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I need some advise...

Started by kimmc, September 20, 2012, 01:03:50 AM

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kimmc

Hmmmmmm....something happened to picture 1....off in the ether somewhere I suppose....or maybe "operator error".  Here's picture 1 for the previous post.

SDGlenn

Hi Kim, I will look for you in Tucson, I should recognize the car anyhow.  I hope to get my 39 Roadking out of the  snow banks in time to take it down, but I will be there anyhow.  I like your "Ole Toys" on top your cupboard. You are getting right along with the top repair, you should probable stay home from Tucson and work on it. lol
Take care
SD Glenn
SDGlenn

frankp

Kim,

Great progress.  I believe you are correct about not mixing metals.  Plumbers hang Cu pipes with Cu hangers.

Have a safe trip to Tucson.  Know you and SD Glenn will have a good time.

(Glenn - don't you need to find better shelter for your king?  sounds like the poor thing is being treated like a serf.  lol  My daily driver doesn't care for sitting outside all year either.)

frank
frank p

kimmc

Hey Glenn and Frank.  Thanks for the feed-back.  I expect I will get little time to work on the '29 this week as I need to get the '35 and myself ready for the trip.  I noticed this weekend that a front headlight is out so that will be near the top of the list.  And a lube and oil change too.  Plus all the other little things to take care of before the road trip.  But I am looking forward to the caravan from the SF Bay area to Tucson with about 6-8 others and their cars.  Glenn, I am looking forward to meeting you.  I will likely be wearing a black baseball cap that has "Plymouth" across the front.  Hope I make it there and back with no car troubles...and you do too.  Have a good week, guys.

kimmc

Took some time out from getting the '35 ready for the Tucson road trip today to work some more on the top wood of the '29 coupe.  I finished removing the top slats today.  Many of the slats had splits and cracks so replacement seemed the right choice.  Besides, with the slats out of the way, repair of the rear right corner dry rot will be easier (but still difficult).  There are 15 slats from front to back across the top wood bows.  Each slat is 1/4" thick x 1 3/4" wide; I am going to mill new ones from poplar stock that I found and Home Depot; these are already planned to 1/4" thick x 6" wide x 48" long.  I'll be able to rip these down and get 3 from each.  Total cost for the poplar stock was about $40, but it saves me a lot of work planning thicker stock down and making lots of sawdust out of perfectly good boards.  I am uncertain what wood the original slats were made of but it was not oak.  The rest of the wood I've looked at closely in the cabin framing is oak.  The 4 top bows and 1" x 1" oak with some cracks and weak spots I've glued but they still need reinforcement.  So, the plan is to laminate 3/16" plywood to both sides of each top bow.  I think that will strengthen them enough.  Each slat was nailed to each cross bow with 2 "holdfast" nails and another 1 or 2 in each end (picture provided for any purists who want to do things like originally done).  Me, I'm going to use my pneumatic narrow crown stapler to fasten the new slats.  I took a picture of the slatless top but it may be hard to tell what is what because one is looking through the top and the car to stuff on the other side.  You can see I am continuing to fill nail holes  (toothpic carpentry).  I didn't finish that task 'cause I ran out of toothpics...that was a box of 250 each broken in half!!  That's a lot of filled holes.  Like I said, I think the old girl had her top off a few times...!!

chetbrz


Great Thread,

I hope to start on this in a year or two so this thread will save me many hours of thought.  Keep up the good work,

Chet...
http://www.1948Plymouth.info           Web Master - Forum Administrator - AACA member

frankp

Hi Kim,

As you reinforce bows on each side, you may want to consider how this will affect installation of the headliner from the proportional perspective.  Attempting to say the spacing between front and 1st bow, back and last bow, and in between.  Not trying to be intrusive; you're doing a great job!

frank
frank p

kimmc

Well, I hadn't thought about that.  I wonder if it will make a difference?  I was going to make the additional support pieces just slightly smaller (top to bottom measure) than the bows, then glue, clamp, and staple them.  The end result would be the original bow sandwiched between the 2 pieces of 3/16 plywood; so about 3/8" of wood would be added to each bow.  The other option I considered was to just make new bows but they are cut with a 1/2" "crown" in the middle...so they really are bowed up a bit.  My bandsaw is down and needs work so without a good way to cut the long curved pieces, I decided to reinforce the existing bows.  But now you've got me rethinking that.  Hmmmmm.......  How exactly do you think the headliner might be affected?  In my '29 it was just tacked to the bottom of the bows but maybe that was not the original method of attachment?  Let me know your thinking.  Thanks.

frankp

My dad sewed a piece of material to the headliner from side to side for each bow.  This piece was then tacked to the side of the bows after drawing tight up, across (side to side), and to the next bow.  This may not have been original, but looks good.  If you see "tack" holes in the bows, that will show where headliner was attached and could lead to how.  I don't remember being around to help him with installation, but do recall the "tabs" he sewed.

