1948 Plymouth Special Deluxe (p15)

Chet's Old Plymouths

          Home Page

Sunday April 17, 2011

Chipping away at the details:

Saturday

After nearly a month I was able to get back to work on the Plymouth.  On Saturday I finished installing the rest of the headliner.  I had purchased black ABS door panel board from Miami Corporation.  All the original backing boards are either missing or weather & age damaged.  After finishing the headliner I fabricated a new board for behind the rear seat.  Since my original board was so deteriorated I first made a pattern from paper.  The door board is very expensive, $29.14 each, so from the paper pattern I then made a cardboard sample to try on the window.   Once this sample was fine tuned I used it as a pattern to cut the final ABS board.  The rear window deck is sloped so I cut the board in half 7.5" from the front edge then taped it back together to produce a perfect  fold.   The piece fit like a glove.  I will cover the board with material once all the other boards are cut.

I installed the rear seat to get a handle on how things would go back together.  I still need to upholster the rear seat arm rests.  The side boards will be made from the scrap left over from cutting the front & rear doors.  The panel material is 32" x 48" my door panels are roughly 30" x 32".  This should leave a piece of scrap 18" x 32".  The rear seat side boards are roughly 16" x 21".  The front side kick panels I purchased ready made on ebay. 

I spent the rest of Saturday removing the glass from the rear window frames so that they can be cleaned up, wood grained and reinstalled with new rubber gaskets.

Sunday:

I switched gears a little and moved my work to the front toe board.  I have the rugs ready to go in but I need to do a little finish work to the floor like cut a rubber gasket for the toe board.  Not a very difficult job just another time bandit.  I used a little piece of the door rubber around the floor hump to keep water out in the unlikely situation where I am forced to drive the car in the rain.

Didn't forget the pedal gaskets: