mv213

I'm switching my interior over from bright blue to Pearl. This weekend I got the door weatherstrips installed and the two door panels. Here's a pic of one. The armrest base seems to be a couple of shades too dark although I can live with it. The armrest cushion fits like crap, the vinyl has wrinkles in the corners. Does anybody know a source for armrest cushions in pearl that fit right?

I thought what we should do is start a thread where we can review the quality of various reproduction parts. I took a few pics for and will post them with reviews of the parts I've bought. Anyway I'd give this armrest cushion a "D". I'll have to look through my paperwork to see where I bought it.

J.P.

Yellowstatue

The arm rest base seems to be more like '68 parchment

Lady72nRob71

I got my armrest pads from OPG. Color and looks were great, but the holes were drilled a little off and required minor redrilling of the armrest bases...
Mine can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robsalb...7602930020786/
Keep in mind the door panel and base is original and discolored.

Here is a comparison of the pad to the rest of the new unfaded interior:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robsalb...7602930020786/

Hope this helps some...

mv213

Yellowstatue, you might be right. It was sold to me as "Pearl" and does have the pearlescent sheen. I think I can live with it for now though.

Rob, I'm honored to have a reply from you, I've read all your threads and especially liked your long and detailed interior postings, with all the great pics. Your interior is a true work of art--it's absolutely beautiful. I see your armrest bases are also a little darker than the door panel, but since the panel is original you can't read anything into that. I don't think I'll worry about it too much until I get everything else swapped out. I might order a new set of armrest cushions though if I can get them to fit as well as yours! Thanks again for taking to time to post a couple of pics for me.

J.P.

Edi

Lady72nRob71

Okay Edi, don't make me !

Thank you very much for the kind compliments...
I am always honored to help where I can!

If you compare my old interior and the old, the old is a lot darker. I consider it "inverse fading" because it got darker with UV exposure. The same happened to the armrests.
The underside of the old parts showed the correct color that matches the armrest pads, and the new seat covers.
The new rear quarter panels are also lighter than the original door panels.
Perhaps the same happened to your interior??

This winter my armrests will be replaced, along with the door panels. after then I should have a nice matching interior! The new "lighter" color is in fact the true factory color when compared to the hidden unfaded areas.

mv213

The underside of the old parts showed the correct color that matches the armrest pads, and the new seat covers.
The new rear quarter panels are also lighter than the original door panels.
Perhaps the same happened to your interior??

No, in my case everything you see is reproduction except for the "CS" emblem and the door handle. I'm afraid it's just a case of mis-matched colors. If I ever run across a set of correct pearl armrest bases in the future I might pick them up. It will have to wait until the car is done though....I'm not going to let that hold me up!

Today i dropped off the rear seat and the 4 sheetmetal panels at the upholstery shop. The guy said they should be done in 2 weeks or maybe a little sooner. (Keeping fingers crossed)

Lady72nRob71

If you cannot find pearl bases, you may have to custom paint some generic colored bases, such as plain white. I have to do that, as they are not made in my color. They will be done last, perhaps in spring...

I am curious to see how your seats turn out - post your progress and pics, too!

BTW, your new interior color looks very nice with the blue exterior!

mv213

Thanks Rob! I thought the blue interior with the blue exterior was just too much. I've always liked the white interior on the A-bodies and the pearl is pretty close.

I'll be sure and post some pics when get the seat back. Heres a pic of the other door, and a look into the black hole of Calcutta aka the stripped interior.

J. P.

Lady72nRob71

Personally I like the pearl better than the plain white. Plain / pure white is reserved for home appliances.

So tell me the plan!
What carpet color will you use? Are you going to recolor the column, console, and dash?

Black hole is right - that's where the $$ seem to get sucked into...
However, when it is all done, you will easily see the black hole gave it back.
How are the floorboards looking? Did you take a peek yet?
How do the quarter inners look? Time to wash them out and POR15 'em...
Lots of "mightaswells" in an interior redo!

Bluevista

I thought I liked the blue with a blue interior like my car but Rob prefers the pearl so I must be wrong, I'm sorry Mr. Rob sir.

I think all convertibles should have power windows, now's the time, Rob knows how to do it.

Lady72nRob71

Blue thoughts from the blue guy...
hehe...

Yep, you gotta add power wind'ers!! This is the time!

mv213

Oh, no! I saw what you went through to put yours in. I'm not going there!

Anyway, I've already POR15'd inside the quarters and inside the doors. That was pretty easy. I also greased up the window mechanisms and rollers. They work pretty smooth now.

I'll be pulling the carpets tomorrow, we'll see what the floor looks like. I don't expect to find any holes, inside the quarters was pretty good with just minor surface rust.

Future plans: I'll be pulling the dash to dye it black, and painting the console while it's out along with the steering column. I think this will be enough to keep me busy for a while! Then I need to either restore the wheels (14" Rally II's) or replace them. The goal is to have it ready to drive next summer. It's been a long time and a long story that I won't go into right now.

