1956 Adventurer Restoration

Does the grille V on Tom Iverson's car look gold to anyone else?

Hey, Tim, great work (so far) on the car. I'm watching you! In the HTML code for your web pictures, a couple corrections need made if you have a chance. When looking closely at the spark plug wire covers, a "click" on the small icon should bring up a larger image. Instead, it brings up the same pic of the greasy block. Minor thing, of course, but I was really interested in the plug wire covers and discovered that! Thank you!

Thanks for the heads up on that, Ed. When I add more images, I do some initial copying and pasting, and sometimes miss updating the links to the thumbnails.

On another note, I had a very nice conversation with Dave Tyjeski the other day, and he confirms what we would expect to find on a car with a one owner history; the colors on this engine are accurate for '56 Adventurer. Silver block, gold valve covers, gold spark plug wire covers, red lettering, gold air cleaner.

Hey, uh... Jim....

Your comment pointing out the gold "V" makes me go "hmmmm...."

So far this car is so "unmolested", I wonder if it might at all be an anomoly that this one has a gold V. Steve McManus has already pointed out that it's an early unit.... I wonder if there were any discrepencies? I have no idea.

It is going to be fun taking this one apart. Yesterday I noticed that the backside of the front header (above the grille, with the DESOTO letters on it) is also painted gray, and the stencil painted part number is still clearly seen.

With just over 120,000 miles, I would assume that the black paint in the rear bumper ends has worn off, rather than never having been there.

We're not quite working on this car full time yet, so I don't have many pictures to update to the website right now, but check back periodically! I'll do my best to tactfully announce worthy "highlights"

I am not sure about the GOLD V though... I have never heard of that, or seen one. I am positive you will figure it out though. The part numbers under that header panel make me go hmmm... as they aren't usually on a factory piece. Mostly on replacement parts due to accidents and such.

My car also had 101,000 miles on it when I restored it and I also wondered if the black had worn off? Guess we'll never know.

My car was below the bar for leaving it original (in my opinion). Some said I should have left my ONLY known Black & White Adventurer alone, but it was rusted out on the rear 1/4s and it had those... "buckle" dents from someone walking on the deck lid, roof and hood. The interior was ugly too.

I will keep an eye out on your site!

Jim

I looked at a black and white Adventurer for sale a few years ago in NY. Is it the same car?

Have a nice day
Steve

I looked at a black and white Adventurer for sale a few years ago in NY. Is it the same car?

Have a nice day
Steve

Hi Steve, no it is not the same car. I bought my 56 from the original owner. That one you are talking about belonged to Sal Rossi. However, I had heard that one was so rough it was parted out. Doug Dressler told me that. BUT... I would like to know if it IS still around. That way I won't say mine is the only B/W one out there. Also on another note... There is also a W/B one that Jimmy Leaber in LA owned. It was for sale on Ebay but I don't know if it ever sold. It was/is a very nice looking car too!

Jim

Steve had some creative ideas earlier in this thread, and we decided that they had real merit, so we looked at the possibilities of installing the 1929 Franklin's 6.50-19" tires and wire wheels with 3 1/4" whitewalls.

Chroming those wheels is going to be some major money, though.

Have you seen the chrome powder coat they have now.

I've heard about it. Probably going to look at it for the grille of the '37 Ford. The repops are made in Argentina, and word is that they need a lot of tweaking to make fit. We don't want to spend the extra $ for a chrome repop only to have to do a bunch of work to make it fit and risk hurting the chrome. We'll probably buy a steel grill, fit it, and then have it powder coated.

Steve had some creative ideas earlier in this thread, and we decided that they had real merit, so we looked at the possibilities of installing the 1929 Franklin's 6.50-19" tires and wire wheels with 3 1/4" whitewalls.

Chroming those wheels is going to be some major money, though.

Oh yeah! That's it!!

Chrome wire wheels were an option on this car, but I suspect it came with the flashy gold Adventurer hubcaps.

Have a nice day
Steve

Jim Megee may have called it correctly when he pointed out that the combination of the gold V in the grille and the stenciled part # on the backside of the front nose sheetmetal was cause for suspicion.

We've had several indications that there may have been some damage to the front of the car. From statements made by my customer, if the car was damaged it very well could have been before they bought it, as the car was used as a demonstrater by the dealership in Tulsa.

The inner grill trim that somewhat borders the grill mesh has some considerable damage hidden behind the passenger damgaar. The V is gold, rather than silver, which would be correct for the Adventurer. The nose panel has stenciled part #s evident, which makes sense that it would be a replacement panel. We found someone's initials stamped into the backside of the front bumper, which might suggest it was sent out for repair (as that is something we would do to inventory our part before it was sent out...) There was significant shimming of the right side of the bumper that wasn't necessary on the left.

