'60 Cab project

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Jim Nelson
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Re: '60 Cab project

#31 Post by Jim Nelson »

The biggest help, for me, is using the parts catalog to make sure you have the right nuts and bolts that the factory used. Lots and lots of time with our noses in that. If we don't do it now, the risk that we've left something out rises, so bagging and tagging works pretty well. Now we just need to remember where the bags are.

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Jim Nelson
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Re: '60 Cab project

#32 Post by Jim Nelson »

Ron Roland's book has been a big help, as well as Jim Kellogg's. Ron makes the point that fitting the cabriolet top before paint is the smarter way to go.
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Still waiting for the front bow. In the meantime, Larry is showing me the in's and out's of axle reassembly.
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Got to make sure the recess for the holding pin is aligned correctly.
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The ball of gunk that was the steering box cleaned up nicely. Anyone know if there is only one point where the inspector put a dab of red paint ?

Before:
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After:
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ryan base
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Re: '60 Cab project

#33 Post by ryan base »

wow, you guys are at 5 weeks!! and doing the good job, complete. pretty focused

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Bill Sargent
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Re: '60 Cab project

#34 Post by Bill Sargent »

Further to Jim's comment on fitting the cab top frame to the car, I have a 59A cab that was a hardtop only delivery. An earlier owner had purchased a soft top but it did not fit well around the rear cowl. Solution was to remove the rear metal bow that fits in the pocket below the rear window of the soft top and bend-fit-bend-fit-bend-fit...... until it followed the curve of the rear cowl. When reinstalled it fit perfectly. I had to do the same to my 64C cab after extensive rust repair that entailed new rear fenders and cowl. Based on my experience and what Jim says it seems to me the factory must have hand bent the lower metal bow to fit each individual car.
Regards,

Bill Sargent
#151489 59A Cab - Faux Cam
#159176 64C Cab
#460603 67 912
904 clone in the works

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Jim Nelson
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Re: '60 Cab project

#35 Post by Jim Nelson »

Thanks Ryan and Bill, but remember most of the heavy lifting had been done, as the prior owner had completely disassembled the car, and well done at that. He kept all the fasteners and didn't lose anything, so that put us halfway there. We are new to the cabriolet top fitting game, though it certainly looks like there is a lot of fiddling that goes on, especially with the rear bow to body fit. The bend-fit-bend-fit process is a lot like bumper decos, same idea. We are plodding onward. The transmission is being rebuilt, and we are keeping busy.

Fitting the rear wooden bow (the rearmost bow isn't fully attached to the chicken wings here). We also want to make sure of the fit before we paint it the right colors:
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Headlight bucket refurbish. We had a black bucket with the adjusting screws at 5 and 7, and a replacement silver bucket with the adjusting screws at 7 and 2, so we found another 5 and 7. Interesting in that the little fiber piece that blocks off the old parking light is a very thick piece of cardboard/fiberboard, and it's textured. Lots of fun duplicating that, but I think we did OK.

Before:
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After:
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That little textured piece:
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Mike working on headlight bucket #2:
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We also tended to the hand throttle assembly today, this is a before picture, just clean and lube:
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Jim Nelson
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Re: '60 Cab project

#36 Post by Jim Nelson »

We decided we weren't entirely happy with the finish of the voltage regulator, so we redid it.
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It's funny how little things come up. This is the cap to the washer bag. We found another version (stamped with SWF only), and the reproductions don't have the company stamp. Yet we found another reproduction version with different serrations on the side. Funky stuff.

Our original is to the right, another original in the center, and a reproduction on the left:
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Then the other reproduction included, so the two repros are on the left. All the same part, but all a little bit different:
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Jim Nelson
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Re: '60 Cab project

#37 Post by Jim Nelson »

We finished up the window regulators, which were in pretty good shape anyway.

Before:
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After:
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We did change this piece:
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We got it from our favorite vendor, but buyer beware: it's a bit too short, so there's some grinding of the regulator involved to make sure you can get the E-clip on the back, and most importantly--it's SAE threads! Yet it came with a metric nut ! C'Mon, guys...

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Jim Nelson
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Re: '60 Cab project

#38 Post by Jim Nelson »

Finally, we've dropped the car off at the metal genius, Steve Hogue. Getting the little imperfections cleaned up, and making sure the gaps are right. It's in pretty good company--behind it is a RS-61, and a 911R. His shop is full of jaw-droppers.
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Jim Nelson
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Re: '60 Cab project

#39 Post by Jim Nelson »

Time at Steve's is well spent. There have been a number of small items, like a dent where something fell on it during storage:
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The car had a pair of small incidents during its life. Both were pretty minor. One was around the right rear tail light. Here it is about 80% done:
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The other was at the other extreme, the driver's headlight. Despite it having been repaired prior to this, we didn't like the headlight fit at all. It would probably have been ok as a driver, but we wanted the car to be something someone could win a show with.
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....and it turned out to be a little more than we thought. The line of the fender was too high, causing the bucket to be ill-fitted. Solution: new bucket (green metal) and a bit for the fender.
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There's still a bit of work to do on the fender to make it perfect, but the good news is it's all metal, no bondo on the car. We still have some gap adjustment to do, but the heavy lifting should be done pretty quickly, hopefully sometime next week.

Adam Cultraro
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Re: '60 Cab project

#40 Post by Adam Cultraro »

Awesome project!!

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Jim Nelson
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Re: '60 Cab project

#41 Post by Jim Nelson »

Thanks for the kind words, Adam, we're just a couple of guys plodding along.
The headlight bucket and surround is finished, along with some other minor bits. A lot of little fiddling to make panels look the way they're supposed to.
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Gotta say, watching Steve and his guys work is pretty amazing. But the exciting part about today is....we've moved on from Steve's and now the car is at the painter.
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Jim Nelson
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Re: '60 Cab project

#42 Post by Jim Nelson »

Started to look at engine pieces today to see if any of the bits of the engine that we got with the car are actually ones we'd consider using (see viewtopic.php?f=13&t=41042 ). When we bought the car, we bought two engines-one which was a bit of a mystery motor, and one which is a true collection of really neat bits, unassembled. We'll get to that later, it's really pretty cool, but we did do a little archeology. Something has been here before.

We figure this was the pantry:
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and this was probably the main bedroom:
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The J-tubes look like the steel is pretty thin, so a no-go, but we haven't cleaned the crud off the flappers yet...

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Glen Hamner, Jr
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Re: '60 Cab project

#43 Post by Glen Hamner, Jr »

Sooooo, that's where all the rattle-can sounds are coming from. Never liked that about the sound of our engines.

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Jim Nelson
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Re: '60 Cab project

#44 Post by Jim Nelson »

Now the fun starts. The trans is back, so we can put the axle tubes back on it, and we picked up the chrome today. It's a little like Christmas, unwrapping a bunch of bits, and what a great job Christensen's did.
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We can also, after we sort this bunch of parts, start to reassemble the subassemblies like door locks, the ignition switch, the seats, etc.
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Bill Sargent
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Re: '60 Cab project

#45 Post by Bill Sargent »

Jim,

I am enjoying your thread - good primer for those starting a restoration on the many things involved. Wish I had something like it when I did my 64C cab back in the 90s. Back then I had shop in Houston do all the chrome for my car, and I mean everything down to chrome screws for the seat hinges, radio surround etc. It was about $2,500 in 1999 which seemed like a lot. Are you willing to share what Christensen charged for a whole car worth of chrome? I have a 59A cab to do when I move back to the US in a couple of years.
The restored 64C
The restored 64C
TUB 2 Above Anchorage.jpg (46.12 KiB) Viewed 3853 times
Regards,

Bill Sargent
#151489 59A Cab - Faux Cam
#159176 64C Cab
#460603 67 912
904 clone in the works

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