It's a Buick, but it's not something you see very often. Caballero!

I will never again complain about replacing a heater core in a B-body car. The dedication, attention to detail, and craftsmanship on display here is astonishing.

The level of detail is astounding.

It's time to start assembling the rear bumper.
The brackets, ends and center panel go together first.






Ready for installation...by 4 of us. Two holders, 2 of us installing bolts.


The rear bumper will be one of the last parts I install. Once it's on the car, it will be difficult to get around the vehicle in my garage!

When I test-fit the rear door trim panel, it was too large for the opening and the attaching "nails" didn't line up with the holes in the inner panel.

Time to figure this mess out...

First, peeled back the edgefold


Compared the right and left trim panels and developed a new pattern to fit the rear door.

I made sure the pattern fit both the left and right door. Comparing it to the panels I made, I found that I had made a couple of errors.


I had cut the armrest bracket mounting hole about 1/4" too low on the panel and I had made the perimeter about 1/8" too large all around the panel.

I re-trimmed the perimeter of the panel to fit the door opening with adequate clearance and re-cut the armrest bracket opening. Then, I used the new pattern to accurately position the attaching nails around the perimeter of the panel.

The second test fit was much better than the first.


With the nails re-located, I edgefolded the part and tested it again.



Here's the panel with the upper moldings attached. It still needs the lower molding and the "Century" emblem added before installation.


With the rear seat structure in place, I could install the floor-mounted rubber retainers that hold the "legs" of the seat cushions in position on the floor. The part in question is the small, black oval on the carpet, at the bottom of the seat support rod:


I have 3 of these for the car. One is in usable condition, but 2 of then have badly corroded metal reinforcements. These parts were manufactured by molding a hard, black rubber material directly to the steel reinforcements.



Clockwise from upper left:
1. Usable part, with steel reinforcement painted black
2. Rubber portion of part after removing steel reinforcement
3. New reinforcement made from 0.040" aluminized steel
4. Underside of molded rubber, after removing steel reinforcement.

I removed all the dirt and corroded metal from the rubber parts and bonded the new, steel reinforcements to the underside of the rubber with a urethane adhesive.

After the adhesive was fully cured, I removed any excess adhesive and coated the rubber with "Bumper Black" topcoat:

I had to delay making the quarter trim panels until the rear door trim panels were finalized. The two-tone split line on the quarter trim should align with the 2-tone line on the doors, so I had to confirm that location before making the quarter trim.

I marked the location of the 2-tone split on the rear of the rear door opening and used that to finalize the trim patterns for the quarter.

This is the preliminary assembly of the quarter trim, for mock-up in the car.


And in the car:


I still need to add one decorative stitch line, above the color split. Just waiting for my friend to wrap up the seat covers so I can use the proper color thread for these pieces.



I've learned to take lots of photos and notes when disassembling a project. I also try to retain as many original parts as possible, just in case they can be useful.

These remnants of the quarter window gaskets came in very handy.



The witness marks on the outer surface indicated the correct orientation of the exterior molding clips and the dimensions of the gasket helped indicate how much material had to be removed and where it had to be removed.

I used a fresh razor knife blade and a disc sander to shape the gasket. It took many interations, removing only a few shavings each time, to get the gasket to fit into the opening.





When the glass and gasket could be fit tightly into the opening, I removed the gasket from the glass. I applied a bead of bedding compound into the glass channel of the gasket and re-inserted the glass into the gasket. A small amount of bedding compound is visible at the gasket edges:


With a bead of bedding compound applied to the inside of the quarter window and some liquid detergent as a lubricant on the gasket, it was finally time to install the glass.


The glass is retained by 4 stamped retainers on the inside on the body. The exterior reveal moldings are retained by a variety of clips and threaded rods.



With the exterior moldings installed, the interior garnish moldings are next.




