My newly acquired 1974 Eldorado convertible project car

[hornetball]

Another suggestion for the felt would be pop rivets.

I wish I had a nifty solution to replace that boot on your door lock actuator.  In any case, the modern actuator workaround I did is doing fine so far if you ever decide to go that way.

[MaR]

Another suggestion for the felt would be pop rivets.

I wish I had a nifty solution to replace that boot on your door lock actuator.  In any case, the modern actuator workaround I did is doing fine so far if you ever decide to go that way.

At least with the pieces that I have, there is no way to bend them over far enough to get a rivet gun (or a screw driver) in to put the fastener in. I do have a felt kit on the way and I may go with tape and a mechanical fastener in the end.

[MaR]

Another thing I worked on was the air injection system. The crossover tube valve was leaking and from my previous posts, I had already gutted the bad AIR pump. This was giving me a small exhaust leak up front and it was time to fix it. I pull off the plumbing for the system and cleaned up the bores on both heads.





I then drove an 11/16 freeze plug in each bore.






And finally I touched it up with a little blue paint.





No more exhaust leak.

[DeVille68]

Very nice work!

Regarding umbrella seal - those are actually used on the valve stems and are called the same way. Maybe you can find on summit or something similar umbrella valve stem seals with the correct rod diameter?

Otherwise, I would just cut a hole into a thick neoprene or any similar somewhat soft rubber and glue it to the base. The rod can then slide through the hole you have cut. Or even a slit that you can glue back together after installing it on the rod. 

Best regards,
Nicolas

[MaR]

I'm getting ready to start working on printing a reproduction tail light filler/bezel but before I do that, I really need to clean up the rear of the car. I have not touched it yet with the exception of replacing some burnt out bulbs. I started at the middle with the license plate/fuel filler door area. Everything was functional with light surface rust. The handle for the filler door/plate holder was completely rotted off though.





It came off with no fuss.





The back up lights were in dirty but good condition. I pulled their respective pins from the tail light plugs so I could separate them from the tail lights.





With those parts out of the way, I could see the condition of the seam sealer.








It would come off in big chunks and would fall out at the lightest touch.





I scraped all the seam sealer out and then sealed the bare metal with a coat of POR-15 (as well as the rear cross bracket).






I forgot to get a shot of the bare seam sealer, but I sealed up the seam and then gave it a quick spray of body color to make it look more uniform.






I stripped the rust from the license plate door.








And gave it a nice coat of black paint.






I have an OEM pull handle from the junk yard I frequent. I actually have two of them but I'm saving the better one to make a 3D model of so it can be printed. I cleaned this one up so I can install it for the time being.






I riveted it on in place. I added washer on the back so the rivets don't put as much stress on the old plastic.








At the same junk yard, I found an aftermarket ABS fuel door filler. I gave it a quick paint job so I can use it for the time being.






I also refinished the metal retainers for the fuel door filler.






I knew that when I got this filler, I would not be happy with the way it fits. I was not disappointed with my assessment. It's missing virtually all the features on the underside that locates it in the opening and the parts that allow the brackets to securely retain the filler so it can't move around. This shot show were it should sit but there is no way to keep it from moving around. I have a sheet of ABS that I'm going to use to "fix" it so it can actually be mounted properly. In the meantime, it at least won't fall off the car....




Here is the center area with the refinished parts. I polished the back up housings and lenses while I had them off the car.








I cleaned up my factory option license plate frame. It's surprisingly sturdy and cleaned up nicely.








I also cleaned up the tail light housings as best as they could be. Lots of the chrome has flaked off but they are over all in decent shape. I had a time getting some of the bulbs out but none of them broke and now all the sockets are in great shape. I polished the lenses and the bezels before reinstalling them.









As for the ABS reproduction filler I installed. I got it for $5 from a junk yard so it was not a big expense for something that I will have to heavily modify to make functional. If I were to have paid the going rate of $50 to $80 for one of them though and this is what I got, I would be very disappointed.

[MaR]

Very nice work!

Regarding umbrella seal - those are actually used on the valve stems and are called the same way. Maybe you can find on summit or something similar umbrella valve stem seals with the correct rod diameter?

Otherwise, I would just cut a hole into a thick neoprene or any similar somewhat soft rubber and glue it to the base. The rod can then slide through the hole you have cut. Or even a slit that you can glue back together after installing it on the rod. 

