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I couldn't let Don's '37 have all the uphosltery love.

So I figured I'd better finish come items on the Jackard.

I made a new upholstery cover for the rear package tray area. I still have the original one which is ripped, brittle, and cowlboard piece is torn up pretty badly as it was originally glued to the package tray and which was replaced in the past. Now I've replaced it again and the shape needs to be different. The original convertible coupe seat has a pretty flat back, the split coupe seat forms a shallow curve.

So added a piece to the front edge of the package tray to conform to, and support that curve. Then I made a new piece upholstery panel. The panel needs to be 56/57" wide. Any cowlboard sold locally is only 32" long. So 1/8 coated cardboard to the resume. Cheap, available, and $14 for a 4' x 8' piece. So I ripped a 22" piece from thay 60" long and refined the shape from there.




The shaped it to match the front curve needed.

Then I covered it with a marine grade vinyl. On the 37 Juniors, only the front seat was originally leather. The degraded original one I have is an early vinyl/leatherette material.




And glued it all in place and added some piping along the edge.




And the glued the panel down the package tray and wrapped the upholstery over the leading edge.




While I was working on uphosltery, I decided to wrap the wood pieces on the B-Pillars and also install the windlace.




The seat side panels still need to be done, that is leather job and requires sewing. So not it.

Can’t wait to see the Jackard back together and on the road!

Quote:

Me neither!

And back to body work. Stripping parts to bare metal is always a messy job.

The rear passenger fender for sure looked better than it is. Last year I pretty much just gave it a cursory sanding and rattle can painted to black.

This time I stripped it all the way down. Lots of pitting, rust, and nasty undercoating.

The leading edge which mounts up against the running board is pretty rotten. It's going to need a 4"-6" patch there. Also the mounting flange where it mounts to body, the edge is pretty rotten away.

There there are pinholes in several places.







But from this angle, it doesn't look half bad.




Pretty sure the undercoating did the opposite of what it was supposed to do. As the bottom side is super heavily pitted.

BTW, an unmounted 37 Junior rear fender has the rigidity of a wet noodle. Which makes trying strip it oh so much "fun".

Both of my rear fenders had serious cancer where they bolted to the running boards. Here is one after being stripped down.




Here it is after some new sheet metal…

With some of these very common rot areas, while not a panacea, a think a good quality epoxy primer can help. Also, we dont drive these cars in all weather, or store them outside, like people did when they were new.

Also, I think, in particularly, the rivets that are in the end of the running board rub the paint off front of the fenders in that and gouge them. Then the rot has a perfect starting place.

So either having them as flush as possible and/or having a thin rubber strip between the board and the fender to help buffer it can't hurt.

So... the other fender that I thought was going to be the better one has its own unique issues.

For example, sometime in the 70s, this unique procedure was implemented to fill a 1/2" hole that was drilled into the rear of the fender in the past.

Step 1; Braze a hole poorly
Step 2: Realize we dont have a grinder, so bash in area with a hammer until it's lower than the surrounding area.
Step 3: Then fill smashed in area with copious bondo.
Step 4: Then paint with Imron. The world most hard to strip paint.
Step 5: Repeat with the front rotted out area where it mounts to the running board.
Step 6: Wait for some idiot to come along 45 years later and try to strip it.

I welded up a couple of cracks in rear passenger side fender and also leveled many of dents. I still need to make a patch to replace the lower 4-6 on the front lower edge where all these fenders rot out where they attach to the running board.

I mounted this to car so I can prefit it and check for any other filament issues that need to address.




Also with then fender in place I also marked the rear trunk filler panels so I know exactly when it need to cut and reshape it to match fenders.

For back ground, this panel was replaced prior to my ownership and shaped/ modified to match the shape of the stretched fenders. But now that I've converted the car back stock fenders, this panel no longer matches the shape of the fenders.

So I'll need to rework/replace this panel. So the mark on the is so I know where it needs to cut, and where the rest of that panel needs to be blended into.

On another subject, I was made aware by the Master Parts Manager at Dallas Zone Office, that my transmission is missing the special vent bolt used on the transmission top plate. Unfortunately, the Zone Office is out of stock on that item.

Does anyone have one rattling in a coffee can of parts they would like to part with?

Also, I've noticed some seepage at the rear shaft seal. Is that an easily replacable external seal? I understand I would have to at least remove the u-joint yoke.

If so, any modern part number for that seal?