Carl 61 Fleetwood Phyllis

[Clewisiii]

Cleaning up all of my bagged seat pieces and polishing screws.  I need to find some time in the next couple of weeks to stop by the paint store and have the seat trim matched.  There is a nice clean spot under the side chrome bezel. 


I polished all of my track cover buttons.  Then realised I only have 13 of the 14.  A few years ago I robbed the track covers off my parts car and gave them to a guy in germany.  I think I sent him all the buttons as well.  I will need to look to see if I missed one. 

[Clewisiii]

Good news.  I ended up with five spare buttons from my parts car.

[Roger Zimmermann]

It's nice to have a parts car and the space for it!

[Clewisiii]

It has helped in several ways.  The major reason I bought the parts car was that it was an AC car and all the wires and vacuum tubes were still in the engine bay.  Mine were all eaten away by rodents. So I wanted the parts car as a template for reassembly.

I have robbed a few unneeded parts and sent to others.  I took off the power steering pump to rebuild, I took the glove box door after I dropped mine and dented the corner. 

I paid $400 for the car in Lansing Michigan. But I paid $600 in total getting it home.

[Clewisiii]

The only reason I mention the buttons specifically was due to someone's comment a few years ago that they were missing a couple of buttons. They contacted a salvage yard and they told him $75 for two buttons.  He asked why so much.  And the guy said it is $50 for me to walk out to the yard and get them.   

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

It's nice to have a parts car and the space for it!

Too true.

The '71 Eldo I stripped back in 2008 is still supplying me with a bounty of parts, and also helping others.

Bruce.

[cadillacjack]

Carl,

I have been watching the restoration of Phyllis.  I use to be on the 61-62 board until that was gone.  Great to see you here and that you are still continuing the great restoration.    I love your new shop.  I did my garage floors similar. 

Keep at it .. I enjoy watching your progress.  I have a few parts off a 61 but not those buttons. Sorry. 

CJ

[Clewisiii]

So in trying to learn the skills and do as much on my restoration myself as possible, I have been planning out what types of tools and equipment I need. 

The major thing for the interior is the correct sewing machines. The material itself would be difficult to sew with just a normal sewing machine.  But you could make the attempt.  But this situation would be a show stopper.  The fabric material across the seats have blind pleats.  The fabric is folded sewn folded sewn etc.   You need to be able to fit at least half the length of the seat into the throat of the sewing machine.  For some of the parts you can try to roll up and cram as much in the throat as possible.  But for the back panel it is sewn to a solid hard board.  That board is not flexible and half of it will need to fit in the machine. 

I checked the board and at the center you can see where the fold changes from one side to the other.  So I need 25" minimum inside the machine.  Well as luck would have it since I started working on my interior I have managed to aquire a large commercial machine with 27" inside.  This is all really looking like if will come together as long as I keep practicing my skill before I start cutting and using the material I got from SMS.

[Ralph Messina CLC 4937]

Carl,

An alternative is to sew the pleats as you plan on to a fabric backing then glue the fabric to the card board.
You're wise to practice on scrap material. The most important part of sewing is to be able to achieve straight lines and smooth curves. That might sound simple but slight twisting or movement of the fabric while sewing make variations in stitch orientation obvious. Your eyes are drawn to it immediately.

[Clewisiii]

Ok now I have a debate.  I decided since I was not going to use the leather from the SMS order there was no harm cutting it up for some test sewing.  The only leather parts are the 2 inch borders and a small section of each arm rest. 

Well I sewed up a bolster border and it looks great.  Now I feel I should get over my fears and just use this leather.  I could get over the wrinkles and scars.  But I still feel this is not durable for my taste.  For durability you need full or top grain leather.  A cow hide can actually be split in. Multiple layers and each have there own use.  I think this is bottom split grain leather.  Normally used for suede and not as durable. 

Well I will continue to debate with myself.

[Roger Zimmermann]

Looks good!

[Clewisiii]

I reached out to SMS to order 2 more yards of vinyl.  I already cut all the vinyl for piping.  I will not cut more vinyl until I have those other two yards in front of me.  I still fear that if I cut the wrong piece in the wrong location I will not be able to nest all of the cut pieces in the roll I currently have.  I tried to recreate the half round foam for these bolster edges.  It was not easy so I decided to reuse the original foam bands.   I am going to steam them and glue on a new muslin backing. 

[Clewisiii]

Trying to put in a little more forward progress, I started to clean up the metal parts on the front door panel. 

I did not have a lot of sand for my blaster so I focused on removing the rust and ignored blasting off the old glue. 

I will need to make new foam pads for the armrest.  I do have a denser foam for this.  But the block length is just to small so I will need to go corner to corner.  I will only be able to get two per block. 

The old panel was covered with a thin cotton batting.  I have a similar material but to thick.  I may try and used some thin foam that I have.  It will just be difficult to fit the curves. 

[Clewisiii]

It looks like I will be able to make two arm rest pads per block. 

I cut this one down to slightly oversized. After it is glued to the armrest I will sand it down to final shape. 

[Clewisiii]

New armrest foam filled in.  Now I just need to ponder the cotton liner.

[Clewisiii]

My machine does not like sewing the windlace.  It would not feed properly and kept binding.  Actually broke a needle. 

This was a test material and maybe this surface finish would not slide well.  In any case I will need to take care and feed my actual material carefully.

[Clewisiii]

Well there is 12 ft of windlace for the body side door openings. 

I need to make over 100ft of piping for the seats and doors.  I only have piping core in 3/16.  I need to order a roll of 1/8th. 

[Clewisiii]

Pics for a friend.

[6caddy2]

Thanks Carl!! Very much Appreciated!!

[Clewisiii]

Just a reminder, here are some of my as found pics.