Coco ChanElf - almost 'finished' :)

Now I've found my feet here, I realise I probably should be posting Coco updates here, rather than everywhere else.

So, this weekend has been pretty busy!

Yesterday, we disassembled her dashboard ready to send off to Chapman and Cliff who are going to relacquer and/or re-veneer.

Whilst we had that out, we started to replace dash bulbs. We appear to have shorted the entire shebang now, so that may require more work...!

She got her new nose badge, thanks to a lovely EHR member who helped me out!



Today, she got her demister bevels sanded and repainted with flat satin black hammerite. That will need sanding back again and another coat tomorrow I expect.



She got her fresh air vents cleaned up and the metal parts likewise sanded and painted with hammerite to kill the rusty bits.



The vent pipes had some VILE old stuff shoved down them, like old football socks or dishrags. Got those out!



I polished up her ashtray, removed all the internal rust and painted the inside with hammerite silver.

We removed her interior light, which had been painted with brown gloss, and I removed all that and got it cleaned up a treat. We have a new bulb at the ready, let's hope it works!



Same with the rear view mirror, which after removing what looked like 30 years of grime, only needs a new sucker to be as good as new.



Oh, and I took apart her tail lights, cleaned them all up, and reassembled with new gaskets that I got from ebay.



The devil, as they say, is in the details!

(Edit - finally got round to replacing those thumbnails with bigger photos, for no other reason than that I am eventually going to use this as a record of what I did to Coco, it'll be handy).

Coco,
Not being nitt-picky, okay maybe a little bit. Just want to help you out with the pics. When you upload the images to the ServImg thingy, you get three choices to copy, the Thumbnail, the Image and the Image URL. The one you want for the forum is the last one. Here's the devil, which as you say is in the details: The first two options post the pic as a link back to the ServImg site, so you have to click to see the full image. The last one, the Image URL, when posted on the forum, simply places the full image on the page, so no extra clicking needed. Here's a visual:
Thumbnail [img][/img]


The car is looking super, by the way!

Thanks, I realised I was posting thumbnails; I thought it might irk people to scroll through pages of photos since I was posting so many, and they could just click on one if they were especially interested. It didn't occur to me people might prefer them big. Next time I will post them full size.

No worries. You've mastered the image posting better than most!
I suspect I speak for most of us here when I say, We like pictures!

I had to make a temporary dashboard as we are taking Coco for an appointment with the cosmetic surgeon on Saturday morning.

My 3 year old daughter helped.



I sanded the demister bevels down and gave them a second coat and they came up not half bad. They aren't perfect, but they are much better than they were. Ruined my nails though, I tell you!

Looking good! ( give up on nail care with classic cars!) lol..

Nick wrote:Looking good! ( give up on nail care with classic cars!) lol..

Ah, you say that, but...I had an idea the other day, whilst I was having my nails done. She applies this stuff like a clear goo, and then sets it under a UV lamp. It's great because the result is rock hard and transparent, and then gets sanded down with a dremel tool. (What we do for beauty!) Anyway, the reason I am telling you this, is that it occurred to me it might be a way to repair little chips out of enamel badges.

Myself and the nail technician are going to do some experiments and I will report back.

I have a problem with one of my nails, it keeps splitting and catch on materials (that hurts sometimes!) at the risk of this becoming Coco's" Agony Aunt" page what do you suggest I do?

The beauty agony aunt would have to see a photo of the nail in question to properly advise, hahaha. I can't tell whether you're joking or not, in case you aren't: if you have a local salon that does Gel Nails (not acrylic nails) go and ask them to build up just that one nail for you. They can do it with clear gel with no colour or shine so it matches your normal nails. Here's a YouTube clip that shows how it's done (on a lady!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmDSjf22ndQ

It makes your nails so strong they are brilliant tools. Since I type (a lot) they are really useful for me. You might find you can't live without them, hahah.

Now, quick, everyone talk about cars and stuff before they revoke my membership!!

Oh how I wish I was there already, tinkering and adding bits here and there, ah well some day soon God help me i'll be there some day soon. You know the process you have described about restoring the enamel badges, well I think there are lots of different ways to go about different processes, I won't be at all surprised if the proffessional badge restorers use a similar system and chemicals to do this. I'm keen to hear what you discover in your experiments.

Coco_ChanElf wrote:Now, quick, everyone talk about cars and stuff before they revoke my membership!!

Ah but please keep chucking in the odd post about nails and pics of your dashboard decorated by your small child - it makes life so much more fun .

So the latest news.

Last week we got our brand new (old style!) reg plates for Ireland. The paperwork was a bit of a nuisance but now Coco is officially an Irish citizen!