At the front of the quarter window, the C pillar trim consists of one painted steel garnish molding, a vinyl-wrapped trim panel, the polished aluminum roof rail molding plus a cloth windlace.
The vinyl-wrapped panel is installed first and is visible as a sliver of dark tan between the upper steel trim molding and the polished aluminum roof rail trim.

Originally, I had wrapped the steel panel with a single layer of cotton felt and the vinyl cover, which was exactly as the original piece was constructed. The part was too thick and it couldn't be loaded properly under the edge of he headliner panel.

I had to remove the layer of padding and re-apply the vinyl directly to the steel substrate.








I had not realized that the new vinyl was significantly thicker than the original material; with the padding removed, everything could be properly installed.

Thanks for the updates,love them.

Things have been moving quickly as I prepare the car for its maiden show. It will be displayed at the Detroit Autorama on March 1-3.

Early in December, I visited my friend Pat who has been working on the seat trim. He had completed most of the covers and we planned to install the covers onto the frame & spring units.

He had researched the correct appearance for the covers. Images of interiors of several other cars showed that there was a lot of variation in the way the trim covers were sewn.

For example, these seats look "overstuffed" and the french seams at the corners do not line up with the outboard stitch lines on the insert areas:




This seat has much better contours, without the overstuffed look, but the upper (red) panel goes straight across the seat, instead of curving downward at the outboard corners:


Here is the 1/3 section of the rear seat back. The short french seam aligns nicely with the insert stitch line and the corner of the tan and beige joint. The upper edge of tan/beige joint is contoured to match the images in the 1958 Buick color and trim book and images of original interiors.


This is the initial test fit of the 2/3 folding rear seat cushion. Shape looks good, corners and edges still need some finessing:


Looking better!


Here, I am beginning to assemble the 1/3 section of the rear seat back. A perimeter layer of non-woven polyester will help retain the shape of the side facings.


Together in the car for the first time; I'm not happy with it, so I will disassemble it and start over.


But my granddaughter gave it her approval for comfort!

Cute kiddo! Looking fantastic!

-Mike

First step in assembling the front seat back was to clean, paint and inspect the seat frame and spring unit.



The transverse spring wire that supports the individual zig-zag springs (essentially the lumbar support) was fractured and had to be replaced.

This frame came from low-mileage car and was in excellent condition. The clean, shiny metal you see is as the frame appeared when the old trim cover was removed! I coated it with a clear protectant to preserve it.

Initial test fit of the trim cover and side panel to ensure that all the seams will be covered by the side panels as designed and sewn.


I installed the 2 screws that will ultimately attach the ash tray to the seat back. Having the screw heads in place will make it much easier to locate the attaching points for the ash tray after the trim cover has been attached to the frame.


Visible at the top of the above image is the first point of attachment of the seat cover. There is a wire-reinforced upper bolster that is attached via hog rings to the upper frame rail.

The heavy felt isolator is installed between the two layers of springs in the seat back spring unit and the trim cover is drawn over the perimeter of the frame and retained with hog rings.


After installing the cover and verifying the fit of the side panel, the upper bolster looks loose and baggy. The area beneath the french seam required additional padding to fill out the cover contours.


I removed the cover and added thin layers of cotton/poly blend padding to better match the cover shape



After re-installing the cover, fabricated stuffing tools like these make it easier to manipulate the last bits of padding into the necessary position under the corner:



End view of the seat back after revising the corner padding.


Front seat back, ready for assembly to the cushion:


The 1958 Buick foam seat cushions were among the earliest applications of molded urethane foam seating components.

The Special models retained the traditional spring and pad designs for the seat cushions and seat backs.

The Century, Super, Roadmaster and Limited models were equipped with foam seat cushions, but retained the "spring and pad" seat back pads with rubberized horsehair pads.

I disassembled the seat frame and cleaned and painted the steel structure. Since the cushion frame had some surface corrosion, I used a more aggressive treatment and then painted the frame black.

I inserted a stiff reinforcement layer of woven carpet material between the springs and the foam layer, hog-ringing the carpet to the zig-zag springs to ensure that the underlayment would not shift with occupant entry/egress. The carpet replaces the original layer of cotton burlap, which had long ago lost its ability to support the foam and isolate it from the springs.


