I'm starting to do a bit of work to my Brougham so I thought I would share the progress. (as slow as it may be).
I'm starting out by getting all of the chrome and stainless organized to bring to the plater. My bumpers had a good bit of damage. The front was cracked in several places, apparently from bottoming out, which also dented it. I started out by putting a hydraulic jack inside the bumper, (supported by a thick metal plate on the side I was not straightening) then applying some pressure with the jack while I heated the bumper with a torch. I was able to perfectly align the cracked areas.
I then drilled a small hole at the end of each crack, V'd out the crack then tig welded it. This old porous aluminum doesn't really weld the best but it should be well strong enough as long as the car does not continue to smash into things as it once did.
The outer edge of the front bumper had some very deep gouges so I added some weld material there so it could be grinded back to it's proper shape.
The rear bumpers are rather corroded, especially inside where the exhaust was once routed. I drilled out all of the broken bolts for the stainless louvers then had to weld in material as it had mostly corroded away, then drill/tap new holes for the louvers. There was a good bit of damage at the drain holes which I also welded up. The rear bumpers welded very poorly but there should be enough material for a strong base.
I will spend tomorrow disassembling the dash so I can harvest the rest of the chrome that needs to be restored. Once I get everything to the plater the body is coming off the frame....
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Good for you. It's good you know how to heli-arc.
I spent all day on 615 reassembling the instrument cluster and all the under dash stuff. Only had to redo it 3 or 4 times. Still not quite right, these cars are hard to work on!
David
David, I agree completely, this car is certainly difficult to work on.
I spent the day disassembling the dash so I could get the rest of the chrome I need for the plater. I think I'm going to put back a few beers before I work on this area of the car again.
There are little chrome buttons over the gauge centers that appeared to be riveted on somehow. I dremeled off the backside to remove then drilled and tapped them so I can re-install with small stainless screws.
I broke one of the plastic inserts for one of the stereo bezels. Available?
If anyone can help me out on some parts identification, I don't know what the parts are in the first 2 pics (1st part is not from dash). 2nd pic, the little slider attached to a cable and the button looked like it once had a vacuum line attached.
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First picture sure looks familiar but I can't quite place it . Hinge of some sort ? Second picture is the wiper mechanism . Button activates the washer . P Tesone CLC # 6876
Here's a couple of photos of the wiper mechanism in place . Paul Tesone CLC #6876
The part in the first picture should be the plate hiding a hole in the rear door jamb. You should have two of them if I'm not wrong, one for each side.
Roger
Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it. And yes I have two of the hinged pieces.
Sure would be easier if I was the one that took this car apart :)
Seeing your early car dash explains a small mystery I have found. The vertical screws that hold the heating and A/C controls attach to u-nuts on the dash. This is how the service manual describes removing the instrument cluster is by removing the 4 visible I/P screws it should come out. I must have spent an hour attempting to remove my I/P the 1st time as I was following the manual, but the I/P was still stuck to the dash. My car is midyear 58. I finally tried slipping a thin metal blade between the bottom of the I/P and the mating metal dash and found the problem. There must have been an engineering change as the u-nuts moved up to features on the I/P and the screws were longer to engage them, once those were removed, the I/P pulled out (that is a loose term as there is hardly any service loop for the harness and speedo cable), the travel distance is small.
It would be interesting to know where the break point in production was to the later version. I have never found a service bulletin either clarifying the procedure.
David
G'day Jim,
I can relate to your problems of not knowing where things come from.
I restored a '59 T'Bird, and still have two small panel parts that never went back into it because nobody could tel me where they went. Even the owner, who stripped it couldn't remember.
Bruce. >:D
Well I've got just about every last piece of chrome and stainless loaded into my pickup but I'm stuck on one part.
The power seat controls have little metal knobs (which are pitted) and I can not figure out how to remove them.
Any suggestions? Thanks!
Hi Jim,
I must second Bruce's comments about not knowing where some of the parts come from.
My problem is I don't know where just about ALL the parts come from. I also did not strip my car.
With a lot of help from my friends on this forum I am getting there.
Good luck to you and don't forget to have fun.
Ken Francis
Thanks guys. When it comes time for assembly I will certainly be scratching my head. Right now I'm just taking it one piece at a time :)
Tonight I disassembled the grille so it could be re-anodized and polished. After removing all of the screws that hold the grille together, every other vertical slat in the grille is removed by canting it to the side and sliding it out of the horizontal slats. Once those are out the horizontal slats are easily canted and removed from the remaining vertical slats.
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I wanted a little more room to work on the car on nice days so I installed a winch under my work bench. Now I can pull the car in and out of the garage easily. :)
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I rolled the car out today and finished removing the dashboard. WOW there is a lot of wiring! Thankfully the harness looks to be in excellent shape, just rather dusty. Not sure how it could be cleaned, I'm thinking I may just clean it off as best as possible and re-wrap it in cloth electrical tape.
Since I prefer working on cars that are nice and shiny (and just out of curiosity) I went over the car with a high speed buffer, some 3M compound and a gray foam pad.
Kind of have a dilemma here. The car actually looks great polished out but it does have some rather significant flaws such as the big chips in the paint on a few edges and the paint is starting to crack at the front leaded-in area by the fender.
Not sure if I should have the car completely repainted or just have a body shop fix the flaws and blend it in.
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Started to inventory air suspension parts. Seems most parts are new or restored with the exception of the air pump.
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I thought the window frames could just be polished but upon closer inspection (polishing) they do have some pitting, so I disassembled everything for plating/polishing.
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Spent a bit of time today removing the engine/interior wiring harness.
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