My newly acquired 1974 Eldorado convertible project car

[MaR]

Another project I needed to progress on is getting the Talisman front console mounted. I had originally planned on making a bracket that would bolt under the inner seat brackets but it turned out that mounting it in that style was just not the right route to go. Instead, I needed to make an adapter pedestal ring to adapt the bottom of the console to the floorpan of the Eldorado. It also brings the height of the console up to make up for the lack of the center hump. The first thing I needed to do is repair the damage that someone had done to the floor of the storage compartment. I also needed to strip down the upholstery to prepare it for reupholstery and to be able to fix the damage.










After removing the upholstery, I was able to split the console in half where the factory seam is so I could repair the floor of the storage compartment.










The body of the console seems to be a gel coat shell with a rigid foam as the structure. It shapes easily and I was able to just sand down the rough cuts. I replaced the missing floor with some melamine coated MDF. I screwed the MDF pieces in and then filled the gaps with epoxy.








After that, I made an adapter ring out of MDF that matched the contour of the bottom of console and the contour of the floor pan. It also is spaced up a bit to raise the console up to the proper height.













Next up will be to attach the ring to the console, notch it out at the rear for seat belt clearance, attach mounting brackets to bolt it to the floorpan, and then reupholster the entire unit. Since it now it much taller than it was in the Fleetwood application, I will probably add some carpet to the lower part in a similar style to the door panels.

[hornetball]

Great work as always.  I can't wait to see your finished interior.

[tc76ldovert]

This has been a great restoration to follow. I (Mr. Badwrench) have seen so many components of an Eldo repaired and restored that I found it more entertaining than Netflix binging. I don't know if I would/could ever tackle any of these jobs on my own but if I do I have this as a great reference. I can't wait to see the finished car.
Tom

[James Landi]

Entirely agree with the prior posts-- this project has been terrific to follow-- the detailed work, and restoration are inspiring, and love the pictures. And this model Eldorado is a stunningly beautiful.   Happy day, James   

[MaR]

A nice weekend and no place to go to is prime caddy work time! I started out by pulling the hood and removing the other hood hinge to rebuild it. This time, I took more pics of the disassembly and new bolt installation. Here is the hinge before the  spring was removed. With the spring on, it felt solid. With it removed, there was about 1/2" of twisting play.








To get the old rivets out, the head on one side has to be removed. Sometimes you can successful drill them out but most of the time you need a combination of drilling and grinding to be sure to not damage the bore on the arms. Once the head is ground off, you can simply punch out the rivet.












Once the hinge is apart, I took the opportunity clean it up and also make sure the bores in all the parts are the correct size and there are no burrs.






I made a slight change to the parts for ease of assembly on this hinge, I swapped out the smaller washer with a precision shim so it would fit the bolt better and not hang over the edge of the Delrin washer. Here you can see the stackup of parts. Note: I missed the shot where I showed the Delrin washer going on between the two different parts.

















And the finished hinge:

[MaR]

With the hood off and hinges out of the way, there were a bunch of "might as wells" that needed to be done. I started by pulling off the engine bay side of the HVAC box.








The metal parts inside had surface rust all over them and there seemed to be a mouse nest inside the evaporator case.















I got everything cleaned up, sandblasted the metal parts, gave the raw metal a quick spray and then put it all back together.





The other thing I took care of was the rotten seam sealer on the top edge of the firewall. It almost just fell out so it made clean up easy. I neglected to take a pic of the finished product but I'll add one in later. The worst part of this was me sticking my hand in the wet seam sealer over and over again...

[DeVille68]

Nice!
Did you create those bolts on your own lathe?

Best regards,
Nicolas

[MaR]

I worked on the Talisman center console mounting also. I notched the sides for seat belt buckle clearance and worked on making the actual console mounting brackets.











Next up will be to cut the slots for the actual console mounting bolts for the console in the brackets.

[MaR]

Nice!
Did you create those bolts on your own lathe?

Best regards,
Nicolas

I took off the shelf stainless steel shoulder bolts and then turned them down to add the extra step and the proper threads. I'm considering making them as a kit for DIYers to rebuild their own hinges. If I do that, I'll have them CNC tuned from scratch and put a hex head on them rather than the hex socket that's in them now.

[MaR]

Now for the real fun part. It's getting to be convertible weather where I live and I just can't stand the bare metal floor anymore. On top of that, the butyl sound deadener I put down is started to get squished out a bit and making a mess when I drive it. Me having to clean my wife's shoes every time we take a ride in it is starting to get old. I bought a molded carpet from ACC (though Rockauto). They don't have the perfect color match I would prefer but what they offer is really close. I chose the upgrade Essex cut pile material and used the standard backing. I have used their mass backing option before and I don't really like it from a fitment standpoint. Their carpet comes with jute padding in select areas already attached to the carpet. On top of that, I added two layers of butyl/aluminium sound deadener and then a 1/2" layer of jute padding on top of that. That was about as close as I could get to replicate the factory style sound deadener and padding but with modern materials. Here is the bare floor after a quick vacuuming:






And after application of the butyl sound deadener. I put two layers on the main floorboard and then ran one layer under the rear seat and up the rear division for the trunk. Later, I will apply the material under the door panels and on the side walls. of the rear seat area.






