My newly acquired 1974 Eldorado convertible project car

[James Landi]

Looking OH SO BEAUTIFULLY showroom new.  It's a rare look and feel to observe your efforts taking shape.  Thank you again for sharing this experience with us.  James

[MaR]

I had ordered a sheet of masticated rubber to make new splash shields a few weeks ago. It took quite a while to arrive via the USPS, to the point that I though that it was lost but it finally showed up the other day. It's quite a good match to the original material used for the splash shields and I will be ordering more to reproduce the radiator to bumper filler and a thicker piece to reproduce the air silencer baffle.






The material cuts well enough with heavy scissors and can be punched with hole punches. I just laid the old splash shields on the new material, traced them, and the cut them out.








The old splash shield were intact but they were very stiff, starting to crack, and were covered in that metallic gold undercoating. The new ones fit nicely and I was able to reuse the factory retainer clips.







I would say that the only drawback of this material is that it smells like a Harbor Freight exploded in my garage....

[joecaristo]

I am enjoying following this thread. It is truly amazing what you're doing and the results are spectacular. I was wondering where you bought the masticated rubber from. Also, you 3-D printed the rear filler on the car. Did you do that yourself with your own printer? I did't think 3-D printers were big enough to print large objects like that. Is it one piece?  I don't see any support material on the piece and it looks really smooth front and back. Was there any sanding involved? Did it come out of the printer like that? Thanks for sharing your restoration with us.
Joe

[MaR]

I am enjoying following this thread. It is truly amazing what you're doing and the results are spectacular. I was wondering where you bought the masticated rubber from. Also, you 3-D printed the rear filler on the car. Did you do that yourself with your own printer? I did't think 3-D printers were big enough to print large objects like that. Is it one piece?  I don't see any support material on the piece and it looks really smooth front and back. Was there any sanding involved? Did it come out of the printer like that? Thanks for sharing your restoration with us.
Joe

The masticated rubber sheet came from www.detroitmuscletechnologies.com

I did print that part myself on my printer. That particular part is made from three prints that I glued together but there are printers that can print it all in one shot. I could have actually printed it in two pieces but it was faster and better quality to do it in three pieces. Orientation is key when printing with a single filament printer to avoid excess marks on the surface from support materials. I'm going to be printing that part again soon and it was requested that I take some pictures of it before I remove it from the build plate.

[hornetball]

Wow Mitch.  The lengths you go to . . . .  This is going to be a fantastic car when you finish it.

[James Landi]

As I've mentioned in this thread, this car will be better than new-- basically handcrafted with no expense spared.  It was a knockout when new, but I suspect with the several minor modifications, it will be even more appealing.   Sure is a pleasure to observe.    James

[colorado4x4]

This is an amazing read with photos, and an amazing project.
I have a question going back to page two of this thread.  For the door pull strap and panel rebuild, what kind of stapler do you use to attach the ultraleather?  What did you use to sew the pull strap fabric to the foam core? (sewing machine?, what sewing machine brand, and what type/brand of thread, )  What type/brand of glue to glue the pull strap fabric to the metal band?  Asking, as I am new to the restore aspect and have a '70 Deville I need to restore the pull straps.

[MaR]

This is an amazing read with photos, and an amazing project.
I have a question going back to page two of this thread.  For the door pull strap and panel rebuild, what kind of stapler do you use to attach the ultraleather?  What did you use to sew the pull strap fabric to the foam core? (sewing machine?, what sewing machine brand, and what type/brand of thread, )  What type/brand of glue to glue the pull strap fabric to the metal band?  Asking, as I am new to the restore aspect and have a '70 Deville I need to restore the pull straps.

I used a cheap Harbor Freight air powered stapler. I have found that manual staplers and plug in electric staplers just don't have the oomph to get the staple all the way in. For the pull handles, I used a full walking foot upholstery sewing machine, though a decent craft sewing machine should be able to do that job. I think on that part, I used a V-69 thread though it could have been V-92 since I did use my upholstery machine. For the glue, make sure your metal backing is completely clean and rust free and I now use DAP Weldwood contact adhesive in the quart can. I have used various 3M spray adhesives with great luck but the liquid contact adhesive that you can brush on offers so much better control over a spray can.

[MaR]

More front end work. It's the same as before, take it all apart, clean it all up, and replace anything that needs to be replaced.

Here is the starting point:





It was almost identical to the drivers side: bad lower ball joint, iffy wheel bearing, and I'm swapping out the cheap aftermarket axle with my rebuilt factory axle.