The demister vent bevels are back in and look good. I got a new suction pad for the rear view mirror and refitted the whole thing, that looks great now.

Next we removed the melted old gear stick gaiter. I sanded and painted the little metal retaining plate, cut a new piece of polyurethane to go between that and the carpet. I bought a gear stick gaiter from ebay identical to the one I removed, instead of replacing it with the original because we just didn't want to drill more holes and it looks ok (maybe I even prefer it, I can't decide!). Anyway, it looks grand, such a small thing and it's made a big difference.

Whilst the dashboard is out I removed the padded dash liner and the card of one glove box. I am not sure whether I will make new glove boxes myself and line them with self adhesive velour or something, or buy the cards new if they are available and recover them. Any pointers on the correct padded dash liner / glove box cards appreciated. I was looking on Newton and Somerford websites yesterday and nothing looked exactly similar. I am handy with a craft knife but always glad to look at the proper solution!

Well done Coco the fettling looks like it's coming along well

Coco_ChanElf wrote:Whilst the dashboard is out I removed the padded dash liner and the card of one glove box. I am not sure whether I will make new glove boxes myself and line them with self adhesive velour or something, or buy the cards new if they are available and recover them. Any pointers on the correct padded dash liner / glove box cards appreciated. I was looking on Newton and Somerford websites yesterday and nothing looked exactly similar. I am handy with a craft knife but always glad to look at the proper solution!

I have a custom consoles glove box liner ready to go into our Sidewalk, but this doesn't fit the Elf it's too large. What I plan on doing is making a scaled down version, but I can't place what material they've used to make it, it's like a dense fibre board, maybe even plastic.

The one I have, that I believe to be original, is like extremely thick dense cardboard, the sort of stuff they used to put inside clipboards or hardback book covers. It's very simple, just shaped board with a fancy leatherette sort of print to it. But filthy, stinky and ripped, lol.

If I can find something similar I could use the one I have as a template, and I am happy to share the template if anyone else needs it. I assume the missing one is the same but in reverse (might be wrong!)

Is this the sort of thing you got?
http://www.gbcarparts.com/proddetail.asp?prod=CC%2DGBLiner


I was thinking if I could get some sort of heavy card board, of lining it with something like this stuff:
http://www.brimarc.com/products/Crushed-Velvet-Roll-463017.htm

Ok, so I now have a plan for the dash area.

Dash is being reveneered by Chapman and Cliff, that should be on it's way back in the next week or so.

Meanwhile I have ordered soundproofing material (acoustic absorption foam) from www.soundinsulation.ie
That will go in the spaces.

I an going to make the new glove boxes myself using the existing card as a template. I found an amazing company that sell bookbinding supplies, they sell 3mm Millboard and black Arbetex leather cloth in morocco grain by the sheet. One sheet of each will be sufficient to do 2 if not 4 glove boxes, and the whole lot cost just over £20. Exc p&p. Www.hewit.com

I ordered a regular dashboard liner from Newton commercial for the 'floor' of the dash.

I guess we will embark on this odyssey the first weekend after the dash wood comes home so I will take loads of pics of the glove box assembly on case anyone else can benefit from it.

hope it all goes to plan

Coco_ChanElf wrote:Is this the sort of thing you got?
http://www.gbcarparts.com/proddetail.asp?prod=CC%2DGBLiner

That is the exact one I have. It's an ideal template, but like I say I'm not sure what the 'card' material is ais it deosn't seem like card to me. I'm reluctant to use card of hardboard that may deteriorate with damp, after all the car is in an unheated lockup most of it's time (just paranoid I think).

Just for interest, here are a couple of pics of the original glovebox.

Laying flattened:


Close up to see the grain.


Here it is standing up as though in place:



Obviously this one has warped over the years, so your concerns about damp are not entirely unfounded. (But if mine lasts even a fraction of the 50 years this one did, I will be pleased!)

Here is Coco's dash back from Chapman & Cliff. The finish on it us quite extraordinary. I wanted the two grains but was a bit taken aback by the difference in tone between the two grains when it first arrived but it has really grown on me and certainly suits Coco. Can't wait to fit it, but Coco is tucked up warm in a neighbour's shed to see the worst of the winter out just now.

WOW, now that's a nice dash

The dash is beyond lovely -- it is awesome. I hate to think what it would have cost! But it is probably worth every penny.

Paul

I think it was 250 inc postage to Ireland. Since I was quoted 900 by another crowd, I consider this a bargain. Plus the two gentlemen at Chapman and Cliff are a delight to deal with, so pleasant and interesting. I would use them again in a heartbeat.