1956 Adventurer Restoration

Heeeeyyyyyyyy......

latest progress

When do think it will be completed.

If we can keep our momentum, hopefully by the end of the year, which would make it a one year project.

a little more all the time.......

Here's an interesting detail about the '56 DeSoto.

We've determined during the teardown that the entire body exterior from the firewall back was painted gold, including the doors and the decklid. The black was applied on top of the gold.

In this shot, you can see the lighter interior gold that is on the dash panels applied to the speaker grill to the right of the glove box, but at the top left is the opening for the glove box. When you open the glove box door, you actually see exterior gold exposed in the opening.

The upper dash area must have gotten exterior color overspray when the body was painted, but no effort was made to cover the overspray with the interior color when the car was trimmed out.

Another impromptu, unrehearsed video..... "uh....."

http://youtu.be/iEWPMGQEU6U

Wow. This car is going to be incredible when it's all done. I can't wait to see to see the final product!

Great job, Tim!

Hey Tim, my 56 Adventurer was all black on the interior areas. Who knows... maybe the one you're working on was originally supposed to be Gold and Black and not the other way around?

How did that gold plating kit work out? I watched the video... and it looks nice, but how was it in the long run? Did you finish all the parts?

Jim

Hey, Jim; good to hear from you.

Are you referencing the gold exterior color we found in the glove box opening? Hmmmm.... if my theory is right, I'd expect your car to be white in the same area, I guess, based on the assumption that your car was painted white prior to the black..... Interesting.

I'm pretty pleased with the Caswell gold plating system. Easy to do, and looks great. Ask me in a couple of years, and I'll have an opinion on durability.

New video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaGgLj1X ... e=youtu.be

Hey, Jim; good to hear from you.

Are you referencing the gold exterior color we found in the glove box opening? Hmmmm.... if my theory is right, I'd expect your car to be white in the same area, I guess, based on the assumption that your car was painted white prior to the black..... Interesting.

I did not have that front part of the dash apart. I had the padded cover off and it was black underneath. BUT... in one of the pics I took showing that "money" I found tucked up under the dash, there is some black AND white overspray. Sorry... I am not taking my dash apart to have a "look" either. See the picture below showing just overtop of the cardboard glove box. You can plainly see the white AND black overspray. Also... $14 in silver certificates all folded up for some hidden mad money.

Jim

It seems like finding time to update the website can be tough to find sometimes, but last night I did manage to load some new pictures.

Hoping to get the word that the cloth from SMS will ship this week!

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

Tim,

Thanks for the update on the Adventurer restoration. Your work is remarkable as is the documentation. I was wondering about the air conditioning which was in the car which you described as an aftermarket unit. There were two units offered from the factory, the standard unit and the deluxe unit. Could the unit removed from the car have been the standard unit installed at the factory? If so, it should have the a code 4 on the data plate for the AC option. The code for the deluxe unit was 5 as was on the data plate on your parts car.

Mac

Thanks, Mac!

The AC that was in the car was a "Mark IV" unit, which I have always assumed to be aftermarket, especially as my customer indicated that adding air to the car was one of the first things his Dad did to the car after they bought it.