Jason Coupe DeVille Resto - New Hood to Shroud Seal

[Jason Edge]

As the fall approaches I'm going to address some areas on my 64 Coupe DeVille and will share restoration progress via message posts with photos and videos.  Some of the items such as the hood to shroud seal in this post are minor while some like repainting the dash, reinstalling the A/C, and others will be larger in scope.

I am not going to get in a rush but want to continue making some progress and see if I can get the Caddy where I would be comfortable taking it to the Grand National for judging next year.  It was helpful to go through the judging process this year and now know the many areas I need to address on my car in order to make it a contender.

With last weeks installation of the correct Spring-Ring terminal battery cables, and the new hood to shroud seal I am definitely starting small and slow! LOL

With that said....

I had ordered the hood to shroud seal since  the under side of my hood looks nice, with new insulation just installed a few weeks ago, but the seal looked horrible as you will see below:

At the Grand National I saw a few of these new and it really make the difference and ordered mine from Steele Rubber last week.   Earlier in the week I removed the old seal and attaching metal strip removed the staples. I found the easiest way to remove them since they were going to be replaced anyway was to wear safety goggles and simply snip them at the base with large wire cutters.  Next I did a light sanding and primed and painted the strip with the Rustoleum Engine Paints I like so much.

The seal came with a bag of the short thick staples, and the trick to reinstall them is to:
- drill out the original holes in the metal strip with a 5/64" drill bit,
- clamp the seal to the metal strip and then drill through the rubber with the holes in the strip as guides.
- push the staples through the shield and through the metal strip and hold one leg at the base with a vice grip, then using needle nose pliers clinch the first leg around, then remove the vice grip and clinch the other leg.

I had not done this in a while and mine are not perfect, but neither were the factory staples.  This is the same process used to attaches the splash aprons on the inner fenders, however, they are much harder to get to if they are on the car!

Anyway, it was a nice hour or so project installing it yesterday an thought I would share it this with you. Here are a few more pictures showing the results:

 

[Jason Edge]

3M 90 Spray Adhesive

[Jason Edge]

I tried to do a video with my iphone clinching those staples yesterday. Might try to post that up tomorrow if it doesn't look to crazy. Trying to install those staples one handed and video'ing with another is a trick with a hole in it as my daddy use to say.

[Jason Edge]

I've had my scraper seals on my CDV from Steele that are at least 10 years old. Actually almost all rubber on my car that has been replaced is 10 years old and All is from Steele with zero problems.  Many companies such as OPGI source their rubber from Steele anyway.  I believe Steele also has a pretty open ended warranty in that as long as you have your receipt they will replace defective merchandise regardless of when it was bought.

For this exercise in restoration, it involved masticated rubber and is a flat piece. You can pick up a flat thick piece from whatever source your prefer and trace out your old piece if enough of it is intact to trace out. The hood to shroud seal thru Steele for me was $18.54 and was worth it. I also ordered a large sheet of masticated rubber to cut out some of my own items such as that battery shield once I can figure out the right size to cut out! Maybe my next "little project"!