Restoring the Mothership – 68 DeVille

[Bentley]

I brought the seat transmission that I had cleaned and lubricated into the upholstery shop. We put the front seat on a bench, and put the transmission back in. We applied voltage to test it. The motor turned perfectly and the seat moved back and forth partially, then stopped. Same thing happened when we tried to move it up and down. It moved, then stopped. So we took the transmission out again.

This time we took apart the portion with the electrical connector. See second photo. The wires are soldered onto the cylinders, so we figured this part must be an electrical field. So we cleaned the cylinders and their mating pins (see third photo) with solvent to allow for a good electrical connection. Then we put it back together and put it back on the seat. This time the seat moved a lot better, but still didn't move all the way. We removed the track, and cleaned and lubricated it, and now it moves completely.

Meanwhile the top frame is prepped for paint.

[Bentley]

The upholstery shop got busy with other work, and got behind on my car. I didn't complain because my son wanted to do a haunted house in our garage for Halloween. And with the car out of the garage we had the room to do it. Now they're devoting more time to my project.

Here's what's been done in order of the photos below. The top frame was painted. The padding and carpet were installed. They removed the old vinyl from the rear panels and glued in the new vinyl. As part of this process, they put new foam padding in the arm rests and tops of the panels (next to the windows).

[DeVille68]

looks good!
I sea a seam along the middle. Did you sew this in? Wouldn't it have been possible to glue the vinyl on like original without a seam?

[Bentley]

Nicolas,

Thanks for pointing out that seam. They sewed it. I'll ask about it.

[DeVille68]

I noticed this, because the previous owner also had the door panel refinished. And they did put a leather on top of the vinyl and also had done this seam. Which looks good on its own, but together with the original passenger door panel, looks quite out of place.

So if your panels are all the same, it may look quite good.

Best regards,
Nicolas

[Bentley]

Nicolas,

I asked the upholstery guy about this. He said when the car was built, the factory vacuum formed the material onto the arm rest. So essentially it is a molded material. He removed this material down to the fiberglass panel, and recovered it with vinyl. He says the only way to recover it is to sew a seam.  He'll do the same thing with the front door arm rests. So the front arm rests and rear arm rests will all look the same.

[Bentley]

All seating is finished, except for installing buttons on the back seat. Seats were rebuilt from the springs up with all new burlap and foam. The side panels for the rear are installed. Today, they will be working on the door panels.

[DeVille68]

nice!

[spolij]

Coco Cola cleans everything!! lol

[Bentley]

We're in the home stretch now. Here's the latest progress.

[rajeevx7]

That top though! Beautiful show room-like

[Bentley]

RajeevX7,

Thanks. It's a cloth top. The fabric is Haartz Twillfast.

[Bentley]

I picked it up last week, but it has been raining here, and yesterday was the first sunny day I could drive it and take some pictures. I'll do this in a few separate posts.

1. The top material is Haartz Twillfast.

[Bentley]

2. I wanted to be sure that the color on the backs of the front seats matched the seating surfaces, so I had them "wrap" the backs in the same vinyl, instead of dying them. They did dye the door pull handles and the cups for the door release latches. These were dyed to match the vinyl color. Also, I had the shop make a set of floor mats from the same carpet so they would match.

[Bentley]

3. The convertible top material had only one color available for the liner: black. So I had the frame rails painted black, and the well liner was done in black also. This makes a nice seamless look for the inside top part of the car.

[Bentley]

4. The seat belts were all rewebbed by Seat Belt Planet.

[Bentley]

5. The simulated rosewood veneer for the dash is from Captain Cadillac's Cove. He also supplied some other misc. parts.

[Bentley]

6. I had a nice drive for about 30 minutes at highway speed to get the engine good and warmed up after all that sitting at the upholstery shop. I have to leave the top up for two weeks so the material can relax, so this drive was with top up. The car seems 20 decibles quieter now with the Dynamat, new padding and carpet on the floors. Also, the front third of the inside top has a panel of extra material. This helps dampen sound. The top seals perfectly at the header; I didn't feel any air coming in. There is an issue with one of the power vent windows not sealing properly, and that's causing some wind noise. But that should be an easy adjustment. The car is so well-sealed, that if all windows are up, I have to slam the door to close it. If I lower the window about an inch, the door closes much easier.

Here's a picture of me driving with 3 fingers. Do any of you drive your Caddys like this. You can't do it with a modern car.

Thanks to all of you who have helped with this project. I couldn't have done it without you. Looking forward to a fun summer car show season.

[DeVille68]

Ha!  Funny. This is EXACTLY my seating position as well! 

Best regards,
Nicolas

[Bentley]

Thanks Nicolas. And keep us posted on your engine rebuild. I'm sure you're getting anxious to get behind the wheel of it again soon.