Hi, folks --
The Flying Penguin's interior is coming along. No serious problems with
the chrome. Seats cleaned up very nicely, but they will need a full
Leatherique treatment including dye and crack filler as well as being sent
out to have a couple of small holes patched and some retacking around the
base of the front seat backs. The other thing I'll have the upholsterer do
is replace the fabric strips on the rear seat frames because it's pretty
well dried out and fragile. He said he can get the correct fabric from
SMS, but since it's not visible I'm not going to be too picky.
If you've missed my earlier updates, this is a 29,000 mile barn find with
every option except right side mirror. It's been out of the sun since its
engine was removed in 1975. Parts have very little wear and no sun damage,
but everything is filthy. I tried to pick something easy and fun for my
first restoration.
I'm going to need a carpet kit from ACC but I can reuse the hair and jute
pad and the sound deadener (both in excellent condition), and I'm
considering leaving the original carpet on the vertical surfaces and simply
dyeing to match. I'm not ready to post more photos yet, so you just have
to imagine the seats and door panels out and each piece of chrome trim
around the windows having been removed and polished before reinstallation.
Headliner is still perfect after 40 years, and the package shelf is 100%
solid and intact but has a couple of places where the paint is worn thin
(maybe from my overenthusiastic cleaning efforts) that are causing me to
lean toward removing and repainting it.
In keeping with my philosophy of working from the top down, I am ready to
tackle the dash. That means refinishing the wood trim. I read the
excellent how-to article on the topic, but it does not address a couple of
critical questions:
How do you get the metal-backed panels off?
What solvent do you use to get the old glue off the panels and their once
and future resting places before reinstalling?
I am particularly concerned about not damaging any of the surrounding trim
or fabric when removing glue from the dash, seats, wheel, courtesy lights
and door panels as well as wanting to do my best to keep solvent off the
wood itself when removing glue from the panels.
Coming soon -- window motors and regulators!
Thanks,
David
'91 K-Imperial driver
'66 Crown Coupe project
'66 Newport 383 dual exhaust .030 over Eddys/Hurst/Cragars daughter's first
Mopar
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