Projects 1948 Chevrolet fleetmaster

Yup same problem, the Chevy Body manual always say take a chisel and a mallet to make repairs..

 

nooo, ill figure it out, I have the same issue ill find out whats going wrong.

took it easy today, well was busy but the work wasn't hard. column is done and so is the windshield and back window so im ready to start putting the inside in. what was going to take the longest is the headliner. but to install the headliner I have to have the windlace in because the headliner is sandwiched between two strips of windlace and one going under the headliner itself. so I did the windlace today, the bottom part.
the windlace along the front door goes on some metal strip. I was told I need to get some twisted paper thread type stuff to get the windlace in. weed whacker line worked just fine

tuck it in with a flathead

and pinch it with pliers to keep it inside


then just screw that in and staple the rest along the door






now I can put in the headliner and the long piece that goes between the doors, from there the rest will fly in its that quick. polished up my door window frame garnishes

the little ivory pieces were dry and broken. you can either replace them from chevs of the 40s at 14 bucks each plus shipping
https://www.chevsofthe40s.com/detail/8892/Chevrolet_Ivory_Insert_Garnish_Moulding_Medallion.html
that's 14x4= $56 plus shipping just over 60 bucks. or you can take glue gun sticks from the 99cent store and sand a half off and with them themselves cause theyre glue, with a lighter light it on the flat side till you see it shine cause it melted alittle and stick it on the trim and let it dry. theyre the same tone as the originals

 

and polished up the spotlight im using since when the dash goes in I can install it. should have took before pics, it was bad, really bad. for a while I couldn't find it, it was on the side of my house half buried in the dirt under some pieces of wood. but cleaned up nice











and if anyone knows where I can get this bulb in 12 volt







it has to be that type of bolt, it has a gm cap that goes on it that I have to use

 

Damn bro you do some really nice work and fast-keep going you are almost there!!!

 

thanks dimebag, yea almost there. once headliner is in watch how fast all the interior goes in, like in an hour its complete

 

Here's a place that has the 12 volt bulb #1327 G.E. for 24 pesos. They also have the O.G. 1323 6 volt for 52 dollars. Just type in the number into the bulb search box and click and it will show you the brands available.
http://www.donsbulbs.com/cgi-bin/r/t.pl

 

I like the idea with the glue stick! Mine were missing too, luckily they were in the trunk in a box of new parts the previous owner put in there.
A round pencil split, cut to length and painted works too.
That light globe looks like a headlight globe from a 37/38 Chevy.
Have you done a 12volt conversion? Are your fog lights 6volt still?

 

yea that would work too, glue stick is all that came to mind but if I knew about the pencil I would have done it and woodgrained them. yea ive done 12 volt conversion, and added voltage reducers for the gas gauge and amp gauge. all that's left is this the spotlight. no work on the car today, have to work day shift today. but tomorrow ill try to squeeze in some work before I go out at night

 

when you put on your headliner, its stapled or nailed along padding type stuff. a lot of times like with me its missing in parts of the car. I had to replace the same part on my 59 as I did with this one right ontop of the windshield



drill some holes, and some wood paint stirrers work great





then it can get started





and while im at it do the floor too



ill post more pics tomorrow, going to try to finish tonight

 

Awesome! Thanks for the idea for the garnish trim, mine doesnt even have the ivory pieces anymore.

Cool to see how you do the headliner too, makes me not so scared to do mine myself..

 

Shouldn't you probably wait on the floor until you have the electrical wire running through? I don't know if you're hiding the wire under the carpet or not...

 

its ran across the top under the headliner, weird huh. in some of the pictures you can see it tucked away above the doors

 

yea with a lot of people its the first thing to crack or lose. I don't see why they cost that much but it can be replaced for way cheaper. and its a perfect half circle so its easy to find something to replace it like the glue stick or like they mentioned a half of a round pencil. if its the pencil just spray paint it ivory, but the glue stick is the same tone as the originals =)

and for the headliner, anyone can do it, it just requires PATIENCE. its a process, and yes a one man job. with 2 youd just get it done quicker but possible on your own. you start from front to back, slide in the first bow in the sleeve and hook it on the hooks, then staple the front above the windshield and work your way back along the sides, bow by bow. lightly tugging on the ends and stapling. it just gets hard between the last window and back glass. but take your time and youll get it down

 

Please post a lot of pictures of the stapling part, I'm still not sure how you do it with the wind-lace in place... also not sure how it attaches on a coupe!

