Cooper - 1969 1600SSS Bluebird Coupe

[carterb]

Same situation on the driver's side but as you can see - the work space is a little more...  cramped!

 

But the job is complete none-the-less.

 

And with the fan on, I get air in all the right places.  To celebrate, I gave the garage back to Brenda tonight.  Tomorrow I'll put on her new snow tire/wheel combination.

[the510keeper]

Looks great

[graveltrapp]

Don't know why we all are so easily mesmerized  by 40 year old rusty cars, But damn that is a sexy roofline... I thought you were running ssr sharks the last time I was over? And that dash is truly awesome. You made Macgyver very proud.

[carterb]

Seems like Canby has become the natural inspiration for this car, so given that it is only 2 1/2 weeks away, it was time to do some work on the coupe:

 

The gaffer tape on the drivers seat has started to give out, leaving black sticky stripes on the back of my shorts.  And I'm getting tired of looking at my bare floorboards and the open shifter hole.

 

 

[carterb]

So I pulled out the front seats

 

 

Then I pulled what was left of the old carpeting:

 

I found a couple suprises...  I laughed when I saw this one:

A pachinko ball!!!!   (I have a collection of vintate pachinko machines in the garage, how funny that a car from Japan would have one rolling around under the carpet all these years)

 

And then there was this thing.  Looked like a luggage tag at first but maybe it is a manufactuers tag or something from some clothing?  Anyone read Japanese?

 

 

 

[carterb]

Oh, and I also found this:

 

 

An Arby's tatoo?!

I think that must have been a U.S. addition.  :thumbup:

[carterb]

The old shift boot was detached and ripped.  And the dogleg shifter contacts and rubs the old boot base, so I removed the old boot.

 

 

And the old Base

 

 

I had an NOS boot that came with the car

 

 

So I installed that in the base

 

 

 

And re-installed the base on the tranny tunnel.  I moved it forward a little to eliminate the interference.

 

 

Does anyone know what the 3 clips are around the top of the base?  It looks like there is a trim ring that rotates and clicks in place over the base?  I'd love to see what that looks like.  Anyone have an idea?

[the510keeper]

yep i might even have one. remind me to look and bring to Canby

[carterb]

With the shift boot complete, I was able to go about installing the carpet kit.

 

 

 

My installation was not perfect, but it looks really nice and is of course a huge improvement over the nasty old one, which was further discitegrating on my garage floor as I was working with the new carpet.  I got the kit from Brown Street Hotrods by the way.  He sells them on ebay.

 

 

The fit is pretty nice.  And it you can cut and trim with scissors at will - good for the shifter hole (which I could have done better on), seat belts, gas pedal, etc.

 

I re-mounted the passengers seat and replaced the drivers seat with one in better condition.  Looks like a much nicer place to spend time now doesn't it?

 

[carterb]

The carpet is floating at the moment.  I will go back later and attach to the factory snaps.  I salvaged the old snap grommets from the discarded carpets to make the job easier when the time arrises.

 

Here is a factory carpet snap

 

 

You can carefully fold back the three points

 

 

And remove the snap and grommet from the carpet.

 

 

Now I have a small pile awaiting a rainy afternoon.

 

[carterb]

yep i might even have one. remind me to look and bring to Canby

 

Don't forget! 

(There, I reminded you)  :P

[carterb]

Now then... 

Feeling pretty good about the interior, time to do something to the exterior.

I bought a really nice BRE style spook years ago.  One of my first 510 part purchases actually.  This is a really nice sturdy part with a really good finish.

 

 

Unfortunately, it is too skinny for the car.  To get the wings out around the side of the fenders would certainly stress the part so much it would crack.  I could see this happening while attempting to test fit so I stopped before I damaged something and grabbed another one I had in the garage.

 

 

The finish on this one is terrible.  Lots of deep scratches that will need some bodywork before paint someday.  But the fit was very nice!

 

 

That made the installation quite easy.  Now I'll just have to remember to remove this one before it snows - a little lesson learned on Blanco.

 

While it was up in the air, I changed the oil, checked all the other fluids, and swapped wheels and tires just for fun.

 

 

[spitznoz]

that was a good read thank you

[Twodoordime]

I can honestly say this is the first coupe that made me want a coupe. I did not find them attractive at all until this car...

[carterb]

I did not find them attractive at all until this car...

