DJ's Oct '58 Coupe - Motor '57

[kgj]

Hi. Beautiful car. I've been following quietly in the background but after the last post I would be interested to know what your solution was to getting 12v from the early Dynamo style. Rewind to 12v?
I'm interested as I face the same dilemma with my '58 in the future.
Thanks.
_________________
1958 coupe

[djway3474]

[djway3474]

Did a little more paint polishing then I decided to move to the interior.

I ran out of clips but the headliner already has very few wrinkles. I used 96 clips so far and I am only about at 60% coverage.
I will attempt do glue one section at a time.

I also detailed the front nose emblem. I scuffed with 320 grit silica carbide paper then I treated those areas with phosphoric acid. After rinsing and drying I sprayed the areas with a Satin Nickle paint.
Hopefully it will stick.
Time to put another day or two into glass polishing Then another, then another.......................................................

[c21darrel]

Nice work on your one piece badge.
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[djway3474]

Went out to my friends place, Evan Evans of off road fame, and welded up a few items.
When installing the signal switch I realized that part of the wire loom cover was missing, the part that slides under the steering tube grommet. Luckily I found it in the bag of "whats this stuff" LOL and he welded it back on. I will clean it up and get some color back on it.
He also extended the arm that controls the fuel tap so I could place the mount where I need it.
Two more to dos off the list
Thank you Evan.

[djway3474]

The fuel tap extension and switch wire loom cover is painted and installed.

[djway3474]

Just need to button up the corners and the headliner is in.
I am pleased for my first attempt at a headliner. The parcel tray is giving me a few problems but they should be hard to see when completed.
Back to glass polishing tomorrow.

[djway3474]

After a full day of polishing on the same window I have come to a few conclusions.
The stone polishing pads are expensive, semi effective and can cause more damage that good.
If you can afford a high speed sander/polisher that would be much easier to control than a drill. Dual action may be good for final polish and better on paint but on glass it does not seem to work.
Wet dry paper disc, good flow of water, start at 200 grit if the scratches are deep. Go to 400 then 800 then 1000.
At that point Cerium Oxide and a wool polishing pad seems to get the best shine of all the variations I have tried.
When you are sanding to the bottom of a scratch with the strongest cut grit, don't move to the next grit until that scratch is GONE. Paint will continue to cut down as you move up in grit but this glass will not. Make sure the scratch is gone or after many hours of work you will realize you are going to be starting over from the beginning and all those hours were wasted.
Pain killers as needed at the end of the day

[djway3474]

Well, the door glass that looked terrible at 20 feet now is pretty good at 2 feet.
I ditched the 6 inch pads and went with 3 inch. I used the Maguires 3000 grit pads with cerium oxide to get smoothed out as fast as possible. After the glass was smooth I then finished it off with a wool pad and cerium oxide. On the windshield I will need to go slower as this can build up some heat if not kept totally wet.
Now I get to go up into the attic and pull down more glass.
I sure hope I have better news with the remaining pieces.

[John Moxon]

[djway3474]

"Your selfless sacrifice of time and the chronicling of it will save others countless hours. I'm not sure that will make your arm ache any less. "

It took me over an hour to eat dinner tonight, I could barely feed myself my arms hurt so bad.

Got the other glass down tonight. Windshield will be a bit of work. It is not laminated so I won't be as concerned about heat. All the other pieces look pretty good. I have a laminated windshield but when I cleaned it I discovered that there was an internal chip between the layers.

I really want to give the door glass one more shot.............

[djway3474]

The 6 glass windows look glassy again. I applied all I learned with the side windows to tackle the windshield.
My disc I purchased from the stone polisher were already shot so I had an idea to use the wet/dry paper I had sitting around. I cut round pieces and used the 3m adhesive for attaching sanding disc on the 3 inch pad. I started with 320 and sanded until I could no longer see the scratch when holding the glass at an angle to the sun. I then worked outward and moved to 400 grit in attempt to minimize any lensing that may occur. Patience to get to the bottom of the scratch is the main thing here. I went straight from the 400 to the cerium oxide powder. That step went very quickly. Get a lot of the stuff and keep the slurry wet and full of cerium. I used a 3 inch wool pad. The results can be amazing.
Shear force of will kept me going. I did not go for absolute perfection though I do believe it is possible. You must get close to see the remaining defects.
I abandoned the 6 inch pads as I could not prevent it from oscillating. When that happened, if an edge caught, it caused scratches that were harder to remove than what I started with. In fact, over half the time I spent on these windows, was trying to remove scratches from the six inch hippity hop.
I am now assembling the side window scrapers using the stainless inner supports I had made. After assembling the first I can see why the windows are so scratched. I am pondering a way to cover the exposed metal lip, hopefully to prevent the exposed metal from contacting the glass in the future.
I will post a few pictures of the parts and assembled units. It took me a while to figure out how it all went together but I will not be defeated LOL.
Now the part that left me mumbling in the middle of the road and doing the pill rolling thing with the right hand. I decided to fire up the car and let her purr a little while. Kept cutting off. Tracked the wires all around. I suspect it is the wire on the ignition switch that goes to the coil. These screw terminals I have a feeling are going to be annoying. I then decided to do a light check. Everything worked when I shut if off last time. No blinkers I did remember that I had taken off the signal switch and covered the rear lights, so I will track that down tomorrow AGAIN LOL.
Time to go mumble out in the middle of the road again. I hear it entertains the neighbors

[djway3474]

OK everything works again. Motor fires right up and purrrrs.
Started assembling the window scrapers with my stainless retainers. They fit
Installed the scraper and inner felt on the drivers door.
It appears I am going to need to get multiple parts re-chromed AGAIN before I can finish off the doors and windows.
It looks like adjusting the door glass to fit is going to be a challenge as there are around 15 separate bolts, screws et cetera involved in getting these things to fit.
Here are some picts of the scraper assembly and a dirty window resting in place.

[kgj]

Thanks for posting this. I love the detail. Don't know if I missed the making of but how did you make the stainless retainers? I don't suppose you made a couple of spares you could sell to a fellow 58 owner?
Regards.
_________________
1958 coupe

[djway3474]

[SoCalJes]

_________________
Jesse
71 Ghia
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Just because it didn't come that way, doesn't mean it shouldn't have.

[djway3474]

Second door glass is in.
I learned that you must install the window scraper assembly first, then you install the inner felt.
Slide the glass down through the slot, front part down in there first, then lower it down into the cradle.

I took just the front/rear windshield trim and the bottom sections of the quarter windows to get repaired and re chromed. Having to sell stuff to pay for it. When I get some more money then I will take in the other pieces that are just too bad to use. I would advise that you don't use a chrome shop that you have not seen work for multiple cars done by the shop. Difficult to do but you will cut your cost in half in the long run.

[djway3474]

While everything else is at a stand still I decided to go ahead with the seat covers.

[John Moxon]

You must be one of SMS's only satisfied customers.
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John.
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My 1958 Shorrock Supercharged Karmann Ghia
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[djway3474]

Satisfied? NO! No way! Nope! ............ and Awe hell no!