Carl 61 Fleetwood Phyllis

[Clewisiii]

Ok one question.  Here is my original air cleaner. notice the side the intake tube comes from. This is flipped from most all of them that i have seen on restored cars.  What are your thoughts.

[Cadman-iac]

Carl,
The other GM car lines also used that type of air cleaner housing. It's possible that a previous owner acquired one if the original one was damaged or missing. That would account for the decal being in the wrong location.

Rick

[rsms]

Here is a picture of my original and un-restored 61 Fleetwood air cleaner as it was when I purchased the car

[David Greenburg]

The above pic also corresponds to my original Fleetwood, which is in temporary storage storage while I remodel my garage.

[Clewisiii]

Lost and found.   I had been missing my Fleetwood chevrons for about a year.  Someone had asked if anyone had any and it sent me on the search.   I found them. 

[Clewisiii]

Another missing item I went in search of today was the spacer between the crank and trans. I did not know where it was after my engine rebuild.   Found it. Also found my trans rubber mount.

In the beginning I used to quiz myself on the locations of all of my obscure items.  I would sit in a chair think of something and then see if I could find it first try.  After reorganizing and moving everything for my garage renovation I now am a little mixed up.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Congratulations on locating the lost pieces, or should I say, safely stored pieces.

I can relate to your putting things away and then not being able to find them.

Bruce.

[Andrew Trout]

The amount of time that I've spent looking for a bolt, nut, washer, or tool that I just set down can be measured in months.

"It was right here!"

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Notice that it is always going to be in the last place you look.   But, surprising what can be found when continuing to look.

Bruce.

[Clewisiii]

Going back to working on my interior. 

I made the chip board backing for the driver door uppers.  I also tested the Blind pleat sewing again and I am getting happier with it.

I need to pick up the door panel hard board and cut some new ones. 

Another thing I need to look at is the door panel metal edging. These have retainer spikes that grab the fabric around the edge, and have the door panel retainer nails.

[Clewisiii]

I realized the driver side and passenger side are mirror opposites so before I see this I am going to make two more chip board pieces.   One for passenger side and one spare. 

My test sewing is going well.  Now I just need to do it for real. 

I do not want to cut any more vinyl until I get my last 3 yards of vinyl from SMS.  So I cannot do the uppers yet.

[Clewisiii]

So now I have to do a little math and understanding. 

I was testing sewing a seam and noticed that my seam left a smaller center dark panel reveal then the original.  I was worried that I was sewing wrong. 

But I noticed that the ratio of the ribbon sizes between my original and new material was different. Due the the age evidence I am sure my new material is new old stock. But at some time in the past they changed the loom set up. On the original the ribbons are an even 1.5 inches.
On the new material the light ribbon is 1.75 and the dark ribbon is 1 1/8. 

I will have to see if I need to adjust for that little discrepancy.

[Clewisiii]

Sorry missed pictures.

[Clewisiii]

The door panel material gets sewn to a chipboard. A heavy cardstock. It should never take any abuse but I want to tune my stitch per inch to keep this sewn seam from becoming an easy tear location.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Sewing cardboard is not a real trick, if you have the correct sewing machine.   You have to remember that when these things were made, the manufacturer had multiple machines that did one task.   We try to use the same machine, and sometimes it works, other times not.

When making thousands of the same thing, one can afford to buy specialised stuff,  which in the case of manufacturing cars, can be used for dozens of years, so the cost is not high in the scheme of things.   As they say, it is all about economies of scale.

I would love to see the machine that sewed the rubber strip to the top of the internal firewall insulation cardboard.

Bruce.

[Clewisiii]

Dang it.  First pass and I destroyed this part.  The machine jumped timing and did not know the stitching.  I tried a second pass but by this point the chipboard was compromised enough it just tore apart.   I will need to glue up another panel and try another day.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

May I suggest a longer stitch, as in at least 1/4" or 3/8", or even longer?

It looks like your machine is actually too tight in the tension, and tearing the surrounding substrate.

The other thing that might help is to run a steam iron over the cardboard and sewing whilst warm.

I have had great performance with steaming cardboard when making glove boxes and once cold, the shape that I put into it stays.   I found this out when I had to make a replacement glove box internal for a '59 Thunderbird I was converting, and it is surprising just how soft and pliable the board can get, and not lose its performance when cooled down.

Bruce.

PS.  I don't use the wifes' good steam iron.   Bought her a new one so I could use her old one.

[Clewisiii]

No it was just the timing issue.  It did not knot on the first pass. So the second pass just doubled the perforations in the chipboard.

I need to figure out how to reprogram the EFKA controller. It is currently set to automatically do a triple back tack on the start of each seam.  The bobbin tail got hung up during the initial back tack and jumped the timing.  The machine has an automatic clutch that releases the bobbin hook when this happens to prevent damage or jambing.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

G'day Carl,

Could the problem be that the machine you are using is actually too fancy for the task?

I would have thought that having full manual control would be better in this instance.

Bruce.

[Clewisiii]

I finished sewing that damaged panel.  And the one thing that I learned is I will need to change the pattern due to that 1/8 inch difference in ribbon width. 

It quickly got off of my foam pleat backing.