I cut up some left over material from making a cargo floor mat for the wood floor of the '52 DeSoto wagon and replaced the awful rubber floor runner I had in it temporarily. This stuff looks pretty good. Ready for Nat's North.
Thanks. The Dude's (Big Lebowski) bowling bag has a 70's vibe, the '50's leather one we had wouldn't fit over the battery.
VERY European feel. Here is something @Ryan wrote back in 2014. I have similar plans on something of mine. Tradition and Innovation: A Repost | The Jalopy Journal The Jalopy Journal
I remember that post, and thought of it just recently when I was scolded for suggesting a leather wrapped wheel (like mine) could look appropriate in a traditional themed car.
From what I have read, you use your stuff so being completed in any manner is good. It's amazing how fast the summer has passed.
Right? The spring and summer flew by. We had a great time this year though, and are really looking forward to having the roadster in Florida for the winter. Endless summer. We may leave a car there next year (not the roadster), because hauling one down I can see will be something I won't want to do for too many years.
LOL, my wife said it'd look good had I bound the edges of the "carpet". I said it wasn't good enough material to warrant the effort, and besides, I didn't have any binding.
Yes. I took them off. The problem is the Wheel Vintiques wheels on the front. They will NOT hold a cap. I'm going to get some center hub "Spider" caps. Which I should have done in the first place.
I had a few minutes before we take off to fetch the '62 Impala home, so I tidied up the trunk, re-routed the ground strap for the gas tank sending unit. It looks a little more tidy without the wire snaking down in front of the tank. I may get some more FRP board and make an upholstered panel to line the underside of the trunk lid, same plaid as the rest of the interior. I have, like, 8 yards of it, so might as well use it for something, right? In an unrelated topic, a couple weeks ago at the Nat's North in Kalamazoo some dude was studying the DeSoto boiler, and said, "That's a weird cooling system." Unable to let well enough alone, I said, "What looks weird about it?" "It's just weird.", he said and walked away shaking his head as if I were an idiot for questioning his expertise.
Are you talking about the transmission cooler radiator hose drop? I have the same thing on my 331 hemi in my '33 Plymouth. Dave
Looks Super! If the carpet edges bother you or you want them to stay together and not start coming undone take a hot glue gun and seal the edges. Then take a piece of split 3/8 fuel line about an inch and pull right behind where you glued. It seals and cuffs it. ( just slide it over the edge and pull) Will never come undone and it keeps the edges from coming undone. I know a floor carpet that was done 30 years ago this way. Still looks nice. But regardless it looks very nice. I am used to racing interiors so yes I am impressed.
That's a good tip, thanks. This stuff isn't really "carpet", it's kinda just pressed fuzz. It's some cheap-o outdoor, patio throw rug stuff I got at Menards or Home Depot. I bought it a couple years ago and made a cargo mat for our DeSoto wagon which has a varnished birch floor, this was what was left over. It does have a kind of a nice ribbed pattern to it, and the stuff seams to be indestructible. I was going to get actual carpet and use this as a pattern, but I kinda like it as is. I may get some glue on carpet binding, which is something that exists, and stitch it down. It looks a little better in person than the photos make it look, I was pretty happy with the result.
Who knows what he was talking about? Like he said, "It's just weird". I like the look, it made a lower hose super easy, and the transmission gets cooled, which is good because if there were fittings for a trans cooler, they'd be right in front of the fan.
Day before yesterday I took the car to the upholsterer so he could make us a tonneau cover. We're taking it south with us, and while we have a carport (which is ALMOST finished, that's another story) I want to keep dust and dirt out of the interior. I had picked a navy blue canvas, which at his shop, looked good against the paint. He called last night to say it was done, but... He had made an error punching, or cutting, a hole for one of the snaps, and wanted to make a new one for me. He didn't have enough fabric, and he couldn't find his hole punch, which is how he slipped with an X-Acto knife cutting. We went over this morning, the car was setting in his drive with the blue tonneau cover on. It looked, Kim and agreed, TERRIBLE. The color clashed with the paint, and with it on, the blue plaid interior is hidden, so it just looked like a mistake. Since he's getting new fabric anyway, we asked if he could make in black topping instead. Not a problem. So he's using the blue one as a pattern, it'll be done next week. Meanwhile, the snaps look, I think, very business-like, and it looks like there's a plan.
Rainy day project today was to fix the shifter that the upholsterer somehow managed to effectively eff-up trying to pull it out of "Park" by just strong-arming the lever instead of just pushing in the detent release button in the 8 ball (thanks again for that, @Bandit Billy). He pulled the handle loose, so it was flopping around, and pulled so hard that the neutral safety switch was no longer aligned in the shift mechanism, the car would only start in reverse or drive. Nothing broken though, and in his defense, I didn't tell him how it worked. He did call me to ask how to find reverse, but I think that was after he'd struggled and managed to bugger it all up. All fixed, it was no big deal, and while I had things apart I covered the little riser for the shifter with a scrap of the leather left over. Much better than black Gorilla tape... I also put some chrome trim on the door and quarter panel upholstery where the leather and cloth meet. This mimics the door panels in the DeSoto wagon (which birthed the roadster), and lines up perfectly with the chrome trim at the bottom edge of the DeSoto dash. Also from the wagon. I thought it might be a little too "bling-y" for a simple car, but the chrome looks good, so it was a good addition. While I was working on it, I took the U-joint off at the steering box and clocked the shaft and wheel so the ivory part is at 12:00 instead of 10:00. Much better. Now it's done. Or, it will be when we get the tonneau cover next week.
Glad to have played a small part on your groovy build. I blew the head gaskets off my Olds playing one night over at PIR, had it towed to my trusty mechanic so he could deck my aluminum heads and add thicker gaskets as it is already 11:1...anyway, when I got it back the Hurst Dual Gate was utterly destroyed. I had to remove it, straighten and weld up the bracket, replace the shifter cable, they tried to fix what they had down and in doing so broke my line loc shift knob. Oh, well, the head gaskets have been perfect!
Ya gotta weigh the good against the bad. The guy is charging less than $200 for the tonneau, and I appreciate that he told me he made a mistake with it and is making another, on his dime. I HATE the ratchet shifter in the Impala, and can see how it could be damaged struggling with it. I may get used to it, if I can't, I'll get a shifter like I have in the roadster, which works perfectly, has positive detents for manual shifts, and doesn't have the clunky, 80's style console thingie. It looks out of place in the otherwise original Chevy interior.
Good call on those Common Sense fasteners. When I did mine I only used snaps, the right cross wind would cause them to unsnap.
Thanks. I got a lot of criticism on a FB Model A hot rod group for them, from people who don't know what they're talking about. I've always like them, they are a much more positive fastener for canvas than snaps, as you point out. Plus, they look suitably "antique-y". I admit they're more obvious when the tonneau is off, but with it on (which after driving it solo yesterday in the autumn chill, might be more often than I thought) they look perfect.
Not sure I am in that group? Or if I just missed the hubub. I would have chimed in. You are correct on all counts!
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