Carl 61 Fleetwood Phyllis

[Clewisiii]

My machine shop called.  The 61's engine will be ready at the end of the month.
I will actually give them longer if necessary.  These are weird times.

Total price for machining all new parts and assembly $4,600.

Just dashes received my dash on Monday.  They said give them a week to give a final quote.
The original quote was for $1,500, but since they paid for shipping I am sure they will pad the final quote to reflect that.

Engine done
Carb done
Waterpump done
Starter Done
Generator done
Fuel Pump done
Power steering pump and gear done

I need
Distributor
Heater Core
Radiator
Trans

With those complete I should be able to test fire and run my engine.
I will still need the complete AC system restored.  I do not think I will do that till next year.
And I need to figure out all the wiring and vacuum tubes. Mice or squirrels had eaten all the wiring and vacuum tubes in my Fleetwood.  I bought my Series 62 parts car to use as a reference for all of the reassembly.

I will need to start asking for help or advice on the distributor.  I want to convert to pertronix, but I still need to disassemble my current distributor, clean it and put back together.  But I am not sure of the process in doing that.   I know the pin holding on the gear needs to be drilled then tapped out. But what do I need to reassemble it?

[David Greenburg]

A suggestion for the radiator; assuming your tanks are good, have them soldered to a modern 4-row core.  It will look totally original, but make a huge difference in cooling.  I did this on my ‘60, and even on a hot day with a/c on, I’m barely hitting the first mark on the temp gauge.

[Clewisiii]

Yes I still need to find someone local who can do it. I have not really looked for anyone yet.

[Lexi]

Carl I found an old timer with a distributor machine, who rebuilt 2 distributors for me. One he did with Pertronix, the other I asked that he leave it points and condenser, as a back up. I also brought him some spare parts, which he needed. Long story short he had to remove the pin as you described. What he did to replace the pin, was to press in an appropriately sized, (length and diameter), roll pin. I was advised that was a viable way to re-assemble that piece. Clay/Lexi

[Clewisiii]

Thank You.

I think the distributor needs to be my next step.  I will talk to the machine shop to see if they have a recommendation. 

[Andrew Trout]

My Dad and I had our distributor rebuilt by Fusick. The cost was $279 back in 2014.

[jagbuxx #12944]

Another option for the dash pad that I did on mine was to recover in leather.
My upholstery shop recovered it with a very thin skin of leather in one piece. No stitched seam along the forward edge like on so many others. My original pad was I not cracked or damaged so the thin leather skin was able to lay smooth.
The end caps at the base of the a-pillars I had redyed.
The work was done back in early 1999 and still looks good....

[Clewisiii]

My dash was perfect. Then a broom fell on it. And cracked a small section of the skin.  I was sad. Then resigned to the fact that it needed to be done.  At least I will get new foam out of it to.

[6caddy2]

Carl, this is 6caddy2 from the old 61/62 forum, I've followed your work since day 1!!! and love it, it is awesome to see all the progress that you have accomplished on the Fleetwood/ to your garage that houses that fine machine your restoring!!!

1-Radiator and heater core, as suggested I would have the radiator turned into a 4 core, your heater core is just a small radiator, any radiator shop worth there weight will be able to rerod and core that for you and save you $$$, had mine done locally 5years ago and not one leak!!
2- distributor, here is a link to what I'm running without one problem, not one, she fires right up, can't get off the key fast enough!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CADILLAC-1949-1962-390-365-331-BLACK-SMALL-FEMALE-CAP-ELECTRONIC-HEI-Distributor/324140490592?fits=Make%3ACadillac&hash=item4b78475f60:g:EjsAAOSwuhhenGQp

I did a complete nut and bolt all factory restoration to my caddy, including rebuilding the distributor, and you will need to go to a machine shop as I did, but no matter how long they have been in business and how well there reputation is, they will only be as good as the parts they can get, or you if you chose to rebuild yours, as I did, after 3GN awards under her belt and the car was driven to all of them, over 5,000 miles total, the rolled pin for the gear became lose and gave me fits, this is when I changed to the afore mentioned distributor, I fully understand and respect the "every nut and bolt all original" work that is put into our cars, but I want to drive mine everyday and I do w/ said distributor.
3-transmission, well you know and should remember from the other site how these trannys are and can be. You'll have to find a good shop that has a person with the knowledge of the internal problems with it and is knowledgeable in how to address them.
As far as the A/C system, I went with OLD AIR for a perfect restoration of my factory system 5yrs ago and still blows ice cold, and I live in the southwest desert area with "temps' over a 100 degrees range.
Just my 2cents worth, I love following your thread on your Fleetwood and your work is flawless!!! can't wait to see more of it!!
                                                                                                                                                                                       Joe

[Clewisiii]

6caddy2 can you give me an idea what you paid for your restoration of the AC. And what parts you sent them.  I know it would be different now but an idea would be good.

I went through and crated my AC parts last night and this morning.

[6caddy2]

Sorry for the delay Carl, I sent them the compressor, all lines, the STV, the dryer, the evaporator and the condenser. The compressor got a complete rebuild, all lines where redone with new rubber and the correct fittings as per model year and then pressure tested, the suction throttling valve was rebuilt as well as it's vacuum diaphragm, the evap was in great shape, it was hot tanked and pressure tested as well, my condenser was bad and needed to be hot tanked, rebrazed and it was pressure tested as well. you have the option to run r12 or r134a, I went r12 and works great, I have a gentlemen here who did my evacuation of the system once I installed it and added the PAG oil and gave her a charge of r12 which is still going great!! The dryer I was informed at the 2018 GN was not correct, took the points hit and moved on. It was supplied by OLD AIR and I can't fault them for this as this was all they had at the time and I was in a hurry to make the 2018 GN, that dryer is still in the system and it looks so close to factory I'm not going to mess with it.

I believe that I paid right around $750.00usd and that was with shipping. there work is second to none, it works so well, they really did a good job, plus they will replace the sticker on top of compressor for you and for a little more they will stamp the compressor with the "CAD OK"stamp in the correct yellow ink.

[Clewisiii]

Thank You. Even at twice that price it is reasonable.  I may have that done sooner then I thought. 

[6caddy2]

Yes, I thought the pricing was spot on, they said 4 to 6 weeks lead time, but I think turn around time was 5 weeks, which I thought was great considering all that is involved in the process.

[Clewisiii]

Just Dashes contacted me. My price for the dash and both end pieces will be just over $1500. I will need to call them tomorrow to pay. They said about 6 week lead time.

[Clewisiii]

Sorry Pics or it didnt happen.

[Clewisiii]

Tech Support!!!!!

Does anyone know why this thread is posting so wide.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

I have sent a message to see if we can get back to some sort of "Normality"

Bruce.

[Dan LeBlanc]

It was the eBay link in Joe's post.  I used a shorter version of it and modified his post.

Text doesn't wrap properly on hyperlinks, so when they get long, the text area gets wider and doesn't fit on the screen.

[Clewisiii]

The Dash restoration is paid for. But they will not start the restoration until July. Then 6 weeks after that.

[Clewisiii]

Fun observation. With all the work I have done on my shop it is now better insulated then my house.  My shop does not even have interior walls yet but it is 66 and my house is 72 degrees.

It is great to have a nice place to work. I still need to get the new concrete floor this year. Due to all the rain in Michigan I had about half an inch of standing water across my floor. I actually was vacuuming up worms underneath my car. The new floor will be 4 inches higher so it should not be an issue anymore