More progress on the details…

Spent the day in Pittsfield for the first time in a while. Ken had painted the side rails (the pieces that fit in over the door windows when the top is up to seal out the weather), so we installed the rechromed weatherstrip channels and Ken fitted the whole assemply to the top. That turned out to take a little doing, as most things do. We couldn't find the actual rubber weatherstrip, so couldn't finish the job.

We also found the the RH door needed a little metal work we hadn't noticed before. Again Ken worked his magic and now it is done. Here's a shot of him at work on it:



Meanwhile, I mounted the new fender guide I got on eBay. What a whimsical detail! The orange Indian head turned out to be a nice match for the pitstripe/wheel trim color. Pretty funky.



I also got my matching pair of 1936 Maine license plates mounted, a new heater switch installed, and the seat control lever shortened to its proper length. The one I am using came from that 1938 parts car. Same style, but longer.

We got the car on the lift and painted various bolts and washers black, and touched up some inner fender dings with brown. While under there, I noticed two things that still need attention: I've got a small brake line leak where the LH front hose connects to the brake line at the frame and the gas tank overflow tube has disconnected from the filler pipe. Small but annoying details.

Ken also made the cardboard panels for the doors and we got one panel upholstered before running out of trim adhesive. The upholstered panels, made by Leo's Custom Upholstery, are glued to the cardboard. Of course a great deal of care and good measuring has to occur to be sure they are in the right position.





At the end of the day, I took these pictures of the car. Notice those beautiful vent frames and door windows! They turned out to be the most difficult and challenging part of this restoration project. It feels great to have them actually done, installed and working.





I must say, I like the looks of this car. Very period like.

Now if it only had running boards! I called Richard at Precision Rubber yesterday as I do every month, only to learn that he just had his second heart attack the other day! He sounded OK however and I offered to pay an extra $200 to get my boards by late February/early March, but that didn't seem to offer him much incentive. I'm going to send him the above pictures in hopes that seeing the car may help move things along. My great fear, of course, is that I will never see them again. I certainly can't drive to Alberta to pick them up.

I did get a bonus today though. Scott Brace of Plymouth dropped by the shop. He just found an 8-cylinder coupe in a junkyard in Hartland that plans on street rodding. The car, or what's left of it, is in very rough shape, so a street rod is really all its good for. He also knows a guy in the area who has a 4-door slant back sedan street rod, so there are other '36s Pontiacs out there in the Maine landscape.

We drove over to his place and he gave me a Deluxe radio box, the speaker, an air cleaner and the seat adustment rack. I've been looking for a speaker, so that was a nice find. The a/c is pretty rough, so I'll go with another one I found in Michigan for $15. I cleaned up the speaker box in the small parts blast cabinet and Ken primed it. It will need some bondo to fill the pits, but now I have an entire Deluxe radio to use in the coupe.