunday I hooked up the shift selector cable and keyboard, installed the driveline, and took a short drive on the property, using a milk crate for a seat. Sprayed off some of the dust over by the well.
