1937 cadillac 60 series restoration in England

[Steve Passmore CLC 22373]

I thought I might share my restoration progress with the rest of the membership and I have taken Lou's advice about how to download pictures better so I'm giving it a try. Please let me know if I'm boring you to tears.

I bought this car from club member Art Crowley in late 2005, he had purchased it from fellow club member Bob Hoffman in the 70s and had not touched it in all those years. Bob had found it in an orchard south of San Fransisco.
I spent two years or so just buying anything I could get my hands on so when I did start on this car I could just take things off the shelf with no holdups, that worked out for 90% of the parts I needed but I was forced into starting by an appointment  with a body striping company much like your "Ready strip.  they wanted the body in September last years so in July 08 I went for it.

As I have been into this restoration a year Ill try to lightly cover what Iv done so far in pictures untill you catch up. I don't know how many I can upload at one time so bare with me. The first picture is of the car arriving here in England before anything started, Second is of the dismantling underway.
Steve

[Steve Passmore CLC 22373]

Some more pictures of the dismantling

[Otto Skorzeny]

All you need are a couple of hubcaps and she's good to go.

[South_paw]

So,  it's all Bob's fault    The car has great lines and I love the side mounts. Whats the color scheme going to be? Keep the pics coming

Lou

[Steve Passmore CLC 22373]

You betcha Lou, More "taking it to bits" pics. and its going to be silver, the original colour was Gray iridescent, this is very close to Buick's "Gunmetal Gray metalic"of that year and I already have a car in that colour so I decided to go one lighter, it will have burgundy leather and top.
Steve

[Steve Passmore CLC 22373]

Chassis stripped bare.

[Steve Passmore CLC 22373]

Body going off to the strippers, While this was gone the chassis went to the local sand blasters and was sprayed on return with 4 coats of black, this should have been satin but as I had a great deal of gloss paint and this car will be a driver I decided to go for gloss. Once paint was on the chassis things seemed to move at a good pace.
Steve

[Steve Passmore CLC 22373]

Lou, Your an absolute genius, you've "cracked it" as we say that time, many many thanks
Steve

[Bob Hoffmann CLC#96]

So,  it's all Bob's fault    The car has great lines and I love the side mounts. Whats the color scheme going to be? Keep the pics coming

Lou

  Hey Lou, you're right! However, what Steve doesn't know is I've got a buy-back agreement with Crowley. So... just about the time the car is done, I step in! LOL, Bob

[Steve Passmore CLC 22373]

I had a delay while waiting for the body to return and waiting for engine parts so I was making a new top bow for a friends 1933 Plymouth that I was trimming, while I had everything in place I thought I had just as well make my own steam bent bow and get that job out of the way. The original bow had 6 inches roted from each end.

This was my steaming pipe. The first 2 bows broke and I couldn't understand why, untill I found out I had bought American ash that had been kiln dried, this just does not have the moister content for bending, luckily i found a local Forrester who had recently cut down an Ash.



My formers screwed down to the bench.



The Ash bend around the formers



The newly bent bow which will now spend 6 months in the boiler room still attached to the stays.

[Steve Passmore CLC 22373]

The body has now come back from the strippers and Oh my lord!  Don't I hate rust.

[Steve Passmore CLC 22373]

It was time to give everything a coat of primer before it started rusting and then take stock on how bad the rust had spread.
I had believed it to be a reasonably sound car, but it never fails to amaze me how paint and crud can hide up the nasties, having said all that, this is by far and away the very best car I have restored in the last 15 years so that gives you some indication of the condition of my brain cells.



This proves California cars are not immune to rust.

[Steve Passmore CLC 22373]

Yet more rust



When I restore these convertible bodies I build a scaffold framework inside the car, this keeps the whole structure in tact and provides a suitable hanging place for the block and tackle, also, as its a little higher than the screen height it stands on it when its upside down preventing damage. You can just see the framework inside the body sitting on the workshop floor.   Had I been a younger man a rotisserie would have been the way to go but they weren't available in this country when I started taking these bodies off and now this will probably be the last full resto I do.

[Steve Passmore CLC 22373]

Rust repairs underway.  The one big disadvantage we have restoring American cars in the UK is the total lack of "parts cars" not that anyone would part out a 37 coupe anyway, There are no spares floating around the system here either but a replacement floor pan would have been nice.

[Steve Passmore CLC 22373]

Although it looked daunting at the time I moved through this work fairly quickly taking about 4 weeks to complete before it was ready for paint.

[Steve Passmore CLC 22373]

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_VpTLXMh20P8/SndHmUFMvvI/AAAAAAAAAc8/5ZYJd7aX-88/s640/welding%20repairs%20underway%20007.jpg

[Steve Passmore CLC 22373]

All that remained now was to give it a good coat of satin and turn the body back over. I taped up the entire underside to prevent over spray when the top surfaces were worked on, As this was December 08 this would now be placed in store and wait for warmer weather because I'm only an hobbyist and I don't have the luxury of a paint oven.  I have also promised a friend I would trim his 1923 Hudson tourer so that would take the next six weeks. I will carry on slowly with mechanical work.




Don't worry, the screen frame is not on the floor, its close, but the scaffold frame is doing its job.
Steve

[The Tassie Devil(le) (Bruce Reynolds)]

G'day Steve,

Great job of rust replacement, and love the pictures.

Bruce.

[Otto Skorzeny]

Just curious about your ash windshield frame.

I assume it's cut to proper length after the steaming process is over. Is the stock also oversize? In other words, is it planed and sanded to the right dimensions after it done in the boiler room?

[Steve Passmore CLC 22373]

Bruce, Thanks for that.  The pictures are all down to the kind patience of South Paw
Otto, This is the rear bow, not the windshield frame, and yes, it is largely overstock as you get delamination of the grain in places and you also need to shape it up. All this happens after its been good and dried. The finished item will be much smaller than this as you need leverage when bending, the legs than get cut off. Everything else connected to the top is all steel.
Steve