On Wednesday, Kyle & I took my 73 Cadillac M&M to the body shop in Owen Sound to begin the restoration. This is the same shop that did my 46 Cadillac Miller back in the early 80's. The owner is now 82 years old and still spends every day in the shop. As this is a small 3 man operation, it is anticipated that the car will not be finished until the spring of 2012. This is a "filler job/winter project" which will fill the slow periods in the shop.
Kyle , a friend and I spent the last 2 days removing all the exterior lights, chrome, etc. Found some interesting things as we were stripping the car:
1/ THE ORIGINAL COLOUR OF THE FRONT CLIP WAS BLACK ( NOTE PICS OF THE HOOD WHERE THE CENTRE MOULDING WAS AND THE UNDERSIDE OF THE HOOD.
2/ THE FRONT SIGN WAS LITE BY A 33 INCH FLOURECENT TUBE.SINCE THIS LIGHT HAS NOT WORKED SINCE I GOT THE CAR AND THE FLOURESCENT TUBE APPEARED BURNT OUT, I HOPE IT IS THE TUBE AND NOT THE 12 VOLT INVERTER BALLAST.
3/ THE BLACK PAINT ON THE HOOD AND THE ORIGINAL BOLERO RED THAT WAS HIDDEN BY TRIM ON THE SIDE OF THE VEHICLE WAS STILL LIKE SHOW ROOM NEW AFTER NEARLY 37 YEARS.
When we removed the lower body moulding, we found that the rocker panels are in much worse shape than originally thought. May have to look for a donor car. Will return in 2 or 3 weeks to remove the bumpers and hopefully by then the upholstery shop has dropped the headliner so we can complete the removal of the moulding above the sidew emergency and ditch lights. With the body shop being 4 1/2 hours away, we won't get back often, particularly during the winter.
Kyle , a friend and I spent the last 2 days removing all the exterior lights, chrome, etc. Found some interesting things as we were stripping the car:
1/ THE ORIGINAL COLOUR OF THE FRONT CLIP WAS BLACK ( NOTE PICS OF THE HOOD WHERE THE CENTRE MOULDING WAS AND THE UNDERSIDE OF THE HOOD.
2/ THE FRONT SIGN WAS LITE BY A 33 INCH FLOURECENT TUBE.SINCE THIS LIGHT HAS NOT WORKED SINCE I GOT THE CAR AND THE FLOURESCENT TUBE APPEARED BURNT OUT, I HOPE IT IS THE TUBE AND NOT THE 12 VOLT INVERTER BALLAST.
3/ THE BLACK PAINT ON THE HOOD AND THE ORIGINAL BOLERO RED THAT WAS HIDDEN BY TRIM ON THE SIDE OF THE VEHICLE WAS STILL LIKE SHOW ROOM NEW AFTER NEARLY 37 YEARS.
When we removed the lower body moulding, we found that the rocker panels are in much worse shape than originally thought. May have to look for a donor car. Will return in 2 or 3 weeks to remove the bumpers and hopefully by then the upholstery shop has dropped the headliner so we can complete the removal of the moulding above the sidew emergency and ditch lights. With the body shop being 4 1/2 hours away, we won't get back often, particularly during the winter.
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