Re: Upholstery confusion
Posted by humanpotatohybrid On 2024/6/24 8:56:21
Interesting, Ross. Thanks for the info. Disregarding the overall condition, as you mentioned, the paint job on this one was so lazily done, that I assumed that the interior would have been done with a comparable quality. The paint is white on teal instead of the original cool light gray Moonstone hue that you are familiar with over a more greenish Tourmaline; to this day one section of the original paint is still in great condition, so no reason it couldn't have been matched properly. Also they did not even bother to remove the trim to paint it, as is obvious at this point from the rust in certain areas...
So seeing all that, I assumed the interior must have been original. One error in my assumption was that the door cards and seat material were the same. Thankfully it is pretty nice, like I said, and is a fair amount better than some not-inexpensive reupholstery jobs I have seen for sale over the years. I suspect that at least the vinyl on the door cards is original, as I can't find evidence of them being taken apart, though who knows.
I wish I knew more of the history on this car as it was clear it was in nice condition (at least aesthetically) at one point; all I know is the previous owner bought it in '90 before "gifting" it to his mechanic sometime past '94. Changed hands a couple times to people that (thankfully) did nothing to it more than parking it outside for many years and somehow smashing out the back glass. Ok not very thankful on that one, but you get my point. If this car had been messed with, with people dropping in fuel cells, trying to do random swaps and "upgrades" it would have been completely unsaveable. I have yet to find a "smoking gun" as to why this car may have been parked, but it's clear that it was pretty tired mechanically and did not always have the best work done to it. For example, check out this qualiteee sealing job on the water pump. The old gasket actually was still installed under all this mess. I don't know how hard it was to join PAC and buy parts from actual vendors in the pre-Internet age, but apparently it was too hard for somebody.
I also found that the rear diff side bearings were getting spun, the parking pawl is broken, and the heater core was bypassed. New fuel line ran with copper tubing without removing the old one and connecting to the original tank line with flex hose. On the other hand, this car had both an engine swap/upgrade to a 352, and a radiator recore, so it's clear that someone was dumping money into it at some point in the past.
Such is the "life" of something that's 70 years old...
Attach file:
waterpump.jpg (1,473.65 KB)
So seeing all that, I assumed the interior must have been original. One error in my assumption was that the door cards and seat material were the same. Thankfully it is pretty nice, like I said, and is a fair amount better than some not-inexpensive reupholstery jobs I have seen for sale over the years. I suspect that at least the vinyl on the door cards is original, as I can't find evidence of them being taken apart, though who knows.
I wish I knew more of the history on this car as it was clear it was in nice condition (at least aesthetically) at one point; all I know is the previous owner bought it in '90 before "gifting" it to his mechanic sometime past '94. Changed hands a couple times to people that (thankfully) did nothing to it more than parking it outside for many years and somehow smashing out the back glass. Ok not very thankful on that one, but you get my point. If this car had been messed with, with people dropping in fuel cells, trying to do random swaps and "upgrades" it would have been completely unsaveable. I have yet to find a "smoking gun" as to why this car may have been parked, but it's clear that it was pretty tired mechanically and did not always have the best work done to it. For example, check out this qualiteee sealing job on the water pump. The old gasket actually was still installed under all this mess. I don't know how hard it was to join PAC and buy parts from actual vendors in the pre-Internet age, but apparently it was too hard for somebody.
I also found that the rear diff side bearings were getting spun, the parking pawl is broken, and the heater core was bypassed. New fuel line ran with copper tubing without removing the old one and connecting to the original tank line with flex hose. On the other hand, this car had both an engine swap/upgrade to a 352, and a radiator recore, so it's clear that someone was dumping money into it at some point in the past.
Such is the "life" of something that's 70 years old...
Attach file:
waterpump.jpg (1,473.65 KB)
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