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Persistent URL: digital.lib.muohio.edu/u?/tradecards,3393
Subject (TGM): Men; Children & adults; Boys; Fish; Fishermen; Fishing; Eels; Sea monsters; Humorous pictures; Thread industry; Sewing equipment & supplies;
Here's a shot of the cam chain finally threaded under the main drive gear within the lower end. It took threading two guitar strings through the ends of each side of the cam chain, then creating a loop on on end, bending it around, then feeding it deep underneath and grabbing it on the other end with a hooked tool.
Of course, the cam chain roller (in between the two pistons). Removed by two 10mm bolts.
This entire process was very tricky in the sense that it took four synchronized hands all working together in unison to handle start to finish.
kogin is kind of traditional embroidery from the northern part of japan. originally used as a form of darning or reinforcing work clothes, the patterns became and beautiful and intricate decoration. like the related embroidery sashiko, kogin is most commonly done with white thread on a indigo blue background.
this wonderful book combines kogin technique and practical projects. the process of creating the stitches is explained step by step. the written instructions are all in japanese, but the excellent and detailed photos of every step of the process means that if you have just a little experience with embroidery, you should have no problems learning kogin from this book.
there are 49 different kogin patterns show in full-scale diagrams, and you can also see examples of where these patterns were used in projects in the book.
the kogin patterns are applied to simple sewing projects, and also clothing items. again, the written directions are in japanese only, but if you know how to sew, these projects are not complex, and there is a range of simple to more difficult items.
in addition, for embroidery lovers, this book is just beautiful to look at!
68 pages.
isbn 9784579112654
all pictures taken by Caroline Watson for Weaving Musical threads
Pictures taken by Caroline Watson for Weaving Musical Threads
Followed these guys (Threads), around with my camera all day. Was meant to be helping them out by doing some filming but photos did a happen. Granted I did some filming but I was more interested in getting some shots. First ever photos i've done like this, i'd say I did ok considering!
I am using two squares from a bedspread pattern to make this rose potholder in white, shaded yellows, and green. The two sides are stitched together with a border using double crochet, chains, and picots. Potholder is crafted with #10 bedspread cotton and a #7 steel crochet hook.
This pattern is from the 1959 Coats and Clark's book "Crochet Favorites Old and New" which also features instructions for doilies, motifs, a hankerchief edging, and a tablecloth.
Image from the second spacewalk to service the AMS-02 facility. Luca captioned this image: AMS2: the ‘Nadir site’: Jessica Meir and Christina Koch had to ‘thread the needle’ to position me here with the CanadArm2.
ID: 403G6718
Credit: ESA/NASA-D.Morgan
Bain News Service,, publisher.
Threading tubes
[between ca. 1915 and ca. 1920]
1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.
Notes:
Title from unverified data provided by the Bain News Service on the negatives or caption cards.
Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).
Format: Glass negatives.
Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.
Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
General information about the Bain Collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.ggbain
Higher resolution image is available (Persistent URL): hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.26400
Call Number: LC-B2- 4525-9
Now the cylinder has been lowered over the pistons, and the cam chain is being threading through the main body of the cylinder and over the top.
I highly recommend getting the piston ring compressor tool when lowering the cylinder back on. It took two sets of hands to compress the rings (not easy), while each using our chins to gently hammer the cylinder down over each ring, one at a time... all six rings.
A 3D printed handle for securing a needle or thin wire while unclogging a jammed printhead nozzle.
The 3D printer: makerbot.creativetools.se
The 3D file: www.thingiverse.com/thing:99969
This bag is made with three kinds of Jetsons fabric has a magnetic closure and a George keychain. Inside pockets
One of three boxes that house my collection of embroidery thread - used for friendship bracelets when I was younger, and later for actual embroidery. View the whole series
This is a photograph from the second running of the Athlone Flatline Half Marathon ("The Flatline") was held at Athlone, Co. Westmeath, Ireland on Saturday 14th September 2013 at 11:00. There was beautiful weather for the event which started and finished at St. Aloysius College near the Canal Banks area of the town just slightly west of the River Shannon. This event was professionally organised and the very flat course meant that many runners both seasoned and new to the scene achieved season or personal bests. Almost 1,000 participants successfully completed the event in the beautiful September sunshine. Everyone involved must be congratulated for the flawless running of the event. This event is sure to go from strength to strength over the coming years. The "Flatline" also included an option for a full marathon which was fully supported by the Marathon Club of Ireland and the East of Ireland Marathon Series. This allowed participants to run the Flatline twice for the qualifying marathon distance. About 80 people took part.