New foam is installed, along with a layer of non-woven cotton/poly felt to retain the rear endge of the foam to the frame. The felt also acts as an insulator/isolator between the rear section of the trim cover and the "bar cover", or rear bottom section of the frame.


The foam is trimmed to shape and "skived" or contoured at the perimeter to give a smooth appearance of the cover after assembly. I have found that an electric carving knife works great for shaping and contouring the urethane foam.


The pink chalk mark highlights the center of the frame and the center of the trim cover. I always start in the center and work outwards from the center to establish and maintain the proper cover position on the seat.


Like the original design, I added a layer of padding and burlap above the foam, then applied the trim cover:


The first step in retaining the cover was to hog ring the rear "tie-down" to the lower portion of the seat frame, just beneath where the forward edge of the seat back would eventually be positioned. Then, working out from the center, hog-ringing the perimeter of the cover to the frame.

After building up the assembly, I determined that I needed additional padding to get the required comfort, fit and appearance. The cover was too loose on the pad assembly.


I removed the cover from the frame and added a thin layer of padding over the entire seating surface, with additional layers around the perimeter to provide a more full looking perimeter.


The second build-up was much improved


Attaching the seat back to the cushion is accomplished with 6 - yes, 6! - 1/4-20 bolts.


Adding the ash tray and robe cord to the seat back:


It took 3 of us to manuever the seat into the car, but we managed to position it without any injuries or damage:


It will be challenging (impossible?) to install the seat side panels in the vehicle, but the side panels are still at the anodizer's facility. If necessary, the seat will be removed to allow installation of the aluminum trim panels.

Quote :

But my granddaughter gave it her approval for comfort!

You can drop her off at school in the car soon. I'l bet that would be a hit.

With the seat covers completed, I was able to resume work on the quarter trim panels.

First step was to install the windlace along the rear door openings.


The windlace tucks under the roof rail molding at the upper end and is retained with trim screws to the inner "dog leg".

The quarter trim panel - now completed with the decorative deck seam - installs on top of the windlace and is attached with a trim screw to the inner structure.


The black line on the water shield indicates where the color split line is positioned on the rear door trim panel. The quarter trim and door trim color split line up perfectly.

And then, do it all again on the passenger side!


Moving on to the rear door trim installation, I fabricated the water shields from 6 mil poly film instead of coated paper.


Then I re-installed the door handle and window regulator handle springs...


And the trim panel:


The alignment of the rear door and quarter trim two-tone split turned out nearly perfect.


I installed the door handle at the wrong position; another item to add to the list.

I love this thread. It's like becoming an apprentice restorer, metalworker, and seamstress all rolled into one. Just the vocabulary you pick up in the reading is substantial. Impressive craftsmanship.

For the past 4 years, I have been looking for one of the correct Century script emblems for the left side of the car.

The right side emblems slanted "forward" and the left emblems slanted "rearward".

Since my search has not been successful, 57BuickJim volunteered to share his knowledge and skills in moldmaking to help me create an emblem.

He and I used the good part as a sample and built a silicone mold to re-create the emblem.

I was concerned that a plastic emblem might not be strong enough to withstand the forces involved in the installation process, so I made a sheet metal reinforcement plate to add strength to the plastic part. This is my first attempt at the reinforcement:


Tin snips, a dremel and a set of X-Acto files got me this far:


The reinforcement didn't fit well, so I made a second one:


I drilled and tapped six #3-40 holes for insertion of threaded attaching studs to the reinforcement






Here's Jim, working on the mold


Out first mold failed because the material was too old and didn't react. Back to the drawing board...


Jim made a second and ultimately, a third mold to replicate the original emblem


This was my first attempt to manufacture an emblem with the steel reinforcement







Then, lots of patience and grinding required to trim away the excess plastic






We learned that we had made the mold too "deep" and the part was too thick. It would stick out from the surface of the door trim panel about 1/8" further than the rest of the emblems.

