Hi Gang. Did not get as much done today as I would have liked, because as usual something came up. Did get some pics for you all though, below. Dad came over in the 97 S-10 to see the boys, and when he went to leave he got in the truck, pushed the accelerator, and the pedal went to the floor, limp. Say what? Only 170K miles on the truck, how dare that fail! Ha! I pulled the hush panel under the dash and the cable had snapped right at the pedal assembly, up high where it clips on. DOH! I popped the hood and figured out how the cable came off, and we ended up going to Wrench-A-Part in South Austin and pulling two cables off some junkers. One to fix the truck, and one for a spare. Came home and the cable went on in 5-mins. Much easier to install than to remove. Sadly that adventure cut into my Roady interior work this afternoon, but I DID get some work done. Here is the latest, with pics! First, I'd meant to post these pics yesterday. I had to remove the speakers from the door panel trim, and did not know quite how to do that without breaking them. Trial and error, I figured it out. Pics suck on these first ones, was in my kitchen. Sorry for the quality. Here is the broken handle trim from the passenger side front door. Notice how big the hole is around where the handle comes through the trim. It's driven me crazy for a year now! First I used my cutting wheel to grind off the four mounting areas in the corners where the speakers are attached: There is a black mounting plate attached to the trim itself, and I pried the speakers off between it and the speaker...carefully...with a flathead screwdriver: Once off I re-attached my speakers the newly-painted trim panels using Epoxy. I aslo moved power lock button and slider assembly to the new trim. This is easy and straightforward, they pry off the old trim and snap on the new.
Here's some more work in progress. I removed the tan carpet from that panel I got at the salvage yard, and then scrubbed it well. I also cleaned the other tan front door panel handle trim piece, then took both outside to SEM-dye them. Before: And painting with SEM: Next I layed them out on the driveway in the sun to bake: While these were drying I pulled the passenger front door panel off. Sure enough, three Christmas Tree clip mounts were broken off...now I know what that panel has always rattled when the door is closed and creaks if you rest your leg on it while riding in the car! I Epoxy'd three new clips to the broken spots. I also removed the old speaker, lock switch and slider from the broken door handle trim and installed them on the freshly-painted part. I then got out the paint marker and CAREFULLY re-painted the Concert Sound II lettering. I re-attached the door panel with new clips, and then installed the handle trim and pull strap. WOW it look great! It does not rattle, creak, or move around at all now. For the first time since I bought the car the passenger front panel is "right". The color of the SEM also matches the door panel much better than I thought when it was off the car. Here is the finished product. Can you believe that handle trim was tan yesterday? Ha! The flash makes the panel look discolored and the chrome dull, but in person it's an even deep red and it all shines great. I'm really happy with it! One down, three panels to go. The back ones are not broken externally, but both feel loose so I'm betting some Christmas Tree clips are missing. The driver's side front is going to take the most work. I've get to seperate the top and bottom of the old panel, plus remove the old carpet and packet assembly from the old panel, and then re-attach all that to my newly-painted lower salvage yard panel. Such fun!
Oh and as mentioned we ran to Wrench-A-Part this afternoon. Nothing new on the Roady front but there was one cool car there that was worth looking at. Thought you might get a kick out of this one. 1961 Buick LeSabre 4-door hardtop. This car was VERY solid, had tons of good chrome on it, good bumpers, perfect tail lights, and the engine and complete factory a/c system were still under the hood. BUT the coolest thing was the speedometer. The speedometer mounts flat on the dash, pointing up at the ceiling. Just behind and above it is a mirror, and THIS is what the driver looks at what driving, the reflection in the mirror! Neat! Also the mirror is attached to rolling knobs so you can adjust it's angle to better see the speedo reflection. Reall unique and very 60's idea. Check out the pics. Look at how HUGE those front brake drums are! Perfect tail lights and nice trunk crest emblem And here is that wacko speedometer/mirror setup: That was my Sunday gang. Hope you all had a good weekend! -Mike
Man, that dye worked out great. I use the same color for doing my scale 1/24th and 1/25 model cars since most reds I find are too bright and toy looking. How do you like the speakers that are on the Roadmaster? The little ones that you took off. My '73 Century has one mono speaker in the dash (not working), a cut out for another speaker for the right, and then some hacks chopped up the front door panels for some 1980s Montgomery Wards style speakers. I want to put in four speakers in the wagon but keep it a '70s look to them. As if someone walking past the car, not knowing cars like we do, that would think that was just from the factory.
I like the stock look but good sound on my old cars as well. The front doors on my Roady have two speakers in them. Those little tweeters in front of the door handles and larger mids in the lower part the doors. They sound pretty good, but not as good as the Bose setup was in my Caddy Catera. On your 73, if it was my car, I'd put a set of good 3-way 6x9 speakers in the rear package tray. If you want to hid them then just cover your package tray in automotive carpet color-matched to the rest of your interior, like GM did in the late-70's on. Your sound will be MUCH better and nobody will know. As for door speakers, if you already have holes in the door panels I'm not sure how you can hid that, but you can get some small round Pioneer speakers and install those in the front doors. The Pioneers tend to have good sound, and in conjunction with the 6x9's in the rear you'll have a good sound system....on the cheap. Good luck! - Mike
The Century is a station wagon. I had done that very idea with my '78 Thunderbird and it looked just right and factory stock to. I'm going to keep my eye out on some wagon speaker grills when I go yard hopping.
