Restoring the Mothership – 68 DeVille

[DeVille68]

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.

Yeah, since 1 year and 10 months now! This weekend I will try to paint the engine! 
Best regards,
Nicolas

[Bentley]

I finally got around to restoring the hubcaps. These two photos are the "before" of the hubcap and emblem.

[Bentley]

You can buy repro emblems, but I wanted to take a shot at repainting them myself. I chose these colors for the gold, blue, black and red in the emblem. I bought them at a local craft store.

[Bentley]

First, I soaked the emblems in a solution of water and Mr. Clean. I used a hubcap to hold the emblem while I painted it. Using a #2 brush, I painted one color at a time, beginning with red. When I got to the gold part, I painted over the ducks, and then lightly sanded the paint off them because they are supposed to be bare metal. When I did this sanding, I accidentally sanded off some of the red and had to repaint it, For this reason, I recommend you paint the red last

[Bentley]

I needed a sealer, but the water-based sealers they sell at the craft store would not hold up. I found this glue that said "crystal clear" on its packaging. It's made by Loctitie, so I was willing to try it. I tested it on the back of an emblem. When it dried, it really was crystal clear. So, I brushed it on the finished, painted emblems. Below is a photo of the finished emblems with the glue applied.

[Bentley]

I didn't know how to repaint the concentric black rings on the hubcap. I tired using a Sharpie and painting a ring freehand, but it didn't look very good. I do have an idea on a fixture I can build to paint these rings on perfectly. But that will take some time and engineering. So for now, I decided to remove all the remaining black rings with 0000 steel wool. Then I polished the hubaps with Autosol. Here are a couple of finished hubcaps.

[Highwayman68]

I plan to have a pinstriper take a shot at painting the circular lines if I can find one who will try it.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Place the cap on one of those Lazy Susans that you can get at a homewares shop, and with a brush in hand, spin the cap whilst sitting down with your hand resting on something clear of the spinning cap and lower the paint-laden brush to apply the paint.

Bruce.

PS.   The above was just a thought, but it should work.

[Highwayman68]

Place the cap on one of those Lazy Susans that you can get at a homewares shop, and with a brush in hand, spin the cap whilst sitting down with your hand resting on something clear of the spinning cap and lower the paint-laden brush to apply the paint.

Bruce.

PS.   The above was just a thought, but it should work.

This is actually a very good thought, I might look into building something like this.

I can attache the lazy Susan to a flat board. Then attached a vertical arm that can be moved along the edge of the board to line up with each of the circles. Then make an adjustable horizontal arm that can hold a paint brush that applies paint perfectly in the right place and spin the hubcap.

[Bentley]

Bruce, that's a good idea. Maybe I would need some sort of fixture to rest my hand on to keep it steady while applying the paint.

Mark, that was my idea also. Attached is a sketch. Lots of pieces to hobble together, but it should work. Let me know if you build it

[Highwayman68]

Bruce, that's a good idea. Maybe I would need some sort of fixture to rest my hand on to keep it steady while applying the paint.

Mark, that was my idea also. Attached is a sketch. Lots of pieces to hobble together, but it should work. Let me know if you build it

I am thinking about attaching the vertical arm on the outside to obtain more stability of the brush and not needing to hold the brush and only rotate the outer edge of the hubcap.

Sorry for hijacking the thread with this.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Sorry for hijacking the thread with this.

That's okay.

I remember seeing an article in Car Life Magazine on the mid '60's Pontiacs being built, and they had a full length jig that went on the side of the car, and the "painter" simply ran a small paint roller straight down the length of the vehicle, applying the pinstripe.

This meant that they didn't have to have a dedicated "Pinstriper" to apply the stripes.

I would dig up the photo, but alas, couldn't post it here.

Bruce.