Jim made another mold and cast new parts made from plastic, without the metal reinforcement.

As of today (February 4, 2019), the plastic emblems are at Vacuum Orna-Metal in Romulus, Michigan to be vacuum metallized.

The craziest thing is...I found the emblem for sale on ebay about 3 days ago.


Now, I'll have 3 to choose from!

Incredible work,this thread is so fun to follow.

Back at the end of December, I had to get the car back to Masterworks for some paint work. Before taking it back there, I wanted to get the rear seat heater connected and finish up a few under-car tasks.

Time to get the car up on my ramps...


It was not an easy move; the car ran very poorly and the wet tires made it difficult to get up the incline.

Got it on the ramps and went to work...



I had to do a little bit of housekeeping, but in general, everything was looking quite tidy under here.












The rear seat heater requires 2 connections; one on each side of the vehicle. The coolant lines run from the water pump output to the driver's side of the heater, then the return line goes from the heater's passenger side outlet to the temperature control valve, on the passenger side of the cowl, under the right fender.










Of course, BOTH connections leaked with the OEM style clamps, so some additional work was needed to stop the drooling.

I'm back to the rear compartment trim. The rear liftgate and tailgate opening takes a windlace seal along the vertical sides of the body opening and the liftgate opening. There's a short section of rubber seal on each side of the tailgate, between the vertical body to liftgate joint and the lower outboard corners of the liftgate.

The short, vertical pieces are sewn to a pressboard substrate, folded at both ends and retained to the car by the painted steel quarter trim panels.












Similarly, the upper windlace is sewn to a pressboard substrate and then retained by the garnish moldings.






This is the original rubber seal that was installed along the upper edge of the tailgate opening, between the tailgate and the outboared corner of hte liftgate:



It was stapled to a tack strip that was screwed to the inner quarter panel. I bonded multiple layers of 1/8" panel board together to make up the tack strip.



The tack strip was then screwed to the quarter panel, using the 2 small holes nearest the top of the panel.



Cut the weatherstrip to length and glued & stapled it to the tack strip, then installed the steel trim panel.

Artwork. Pure artwork. I need to get back to Detroit to see this beast in all its glory when it's finished.

I am standing here besides myself...



Outstanding Work!!

Time to install that massive rear bumper...

All the edges were taped to protect the painted surfaces and I double-checked the clearance between the mounting brackets to ensure they would fit snugly between the frame rails.


Two friends held the bumper while my wife guided us and I installed the frame attaching bolts.

Didn't take us very long to get to this point:




The bumper is centered, but it needs to be rotated up at the rear to align better with the end of the quarter panels.


Final adjustment will be done at Masterworks when the final paint touch-ups are being done.

There are SO many parts on this car that are "58 only" or "57 & 58 only".

These clips are the "D" pillar exterior reveal molding retainers. On the left is the OEM part; on the right, the piece I am making to replace the broken retainer.


I started with a piece of spring steel and layed out the centers of the bends, then formaed the part to shape using the OEM piece as my pattern.

Finished part - best of all, it works!




January 5: Down off the ramps and back to the paint shop for touch-ups and rear bumper final alignment!


Unfortunately, the car was very difficult to start and it ran very poorly. More work to do...



Notice that the right rear window is open. When I tried to roll the window up, the glass was moving on an arc into the car, inboard of the roof rail weatherstrip. Another task to add to the list...

Looking quite spiffy!



With the car in for some touch-ups, I shifted my focus to the rear compartment carpeting. It took some experimentation, but I was finally able to make acceptable, consistent stitches with the vintage Singer over-edger/serger machine.


I had created full-size paper patterns and used them to cut the carpeting to size.

Then ran the carpet pieces through the serging machine to finish the edges.


I think they turned out great.


A little bit of video...


Finished all the ends by tying off the stitches and tucking the "tails" into the adjacent stitches.


