Restoring the Mothership – 68 DeVille

[Bentley]

Thanks, Mark.

[DeVille68]

nice!

Are you putting your rosewood veneer back into the dash too?

[Bentley]

Yes, I will order it from Captain Cadillac. Once I receive it, I will stain and finish the door panels to match.

[Bentley]

Here is a photo of the finished steering wheel. This isn't a good photo because the flash on the camera distorted the color. In reality, the color really matches nicely with the rest of the vinyl. I'm happy with SEM products and the consistency they maintain with their color.

I'm pleased with the way the steering wheel turned out. But I had to fill in and paint over the original chrome ring around the circumference of the wheel. After the interior is complete, I might buy a used steering wheel in good condition with no cracks, and with the chrome ring intact. Then I'll paint it with this same SEM paint.

I dropped off the car at the upholstery shop today. More posts to come.

[Bentley]

It's been a while since I've updated here so I'll do a few posts, each with a different topic. The first topic is seat belts. When I bought the car the rear seat belts had been removed. So I installed a set of GM belts that I bought from a junk yard. Now that I'm restoring the interior, I learned that the belts on this car had the Cadillac logo in the buckle. I found three buckles at Honest John's Caddy Corner (thanks Nicolas). They needed a little cleaning and polishing. I cleaned them with soap and water, then scrubbed them with steel wool. Then I polished them with AutoSol. I touched up the black part of the push-button with a black Sharpie marker. The first two photos are before and after.

My front seat belts are original and have the Cadillac logo in the buckles. After I clean and polish them, I will send all six sets of buckles to Seat Belt Planet for rewebbing. They have many stock colors of webbing to choose from on their web site. I selected three possible colors and asked them to send me samples.

At the upholstery shop, I attempted find a match for my original Sandalwood leather in the vinyl swatch book. I chose Enduratex # GGR-7220. But when I placed the 3 seat belt swatches next to it, none of them worked. See third photo. The white was too white, and the other 2 colors were in the wrong tonal range. So I called up the nice people at Seat Belt Planet and they sent me another sample. This time I chose #31, Camel. See fourth photo. This matched much better.

[Bentley]

Every project has a few hiccups along the way, and mine is no exception. At the upholstery shop the door and rear side panels are off the car and most of the vinyl top is off the frame. They discovered some severe rust on the header beam of the top frame. See first photo. It will need to be ground down and welded. Also the rear side panels are cracked. See second photo. Not a big deal â€" they can repair them with fiberglass. But, of course, extra cost.

[DeVille68]

Nice!

Yes, my front bow has the same issue. Completely rusted out. But I just put some POR15 over it, then glued the weatherstrip down. So far no issues. Front bow still holds up and is tight.

Have you also sent the base to the guys as Seat Belt Planet?
I am missing the cover for the base and one is cracked. How are yours? I think those covers were attached before webbing the seat belt.

[Bentley]

Nicolas, I have not sent the bases out for re-webbing yet. My front bases are good. They just need to be cleaned up. Then I'll send all six sets to Seat Belt Planet. You can get replacement covers from OPGI. I'm not sure how to pop the covers on and off, but I'm sure someone here knows how.

[Bentley]

The upholstery shop removed the rosewood side panels for me to refinish. There are four in total - two in the front and two in the rear. The first photo shows the two from the rear, one is up and the other down. What's interesting to me is the stamp from Cadillac's vendor, Evans Products. The next photo shows a date stamp from when these were made, August 17, 1967.

In order to separate the wood panel from the frame, you have to grind off the rivets on the back (third photo). Then you pry the two pieces apart (fourth photo). The last photo shows the two pieces separated. Notice how dark the wood stain was along the edges. That dark red color is the original stain. The lighter color on the wood is from fifty years of oxidation.

[DeVille68]

jep! Mine looked just the same. Also evans products.
You can see how they turned out in my "restoration blog".

Be careful when sanding those wood veneers because they are quite thin

[Bentley]

Hi Nicolas,

Thanks for the tip. I looked at your blog. I will use the same technique with the razor scraper for the outside edges. Yes, these veneers are very thin. What grade of sandpaper should I start with?