Thanks for the opportunity to share with you all and learn from what you've already done

J.P.

mv213

I think I forgot to say that I also have a reproduction sport steering wheel kit from The Parts Place. That should go well with the black and pearl. I got one of the first kits they sold and it's still in the boxes. Black carpet and underlayment is still in the box as well.

J.P.

Yellowstatue

The hardest part of installing power windows is removing the interior...then just lay out the harness, drill holes for the harness retainer screws and bolt in the regulators...then square off the holes in the panels for the single switches and make the rectangle holes for the master switch, then mount the power relay, and 12 volt supply and voila, you are finished...tea time

Bluevista

What about removing the doors so you can cut/drill holes in the cowl and doors for the wiring boots/harness? Snaking the forward harness across the very top front front may be simple if the dash is removed.
I would say the easiest part is removing the interior.

70Post

My experience with 1970 Cutlass and 442s with the "Pearl White" interior is that there is no pearl look to/in the armrest bases or bucket seat plastics at all....on original pieces. OR, if there was it was not very apparent.

I think this is just the repro people trying to avoid admitting that they either 1) really don't know, or 2) that there may have been earlier cars with a pearl look to the white plastics and they just used the same thing for the 1970 model repro parts.

Lady72nRob71

I wish... I wish I just got OEM replacement parts and made my own system!!
If you get the power window kits from the parts place, go ahead and dig your grave in advance... Then buy a metal cutting bandsaw, some 1/2 aluminum stock for spacers, a five pound sledge, 3 Dremel carbide cutters, 3 boxes of bandaids, 4 bottles of Jack Daniels, and send the family on a vacation far away where they will not hear the cussing.

If you had not figured it out yet, the parts place kits suk...
I hope your steering wheel from them fits...

I just resored my wheels - see my thread in the body-chassis-frame section. I was pretty happy but 800 bucks poorer... 300 to restore 5 wheels and the rest was for tires.

mv213

So it sounds like a straight bolt in. And you guys wonder why I wasn't going to convert to PW!

If I end up keeping these wheels I'll just paint them myself and replace the center inserts, and polish up the stainless and chrome bits. Shouldn't cost more than $150 at the most.

Say Rob, did you cut your dash for your stereo? I'm thinking about cutting mine but I'm undecided. I know a lot of purists get upset but I'm already going against "purism" by changing the interior color. The only modification that's been made to my car in almost 40 years is a previous owner cut the upper panel that covers the top cylinders, in order to put speakers in. The FM/cassette unit was tucked under the passenger seat.

J. P.

Lady72nRob71

Yea right. Maybe after 8 hours of frustrating re-engineering. I guess that was what the parts Place was thinking...

Sounds like a plan! Mine were sandblasted and powdercoated, so the price I paid was very fair.

NNNOOOO!!!! My dash was filed out a little from the original owner but not too mangled.

Changing the color is reversible, should you sell the car later and the next owner chooses to restore it to original. Once you chop up the dash, you cannot ever reverse it economically and make it look original.
I would avoid doing that. Besides, a high-tech flatface unit with all the dancing colors look WAYYY out of place in a car of this era. Also, it is a thief magnet...

Same here. Original owner put speakers in my armrest. Idiot did not realize the cylinders moved, so damage occured when he ran the top.

I would encourage a stock-looking bolt-in modern radio, or tuck a high-tech one away under a seat or in the console or glove box. Many come with remotes to make easy operation.

mv213

You're right, with a remote it's not necessary to have anything showing. I'll go that route. Worst case is I can tuck something under the pass. seat like the previous owner did. I might also look into the kickpanels with speaker holes built in to get a little sound up front.

I'm off to read about your wheel resto.......

Bluevista

Those halcyon days of old, I remember them well.

You need heated seats at the very least, Rob knows how.

Yellowstatue

Oh yeah!! I forgot about the doors...pulled the doors off and used a Greenlee punch (borrowed from electrician friend) to make beautiful cut holes in door and cowl....different sizes of course...and I have cheated the forward harness to right door by just laying it on the lower curl of the dash to quick fix a broken harness in the right door jamb until I can get time to install it in the proper location!!!

Bluevista

I just though you had the harnesses going right through the door panel face. I kept thinking all those wires would trip you up getting in and out so I made the holes.

I installed power locks too.

mv213

When I was pulling the carpet and underlayment out of the car the other day I found a paper tag stuck to the underlayment with the original OEM supplier info and a date of June 4, 1970. It's amazing that this fragile piece of brown paper survived so intact.

Here's a pic and a pic of the floorpan freshly coated with Eastwood rust encapsulator after a coating of Eastwood rust convertor. Found no holes, no rust in the back part of the car at all. Under the back seat the floorpan looked like it just rolled out of the factory less a little surface rust powder in a couple of spots. The front was worse, the passenger side had a light coating of surface rust. The driver side was the worst, a lot of surface rust and a little deeper in a small area where the drivers feet rest. Not bad enough to require a patch thank goodness.