My newly acquired 1974 Eldorado convertible project car

[hornetball]

Outstanding work as usual. 

[MaR]

Time to work on the switches and controls. All the controls were just as filthy as everything else in the car so all of them needed work in some form or another. I started with the HVAC controls. The unit itself was quite dirty, the mode lever was very stiff and things like the chrome trim were worn.







With the unit apart, it was time to go over all the parts and clean everything up.












I started cleaning the contact board first and then cleaned up the chassis and the temp wheel.










The front face plate chrome trim was chipped and worn. I fixed it with the chrome pen that I used on the upper dash bezels. I also polished the clear lens.









Reassembly was reverse of disassembly: circuit board and insulator mounted to the chassis, grease the slides and pivot points, install the contact bar, attach the front bezel, the vacuum ports, and the mode lever,











Before I could put the temperature dial back in, I had to replace the worn felt piece on the front edge of the control plate.







When you put the insulator in, make sure to get it as tight as possible around the wiring. If it stick up at all, it will rub on the back edge of the temperature dial.





And here is the finished control unit:

[MaR]

Next up was the cruise control switch. It was not as intricate as the HVAC head but still just as dirty, inside and out.







The clear face plate needed polishing and the chrome trim was faded. To get the best results with the chrome pen, remove the old chrome with lacquer thinner first so you have a nice smooth surface to work with.









With the chrome refreshed and the plastic face polished, I reassembled the switch assembly. I also cleaned up the switch itself, re-wrapped the wiring, and checked the bulbs and the function of the switch.







I did the same process for the triple accessory switches that mount to the right of the instrument panel: disassemble, clean, refinish the chrome, polish the clear face, check for function, and then reassemble.














I neglected to take many pictures of the head light switch but it was the same process. Here are a few before shots and the final product.

[MaR]

All of these parts lead up to me being able to put the cast dash reinforcement frame back in. The last step before I could do that was the last of the body harnesses that were still not installed. They were the harnesses for the rear defroster, the trunk latch/pull down, and the tail lights. I think we are all getting tired of wiring harnesses at this point.





After that mess was hooked up under the dash, I was able to mount the dash frame and all of the accessory switches.

[hornetball]

Wow.  Nice.

[James Landi]

Mitchell, do you check the electrical continuity for all of the switch gear?   Just wondering if some of the electrical "rivet" connections are electrically connected on some of the circuit boards.  You're doing an incredible job with this car, and I marvel at your patience and precision.  Thank you for posting all of the pictures... makes my day,   James

[MaR]

Mitchell, do you check the electrical continuity for all of the switch gear?   Just wondering if some of the electrical "rivet" connections are electrically connected on some of the circuit boards.  You're doing an incredible job with this car, and I marvel at your patience and precision.  Thank you for posting all of the pictures... makes my day,   James

Absolutely yes. I would hate to go to all of the trouble of cleaning up the switches and then find out it does not work. For the HVAC controller, I have a GM HVAC tester that I’ll use to make sure that everything is working properly and is calibrated correctly.

[MaR]

Cluster time. The instrument cluster was actually not that bad looking to start out with. The lens needed a bit of cleaning and you could see a bit of rust here and there and some cobwebs inside but overall in decent shape.








I just started with the lens and worked my way all the way through the cluster taking things apart to clean and refurbish.















There were a few foam pieces here and there and they just crumbled to dust if you touched them.






I had to pull out the mechanism so I could get the trip meter reset knob out to repaint.











There was also a little rust on the top edge of the black bezel.









With everything cleaned up, it was time to put it all back together and replace the degraded foam inserts.




































The flexible circuit board had some lifted traces at the connector termination. I have some very thin industrial grade double sided tape that I used to reattach the traces.









One of the interesting things that I noticed was that there was a 1/10 of a mile wheel on the odometer that is hidden when the bezel is in place. I'm not sure why the decision was made to cover it when it was already a part of the odometer assembly.

[MaR]

Back to the car itself. I installed the passenger side lower dash frame with the lower instrument panel, the glove box door, and the ash tray assembly. Once that part was in, I was able to install the drivers side lower dash frame and mounted the components that were mounted to that frame.








With those pieces in, I mounted the trim panels on the drivers side of the dash.





And then I mounted the lower knee panel and the passenger side trim panel.







I need to put the radio and the driver side ducting in before I can put any more of the dash in. The radio itself needs some real TLC so that will be a little while before I can finish that. I may just skip it for a while and push on.

[MaR]

I also had a few minutes to play with my test steering wheel repair. I sanded the epoxy putty and then put a coat of filler primer on it to show the areas that still need more epoxy.

[hornetball]

Don't know if you saw my reference photo of the back of my instrument panel, but I had 2 socket colors, black (for 161 bulbs -- night backlighting) and light gray (for 194 bulbs, high beam and turn signals).  Same color scheme was also used on the upper dash with the brighter 194 bulbs used for more severe warning lights.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the steering wheel.

[MaR]

Don't know if you saw my reference photo of the back of my instrument panel, but I had 2 socket colors, black (for 161 bulbs -- night backlighting) and light gray (for 194 bulbs, high beam and turn signals).  Same color scheme was also used on the upper dash with the brighter 194 bulbs used for more severe warning lights.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the steering wheel.

Mine are like that also. The sockets are physically the same so either socket will work. I have a bunch of gray sockets from other projects so I just use them to replace either one and then just mark the ones that were black with a sharpie.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

One of the interesting things that I noticed was that there was a 1/10 of a mile wheel on the odometer that is hidden when the bezel is in place. I'm not sure why the decision was made to cover it when it was already a part of the odometer assembly.   