Today I was degreasing the backside of the hood and cleaning a few areas simply to confirm what I already expected to find, which was gray color on the underside of the hood, with bodycolor overspray around the perimeter due to the application of color on the top of the hood.

The overspray around the perimeter didn't quite seem right, as it wasn't really black. Further inspection revealed that the underside panel at the front of the hood was actually white, and there was heavy black paint sprayed right around the hood latch mechanism.

As Jim and I would say, I then went "hmmmmm......", since I was already suspicious that the car might have suffered an event requiring repair in its past. I flipped the hood back over and started to sand through the layers down to bare metal to see what might turn up.

The pictures show at the front of the hood that there are 2 applications of black paint, with 2 white coats in between. It also looks as though there may be a dark bronze color below the white and black applications.

Considering that the front of the hood may have been repaired due to stone chips, I went to the back and sanded down far enough to reveal more white paint there, too.

The front nose sheetmetal only reveals one application of black paint on top of red primer, which is also all I see at this point on both the right and left front fenders.

So, I wonder if something happened to our car that would have required a replacement hood and nose piece to the front of the car.

And..... just to try to get back at the Mercury crowd, we tried to install the '50 Mercury grill into the front of the DeSoto, but decided the Mercury grill was ugly both in a Desoto, and a Mercury, so we took it right back out.

Back in the "day" when I worked at my Dads body shop, we sent our bumpers out to be repaired/straightened or whenever we got a bumper from someone like KEYSTONE Bumpers they DID have letters marked with those junkyard crayons/paint sticks. What they would do; was they would bring us a bumper and pick the bent one up as an exchange they would scribble something on the bent one right then. That letters were found on the back side of all the bumpers. Now... I can't really recall what the letters were... other than maybe the shop it came from? OR The guy that picked it up? He would get a credit or bonus for bringing back cores. Man... that was so long ago... back in the 70's and early 80's when cars still used metal bumpers. Anyway... I just can't remember.

I can't figure out why the paint on the hood keeps going from white/black, white/black, white/black. I never seen white primer... light gray, sure, but never white. I can see it if it went from White to Black. As the car they got a used hood from was originally white, then they painted it black. BUT several times? Maybe the black UNDER the white is a black primer for the WHITE paint?

I will have to check to see what colors my hood had on it. "IF" I took a pic of me stripping the hood. My hood also had 50lbs of super thick undercoating under the hood. OH.... yes, it is still on the hood too. Why remove it? Probably a dealer job AND my Dad worked at the DeSoto Dealer (where my 56 Adv. came from) when that car was sold new and yep... you guess it, His job was to spray on the undercoating on the new cars! NO... he does NOT remember that particular car coming through the dealer.

Jim

Made an "end of the month" summary video for our client on the Adventurer, so I'll share that with any of you that might be interested.

More "uhs", Jim, and maybe next time I'll pick up the shop a little.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBGWEwE4jYA

Much nicer 'acting' in your video this time... maybe Charlie Sheen can get you a job! HAHA

While watching your video, I feel like it is Deja Vu walking around mine. So many memories... ugh...

As for the primer on my hood it was light Gray. I seem to have only taken only ONE picture of my hood and it is where I did a sample 'scrape' with a razor blade scraper. I prefer to use that whenever I can rather than stripper. Much cleaner, however, now (as you know) you have to watch out for the razor blade digs it makes sometimes. While looking through my photos, I realize I didn't take pics of me "stripping" the paint as much as my pics were of... areas that may cause questions later on. OR areas that were a "big" repair. That type of thing. My car fit pretty good before I took it apart. Sure, there were a couple of areas, but I "fit" them when it was put back together.

Is your engine Silver? I had heard that 'some' were gold engines? My engine was completely apart; and I mean... ALL APART in boxes and coffee cans in the trunk, when I got the car and it was already 'cooked' so there was no paint on it. BUT... the water pump and other things showed me it was a silver engine with Gold Air Cleaner and Gold Rocker Covers.

Looking forward to new videos; so post when you have them! Thanks! I always enjoy watching other people work! (Your radio station sounds like the one I have on)

Jim

Some new picts on the website. Should have the body off the frame possibly this week.

http://www.stellarrestorations.com/1956 ... /index.php

Just a reminder too, Stellar Restorations is on Facebook. I post pictures quicker on FB because it's a little easier. There's also an active group of '55/56 enthusiasts, and Alan Ralston showed up posting pictures and updates on his activities with his '59 stuff. If you're already on FB, you might check these out!

Stellar on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stellar- ... 1837779418

The '55/56 group
https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid= ... 971&ref=ts

DeSoto Proud Owners and Admirers (on Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid= ... 095&ref=ts

Tim
http://www.stellarrestorations.com