I used a hook needle to draw the threads under the adjacent stiches.


And I added a small piece of tape to hold every thread end down until the carpet is adhered onto the steel panel.

It amazes me that America used to make rolling-artwork like this car.   And even more that it was once just "transportation" for family use, with sodas and fast-food spilled inside, games and toys throughout, run in snow, sand, just a "car" to the owners.

Amazing vehicle, and amazing work!

-Michael

Assembling the front door trim starts with attaching the armrest base to the main panel, followed by a layer of padding and then the trim cover.



The second layer consists of a sub-foundation that carries all the upper trim pieces.


Lots of measuring and double-checking before bonding and sewing the individual panels together.


The two-tone split lines must line up with the narrow, stainlee steel trim moldings that surround the center section of the panel.





I hand-stitched the upper and lower panels together and bonded the joints with contact adhesive.


The completed upper panel is retained to the main board with several bend-tabs above the armrest, and adhesive & staples around the perimeter.


Below the armrest, the beige and tan panels are sewn to the main panel with a seam reinforcement to provide a clean, straight edge at the color change lines.



After sewing both the beige and tan pieces, I test-fit the moldings again:


The beige material is "peeking" out above the lower molding, which meant that I had to re-do the two lower sections.

Now that's better!


Moldings installed and perimeters edgefolded. Waiting for the arrival of the Century script emblems.


Passenger side emblem, I marked the positions of the studs on the front side of the panel and used a small pick to create the holes for the attaching pins.


From the back side, I used a 1/8" drill bit to enlarge the holes in the main panel, while leaving the small holes in the vinyl cover material.

Here, I am installing the retaining clips. I used a small socket, sized to drive the perimeter of hte clip onto the studs. I used a small mallet to drive the clips and supported the emblems from the front of the panel with a cloth-wrapped piece of wood.


Complete and ready for installation! I will cut the holes for the door and window crank handles when I install the panels to the doors.

It really is amazing the time and detail that went into making these cars when new...and NOW too.

This Power Steering emblem is the center of the horn ring.


It's got a few scuffs and scratches and one of the attaching studs broke when I tried to install it to the horn ring.

I repaired the stud with a Loctite "super-glue" type of adhesive. I also sanded off a bit of the flat side to allow the emblem to fit better in the cavity on the ring. Then, I re-painted the back side of the emblem with a semi-flat black that matched the original paint.

A very gentle test-fitting of the emblem to the horn ring indicated that the build-up of copper, nickel and chrome (mostly copper) on the horn ring had altered the dimensions of the emblem attachment points.The holes on the freshly plated horn ring were slightly too small to accept the attachment pins.

I taped off the chrome and enlarged the holes with jeweler's files. I removed small amounts of material (copper) until the pins dropped easily through the holes.






Here's the polished emblem, attached with small dabs of clear silicone:


The painted steering wheel looks great!


And the horn ring makes it look even better!


I masked off the surrounding areas before spraying contact adhesive for the rear compartment carpeting.


Applied a coat of adhesive to the back of the carpet:


Repeat 10 times, including rolling the carpet down to ensure a good bond.


I applied the adhesive to one section at a time on the long pieces, then rolled the carpet into place.


With all the pieces bonded in location, I have to add the hold-down screws in each corner of every panel.


In every corner, I used a small pick to find the original hole location and installed the screw in the original position.


One more step on the road to completion!

Installing the front door trim panels began with the 6 mil polyethylene water barrier.


I was surprised to see that the original retainers each had a foam seal incorporated into the clip design. I have seen the simpler clips (on the right) on previous projects, but the integrated seal was a new feature to me.

I inserted all the retainer clips into the trim panel and postioned the panel on the door inner, without fully engaging the clips.

Then I marked the positions of the window and door handle shafts and cut small diameter holes at the shaft positions.


A couple of additional test fits and eventually, I increased the diameter of the handle holes to accept the handle washers.


After installing the panel with the retainer clips, the handles, upper trim panel and lock knob finish the installation.