I found that as well when I rebuilt the cluster in my '72 when converting it to Metric.   Thought about opening up the slot to show the extra wheel, but considered against it, as I didn't have a second piece in case I stuffed it up.

Maybe when I rebuild it next time.

Bruce.

PS.   Maybe Cadillac thought that simply having the 1/10th mile wheel on the trip meter was sufficient.   Or, the final designers thought it looked better as it was.

[hornetball]

Mine are like that also. The sockets are physically the same so either socket will work. I have a bunch of gray sockets from other projects so I just use them to replace either one and then just mark the ones that were black with a sharpie.

I see your sharpie marks now.  I think you may have made a mistake as the lower-left bulb on the cluster (which ends up being right turn indicator when turned around) should be a gray/194.

Other thing I noticed is that the original bulbs used an internal glass blob color to differentiate between 194s (white blob -- gray socket) and 161s (blue blob -- black socket).  Replacement bulbs don't have that feature.

[MaR]

I see your sharpie marks now.  I think you may have made a mistake as the lower-left bulb on the cluster (which ends up being right turn indicator when turned around) should be a gray/194.

Other thing I noticed is that the original bulbs used an internal glass blob color to differentiate between 194s (white blob -- gray socket) and 161s (blue blob -- black socket).  Replacement bulbs don't have that feature.

I think what you are seeing are just holes in the back of some of the sockets. The black marks I made are not really visible in those pics for some reason. I'll look at my old bulbs for those glass blobs, I could still make out the numbers so I really did not pay any attention to the insides.

[James Landi]

A relatively prosaic question, and perhaps a philosophical/ ethical one as well, as follows:  Your work is amazingly detailed and beautifully executed, and when you've painstakingly completed it, it will certainly be "as new" since all of the wear and service life related failures will have been replaced.  Did you consider, when you had the odometer number wheels in your hand, to reset them to zero as a way to memorialize your meticulous restoration effort? I mention this because with restored old wooden motor, sailing yachts, and antique and vintage autos, the thoroughly restored item has both tremendous intrinsic and extrinsic value, as it is often, one of a kind that started its life as a production boat or car.  I am surmising that your car will be worth way more than a low mileage well protected example that has NOT been restored and that could very well encounter major issues simply because many parts are, simply put, old.  James

[hornetball]

I dunno' about messing with odometers.  Cars this age usually say odometer "exempt" on the title, but I'm not sure that gets you around the various tampering laws.

That said, this really shows the pragmatic value of having a build thread.  It serves a purpose similar to a restoration/project logbook.  In this case, we know exactly the mileage, date and quality of work related to this restoration based upon pictures and posts.  That's one of the reasons I made a thread too.  I also value reader feedback since I don't have the extensive knowledge on these cars that many here possess.

[MaR]

A relatively prosaic question, and perhaps a philosophical/ ethical one as well, as follows:  Your work is amazingly detailed and beautifully executed, and when you've painstakingly completed it, it will certainly be "as new" since all of the wear and service life related failures will have been replaced.  Did you consider, when you had the odometer number wheels in your hand, to reset them to zero as a way to memorialize your meticulous restoration effort? I mention this because with restored old wooden motor, sailing yachts, and antique and vintage autos, the thoroughly restored item has both tremendous intrinsic and extrinsic value, as it is often, one of a kind that started its life as a production boat or car.  I am surmising that your car will be worth way more than a low mileage well protected example that has NOT been restored and that could very well encounter major issues simply because many parts are, simply put, old.  James

I could have, the fun of seeing the first few miles roll on the odometer would be an interesting experience but ultimately I (and by extension everyone here) would know the truth. This car will never be a show piece. It’s not the right year for the ultimate in collectivity, it has had some accident damage and panels replaced, and what I want out of if it will look period correct but it won’t be anything that you could have actually bought from a dealership. I enjoy the restoration aspect, and the added bonus is having a nice example of the car that I want in the end.

[MaR]

I had a few minutes to put the upper and middle dash pad back in. I mostly wanted to put them in to get them out of harms way. I'm always worried that I'll mess them up when they are sitting around not in the car.







I really wish they fit better but I that's about as good as they will get. I still need to finish up the vents and install the wiper switch.

[MaR]

Speaking of wiper switches, it's one of the last things that goes on the dash that needs to be cleaned up. The wiper switch has to be the worst cosmetic condition part on the dash. The clear plastic bezel has numerous cracks, the chrome bezel is in poor condition and most of the chrome has worn off the face.














A while ago, I purchased a very nice wiper switch from Charles here on the forum. Unfortunately, there are two different versions of the switches and the plugs were different. Rather than cutting the wires and splicing on the correct plugs, I opted to salvage the good parts from the replacement switch to rebuilt my current one. One of the biggest reasons was that the slider action on my existing switch was actually smoother than the replacement one; it's unlikely that mine was driven very often in the rain is my assumption. Here is the replacement switch:





And here is the difference in the plugs. The upper set is what is on my switch and the lower plug is what is on the replacement.





Here is the replacement clear face:





I used the handy chrome pen to refresh the black and chrome portion of the old face:





And here is the switch reassembled and the wiring pigtail re-wrapped. I used most of the parts from the replacement switch and the old switch control board and harness.







Once I get the switch back in, I need to work on the wiper motor itself. The motor works but something made a horrible crunching sound so either the pump for the washers died or something on the pulse mechanism self destructed.