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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.

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.

Looks GREAT! So nice to see it all coming together.

That looks great! Oddly, a 1964 Imperial Crown Coupe that I once owned had the same long grain on its vinyl top but in white.

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!!

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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Are you/they planning on putting some additional insulation between the chicken wire and the headliner?

Anywhere additional insulation can be added to reduce heat from the sun on a closed car is for sure warranted! Especially on a dark colored one.

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Yes, the car will be insulated everywhere far better than it was when new. It has a lot more insulation everywhere on the body than it originally did and about the same amount of insulation in the roof. But, the roof insulations will be a lot better due to having better materials available.

It already has a lot more insulation between the roof material and chicken wire.

Most of the wiring is done and the dash is getting put back together. Here a few pictures. The dash panels by Ron are amazing as is all the window and door trim he did for me!

Also, one rear armrest has been covered and the front headliner is in. It gives a good picture of the two fabrics. I'm really liking how they work together.

Very nice! I expect that the insides of your doors are now painted far better than they ever were.