This is a photograph which is part of a larger set of photographs taken at the start and finish of "The Flatline" 2013. The URL of the main set is www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157635495089498/. There are some photographs of the finishers of the marathon.
For reference the satellite navigation Coordinates to the event HQ are (Longitude: -7.948153, Latitude: 53.420575)
Event management and timing was provided by PRECISION TIMING. See their website at [www.precisiontiming.net/]
Viewing this on a smartphone device?
If you are viewing this Flickr set on a smartphone and you want to see the larger version(s) of this photograph then: scroll down to the bottom of this description under the photograph and click the "View info about this photo..." link. You will be brought to a new page and you should click the link "View All Sizes".
Overall Race Summary
Participants: Such is the popularity of the race this year that registration closed for the race in mid-August 2013. There were well over 1,000 participants who took to the start line.
Weather: The weather on the day was almost perfect for running. The runners were bathed in warm September sunshine for the duration of the race and into the early afternoon. In the sections of the race out towards Clonown and around the Bord na Mona areas there was a stiff breeze but nothing major.
Course: "The Flatline" ceratinly lived up to its name. It is as flat a course as one is likely to find. A garmin connect gps trace of the route is provided here [connect.garmin.com/activity/199678412] Geographically the course spends much of the race in County Roscommon with only the first and last kilometers actually in County Westmeath. This gives geographically inclined runners the novel opportunity to race in two Irish provinces in one race. The course had distance markers at every kilometre and mile along the way. There were official pacers provided by the race organisers.
Location Map: Start/finish area and registration etc on Google StreetView [goo.gl/maps/8qCes] - Ample parking was supplied with some over-flow car-parking options also available.
Refreshments: An Alkohol Frei bottle of Erdinger was provided to every finisher as they crossed the line. Light refreshments were served.
Some Useful Links
Precision Timing Results Page: www.precisiontiming.net/result/racetimer
Facebook Event Page for the 2013 www.facebook.com/events/495900447163378/ (Facebook logon required)
Boards.ie Athletics Discussion Thread about the 2013 race: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056984967
Boards.ie Athletics Discussion Thread about the 2012 race: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=80049447
GARMIN GPS Trace of the Route for 2013: connect.garmin.com/activity/199678412
Race HQ Venue in 2013: St.Aloysius College Athlone : staloysiuscollege.ie/
Race Sponsors Vision Express Athlone: www.visionexpress.ie/opticians/opticians-in-republic-of-i...
Action Physio Athlone: www.actionphysio.ie/
Race photographs from 2012's Flatline - supplied by PIXELS PROMOTIONS: pixelspromotions.zenfolio.com/p126168889 (on route) and at the Finish line pixelspromotions.zenfolio.com/p31872670 - please note these are not our photographs (see www.pixelspromotions.com/).
How can I get full resolution copies of these photographs?
All of the photographs here on this Flickr set have a visible watermark embedded in them. All of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available free, at no cost, at full image resolution WITHOUT watermark. We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you must provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us. This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.
Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.
In summary please remember when requesting photographs from us - all we ask is for you to provide a link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. You will find the link above clearly outlined in the description text which accompanies this photograph. Taking these photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc.
If you would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?
Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.
I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?
As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:
►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera
►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set
►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone
►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!
You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.
Don't like your photograph here?
That's OK! We understand!
If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.
I want to tell people about these great photographs!
Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets
Here's a shot of the cam chain finally threaded under the main drive gear within the lower end. It took threading two guitar strings through the ends of each side of the cam chain, then creating a loop on on end, bending it around, then feeding it deep underneath and grabbing it on the other end with a hooked tool.
Of course, the cam chain roller (in between the two pistons). Removed by two 10mm bolts for ease of access.
This entire process was very tricky in the sense that it took four synchronized hands all working together in unison to handle start to finish.
tatted with ribbon
macrame with shells and wood beads
crochet perle cotton
there is one on my finger too just out of photo my daughter made it for me with hemp and purple glass seed beads
Recolored to match the Urban Threads Ghost Baroque set (www.urbanthreads.com/products.aspx?ProductID=UTP1254 ) It looks a little more gold in this photo because my light wasn't great - i'd need to adjust the white balance in the photo.
Here is the recolor thread list:
1. Super White
2. Sterling
3. Chrome
4. Sterling
5. Super White
6. Sterling
7. Sterling
New England Central power pulls out for headroom while switching the Providence & Worcester interchange at Willimantic, Connecticut. The sculptural spools of thread on the bridge here reflect Willimantic's history as a textile manufacturing center, specializing in thread. Across the river, one of the historic mills has been turned into apartments and artists' studios.