Next, I cut the jute padding to go over the entire floor pan. I did the entire floor to keep the contours of the pan from changing so much that the molded carpet would still fit correctly. Side note: I had to go back and cut out much larger openings for the seat rack feet as the padding was so thick that you could not start the nuts on the seat rack studs.






And here is the first test fit of the carpet. It fit fairly well with the only issue being that the bumps that are on the door thresholds just forward of the seat belt mounts were not molded into the carpet. All of the holes where pre-marked on the back side and were accurately placed. The only one I had to adjust was the location of the dimmer switch. I just moved the dimmer switch to fit the carpet.










I cut all the holes and then used the seat belt buckles to anchor the carpet down while I prepared the seats to be installed.






With the seats in, I had to do a little manual fitting with a heat gun to get it to fit over the humps on the door jams. There was also a little rippling here and there where the seat racks distorted the carpet. The first shot is before I fitted it and the second one is after I fitted it.








To keep the carpet in place, all the trim around the edges needs to be installed. I pulled the aluminium door threshold trim off the car over a year ago and had not touched it since. They looked really bad and I was not about to install them as is. I cleaned them up, knocked out the most obnoxious dents and gave them a quick once over on the buffing wheel. I was considering replacing them with reproductions but I think with a little more hammer and dolly work, they can be saved and even look nice.














The end result turned out quite nice if I don't say so myself:








Another side note: it's officially pollen season here. This is from leaving the car outside for the afternoon, that's not a reflection....

[hornetball]

Looks great Mitch.  The carpet color looks like a nice match.  Are you going to upholster the seats in crushed velour?

[MaR]

Looks great Mitch.  The carpet color looks like a nice match.  Are you going to upholster the seats in crushed velour?

I toyed with the idea and even got a fabric sample but being that it's a convertible, I came to the conclusion that it would get horribly dirty in no time at all. I'm going to keep the Talisman upholstery style but do the upholstery in white polyurethane Ultra Leather material. It's the same kind of material that's used in open top boats and on personal jets so it will do just fine in this application without the worry of it getting ruined from caught in a sudden rain storm.

[James Landi]

Bellissimo Mitch!..  especially like your idea for the marine grade vinyl seats.  Will be durable and very attractive.  What's the status with the engine and drive train?   Thanks for posting, James

[MaR]

Bellissimo Mitch!..  especially like your idea for the marine grade vinyl seats.  Will be durable and very attractive.  What's the status with the engine and drive train?   Thanks for posting, James

Other than a few leaks that I have not addressed yet, the refresh I did seems to be working OK. I need to reseal the rear transmission pan but I have not quite worked out how to do it without removing the drivetrain from the car.

[James Landi]

There's been some good discussion of leaks recently--- one member brought his back to the transmission repair service several times-- seemed to be consensus that  "they all leak a little."  I owned a '67 Eldorado for many years, and simply carried a piece of cardboard in the trunk when I was obliged to park on someone's decoratively paved driveway.  As my old man used to say," if you're looking for perfection, you;ll need to wait for heaven."  Thanks again for posting-- truly inspiring to observe your progress and magnificent craftsmanship    Happy day, James

[Dan LeBlanc]

Looks great!

Once you and Mr. Price are done with your cars, I've got a 77 Town Car you can come work on!

[MaR]

There's been some good discussion of leaks recently--- one member brought his back to the transmission repair service several times-- seemed to be consensus that  "they all leak a little."  I owned a '67 Eldorado for many years, and simply carried a piece of cardboard in the trunk when I was obliged to park on someone's decoratively paved driveway.  As my old man used to say," if you're looking for perfection, you;ll need to wait for heaven."  Thanks again for posting-- truly inspiring to observe your progress and magnificent craftsmanship    Happy day, James

I can live with a few drips here and there but the rear pan is really leaking badly. Enough so that I had to put one of those 4 foot long absorbent socks in my 2'x3' drip pan to keep it from getting too deep.

[James Landi]

I've discovered with my 85 Convertible Eldorado, that once I start driving it, the transmission leaks all be disappeared.  I am clueless as to why that is, but during winter storage, I'd have a turkey roasting pan under the transmission, and I'd reclaim about a quart of oil over the winter!
Although,There's likely little that the two vehicles have in common though!   

[MaR]

I've discovered with my 85 Convertible Eldorado, that once I start driving it, the transmission leaks all be disappeared.  I am clueless as to why that is, but during winter storage, I'd have a turkey roasting pan under the transmission, and I'd reclaim about a quart of oil over the winter!
Although,There's likely little that the two vehicles have in common though!

My first job is to really clean up the underside of the engine/transmission so I can pinpoint the leak(s). It did slow down quite a bit when I replaced the bottom pan gasket so at least it's a start...

[hornetball]

Considering that your hood is off and that's the worst part of pulling the power unit . . . .  Just sayin'.