I wish him luck with making the interior. Brad’s interior was the most involved/time consuming/expensive interior I ever made. I did the entire interior at cost, as I wanted to be a part of bringing it back to life, plus was doing it for Brad……….and even then it still cost over three times the amount I charged for any other interior. And we made some wild interiors for people back in the day. We actually made a front and rear seat cover out of scrap vinyl, and installed them on the seat frames to make sure they would fit before we dared to cut any leather. The test seats were probably the ugliest seat covers ever made, with using red, green, black, white, whatever vinyl we had laying around. I sent them to Brad along with all the patterns just in case he had to re-do anything. Beth & I spent 3 nights just wrapping the steering wheel, so once finished it looked exactly like it originally did. My wife Beth’s fingers were bleeding by the time we were done, as the cover had to be wrapped that tight to get the look we were after. Never again. Duane
And now you all know why Duane and I are best friends. Not many would do that for me or anyone for that matter. And we still have our morning conversation every workday morning while he is on his way to work...and many of you are part of that conversation.
Yeah, I did a lot for that car, including cutting the air cleaner foams, finding all kinds of little non-reproduced brackets etc, plus called in a favor or two getting one of a kind parts re-made. I used to call him up and tell him a package was coming but wouldn’t tell him what it was. Then when he opened the box it was like X-mas. I know it was costing him some extra for shipping, because he had to send it along to Kleiner, but I had to have him see it first. I had a lot of fun at my “job” back then, it was like playing everyday instead on going to work, and I worked a minimum of six days a week and often seven. Not many people can say that. Duane
Brad and Duane, you guys are amazing! Thank you for all you have done and contributed to the preservation and history of these fine automobiles, too!
Well, then I thank all you guys and girls that have been preserving and helping to preserve them, so we could and can enjoy them for many years to come! And thanks to Jim for giving us a great place to share it all!
lots if good memories,i remember trading a red 70 hood to Duane for seat covers when i was doin my 67,man that was along time ago
Bill, They were cool to make. The design was different and the seat covers turned out really nice. Duane
There were a ton of people that helped with Brad’s car, and I am sure I will never know who all of them are. Dave Kleiner did a fantastic job with restoring it, and I believe Bill Sales gave Brad some pics from when Buick was touring it with the new 70’s cars. That’s what it takes to get one of these cars done, a bunch of people that are willing to help. Duane
See, More things I never knew about Brad’s car. Duane PS. I have an update about both Brad’s car and my 69 car. I will try to post this later today in another thread.
Wow! I had no clue how many member where in involved in helping restore.. Curious about the steering wheel, it is stitched tightly?
Brad’s wheel is unique. It was a leather covered padded rallye wheel and when he got the car the padding was disintegrating. When he gave me the wheel he told me what it originally looked like and wanted the end product to look the same. Doing something from scratch can often be fun. So I started with materials I had on hand and did a little test area. It came out great so I started working on it. It went together fine until I got to the leather wrap. The “padding” material I used had almost no give, so putting the cover on it became very interesting. To make the cover fit we had to stretch the leather in the middle of the wrap then slide it on the wheel. (I think I used the wooden end of a hammer clamped into a vise to stretch the leather.) We did this multiple times and as we got closer and closer to making it work, the leather kept stretching in length. Then we would take it apart, cut some length out, and try it again. Finally the cover got so tight that I had to screw the wheel to my 40 foot long vinyl cutting table so we could man handle the cover on. Once we got it on and knew it would work, we were afraid to take it off because it might rip. We still had to put the holes in the leather for the stitches and wrap the wheel. I had a tool that would “cut” a single hole for a stitch, so I had to put every hole in by hand and make sure there were the same amount of holes on each side. Plus had to make sure there were no holes at the spoke areas, as that was the way Brad said it was done. After that it took 3 nights for Beth and I to stretch/hold the leather in place and stitch it up. When Brad saw it he said it looked exactly like the original. How can you get a better compliment. So the next time you see that wheel on the car, just remember what we had to do to make it. Duane