Best regards,
Nicolas

The hardest part will be getting it on the rod. As far as I can tell, the rod does not come off the plunger. This means that any seal will have to stretch over the eye end of the rod itself.

[MaR]

The bumper strips were kind of faded so I wanted to see what could be done about it.





It turns out that lacquer thinner cleans them up nicely. Here is a before and after.





And the whole strip:

[MaR]

More fun with carpet! I used the old carpet to make patterns for all of the lower carpeted parts in the car. I stared with the trashcan.






I glued the front edge first so I could adjust the seam as it wrapped around the corner.





And the finished product.





The same with the rear armrest panel next to the rear seat. Cut carpet from pattern, glue in place and then reinstall the edge and stainless steel trim.

[James Landi]

Another terrific installment--When you have a few minutes to respond, I am all but certain you have thought about the following:  How much of your work is focused on repairing damage due to weather, use, and abuse, and how much is due to age?  We sometimes see Cadillacs that are in seemingly great condition, have been stored inside for decades, have low mileage, but then the question hanging in the air is what replacements will be necessary  not so much due to service life, but much more subtly due to age?  The question came to my mind when you pictured the metal panel sealing putty that has turned into crumbly chunks. Thanks again Mitchell for posting.   James

[MaR]

Another terrific installment--When you have a few minutes to respond, I am all but certain you have thought about the following:  How much of your work is focused on repairing damage due to weather, use, and abuse, and how much is due to age?  We sometimes see Cadillacs that are in seemingly great condition, have been stored inside for decades, have low mileage, but then the question hanging in the air is what replacements will be necessary  not so much due to service life, but much more subtly due to age?  The question came to my mind when you pictured the metal panel sealing putty that has turned into crumbly chunks. Thanks again Mitchell for posting.   James

I would say that on this car, most of the damage is from sitting in a barn for 20 years. The internals of most things I take apart on this car are usually in good condition. On the outside though, that's where the damage and deterioration has occurred. Just guessing, I would say that my car was in decent shape when it was parked, possibly with a damaged top and wear consistent with a 50k mile car from the '70s. It was obvious that the car was parked in the barn with the passenger side near a wall and people and things were moved by the drivers side for years and years because the passenger side has very few dents and dings but the drivers side is covered in very odd dents consistent with things falling on the car. As for the seam sealer, I would say even on a pristine car of the same age with virtually zero miles that it would be be degraded and falling out at the lightest touch. When I had a '74 CDV in the early 90s, the seam sealer was falling out of it as well. Another thing: if this car had not been stored in a barn with a tarp on it, it would have most likely rusted into the ground and been scrapped long ago.

[James Landi]

Thanks for you expert observations...  what I find revelatory is your comments about the barn stay and the tarp.  I wanted to preserve a '56 that I ran for many years;it was in relatively decent condition when I parked it in an unheated garage with a gravel floor, and placed a tarp on it.  Three years later, it was as you stated, rusting horribly.   I gave it away for fear that nothing of value would be left.  Until you related your experience, I thought I had some kind of "fluky" conditions that had caused the rust. I suppose the only alternative for preservation is a heated garage, where humidity is maintained.   Again, thanks for all,  James

[MaR]

I really wanted to fix the ABS fuel door bumper filler that I installed a few weeks ago that does not really fit. Since the part is ABS, I purchased a sheet of ABS material to make the brackets needed to properly install it. I started out by making some ABS angle stock.







On the ABS filler, there is a lip on the leading edge that needs to be sanded off.










I used an ABS pipe adhesive to glue the angle to the filler.






I added a 6" section of angle to each side of the front edge of the filler.






I the face side of the filler, I added an extension to the leading edge so there would be the proper amount of material that feeds into the slot on the bumper.






I then added a reinforcement on the rear of the angle so the metal retainer would not push the angle off the filler.





I also added a stiffener to the middle to keep it from warping.








This is how the metal retainer is supposed to be mounted on the filler.






And this is how the retainer is mounted when everything is bolted to the bumper. The rear tabs on the filler hold the back up and the metal retainers push the front edge into the slot on the bumper.

[chrisntam]

More please.



If you're done with this one, can you get another one?

[MaR]

More please.



If you're done with this one, can you get another one?

I have several things that I'm in the middle of that once they are done, I will post. Here is a bit of a preview:

[MaR]

So, since it seems like it's still going to be a little while before I finish my current project, I'm going to post what I have so far and then continue on when I have the "second phase" completed. I started out this little project as a quick Saturday afternoon project that quick spiraled out of control with mission creep and the "might as wells". It started out as me taking off the drivers side fender (a 20 minute job) so I could properly adjust the drivers side door hinges. Lets all see what transpired after that.




After the door was adjusted (about and hour), I decided, rather than just putting the fender back on, that I wanted to clean up the suspension and the frame on the drivers corner. I had given it a light cleaning pass when I did the brakes and axle last year but it was far from tidy.  I popped the inner fender off to have good access and got to work. Cleaning was going well but the wheel was in the way so I jack up that corner and took it off. I was making much better progress but there was still lots of grease and grime that was inaccessible. I then took the caliper off so I could remove the rotor. I also unhooked the sway bar end link (it was due to be replaced and I already had the new one) and the outer tie rod end. While I was looking at the tie rod I noticed that if I had any hope of having the car aligned, I was going to have to clean up the tie rod assembly so I took the entire tie rod assembly off. Cleaning was progressing but there were still several inaccessible spots behind the ball joints and in the nooks and crannies of the steering knuckle. I unhooked the upper ball joint to give me more movement and now the caliper was just sort of hanging there so I took the caliper, hose and the hard line to the proportioning valve off. As I had mentioned, I replaced the axle last year. The replacement was one of those new axles that you can buy for $65. I was never happy with it and I suspect that it was giving me some of the harmonic vibration that I've been feeling and really, how good could a brand new $65 axle assembly be? My factory axle just needed a boot so I decided that I was going to try my hand at fixing it so I pulled the axle. That only left the lower ball joint and after I had every thing else removed I discovered that there was some play in the joint so it needed to be replaced. Off with the knuckle! So what started out as a relatively simple job had spiraled out into a restoration of the entire corner of the car....

[MaR]

After the deep cleaning shown above, I started with the lower ball joint. Replacement is straight forward: remove the two rivets on the side and the rivet on the top and bolt the new one in.

[MaR]

As ling as I have been messing with cars, I have never rebuilt a CV joint. The outer boot was shot (and probably had been for decades) but the joint seemed to be OK.





I pull off the remains of the old boot, removed the clip, and then popped the outer joint off of the axle.










To get the race and the balls out, you have to lightly tap the race all the way to one side and then pop each ball out individually.







Once all the balls are out, you can rotate the cage so the window line up with the fingers and lift the cage assembly out.







With the cage assembly out, you can rotate the inner race to the side with the notched finger and slide the inner race out of the cage.





After I cleaned up all the parts and gave the a coat of paint to stop any rust, I opened up my vintage Saginaw axle boot kit and got to work.







I reassembled the inner joint using all the old parts with the exception of adding half of the 1lb bag of grease from the kit to the joint. The other half went into the new boot.






With the new boot in place I attached it to the axle and the joint with the new band clamps that were supplied with the kit. They were of a different style than what was shown in the instructions but they were easy enough to install.

[MaR]

When I pulled the knuckle off, I though the bearing felt like that it was a little "crunchy" in one spot. I decided to go ahead and just replace the bearing to be on the safe side. The bearing is a stacked tapered roller bearing pair with a spacer between the outer bearing races. They are a light fit on the knuckle bore and the hub is pressed into the inner bearing races. Unlike a modern FWD bearing, the two bearings are independent and not sealed. The hub, bearings and outer seal all press out together. This is after you remove the inner seal.







Here is how much gunk had gotten all the way though the bearings and up to the outer seal.








Here is the damage I could feel in the bearing when I was spinning it:






I cleaned the hub, knuckle, and bearing retainer up and painted them.  After that, I slid the new bearing set into the bore (no need to press them) and installed the outer seal, shim, and bearing retainer.












After that, I press in the hub. It was a light press so it did not require a much to press it in.






According to the service manual, a special seal installer is required to install the inner seal. I found that the bearing spacer from the old bearing set was the perfect size to act as a seal installer so keep that part if you are changing your bearings.

[hornetball]

One thing leads to another . . . .   

I'll bet that hub bearing was your vibration.

[MaR]

Next up was to give the frame, lower control arm and brake caliper a bit of paint.






I also cleaned up and painted the tie rod assembly.





With everything painted, I started putting everything back together. I also painted my aftermarket shock GM corporate blue.






And here it is with the brakes put back together. I went ahead and put new pads on while I had it apart.