From the Lift: Details, Details

It's getting down to the smaller details that are not necessarily my long suit. I got the rear bumpers mounted which, I must admit, was not an easy task for one person. My car is one of those that was on the cusp between the end of 3.8 liter engine and the introduction of the 4.2 liter engine. There were quite a few subtle changes made and a number of significant changes. One change was the way the bumpers mounted. On the later cars, there were cutouts under the bumper allowing access to the mounts. On my car however the only way to mount them was to run bolts almost blindly from the inside. I managed to finally get them mounted and only put one little bitty nick in the paint. Inexcusable, I know I'm sure it won't be the last (actually it's not even the first but I'm not tellin').

The bumpers and overriders were in, what I thought to be, pretty good shape, since I had not planned to make this a concours restoration. Well, the car is looking a LOT better than I had imagined it looking and when I pulled out the overriders, I realized that they had some small but very noticeable dents and the chrome was all cracked so I had to take them to the chrome shop. The re-chrome job looked outstanding, all the dents were removed and it was very reasonable.

I also decided that I had to replace one of the taillight assemblies. Actually the only part that was badwas the chrome part, but you can't get JUST the chrome part, you have to buy the whole assembly, so that's what I did. I don't know why someone can't make a rubber gasket that fits these lights, but I have several, they are each different and none fit very well.I have done the best I can though and they look pretty good.

Next I decided to tackle the dash top. I ordered a new vinyl cover and set out to recover my dash. The dash top cover that was on it was made of LEATHER! I'm not sure who did that or why, but that's what it was and evidently, as you can see, it was originally red leather.

I had never attempted anything quite like this before, but after the way recovering my instrument panel came out, I was enthusiastic about it. The first thing I realized was that I needed my heat gun. The dashtop is preformed in a heavy vinyl with a pad attached. with a little contact cement, some heat and a lot of patience, I got it done and am very pleased with how it turned out.