The Co-op: Delivery day

For all of you having projects with us, one day this will be you!  And because of that today is all about the 1957 Belair stretch limo…. I’ll try and put up a little on Ruby’s progress but like I said.. our world today is all about this thing….. coming in extra early (don’t really know why), guess I just could not sleep through this. 

One big part of this is…and I hate to admit it…. the “reveal”.  It looks so staged on TV, I cringe when I hear it coming on one of those shows but in reality, you always remember the first of every neat thing you do….first rollercoaster ride…. first car, etc. and this is a first for the folks who had the dream to have something like this….so indulge them a bit.

Again, walking in to a dark big house… there it was I had left the LED front dome light on.  The driver front was the brightest thing in the building right then Going over to the driver seat to light up everything else…. they located the battery position behind the driver seat, I would not have suggested that but it made it easy for me to do my harness and wiring.  Like the GMC harnesses I build, I installed a main battery switch that selects between the 2 deep cycle marine batteries and then another to isolate the back salon from the engine and front electrical system  It surprised me but limo builders usually do not have power kill switches…. how odd!  Anyway, firing up everything this is the “lighted bar” where the wine glasses  will be held full of the beverage and ready to serve   That’s a LED backlighted 1/2″ plexi layer under the top with recessed glowing openings for each glass….. ice thiller box below, stem crystal holders and 2 USB ports.  BTW, those things below the blue USB plug are the sound and light remotes to control this  .

Switches to the left control lighting, next panel is the Blutooth mic and AC controls for 2 evaporators blowing 8 vents.  The radio is a motorized DIN, with navigation, DVD, forward facing camera for passengers, 12 subs hammering 1000 watts of bass, all remote controlled with a 7″ LCD touch screen… pretty cool. The right panel is the electric sunroof and the 2 passthru windows… one smoked, the other you see says “57 Heaven” with a 15″ flat screen monitor for the DVD….. cool! 

Jared in our upholster nailed that front center console. We have rocker controls for the 2 passthru windows, a 4 window electric window kit had been installed… there’s 2 USB 2.4a charge ports and the row of salon area switching topped off by an AC vent at the top of the console with an in dash AC/heat system.  One of the 2 salon AC systems has heat so they will need to get chummy back there…….

.  There is a retro look radio in the front for the driver but my guess with 12″ woofers 4′ from his head that radio will only be used to and from a gig!

Man, what a machine and what a morning walk through the shop!  The sun is coming up and I can’t wait to show this thing to it’s owner…. hope he likes flash……

So as promised I wanted to keep up on progress on Ruby….. instead of these little stick things holding the original overhead harnesses in the front and back, I figured I’d used that nuclear duct tape giving to me by someone who would use it.  Hey, works great!    the wires heading into the roof is the underside of the new retro look-alike catseye LED top clearance lights mounted, sealed and wired from the inside like they did when this thing was born but with 1 big difference… I’m leaving ample service loop wire for the poor guy who may have to one day replace one…. hey it could happen!  I curse the way GM installed thise with sigle bullet connections tight to the harness…. 1 pull on the wire and it’s diver down for the wire!  Oh, the front lights got the same treatment .. Another addition will be I’m making both front and rear caps removeable without removing the interior!  A felt another backwards move by GM.

Now more work on those front caps…..wonder why there’s a big hole in the front cap   Oh, ok… looking at the other side we see folks have been hammering screws to hold something up for years…. hitting nothing they ripped out the other side   Both sides will need some love….. both front and rear caps are still under resurrection cracks being stopped with out ABS/glass matt slurry    You can’t fix them all at once, the strength of the plastic molded panel need to be first before other repairs can be done… stay tuned for more on that. 

So lets all shout Go..Go..Go..Go and lets get this big delivery out.  I say big, afterall it is a stretch but big in another way….. other than the 2 Duramax coaches we build, this is the 3rd most expensive vehicle restoration I have even been involved with.

So a wash job this morning.. a slather of wax and another one bites the dust……… Lets see how it goes…. see ya tomorrow.

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