[MaR]

The rebuild of the passenger side axle was virtually the same as the drivers side. I started out by propping up the outer joint in the knuckle assembly. This makes holding the outer housing much easier.





Next I unpacked my second NOS Saginaw boot kit.






Half the grease goes in the cup.






And then I reassembled the inner race, ball bearings, and snap ring.





I added the new boot to the axle shaft and clamped it on.








The other half of the grease goes into the new boot.






Pop the shaft into the inner race and then clamp the boot to the housing and your all done!

[MaR]

The wheel bearing was not horrible but it did not make much sense to not replace it while everything was apart.






New bearing and seals in:







Old lower ball joint:





No lower ball joint:





New lower ball joint:





And finally, everything back together:

[MaR]

I also cleaned up the blower motor and popped it back it while it was easy to access.

[MaR]

One other thing I addressed while working on the passenger side was the negative battery cable. In the vintage that my car was built, GM was using copper clad aluminium wire for the primary battery leads. They can corrode internally and cause poor connections even though everything looks solid. My negative lead had a rather suspicious bulge at the base of the side post terminal.






I had another negative lead with a bulge at the opposite end so I cut it open to see how it looked inside. I would say that only about 10% of the wire strands were still wire at this point.





I had a new negative wire made by CE Auto Electric Supply for a very reasonable price. It's not a concourse reproduction but it was made to spec out of high quality wire.






The new negative wire fits just fine. I will probably have them make a positive lead in the near future also.

[MaR]

It's been a while but I have been working on it. With the passenger side apart, I also worked on the fender and the inner fender. There was a small rust hole that I had repaired a while back so not much was needed on the fender.





It was quite clean in the usual places that rust out.








I coated the inside with POR-15 to make sure I did not have any issues down the road.









There were a few dents and dings along with the general factory waviness that I wanted to take care of.












I did the same process on this fender as what I did on the other one: sanded, skim coat of filler, sanded,  primed, sanded and then primed again.

[MaR]

Next, I worked on the inner fender.





I got rid of all of that old undercoating.







Primed it inside and out.








And then gave it a coat of black.





I also put new clip nuts on.

[MaR]

On this side, I decided to put the fender on the way the factory installed it: as an assembly with the inner and outer fender together.





It was a little awkward to bolt the parts together on stands but it went together easily.








The assembly went on to the car much easier than putting the inner wheel well on first and then prying the fender wheel opening lip over the wheel well. It made adjustment much easier also.

[MaR]

Here are a few other little things I worked on:









I stripped, painted, and refilled the breather. The old breather material had disintegrated into oily chunks.







The drivers side turn signal lens had a small crack in it.













I was able to find an NOS lens and get the assembly as close to new as I could.

[MaR]

Next up is the radio, dash trim, and speakers. I want to keep the factory radio but I want bluetooth connectivity for my phone. I did this with a bluetooth amp and a line level converter for the factory radio. I started with the rear speakers.











I started out with regular 6x9 speakers for the rears but I could not get them to wedge in the mounting location. I did not want to cut anything just to mount speakers so I got a pair of 6x9 to 6-1/2 adapters.






The adapter plates are offset to one side which made mounting the speakers in the stock locations simple.

[MaR]

One of the other things I wanted to do while I was installing the radio was to install the '77-'78 dash trim I had purchased from Charles here on the forum. This will match the '77-'78 upper door panels that I have also.




There are differences between the '74 and the later trim assemblies. The '74 trim has the mounting for the map light in the trim where the later one must mount the light differently. The early trim also has a blacked out upper lip where it mounts to the under side of the middle dash pad. Lastly, the chrome on my '74 part was in better overall condition so I decided to just swap the later inlay over to my early chrome backer.





The later chrome backer has extra holes cut in it to clear the crest, wreath, and nameplate.





I drilled clearance holes on my early backer to accommodate the later inlay.





From the factory, the inlay was retained with a combination of tape, staples, and pins. I opted for glue.







With the refinished radio, the excellent inlay from Charles and the nice chrome from my early backer, the whole dash turned out nice.


I seem to be missing pics of the other side and of the finished dash. I'll add them shortly.

[MaR]

Another thing I wanted to do is get the rear interior panels out of storage and back into the car.





I started out by putting the sound deadener in the wheel well area and the rear sidewall.










The old side panel sound deadener/rockwool insulation was dirty, smelly, and falling apart. I took care of the sound deadener with the self adhesive material and I made a new felt pad out of extra carpet padding.





I then mounted my refurbished trim panels.









The drivers side was done the same way.