Your finished panels came out beautiful. Did you apply the stain and have the boat repair vendor spray the clear coat? I was thinking of applying both the stain and the clear coat with a brush. But after looking at your blog, I realized it looks so much better when the clear coat is sprayed on. I don't have a spray gun or a compressor, so I might take them to a boat or wood refinishing place.

[Bentley]

The rosewood dash veneer arrived from Captain Cadillac's Cove (first photo). The grain pattern and the color are correct. It is not wood, but some type of poly material. I checked it for fit on the car and it fits perfectly. When I refinish the four rosewood side panels they will all match with this piece for the dash.

The shop is repairing the cracks in the back side panels with fiberglass (last two photos).

[Bentley]

I cleaned up the front seat buckles over the weekend. The first two photos are before and after. I also painted the retractor housings the same color as the vinyl in the front of the interior (third photo). So everything is ready to send to Seat Belt Planet for the 6 new belts. I will send the housings with the buckles so they can thread the retractable lap belts through the housings before they connect them to the retractors.

[Bentley]

I brought one of the wood panels pieces into the hardware store to select a stain that would match. I chose Varathane stain in the color Kona. See first two photos attached. One is the wood panel, and the other is the veneer for the dash. Remember, the veneer is a replica, so I tried to find a stain that would match both.

Next, I stripped off the edges of the wood panels. These parts of the panels were protected by the frame and never exposed, so they give you an approximate original color. Because they were never exposed, they are about 1 mil. higher than the rest of the panels. I used a razor scraper to scrape them off. See next two photos.

Finally, I prepped them for paint. Because these wood veneers are only about 1 to 2 mil. thick, I was cautious not to use an overly coarse sandpaper. I started with #220 on the edges only. Then used #320 all over, Then I finished with #400. The last photo is all four pieces prepped for stain.

[metalblessing]

Enjoying following this thread. Some really good work here.

[Bentley]

Blake,

Thanks. Hopefully some of the things I'm learning as I do this also apply to your car

Wes

[Bentley]

I applied the stain to the rosewood panels and when it dried it was very uneven. The 50-year old rosewood is so dry that is soaks up the stain like Styrofoam. So I sanded them down again and applied a pre-stain conditioner. This coats the wood so the stain will go on evenly. I let it dry, and applied the stain again. The result was much better. See first photo. The next step is to apply polyurethane clear coat. For this, I'll spray on a light coat, let it dry and sand with 320 before spraying on another coat. Per the manufacturer's directions, I'll do a total of 4 coats.

The upholstery shop took the front seat out of the car so now is the time to address the issue of the 6-way power seat motor turning, but the seat barely moving. We removed the transmission so I could take it apart, clean it and re-grease. Art Gardner was right. Even someone mechanically-challenged like me can do this. See second and third photos. I propped up the two halves and put a few drops of oil on each cable, so the oil would seep down (fourth photo). Then I took all the parts out, cleaned them and applied fresh grease. When I put everything back together the cables turn really easily. So, I think the next step will be to put the transmission back in, apply power to the motor and see how well the seat moves.

[DeVille68]

nice!

[Bentley]

The seat belts arrived from Seat Belt Planet. The color matched their sample perfectly. Overall, I'm very pleased with their work.

[Bentley]

There was delay over the color of the top material. When I chose the color from the little postage stamp-size sample in the book, it looked about right. But when the material came in, we snipped of a few inches and laid it on the car. It was waaaaaay too dark. The top is supposed to be sandalwood, not brown. I told the shop they would need to send the material back and I selected another swatch. This time I asked for a sample first. It arrived and we laid it on the car. See first photo. This is the correct color.

The only issue is this color ONLY comes with a black lining. And there are no other manufacturers who make a sandalwood top material with a matching lining. The original top was sandalwood on the outside with a sandalwood lining. The frame rails were painted beige from the factory to match the lining. Now that I'll be using a material with a black lining, I'll have to paint the frame rails black to match. I've seen this with many cars from this era and I like the way it looks. But it isn't the original color scheme.

Meanwhile the Dynamat is in. I chose to put it on the floor only. Some builders put it everywhere in the interior to help the acoustics. I might do that if it were a hardtop. But in a convertible driven primarily with the top down, the sound quality isn't that important.