Oops...snapped this pic before installing the door handle.

Love it! Thanks for sharing,its looking great.

The seat side trim panels came back from the anodizer. Time to install them!

I test-fit the passenger side panel and discovered that additional padding was required along the side of the seat. I inserted multiple layers of thin, felted cotton.


Installation took a lot of finessing and adjusting. The lower panel on the passenger side required an "Ionia Body" tag. 57BuickJim to the rescue!

Using a high-resolution image of an original Ionia tag, Jim re-created and printed new, replacement labels.



The backing plates were made from .030" aluminum and the new tag was attached to the side panel with split rivets. To avoid deforming the thin aluminum side panels, I used a dab of clear silicone on the back of each rivet to bond the tag to the base panel.

The rear corner closeout has to be installed before the upper panel. I used the original cover patterns to help locate teh attaching screw holes, then some gently prodding with a small pick allowed me to find the original attaching holesd in the seat frame. No new holes required!


Near the top of the upper panel, the robe cord escutcheon attaching screws also retain the inboard edge of the upper trim panel.


My grandson painted the spacer needed to align the rear folding seat back latch to the seat back.


The liftgate window has 2 "layers" of stainless steel exterior moldings. The first layer was installed after the glass was installed.

The second layer is retained by unique spring clips, many of which broke or disintegrated when the moldings were removed during disassembly of hte liftgate.

I have not been able to find any replacements for these clips, so I had to fabricate 8 of them.

The clip inside the white circle is one of the replacement clips I made, using a medium binder clip as the raw material.


A heavy bead of glass bedding compound was applied to the liftgate surface and the clips were pre-inserted into the molding. I interspersed my fabricated clips with the original clips, using the originals in the most critical positions.

The masking tape on the glass was marked to indicate the position of each clip (C) and each screw(S) for the two layers of moldings.


I centered the molding on the glass and pushed each clip into position. The outboard, vertical moldings also act as retainers for the pillar scalp moldings. Quite a complicated molding scheme!


I managed to scuff the top edge of the quarter panel with the molding edges. Another touch-up for the painter.


All moldings in place; my clips appear to be working well.

I can't wait to see pics of your reveal at Cobo! I'm sure it will be the talk of the show. Congratulations on an amazing restoration.

Will you be attending the Concours at St. John this year? I'd love to see your car in person. If you are not familiar with the show, look into it. It is for only the finest restored cars, and yours would fit right in! It's in the Detroit area. I'm in Cleveland during the summer, and I went to the show a few years ago with my brother. It is literally only the best of the best, which your restoration certainly is!

Just WOW! I saw Pat post pics of the interior on FB and haven't been following the thread as well as I should have (life getting in the way of fun, etc.) What an amazing transformation. I just showed some of the before and after pics to my 14 YO daughter and she said, 'Wow, that's alot of amazing work done! " and I'm sure you know how hard it is to amaze a 14 yo girl lol.

I thought your GTO was kick ass, but this.....blown away at the detail

In the rush to complete the car for the Autorama deadline, I have fallen a little behind on my project updates.

Let's skip the last 4 weeks of work and take a look at the car on display at the 2019 Detroit Autorama.

Move-in day was Wednesday; the show opens at noon on Friday and runs unti 7pm Sunday.

Larry Schramm graciously allowed me to use his enclosed trailer to move the Caballero in the slushy mess on Wednesday. I doubt his trailer has ever carried anything this heavy; we calculated teh trailer + vehicle weight at approximately 7700 pounds.
20190227_153613 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

I've never had a car in this show; it's an exciting day for me!
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We dropped the 2 cars (my Caballero and the Modified 74 Corvette) in Masterworks' spot and left as soon as possible. There are about 800 vehicles being delivered in a 36 hour window; you can't leave your tow rig in the building any longer than absolutely necessary.
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One happy guy...
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We made a last-minmute decision to make "Before" posters; Schramm to the rescue...again!
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I like the "Air Born B-58 Buick" advertising materials and logo; the decorative plate turned out great!
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Cloth pull-up sign to tell a little story and thanks the major helpers!
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Ready for Friday opening
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That's me, cleaning and preening the car. I figure I've earned the right to wear that "Authorized Valve-in-head" service shirt by now!

