Carl 61 Fleetwood Phyllis

[Clewisiii]

Going through all my interior chrome and headlight buckets.

Sorting my parts and selecting the best to rechrome from the ones that I have extra of.

Some parts I will not rechromed. So sorting those out.


Finally getting to take apart the Fleetwood interior door pulls. The red lenses are soldered in place. I need to work those out. I am also trying to find another set because I am missing some red lenses.



I will lay out what I have and ask him how far $5000 will get me. I will need to plan for the future for the rest. The other big set is all the door window frames. Those will all need to be redone.

[Clewisiii]

I need to take the face and chrome ring off my clock. Can somebody talk me through that.

[Clewisiii]

The stuff that I do not think is worth rechroming.

I think I can buy repops for

Mirror knob
Window switch buttons
I think I have seen door locks
I have seen sun visor brackets but some of the listings say they are to long for 61. But I think these are impossible to rechrome.

I think I will live with the window switch housings.

I can buy new seat switch button assembly. But I will need to think about the seat switch housing.

The headlight knob and radio knobs are in good shape. I may just polish those.

[Clewisiii]

I believe I have been told that the steering wheel restorer who recasts the wheels can also restore the shifter stalks. I hope he can because I do not know how to get these part.

[David King (kz78hy)]

Chrome polish can go a long way to making most of these parts acceptable.  I don't use 0000 steel wool as it does scratch in my opinion.  Those sun visor, & switch parts after a good clean/polish should be fine.

[Clewisiii]

The Fleetwood door pulls did clean up very nice. But there is one that is very rough on the top. But if I rechrome this one I would need to do them all.

I will have to get a quote for them to be rechromed and use that to determine if I am willing to pay for it.

[Clewisiii]

I ordered retainer locks to replace on these window switches.

These are rusted bent and broken. I won't replate the switches. But I will disassemble to clean and polish them all.

[6262]

I ordered retainer locks to replace on these window switches.

Where did you find them?

[Clewisiii]

Where did you find them?

There are two types. One with locks to the housing. One with locks to the wire connector. I bought from Fusick and Classic industries. I whipped one out of inventory

[Clewisiii]

These are what I care the most about rechroming. But these are assemblies with 3-4 parts each and a blend of bright and brush chrome.



The parts are riveted together. But I am going to talk to the platers before I drill out the rivets.


I thought the pull handles were riveted. But then I realized it was just a stud in the casting. I may solder these pins when reassembly.

[Cadillac Jack 82]

So long as the pot metal isnt pitted badly they should be okay.  Problem is heat with 60 yo pot metal when they get dipped.  If you can polish them as is I'd keep em as is.  Just my .02

[Cadillac Jack 82]

I need to take the face and chrome ring off my clock. Can somebody talk me through that.

Theyre the same for 61 to 64.  Theres a NOS lens or two on Ebay now.  I can give you a 63 dated one when I get my 64 one rebuilt.  Its clean just needs service.

[Clewisiii]

I had to push off my visit to the chrome shop this Saturday. I had a last minute issue at University of Michigan to attend.

I am going to have to call the shop this week to see if they will be open this Saturday during Easter Weekend.

I have packaged up most of the parts that I want to review with them. Then I spent about 2 hours on Sunday organizing car and part photos that I have been dumping on my laptop. If I ever sell my car I will give the new owner all these photos to go along with it.

[Clewisiii]

I tried cleaning up what looked like stained clock arms. But looks like this is just the way they were made. Cleaning and q tips did nothing.

[Cadillac Jack 82]

Its probably from years of smoking in the car.  They should be bright white.

[Clewisiii]

I keep going back and forth on the polishing. Looks good then the residue on my fingers makes it look dirty again. I need to bring in some fresh polishing towels.



Looks like the most important thing is polishing the rocker rod. Stops the buttons from hanging up.

I bought all the long retainers they had. I will need to order 7 more when they get a new supply.

[Clewisiii]

The closest paint colors for the dash I could find.

I noticed that there was a difference between my parts car and my Fleetwood.

My Fleetwood has a bronze tint and is closer to the right. But a little darker.

My parts car is closer to the left but a little lighter and more metallic

I think I like both. But I think the left would look better in car.

[Clewisiii]

Which do you like with the chrome around it. Like this I think I like the lighter better.

[Cadillac Jack 82]

The lighter one looks closer to whats in my friends 61.  Its a silvery gray.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

It is hard to tell, but the lighter one does look better to me.   But, it is not my car.

I have tossed in the two pictures for comparison.   I am referring to the woodgrain applique, light and dark.   The one of the right side is standard 1972, and the one of the dash cluster is 1971

I had to use the 1971 darker one as the 1972 one that I had was butchered to be useless.

I like the lighter colour.   To me it is classier.

Bruce.