The Crusty Cuda: Whole lotta Shakin' (N96) Goin' on!

[njsteve]

Thanks! This was by far the hardest part so far. Well, until the seat cover set arrives.

I also have to repaint all the interior moldings. The SEM White is too bright. I have some of "Herbs Parts" Mopar interior paint coming that is the correct off-white, color code for the early 1970's white trim pieces. At least I have a white base coat now...

[njsteve]

I had a productive weekend. Spent yesterday razor blading all the old sealant off the back window. I ordered two rolls of 5/16 butyl tape and butyl primer so I can install the back window once I get the headliner all done. After scraping with a dozen razor blades there was still some residue under the areas that the stainless trim covered. So I used a wet Mr. Clean magic eraser and some powdered water spot remover and that got rid of most of the scaly residue.

Here's the back window after cleaning. I also got a good photo of the date code.

And yes, Grampa's Lincoln sure comes in handy...along with my daughter's papasan chair cushion

[njsteve]

I also decided to give another try at getting that repro sail panel material onto the original fiber-board molded sail panels. The key was borrowing one of my coworkers portable steamers (for getting wrinkles out of clothing). It worked great! It is designed to be used while it is pointed downwards, so it was a bit hard to use on the actual headliner to get rid of the folding indents that wouldn't initially "pull out". So a lot of flipping and tilting got those pesky last creases out of the actual headliner.

As for the sail panels, I ended up steaming the heck out of the material and then using a lot of the heavy duty clips to temporarily hold the two opposing sides (top and bottom) that are actually glued to the board. After clamping them, I carefully removed each clamp one at a time and applied some adhesive to the board and the overlapping edge and stuck them together and reclamped them. The front edge glues onto the quarter window frame while the back edge tacks onto the spikes around the back window frame. After several hours of massaging the sail panels while watching the Goodwood Festival on TV, I had the sail panels ready for installation.

I test fitted the rear side panels which also served to position the lower edge of the sail panels as well.

It came out pretty well. Now hopefully I can cancel the order for that extra material that they haven't shipped yet.

And while I was at it, I installed the 6x9 Kraco speakers. I tested them beforehand by hooking them to the Gramma's car rear speaker with a couple jumper wires. They worked fine!

[njsteve]

And the magic steamer that I borrowed from a friend. I think I owe her a beer (or two) now. Actually, she already drafted the wife and I, along with the car trailer, to help her move in a couple weeks, so I think she's being nice to me in advance.

[njsteve]

And I installed the package tray and the rear bulkhead insulation panel. (After removing the interior panels for the third time, because they both go underneath the panels).

BTW, does the black cardboard or the jute insulation side face the interior or the trunk?

[njsteve]

I got an answer from the E-bodies.org site: E bodies didn't have jute backing on the cardboard bulkhead panel. So I'll just flip the panel so the black side is visible in the trunk.

[njsteve]

Look what arrived today! I found a machinist out in Wisconsin who reproduced the metal Motor Wheel Spyder centercaps several years and has only a few left. He also reproduced the original pointed lug nuts in left and right thread for Mopars.

An NOS set of center caps will run you over a grand. This was about 2/3 that price and better quality than 50 year-old NOS chromed potmetal originals. These are made out of thick brass and chrome plated. They are heavy! Like the weight of a metal coffee cup.

The main problem with the Spyder caps is that they stick out farther than the edge of the rims. So if you accidentally placed the rim face down on the ground once, you crushed the ends of the caps and ruined the cap's point. The other problem is that they were made of cheap pot metal and corroded after a few years.

So now I am 2/3 of the way to a set of 14" Motor Wheel Spyders for the car. Time will tell...

[olredalert]

----Love motor Wheels especially Fly's!.....Bill S

[Lee Stewart]

Can't find a photo of a Cuda with them so this will have to do:

[njsteve]

The Spyder was only manufactured between 1968 to 1973 so it is the perfect Day 2 mag for the car. A high school buddy of mine had a set (with no center caps, of course) on his Mustang in the late 70's and they looked so cool.