POM18 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

POM22 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

TRh ecar drew a lot of attention. THere was almost always a small knot of 3 to 12 people checking it out and asking questions.
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Family visitors; my daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren came to check out our handiwork
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I didn't win any awards with the car; the class competition (1958 - 1967 Restored) was fierce and I agreed with the judges selections of the top cars in the class. Mine was close, but not as perfect as the winners.

All in all, a great weekend!

I'm going to be off-line for a week. I'll add more photos when I'm back.

Thanks again to Pat (BuickEstate) for his interior work, Jim P (57BuickJim) and Larry Schramm for years of hard work, support and help in bringing this baby home!

Looks like a million bucks under those lights!! Congrats on making the show and I look forward to more pics

Hope to see it someday in person!!

Chris

Thanks again for taking the time to share all this with us. It has been a joy to follow.

Wow, 3 months since my last update here!

Immediately after the Detroit Autorama show, we left for a well-deserved vacation in Arizona.



Then, I made a couple of improvements to the car before heading to the Cincinnati Concours on June  9.

I installed the seals to close out the outer wheel wells to the quarter panels.
They were installed with stainless steel staples and sealed with a heavy bodied sealer between the seal and the wheelwell.
This picture shows the first 2 staples installed on the left side seal.
It was a tight environment and took some creativity to figure out a way to crimp the legs of the staples in a very small space.


Here's the completed installation:



I also applied undercoating to the floors and under-body as it was applied by the factory.
To begin, I masked off the frame and other areas that did not receive the factory undercoating.
In this photo, you can see the masked areas and some of the undercoating already applied to the floor pans.


Originally, the underside of the tire well was undercoated, but the floor pans were undercoated only to the back of the rear axle and not above the fuel tank. Go figure...


I also added the 6 sets of seat belts. I chose contrasting, brown belts with the chrome lift latches.
Here, I have attached cords to the belt anchors to assist with inserting the belts between the seat cushion and the seat back.


I also used a piece of harness wrap to help push the cord through the gap


Then, bolted the belt anchors to the underbody anchor plates that were installed when the metal work was completed.

It's a nice, clean look.





Installation of the rear seat belts was a little easier, since the cushion and the back can be separated.


I also wanted to improve the appearance of the rear liftgate windlace. It was very wavy and didn't fit snugly against the liftgate opening. Every time I opened the gate, the windlace looked like it had been pushed out of position by the upper liftgate frame.

I removed the windlace, tore the stitching out of the cloth cover and slit the foam core to accept a plastic reinforcement:


I re-stitched the cover to the reinforced foam core, while adding a 3mm thick foam rubber "gasket" to tighten the fit of the windlace to the upper liftgate opening.
The gasket won't be visible when the windlace is installed because it is trapped between the metal garnish molding and the liftgate opening in the body shell.


Much better!!!
The windlace is held tightly in place. It flexes "down" when the upper liftgate is closed, but it does not move out of position. It's straight and neat.


In the circled area, you can see that the trim cover on the front seat has begun to pucker. The cover was too loose on the cushion.


I pulled the front seat out of the car to re-pad the seat cushion.
I removed the top 2 layers of cotton/poly padding and foam and replaced them with a thicker, fimer layer of bonded foam.
The cover is much tighter and the seat holds a more defined shape at the perimeter.


Ready for Cincinnati!





The Caballero was placed in a Featured Class, celebrating Mid-Century Modern design.
It was in a group comprised of 1958 to 1965 closed cars.
"Best in Class" (Blue Ribbon) went to a beautiful, silver, fuel injected 1963 Corvette coupe.


We got "First Place" (Red Ribbon) in the class. Essentially, first runner up.

WOW!

