1939 Cadillac Convertible Sedan #23 of 36 Built

[harvey b]

The small holes look like a piece of rubber seal? would attach to it there,something like staples?,maybe look around the front floor or firewall area?.I didnt see anything like that on my 37, It does look like it is to protect wiring?.  Good luck  Harveyb

[harry s]

Here is another "WAG". Could it have something to do with the raising and lowering mechanism of the divider window?       Harry

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

I went around the car again.....trunk again,  under the front seat,   around the battery......under the dash......none of the holes lined up with anything....

It will turn up some place.....Thanks for the ideas....

Mike

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

Good news,... my retired 35 plus year body guy is in the building!!

Everybody should be lucky enough to have one of these guys around....

He's starting the body work......mostly grinding the paint off the big parts...... front fenders, side mounts, trunk lid, rear fenders.....

I jump on the sandblasting cabinet for some of the smaller pieces....

Mike

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

A few more pictures.....

Mike

[Roger Zimmermann]

Your body man is doing the work the hard way. He never used chemical stripping products?
About the parts which are sand blasted: you most probably know that they must have a protective coat as soon as they are "naked", otherwise, they are rusting very quickly.

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

Your body man is doing the work the hard way. He never used chemical stripping products?
About the parts which are sand blasted: you most probably know that they must have a protective coat as soon as they are "naked", otherwise, they are rusting very quickly.

As a matter of fact, we talked about chemical stripping products.....he said he doesn't like to use them because they could leave behind a residue and that might effect the paint....

We use this product "Z-Chrome Rust Defender" from Clausen....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CLAUSEN-Z-CHROME-RUST-DEFENDER-GALLON-POLYESTER-PRIMER/114045774178?epid=689099273&hash=item1a8da86962:g:~EgAAOSwNOVa9Z~L

This is some kind of high build primer.....he'll sand this down to reveal wrinkles & dents in the metal, after those are fixed everything is sealed and the base coat goes on then the clear coat.....I'm certainly not the expert body guy he is.....it works...

By the way Roger while I got you....your doing amazing work on that 1932 Cadillac V16 scale model !!!!....I go to your updates and just shake my head and say WOW!!!

Mike

[Roger Zimmermann]

Good point about the residues which can go into the pores. Each person has his method; I'm sure he will do it well.
Thanks for your comments about the scale model! I just hope that is will be some entertaining in this forum!

[James Landi]

Mike,

I'm not a visual artist; however, the separate body sections in your last picture posting make a significant visual statement about that period of time when those unique shapes were "au courant." Each piece is strikingly unusual in form, and when you've grouped them, they are highly unusual.  Thanks again for sharing this wonderful project with us.   James

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

Not alot to report....

I'm still slugging away on the car....the body work is in full gear, aluma-lead, primer, then sanding, more primer and then more sanding....and on and on it goes....

I put the motor and trans in and all went well.....

I'm going with a 1939 color, Fanconia Beige as the exterior body paint....I have a few of the 1950s Cadillac's, all with those great bright 50s colors.....this car, i wanted to tone it down a bit...

We painted the firewall before I put the motor in....it looks good....The pictures below don't do it justice....it's a richer looking brown in person.....

A problem has reared it's head....the exhaust system.....Waldron has always been my go to guys and they always will be.....but I don't think they have the series 75 pattern.....they sent me what I think is a 60 series system...a couple of phone calls and I can hear in their voices that it's going to be a problem....Does anybody have a go to exhaust vendor for this system???

Thanks again for all the comments and the help !!!

Mike

[Roger Zimmermann]

Good looking paint!
About the exhaust: I have a parts list going through 1958. Some older exhaust parts were at that time still available. I'm amazed that the exhaust parts for the Serie 75 most of the time has his own part numbers. If no part from what you got from Waldron is correct for your car, you will have to let do the exhaust system as a custom one; using the method shown on the attached picture (this is for a 32/33 V-16 car).

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Ah ha ... A masterpiece.

Bruce.

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

Oh Boy....I was hoping to stay away from the custom rework...

In my picture above, the "S" shaped pipe just before the resonator will have to be extended....that will allow me to get the resonator to clear the shock absorber....

The over the axle pipe will have to be shortened and lowered to keep it off the fuel tank and not hit the floor board, then a bracket will have to be cutoff the muffler because it is into the leaf spring......not done yet....the inlet and outlet of the muffler will have to be spun to different positions to get the exhaust to flow out from under the cars rear valance.....

