"Concerning the '53 Caribbean what is just aft of the radiator and forward of the oil filter?"

power steering reservior

cool picture, looks very much like the paint scheme on our car. I have noticed that when the top is painted a contrasting color (even from the factory) sometimes the window frames on the doors are painted and sometimes they stay the base body color. Our car was not repainted (the top at least) that I can tell in it's lifetime, and yet it differs from this Easter car photo.

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I spent some quality time sanding and painting the interior window trim parts this weekend. We were going to go to a car show on Saturday but big thunderstorms with hail wiped that out, so I did this instead.

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Door panels are now installed. My sewing expert (wife) used the same vinyl materials as the seat covers, we thought up a simple design to make them look nice. I used new backing boards, got them from the local upholstery supply place - kind of a cross between masonite and cardboard. Cut them to match the old panels, glued some 1/4" foam padding to them after marking and punching all the holes for the clips that hold the panels to the doors.

Then installed the covers over the foam, glued to the backside. Had to carefully cut the padding out of the ivory patterned sections where it folds around the board to have clean vinyl to glue.

I had made the holes for the door handles and the armrests before I covered the boards, so poked holes through from the back and then carefully widened as needed once clipped to the doors. I painted the door handle bases and window crank knobs red (they were black) and also painted the plastic bases of the armrests ivory white. I used Krylon Fusion paint for the plastic parts. I removed the old black material from the armrest pads, it came right off of the old rubber pads. Stretched and glued red vinyl to those and reassembled, they turned out nicely.

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to close this saga out, I heated the shaft with a soldering iron and pulled it out. Turns out the remaining hole is just right for threading in a 10-32 screw, so I didn't need to insert a nut.

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my '52 knobs look pretty close, I'm going to try a "shaftectomy" on one tonight

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"Everyone asks, Corinthian leather?"

The '52 knobs are a little different, I'll get a picture tomorrow. But the construction looks similar. When I was drilling the shaft for the tap, it heated up enough that the plastic at the base was melting. So I clamped on with a vice grip for a heat sink, that worked but my tap method didn't. Probably could have gone up to a # 6 screw size, maybe plan C.

Looks like the flackmaster is right on, I checked the handles front and back and the shorter ones clear the front seat back much better. They are about 3/4" to 1" different.

I have one handle that has a big chrome knob on it instead of the black plastic like the rest, this is one of the nice condition chrome ones I got from one of Scott's cars because my originals are all pretty badly pitted. I didn't notice the different knob when I was pulling parts, I was just looking at the condition of the handles. So I drilled the end off the rivet on one of my old handles, the shaft is pretty hard steel. Tried drilling and tapping for a 4-40 screw but broke my tap. So on to plan B, the shaft is molded into the plastic knob and if I heat the shaft it should melt out, then I can glue a nut in there and use a screw to attach the knob to the handle. We'll see how that works.

On my '52 I am reassembling the door panels, I noticed that the window cranks are different lengths. Front and back different I assume? Anyone know which doors get the longer crank handles and which use the short ones?