What a car and story!
Hope to see it at some AACA shows.

rcktpwrd wrote:

WOW!

What a car and story!
Hope to see it at some AACA shows.

Thanks, Joel.

I'm planning to take it to Hershey this year and possibly Spring Auburn 2020 also.

We will be at Hershey! My wife is a judge. She showed her Suburban several times over the last few years until she sold it last year. We won't be showing anything until next year when the wagon is eligible.

What a fantastic car, Joe.

Hope all is well with you! Haven't talked to you in awhile, but glad to see the Caballero mobile.

Want to see the Caballero on the 2020 Auto Value calendar?
You can vote once per day from each ISP, as well as from your mobile.
Here's a link to the voting page:
https://woobox.com/7gw5iu/gallery/zOs3RKGUxy4

The top 20 vote getters will be the finalists for the 12 monthly spots.
The voting ends on July 24th, so vote often!
Thanks for your help!
Joe

We trailered the Caballero to the Buick Club of America National meet in Midwest City, OK in June.

I didn't take many photos, but the car earned "Senior Gold" status in the judging process, meaning that it achieved more than 390 out of a possible 400 point score.

There were a few 58s at the event, but I really enjoyed comparing my car to another 58 Caballero:







The car had many subtle modifications...and some not so subtle.

Cool paint; the upper body is gloss gray while the lower is matte gray. Beautiful wheels (IMO), lowered, 4 wheel disc brakes, custom leather interior, side exit exhaust (outlets in the rockers, just ahead of the rear wheel openings), Limited bumper ends replaced the Special/Century style, lots more.
It was fun getting them together for pics.

Cool pics and comparison of a stock restoration and a nice resto mod!
both beautiful cars!

July 28, 2019: Concours of America at St. John's

I was very excited about being invited to this event. I have worked at this show as a volunteer for several years, but never expected to own a car that would be invited here.

The Caballero looked "at home" on the field. Here it is in position, next to a Continental Mark II.



It was in a "American Post-War - Early" class that included some phenomenal cars:
1947 Cadillac 62 convertible
1948 Pontiac Torpedo coupe
1950 Muntz Jet
1953 Buick Skylark
1963 Kaiser Dragon
1955 Olds Starfire convertible
1956 Continental Mark II
1957 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser

When I looked at the rest of the cars, I was confident that the 3 award recipients would not include my wagon.

I was shocked to get the call to come and meet with the judges!

Along with the Continental Mark II, the Caballero was selected as one of 2 "Lion" award winners. That is essentially a second place award in the class.

Best in Class went to the 57 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser.

ANY of the cars would have been worthy recipients, but it was certainly was fun to drive through the award review and listen to the commentators talk about our wagon while a bunch of photographers took their photos.

Here we are waiting our turn for the award presentation:


The pink and black Turnpike Cruiser was PERFECT!



The Mark II looks so understated compared to the Buick!

Awesome!

Some fantastic cars in that group!

Well, the notification deadline has come and gone.

The Caballero did not make it to the short list of finalists for the Auto Value 2020 calendar.

Thanks to all who voted!

Was nice to meet you Joe! Did you get your First Junior?

The car looks amazing in person and the attention it was drawing was impressive as well!

rcktpwrd wrote:

Was nice to meet you Joe! Did you get your First Junior?

The car looks amazing in person and the attention it was drawing was impressive as well!

Hey Joel,
It was great meeting you, too!
Thanks for visiting and thanks for the compliments.
I don't know if we got our First Junior; we had to leave before the banquet.
I'll try to learn more on Monday.

Enjoy that Caprice!!!
joe

I got a couple pics of you driving into the show.

Thanks, Joel!

What an amazing car.

Very cool to see it win awards it deserves.

Looks like Joe received his First Junior. Congrats!

page 13, class 27C
http://www.aaca.org/images/meet_results/2019/2019_Hershey.pdf

Thanks!
Another friend informed me by text before I got the official word.
Glad to have people keeping an eye on these things!