[Bentley]

I finished the third stage of the restoration – the trunk. I knew what had to be done, but didn't know the correct order. So, of course, I did all the steps in the wrong order. If you're considering restoring yours I'll save you some time and share with you what I learned here. I'll go into detail with photos next.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
I recommend doing these steps in this order:

1. Remove the old lining, pressboards and rubber pads and clean the trunk floor.

2. Glue the liner material to the rear wheel inner fenders. Put it all the way down to the floor. You'll cover it up when you put the lining on the floor.

3. Put the pressboaord pieces in place.

4. Put the liner padding in place.

5. Cut and put the liner material on the floor. Cover the bases of the pressboards and the liner material from the rear inner fenders.

6. Put the liner material on the back wall of the trunk (the rear bumper side).

Okay, here's the long version. I bought the pressboard kit from OPGI. I placed each new panel on top of its corresponding old panel to see how it fit. Each panel matched perfectly.

Next I cleaned the bare floor of the trunk. There was some surface rust under the spare tire area from a spilled beverage, so I sanded down the whole floor surface. Note, that pink looking stuff on the rear inner fenders is actually the original glue. Then I coated the whole trunk floor with POR 15.

[Bentley]

I bought both the liner and padding at A-1 Foam and Fabric in Santa Ana, CA, https://a1foamandfabrics.com/. I brought a swatch of my original trunk liner to them and it turns out they had a near perfect match. Their part #/ description  is TL-DG trunkliner, dark grey 54" R50 CPT. I bought 4 yards.

If you use this material look carefully at both sides before you cut it. You'll see that they are slightly different, with one side slightly darker than the other. When you cut the liner material, make sure you cut it with the correct side up. I cut it upside down and had to go back and buy more liner material.

I took some of the new liner material and the old spare tire cover to the upholstery shop so they could make a new spare tire cover.

Next, I cleaned up the original rubber mats and put them into place. Then I made a paper template of the floor area and used it to cut the liner padding, and glued it down. Then I put the liner material down on the floor. I glued everything down with contact cement.

Next I put the pressboard panels in. As I said earlier, this was the wrong order, but fortunately everything worked out. The panels scratch and scuff easily. In retrospect, I wish I had sprayed them with a matte-finish protective spray first.

The back panel is easy to figure out as are the hinge boxes. But the side panels are counterintuitive. The big side goes at the top and the small side goes on the floor. I had to really bend the tops of these to make them fit into place. Also, back ends stuck out, and I could not figure out where to put them. So I carefully cut part of them off.

[Bentley]

Finally I repositioned the liner material over the bases of the pressboard panels. Then I cut and glued the liner material on the back wall of the trunk, next to the rear bumper.

I'm pleased with the way it turned out. The only issue I'm having is the hinge boxes won't stay up. With one closing of the trunk, they fall down. I talked to a guy at a car show who had an Oldsmoblile with similar panels in the trunk. He said he had to buy special clips to fasten the hinge boxes in place. If anyone has any info on this or any tips on how to keep them in place I would appreciate it.

[Cadillac Fleetwood]

Each pressboard hinge panel had two special fasteners which held it to the metal hinge box. Small barbs dug into the pressboard.  I'll try to round up a couple of them, and post a photo here.

In my 1968 Coupe DeVille's trunk, one of the carpet liners for the wall of the trunk nearest the bumper, was cut long, so as to cover the body sheet metal aft of the trunk latch.

-Charles Fares

[Highwayman68]

Charles I will need 3 of these clips also. I am also redoing my trunk now on my 68. I have one clip.

[Bentley]

Charles,

Thanks for clarifying the hinge box question.

I agree the sheet metal behind the trunk latch should not be exposed. I'll either put a small patch there, or replace that entire strip of liner. It will be easy to remove. I didn't put much glue on this piece of liner in case I ever have to work on the wiring it covers.

[dgll411]

hello, hope someone sees this. I am  doing my trunk over. I am trying to figure out where the largest pressboard goes. The one that is in the photo laid over the old one. Does it go between the hinges? and if so how is it held in place? thanks