Lets hope somebody has the pattern and they can put it into the computer,.... factory bends are produced and....wala....it all just bolts right in !!

Mike

[James Landi]

Mike-- You're making great progress, and don't let the damnable exhaust geometry spoil your " can do "spirit.  When we did an Olds conversion of my 4100 Cadillac replacement, we hit the wall with the same kind of problem.  Happily for me, there was an expert custom exhaust guy whom we knew, who loved to develop intricate "workarounds," and he successfully pieced the thing together as the exhaust header had to go over the bell housing and join on the other side of the car.  He met the challenge, and it works brilliantly, and  for a couple of hundred in cash money.  He was pleased to be helpful in saving the car, and I trust there may be someone in your neighborhood who has the expertise, time, and passion for your car to help you out.  Happy day, and be of good cheer, James

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

Thanks James,

This exhaust problem couldn't have come at a worst time......I was hoping to get the car running nice before the nose goes back on....

Looks like I'll be spending a good chunk of time leaning over the fenders working the motor with the soles of my shoes facing the ceiling.....My chubby body just doesn't bend like it used too....

Mike

[las39]

Just curious., maybe the subject has been answered.

Why is the exhaust outlet on the left side as 75 series ?

Why there's a battery tray next to starter as 1940 and later models ?

Here is a photo of a LaSalle in Denmark

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

All right, a little more to report....The body work goes on..

Waldron is working on the exaust problem...they told me they had a museum from Chicago send them a used series 75 exhaust system a few years back, and  Waldron could copy that system....and it looks like that system is different than what the shipped me...John at Waldron said that he'll make it right....that's good news....In the mean time I really wanted to get that motor running before the nose goes back on....so I rigged up the exhaust to just run the resonator......

The rebuilt motor came in untested....It had a 1940 distributor in it because it has vacuum advance....the firing order was right but the plug wires were off and to get the motor to start I had to really crank that distributor...so much so that the vacuum advance was hitting the firewall just to start.......I pulled that distributor and put in a 1939 dizzy....

Car started and ran nice...lifters were a little noisy at first but settled down....my rebuilt carb was good..held an idle...throttled up when I wanted it to.....radiator was good...fuel pump, starter all did what they were supposed to do....then the surprise!!.....

Coolant starts pouring out of the middle of the motor underneath the intake...lots of water running out and to the back of the motor down onto the bell-housing.....I was think great...there is not supposed to be water there...I'm thinking great the block is cracked!...wait this car came from New Mexico / Nevada...unless your on a mountain, no chance of freezing....

I can't see where the water is coming from, so I pull the generator to get a better look at the center of the valley....I go over to the old motor that's in a crate and there are 2 freeze plugs right between the 2 valley pans  and sure enough one of the plugs is popped and water is spewing out of the rebuilt motor in the car....

Check out the pictures I took....I'm on the hunt for a concave brass or a steel freeze plug....this one that popped is a Dorman 1-3/16", the old one just falls into the hole....I wonder if it should be a 1-1/4"....somebody looks like they put in Permatex and didn't put the plug in until after the Permatex set-up .....problem.......the other one looks fine....I'm hopping I can put this new one in without pulling the intake....I can't swing a hammer in this tight spot, but I hope I can use a socket and a pry bar and force it into the water jacket hole.....

The fun never ends!!

Mike

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

Few more pictures....see above pictures also....

Mike

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Check out the pictures I took....I'm on the hunt for a concave brass or a steel freeze plug....this one that popped is a Dorman 1-3/16", the old one just falls into the hole....I wonder if it should be a 1-1/4"....somebody looks like they put in Permatex and didn't put the plug in until after the Permatex set-up .....problem.......the other one looks fine....I'm hopping I can put this new one in without pulling the intake....I can't swing a hammer in this tight spot, but I hope I can use a socket and a pry bar and force it into the water jacket hole.....  The fun never ends!!   Mike   

G'day Mike,

Looking at the shape of that welsh plug, it was not even installed correctly.

When installing these concave plugs, one has to belt them in with a properly placed (belt) with a ball pein hammer hit by another hammer, or a nicely rounded drift to expand them into the hole.

Once you clean it up, it should still be able to be used.

Bruce.

[Roger Zimmermann]

It's also my opinion. That plus was just put into the hole without expanding it. Have a look at the other one to see if it was expanded or not.