 

yea ill do it tomorrow. but it goes under the headliner, and another strip above it to sandwich it. ill post pics so you get what im saying. but on yours its done the same, just less windows and less windlace

 

Impatiently waiting for those pictures! haha

 

wasn't able to work on the car today, a lot of things came up it was a bad day. tomorrow have to finish up those things as well so I wont get back to the car till wed =/

 

lets see where I left off, well the inside was like this









and now its like this

 

my doors and window frames were like this













and now theyre like this

 

this weekend get the front seat in, tighten and straighten up some stuff on the interior, this is it thrown in for the first time I have some things to adjust, then the dash goes in with the steerng wheel and im done with the inside. the headliner is going to have some wrinkles in it, cloth headliners are a pain in the ass. but that's fine with me trust me I don't care, look at it before trust me im happy. not perfect, but im happy and its mine =)

 

Pretty spiffy looking....

Would a blow dryer work on smoothing out the wrinkes?

 

in part it will. but what happened is that I put so many staples putting in the headliner and two strips of windlace that some of the strips its stapled to deteriorated so it got alittle loose. I can go back and replace all the strips and have the headliner smooth and perfect, but doing that is about 2 days work and right now im so close im just going to keep going forward, ill do that later after I drove the car a few weeks ill go back and straighten out all the little stuff after I finally enjoy the car

 

She's a masterpiece! Everything! Door panels and seats are concours quality. Dude, you don't mess around...that is one detailed interior that anyone would be proud to call their own. The tips about the nailing strips will help me out when that time comes.

Chill out and grab a beer while you admire your work. You've earned it.

 

its come a long way ,and looking real good , you now someone is going to ask you about the wood steering gearshift column , just tell them you got board one night and whittled it out of black oak .. LOL I was chuckling when they said you should wood grain the block too . atleast do the head so you can call it a block head motor ..

 

yea daryl. the panels were the easiest to make, you can use a standard home sewing machine to make it since the seams aren't load bearing or take any stress. then just a standard home depot stapler to staple the fabric to the board. seats were easy too but for that you need an industrial sewing machine. it will look a lot better when I go back and tighten it all up again. any car pre 60 will have the nailing strips pretty deteriorated, especially 30s and 40s cars. mine I didn't think was that bad, its like half inch thick cardboard along where the headliner goes, but on cars this old parts of it literally turn to dust and crumble to the touch. and if its not that bad, after stapling it a few times in the same area it will go bad. save yourself the headache of having to do something twice and from the start replace all the nailing strips. on the windshield and windows you do it like I did with the windshield and the wood stirring stick. on the headliner its thicker and easier to do, but takes longer because you have to cut and stack long pieces of fiber board or wood to the right thickness and still put it in. its easy to replace, no special tools and patience. I will go back and do mine and show you how easy it is, and trust me itll save you lots of headaches.

thanks stimpy, long way and even though I been at it for a while, going on 3 months, its still kind of a fast build. and yea, the column will look interesting, im not sure if ive seen a woodgrain column. but when the dash is in it will really pop, I mocked it up for a second and I liked what I saw =)

 

I would send you my dash for my 50 but its welded to the body ( all 50 ponchos are this way) my wife walked by and looked over my shoulder and was like wow I didn't know they used real wood on that stuff, that looks sharp .. till I told her ..

 

Thank you for the tips on the panels and seat covers. I will look for an old uphoulstry sewing machine since my wife is still interested in learning how to do interiors and that's where the big $ goes. Your advice on the tacking strips is super valuable too, so thanks for whatever you end up doing. I recall on my dad's '48 years ago we had to replace the windlace and the T-section of fabric in between the doors. We just used small uphoulstry tacks and they fell out after a few months. The nailing strips were rotted & we left it and never fixed it, and this is probably what happened.

Keep up the great work. It won't be long before you're rolling down the street again.

 

Tip on tightening the headliner.... take a spray bottle and spray a light mist of water on it, toll up the windows and park it in the hot sun. Repeat as neccesary. A steamer works great for this. An upholstery guy once told me that those old "fastback" GM cars were the hardest headliners to install and get tight. He told me about the water bottle trick.

 

Holy shit, dude. That's great work. Hope mine looks that good when I get there.

Funny story: I ordered a catalog from LeBarron & Bonney with samples for my model just to see what a "correct" restoration would run me for the interior. I stopped doing math at 4 grand. Forgot about it. The other day a someone called and woke me up at like 7 am. I let it go to voicemail, but it was a sales rep from L&B wanting to know if I was ready to order. The sales call was just a misdemeanor, but a sales call at 7 am is a freaking felony.

 

This looks amazing!!!


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