The seam would only be offset by 3/16" and probably wouldn't make any visual difference; just trying to be helpful - not jerky.  One of the 4 pictures from our resto shows replacement of all slats, which I did.  I just don't remember the bows needing reinforcement, for some reason.

(Kim, I interpreted 3/4" vs 3/16 so please discount all this gibberish, but I did owe you an answer.)

frank
frank p

kimmc

Thanks for the reply and info Frank.  I have no idea at this point how the replacement headliner is secured to the bows.  I think the tacks in mine might have been an attempt to put a sagging headliner back in place.  I don't think it would have come from the factory with tacks showing across the headliner.  I kept the old headliner so I will pull it out and see if I can figure this out.  At any rate, I don't think a little extra wood along the bows will change much, if anything.  I would hate to skip the reinforcement step and then have a bow crack or break after the new top is on!  Thanks for sending your thoughts along to me.

SDGlenn

Hi Frank and Kim, You have a handle on the Top thing.  I would be totally lost about now. Sure glad it is not me. lol  I still can not get the 39 out of the snow bank. I reckon I will take the Mustang Convertible down to Tucson. It probable will mean a couple days off my drive time. lol  You are right Frank, that is the first time in 30 some years that the 39 has been left out in the weather, I have an enclosed trailer for the 29, at least that one is well taken care of. My garage was to busy this winter, even my new pickup had to set out side. Next winter it will be inside the garage, you betcha.
Take care ,
Glenn
SDGlenn

frankp

Kim, good to have old headliner as a guide.  How's your engine coming along?

Glenn, I'm sure your 39 will forgive you.  Off topic, but we drove my 2003 horse convert to Ft Lauderdale last Oct for a wedding and it was great trip.  Only draw back, wife doesn't drive a stick.  Flew to Phoenix for son's wedding 3/23.  Weather was spectacular - low 80's, hard to come back to the tundra.  You will enjoy!

Safe motoring to all making this trip.  frank
frank p

Old Man

Any headliners I've been involved with had full width flaps sewed on their back sides and these flaps were tacked to the bows. These flaps were about 3" maybe slightly more in width. They were made out of the same wool based cloth as the headliner. In a sedan there was 2,sometimes 3, at the 1/3 and 2/3 position coming from back to front. This produced a line in the headliner right across from left to right that looks today like a fold. When the headliner was finished the headliner looked like it was in 3 panels. This was the common way of attaching the headliner to a wooden roof. The material is made out of taupe or gray colored wool. As far as I know they were the only 2 colors used. A Ford antique car outfit made the last one for me,taupe, using my old one as a pattern. Ford antique stores still have the material in bulk for Fords.  Originally they were put up soaking wet on the factory line. Literally taken out of a bucket of water. They were pulled up as taut as humanly possible,tacked, and then left to dry. The wool material shrunk and that was it. The reason the flaps were the same material was to pull the headliner vertically up tight at that point. If you ever have a sagging headliner today, you can 'repair' it by spraying it with a plastic spray bottle of deionized water you can buy at the grocery store in 4 litre jugs. Do not use tap water as you might stain the cloth. And use a new bottle rinsed out in the deionized water. The headliner will once again pull up taut. Does this answer any of your questions?   

kimmc

To OM: thanks for the headliner info.  Now I for sure want to strengthen the bows by adding the plywood strips.  If that doesn't stiffen them enough, maybe I will end up replacing all of them.

To SDGlenn & Frank:  Hey guys, I too have a convertible Mustang ('67).  I am currently doing a "resto-mod" on it.  I don't want to pollute this Forum with Mustang chatter, but we have the makings of a "Secret Society" within the Plymouth Club! :) Maybe we can talk later via email.

frankp

Old Man,

Great info on how headliner was installed.  According to POC, our color is light taupe.

frank
frank p