Assembly and Body Markings
Pictures as of October 2021
The grease pencil mark of "202" appears on both doors, the hinge/door pillar on both sides of car, under the instrument cluster, fire wall, and on the top of the dash. This is the build number and is not linked anywhere to the VIN. NOTE the picture on the rights was taken after blasting, the grease pencil is gone but you can make out the writing imprint left behind if you look closely.
Frame VIN number stamp was found twice on the driver’s side, between the two faint and eroded marks the cars VIN can be found
A series of pencil marks were also found, below are just a few. You can see the marking "1/2 min" on the inside of the passenger side door hinge area.
Below is the area behind the passenger seat. We slowly scraped away the black paint and found ... HT, yes a true hard top car. It is surprising to see as the car has at least 3 paint jobs from what we can tell. The grease pencil marks will be saved for the next restorer.
Now for a truly exciting picture - this is the inside the trunk on the passenger side. You can see in green grease pencil the word "ivory". A true snow crest white car. I was planning to make the car to my favorite colors and to match my 65, however with this much evidence the final paint color decision will be more difficult. Make it the way I want or the way she was?
While the seats were in terrible shape after almost a decade of "animals" making the car home but after some work; look what was found on the seat, the original seat manufacturer tag.
A few shots of the instrument cluster, showing March and Feb 1959 dates. Note the green grease pencil on the gauge housing. The "202" or "909" appears again, on right hand picture.
The pictures below show how gummed up and nasty just about every part was prior to sandblasting, and plating. And of course the end result = a table of perfect original parts. While time consuming to clean, blast, tumble and then plate you cannot argue with how good the oriental parts look again.
Here are pictures of the main hardware after powder coating. Yes I chose to powder coat, C1 cars are known for all kinds of leaks and wanted the frame to stand the course of time. I had the original hardware sand blasted and coated along with a second set and in some cases a third set. Found a source in CA for ORIGINAL west coast C1 parts that are outstanding. Clean, rust free and perfect condition. Below are pictures of just one set. I have front cross members, rear axles, drive shafts, upper/lower control arms and brake backing plates for sale if anyone is interested let me know.
Pictues below are from 2021, 2021. Sorry for the delay but i have been out of the country for a few years... that and COVID slowed the pace of work down. The body work is now done , 2 -3 layers of primer and body sanding complete and she is ready for paint. But before she can go the original body markings, saved 5 years ago, need to be put back on the car. All grease pencil marks, pencil marks, build number, color codes etc added to the body.