 

Believe it or not - I know what you mean...  In many ways - the 2dr body is more attractive to me.  But then there are just a couple angles that the coupe wins hands down.  Color makes a big difference as well.

 

To me, a lot of it has to do with proportions.  Because of the steeply raked rear window, the upper rear of the car looses a lot of visual weight.  This can make the rear quarter panels look disproportionately large compared to the rest of the car.  Some viewing angles, colors, and ride heights seem to amplify this.

 

See what you think of this:

 

My car has a lot of *um* character - patina - whatever.  The right side door and fender have been badly dented.  And the left side door has some nastyness as well.  It's going to be a while 'till I can fix all this so I was thinking of ways to reduce the impact of these flaws...  Then it hit me!  BRE stripes!  I was thinking a pair of white stripes, just barely painted on so that they look as faded and worn as the rest of the car, would look pretty cool.  Now I have no photoshop skills (I've never opened the program) so I made a quick attempt with Paint - just to see what it'd look like.

 

 

 

Although it looks like this would work excellent at covering up the flaws, the first thing I noticed was that it breaks up the door and front fenders making them appear even smaller in relation to the rear quarter - effectively making the rear quarters look even bigger! 

 

What do you guys think?

 

I may put them on the car with white tape so I can get some more views and see if it is just like this in profile or if the problem occurs in other angles as well...  We'll see.  I was all set to actually paint the stripes before Canby but now I'm thinking not...

[Dantheman]

I think you have spent too much time looking at the one area (dimensions of fender to quarter panel). The roof line where it falls into hood and decklid is about as centered as you could be, looking at the silhouette. She is perfect as she sits, with BRE stripes or not. If you still think she's a little trunk heavy you could always paint the quarters black, it's supposed to be slimming.

[carterb]

Like this?

[the510keeper]

No on the stripes, yes if it were a sedan

 

How about flames

[Trophy24]

I like the patina stripes but feel they are not necessary. The body lines of the coupe are what makes it unique and interesting. I would not try to hide the effect they have on the rear quarter appearance at all.

Nice car!

[MicroMachinery]

You're thinking about it too much. Rock it; it's a coupe.

[DISLEXICDIME]

I woukd just lightly cut it and wax it

[KlassicMotion]

My two cents... Take it for what it is..... I'm not really a fan for coupes, but I respect them for what they are.  Yes, your car has flaws, but cars are only original once.  A lot of cars are over restored and seeing so many of them at shows just gets boring.  On one hand a straight body with fresh paint is nice, but an original body with character is different and honest, and, definitely in style right now.  My car is in about the same shape, I plan to just polish the paint and wax it for starters.  I've thought about taking it to a paintless dent removal guy to get some of the easy dents out without hurting the orginal patina.  A paint job is probably the single most expensive thing you can do on a car, so I say just rock it as it is.  Look at it this way;  after 30 plus years, the body could be a lot worse, so the fact that it's in as good of shape as it is, is cool.

[carterb]

Don't get me wrong guys...  I LOVE my car.  I drive it every day and am usually smiling the whole time.  I stare at it in the driveway some times while admiring its lines.  I'm thrilled to have the oprortunity to own something so special. 

 

I was simply toying with the idea of adding stripes, with the potential benefit of hiding some battle scars.  After the quick computer rendering - I was less than excited by the idea and was rationalizing why.  I thought it would be fun to share the thought and the renderings with you all.  Simple as that.   I am no less happy to continue to run the car as is.

 

As for the cut and wax - the paint is so far gone on this car, when I wash it - the water actually turns gray! 

My past experience with rubbing out or waxing cars with paint so oxidized is that I end up with swirl marks everywhere.  So I haven't made the attempt with this one.

 

James, funny you should mention flames...  I'm not a fan of flames on anything but a hot rod but I have an idea in my head with flaming BRE stripes.  I need to take the time to sketch that out...  As a concept - might be cool - might be dorky...  Never know until you draw it.

 

--carter

[the510keeper]

not trying to tread jack, soft spot for flames

 

Violet pearl on 68 4 door, can you see them

now you see them

now you don't

[Tristin]

Every time I come into this thread I get angry... All I want is a 69 Coupe grille and you have one staring me in the face. I wish this was a 70 Coupe so we could switch grilles and we would both be happy :(