I'm really trying to document as much history of Birdie as I can, especially the time Dad had with her. I'm also trying to do it in a way that is fun to read.

Here is the next installment....Birdie's Ruffled Tail Feathers.

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Thanks…I’m really happy with how it’s turning out. Clarance, the upholstery guy at the shop, is quite a character, but he’s really good. He’s been doing upholstery for over 50 years. He’s starting to talk about retirement. I just need him to keep going about two more weeks!!

Birdie has a roof! It’s looking really nice. I’m really glad I was able to get a “new” tack strip from Ken_P. Of course, with my car being a 138, I have a couple extra seams in the tack strip since I had to add an 18” piece to each side that was from what little was left of the original.

We also used #4 screws instead of tacks/nails… a lot of them! The only thing left is to fill the groove in the tack strip with black silicon that will cover/seal all the screws and provide the final smooth finish. The interior headliner is next.













Here is the roof from the inside. The c-clamps were to repair a split in one of the wood bows. The glue has dried and now that bow is probably more solid than the others.

I was able to find new replacement spacers at my local Ace Hardware. There isn’t anything special about them. Ace had an exact match.

I had access to equipment to blast mine while my car was in the shop. I did that and then primed and painted them. I used Rustoleum Regal Red that was recommended by others on this site. This was for my 1937.

I'm really happy with how they turned out and the color matches the red hex on my hubcaps very well.

BIRDIE ANNOUNCEMENT….sort of….she’s on track, but this isn’t guaranteed!

Birdie is currently on schedule to be completed (99.9% anyway) by July 19th.

I’m currently planning Birdie’s unveiling to be during the county fair parade on July 19th.

She likely won’t be 100% done yet. For instance, I don’t think we’ll have the pin striping down the body and on the wheels yet. I also have a couple of minor mechanical items that will likely still need to be done, but those are minor and can be done later.

For an upholstery sneak preview of the rear passenger area…..here is one of the rear grab handles. The door panels, head liner, and all non-seating surfaces will be the light tan. The darker tan, striped fabric will be on all of the seating surfaces.




The front, chauffeur area, will all be black leather. The second picture is the front seat.

It’s looking great!

Quote:

I went back and reviewed this entire thread... In your first post, you mentioned that your rear turn signals work, but not the brake lights. Based the quote above, your rear turn signals and your brake lights use the same bulbs AND the same wires from the turn signal controller to the brake lights.

So, here are the most likely causes of the problem:

1) You are not getting power to the brake light switch. Normally, one terminal of the brake light switch would have power all the time. Then, when you press the brake pedal, the contact in the switch closes, sending power to the turn signal controller. The controller then passes that signal on to the brake lights. As I mentioned in my previous post, check to see if you have 6V at either terminal on the brake light switch. If not, that is your problem. I you do have 6V, go on to Number 2.

2) You have a disconnect in the wiring between the brake light switch and the turn signal controller. That is, the controller is not getting the signal when the brake light switch contact closes. With the jumper installed on the brake light switch, check to make sure you are getting 6V at the point where the wire from the brake light switch connects to the controller. If you do not have 6V there, then the problem is the wiring between the switch and controller. If you do have 6V, go on to Number 3.

3) If the signal is getting through the brake light switch and to the controller, then the controller has likely failed.

Agreed, I just recommended to do that to follow best practices in trouble shooting. That is to work with as few “changes” as possible at one time. The first step was the jumper to see if the problem was the switch. That let us conclude that the switch is not the problem. Best practices is to then return the system back to baseline, Then, take the next step.

At this point, the next step is as others have stated. Do you have a voltmeter? If so, remove the jumper you installed. Then, you need to measure the voltage from one terminal of the brake lights switch to ground. If it is at 6V, then that is your “hot” to the switch. If you don’t have 6V, then measure the voltage from the other terminal of the switch to ground. Again, if it is 6V, then it is your “hot” terminal.

At this point, only one terminal should measure 6V, but one terminal should read 6V. If you don’t have 6V at either terminal, then you have a wiring problem prior to switch.

If one terminal does have 6V, and we know that the switch is not the problem, then you have a wiring problem after the switch.

Once you determine if the problem is before or after the switch, we can start the next steps of the troubleshooting.