1958 Buick Caballero

It takes one to know one I'm sure that you could sneak an electric grid under your own back seat, without Hubby noticing

 

I suppose the next question is, will you ever drive the 58 in weather that warrants the use of the heater?

 

Heater, probably.
Windshield wipers - Hopefully not!

 

Never say "Never!" Just be prepared in case you do.

 

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:

 

That bumper looks great! These were very high quality cars.

 

I agree! The interior progress looks great as well.

I had a science teacher in middles school who liked old cars and had a mid 50's Studebaker. His wife drove a newer GM sedan. He hated how chincy everything was. He was telling us about it in class one day (I'm sure it pertained to the lesson somehow...) and he said "If I dropped the bumper from the Studebaker on your foot, it would break your foot! However, if I dropped the bumper of my wife's car on your foot, your foot would probably break the bumper!"

It looks like your Buick's bumper is similar in many ways to the Studebaker bumper from my Science teachers story.

 

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 iterations, 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.

 

Looks good. I am sure it is tedious work, but the end result is going to be fantastic, that much I am certain of.

 

Way to go. Impressed by you and the Buick.

 

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!

 

I could see why you were dissatisfied, and so I hope you have a better time redoing it. For your kid critter, 'good enough' is good enough for her, but in showing the car, 'superlative' is never good enough.

 

Wow. To think that Buick was put out to pasture to rot in a field in Santa Fe, now 1000’s of “car” people are going to awe at its splendor at the Detroit Autorama. That was the luckiest day of that Buick’s life when you and Bill made that pilgrimage happen. I hope you have plenty of before pictures so people can be astonished at the transformation of that glorious car. Good luck with it, enjoy it for many years to come. That truly is now a legacy piece of your estate that will hopefully have good shepherds for years to come.

 

Now that is exciting! You've been holding out on us!

I see you have a back seat occupant ready to go for a cruise. I am sure she will enjoy the first ice cream run in the 58