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Thanks Don. I need to start hitting the area with PB Blaster to see if I can start to separate the tube from the rusty manifold.

I need some opinions now. I'm going to order a headliner, install it, then order the windshield. Original color for my car should be an ivory vinyl. I have attached a picture of an original headliner in good condition (though poor lighting). Also shown is my old headliner that was in terrible shape.

I have samples from Newstalgia and Kanter. None of them are Ivory, and are set against my best remaining original ivory vinyl.

From left to right:

Kanter Off-white
Kanter White
Newstalgia Off-white
Newstalgia White
Newstalgia Grey

What would you do if it was your car?

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If you want the proper material in the correct color, get it from SMS in Oregon and think about them for your door panels and other upholstery too. The prices are reasonable and if you send them your panels, they will come back new.

Of course, can't believe I forgot about SMS. Thanks for the reminder Don.

Called them and have a sample coming. Their headliners are definitely more expensive. But that's a job I want to do one time and then never again, so if it gets me the right color and fits well then it's worth it.

I checked with them and redoing all the door panels would be ~$1000. Not bad, considering that these panels are pretty intricate. I'll get to that point eventually.


-Kevin

It was also very reasonable for an entire interior for my 1956 Clipper Custom but, of course, mine is years away from being ready. I put a deposit earlier this year when they were having a massive sale, their first ever, due to COVID apparently cutting down sales. I also ordered new white leather seat upholstery for my 1965 Imperial LeBaron.

Got a new tool for the garage. My wife picked up a basic blast cabinet from Harbor Freight for me for Christmas, and I spent the last couple of days getting it up and going.

It's a benchtop model, but my bench doesn't have the room for it. So I built a simple stand for it using spare lumber I had laying around. I put some casters on the bottom to allow easy repositioning. I plugged the air hose hole in the rear of the cabinet, and drilled a new hole in the front. There I hard-mounted an air line connection. Following similar build on YouTube, I made up a water trap dust and particle collector using a 5 gallon bucket, some hose, and pipe fittings. The dust exits the cabinet, gets forced into the water, and clean air goes to the shop vac. Light in the cabinet is provided by an external LED panel that I already had on hand.

I'm using 70/140 glass bead and so far the cabinet has worked great. The media flows freely using the stock pickup tube and gun. No leaks that I've noticed in the cabinet (I caulked anything that the factory had missed).

I pulled a couple parts off to test them out. The voltage regulator cover and the hood latch both needed attention. They cleaned up nicely, and are currently sitting in paint waiting to cure.

Overall I'm very happy with the setup. I hope to find a good technique to get nice and smooth paint finishes. I'll probably need to sand a bit after primer. Some pieces will need filler to fix dents.

-Kevin

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Nice! I have a HF freestanding cabinet that I got about 15 years ago, it had to be assembled which was quite a job. But it allowed me to make sure all the seams were properly sealed. Have used the heck out of that blast cabinet, still works great. Had to replace the gloves early on, got a US made pair that have held up really well.

Next you need a powder coating setup. I haven't gotten one of those yet, but still would like to get one someday.

Working on old cars, a blast cabinet is an extremely valuable tool. I started with a small one like Kevin then invested in a larger one from TP Tools. Cram everything I can in it! Get the glass bead from Harbor Freight.

Thanks guys. I'm loving it so far. It is a little on the small side but I don't have room in the garage for a full-size unit. This should be big enough to fit most things that I need done, though it will be a bit cramped.

-Kevin

I have the freestanding one too which I think is about the same size but with built-in legs and was a real pain to assemble. Missing screws too. I'm using the finest media I could get which is too fine for heavy rust removal but it works really well on delicate parts. They are so inexpensive that maybe I should get a second with some more abrasive media as I like the look of what it did for your parts!

Been enjoying pulling parts off and blasting them clean with the cabinet. So much easier to clean parts! It's definitely not the fastest process, and my poor compressor really struggles so I have to be careful.

I pulled the battery tray and cleaned it up (took a long time). Then cleaned with acetone and painted with appliance epoxy. I read on a few other build threads about that paint and I really like the look. I'm pretty sure that factory finish wasn't high gloss black on these parts, but it sure does look nice. Much, much better than the "gloss" paints out there. And hopefully a little more resilient to tarnish and corrosion.

I need some help on the climatic control heat tube. The remnants of mine are firmly rusted into the exhaust manifold (might be the reason the carb was changed out to manual choke). I can't seem to get any movement on this thing even after days of soaking in PB Blaster. Does this tube go all the way through the box? Or does it just enter it? At this point I think my only real option is to drill out the tube. I imagine it would be best to somehow get the plate off, but I'm fairly confident that the screws are rusted in there.

-Kevin

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