 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Cowl and Cladding | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| There's a LOT to building a SHO. After I was done with the inside and outside assembly, I still had the cladding to install. That had been painted two or three years ago, and had been being shuffled from under one bed in the house to another one, with lots of yelling and throwing of pillows and vacuum hoses at each move. She just doesn't believe that clean, newly painted parts can be stored inside the house.....everything needs to go to the shed...whether it is worth 50 cents or 500 dollars. So we were both relieved when the time came to install the cladding. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Quite a while ago, I went looking for new cowl panels for Lowrider, just to have as spares. There are plenty of Tauri at the PnP, as I have said, and several of them at any given time have good cowl panels. But taking them out is definitely a delicate process, since they have been baking in the sun every day since each car was new. They become brittle and fragile, and especially near the outer ends are rather difficult to get off a car without breaking off the tabs that fasten under the doors. I had found a pair that were relatively strong, and had no cracks. They had been in storage, and now was the time to bring them out. They cleaned up nicely with "Son-of-A-Gun" cleaner, and, with some new rubber seals formed on the bottom sides, went on the car nicely. They tended to creak and rattle at first, so they came back off and more rubber seal material was added. New wiper arms and blades went on, and then that part was done. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The left side cladding went on relatively easily. I figured out that I needed to install the fixed cladding first...the ground effects that fasten to the rocker panels. If the door panels go on first, they will be damaged by the rocker pieces as they rotate 90 degrees into position after being latched to the vertical (relatively) fastener on the front fender. So after a couple of tries, and some close calls regarding the finish on the door pieces, the left side was on. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ooops....more RUST!!! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Then came the right side. I took a close look at it, and found......RUST!!! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| There wasn’t a lot of it, but the bracket couldn’t stay. This car is NEW, which disallows any rust (that I am aware of!!). Fortunately, I had been blessed with a premonition that I might need new cladding brackets, and I glommed a set off a SHO at PnP. The pieces were not perfect, but easy enough to clean up. Actually this piece that is coming off is reusable, but it still had to come off to be cleaned, so I might as well replace it, right?? Yeah....some moron tried to jack up the car in the middle, using the jack that came with the car. (Wasn't me...I learned the hard way with my '65 Mustang that you have to jack it where it is reinforced....!) The cladding covers this up, but I'll go under and straighten it out when I detail the underside for carSHOs. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Here, the bracket is part way off. It is held on with rivets...close to the same size as hold the door handles. I drilled them out, and replaced them with new ones and stainless washers. The new bracket went on closer to the body than the old one did, and therefore I had a HARD time getting the cladding on. It finally went, but it took a lot longer to do this side than it did the left. But it won't be coming off soon, so all is well. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Drilling out the rivets was relatively easy. The hard part was getting the cladding to go under the edge of the new bracket! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The new bracket is on, and ready to go. I gave the body a good coat of Rustoleum to slow any rust that might try to form in the rivet holes, and behind the bracket. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Here it is.....NOW I remember what it is supposed to look like!! This is the way it was when it went to the stereo shop to be hooked up and alarmed. The back windows were not in, so the subwoofer output basically went outside. After the rear glass went in, it sounded tons better. Notice, on the garage wall beyond the car, the different package tray cover. It has flat speaker grilles. Those plastic towers were nothing but a pain during Lowrider's career. I was very glad to find a stock cover with flat speaker grilles. It also came from the L in the PnP with the perfect carpet. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back Home | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||