File name: 10_03_002194a
Binder label: Thread
Title: J & P. Coats best six cord thread [front]
Date issued: 1870 - 1900 (approximate)
Physical description: 1 print : chromolithograph ; 12 x 7 cm.
Genre: Advertising cards
Subject: Children; Thread
Notes: Title from item.
Collection: 19th Century American Trade Cards
Location: Boston Public Library, Print Department
Rights: No known restrictions.
www.cadillacforums.com/threads/puttin-on-the-ritz-1984-el...
This installment begins back, way way back,back into time. In the days we could have large gatherings, touch our faces, eat inside restaurants, and lived perilously close to the edge of running out of toilet paper. Picture it, Thanksgiving weekend, 2019…Oh wait, back a bit further…August, 1983.
Some dunderhead salesman in southern California takes an order from a buyer with great taste, a beautifully optioned 1984 Eldorado Biarritz in the ultimate color combination of Black/Black/Red. Said dunderhead gets everything right on the order-except for one tiny detail. The desire for a CF5 Astroroof is lost in translation from the prospective buyer and never makes it into the POS.
Car arrives in September. No sunroof. What gives? Our apologies sir, we’ll get that taken care of right away. Car is driven to an ASC installer. Another dunderhead gets out a jigsaw and cuts a hole thru the roof. A 38” (the biggest you can fit in an Eldorado with roof-mounted seatbelts) ASC sunroof is installed. Car is returned to dealership, buyer eagerly accepts delivery, none the wiser about factory vs aftermarket sunroofs.
For those who don’t know, when you order a car with a sunroof, the car is born with a hole in the roof. Mounts are cast into the roof panel, and the sunroof assembly seats in them and the glass panel has a channel for a nice rubber gasket that seals everything up nice. Then a vacuum formed headliner backing board is cast to perfectly hide everything. When you get an aftermarket sunroof, someone gets a stencil and a jigsaw, and cuts your roof panel and headliner open, pops a trim ring in the hole, and hangs a sunroof pan on the trim ring. If you’re lucky they will drill additional reinforcements to marry the pan to the roof structure. Then they get a bunch of headliner material, pull it taught from the corners of the car to the opening in the roof, and send you on down the road.
Anyway, back to Thanksgiving 2019, and the jigsaw dunderhead’s work starts to come undone.
When I had purchased this car, it needed headliner help. The material was loose, but not sagging appreciably. Additionally, someone had tried to superglue the material all around the perimeter. The material was kind of floating in place, which I thought was weird. I ended up getting some super strong neodymium magnets to hold it taught-which worked ok until it was humid out, or driving on the highway with the windows down as the liner would look something like a sailboat in the wind.
My fix was simple-find a factory sunroof equipped car and get the headliner board out of it and pop it into my car. Found out that that was easier said than done, and after a lot of junkyard expedition, kept coming up empty handed. Finally after years, I came into someone parting a factory sunroof Eldo on ebay and after a lot of trouble was able to get it shipped to me
The board needed some help, and after getting all the old foam off of it and some repairs made to restore the structure (the sunroof headliner board is really thin and flimsy, even compared to the stock non-sunroof board) I tore the interior apart to facilitate getting it in and out as I knew I would have to make “some” tweaks to reconcile the aftermarket hole location to the factory one. The sunroof assembly would also need to come out to recover the sunshade; as well as reseal the panel.
We can see here how the trim ring supports the pan assembly from the center. I have to say though, this was about as clean an install as an aftermarket sunroof can come with lots of extra bracing and no factory roof reinforcements cut. We can also see a very chintzy felt seal stuck to the trim ring
Got the sunshade recovered quickly. I later removed the black plastic covered jute that was glued to the pan-factory did not have this and it would have made the board sit too low when installed in the car. The gray rubbery stuff at the front of the pan was also stripped off for the same reason. I also swapped to the factory grab handle that was included with the board.
Also recovered the sail panels. I chose to leave the foam backing on these as it is not the usual headliner stuff that turns to jelly, its more like a sponge material and seemed to be holding up just fine.
I also added PED connectors to the sail panel interior lights that the factory curiously left out. Not sure how they installed these as the harness is one giant piece, but it means that you can’t take the sail panels out without having the lights dangling in the back. This will become important later.
I then devised a new seal. I threw away all the felt and used some 3M Adhesive remover to get rid of the stuff they had glued it with. Nasty stuff but did a good job. The new seal was the first part of this that took a LONG time. Aftermarket roofs from this time use some kind of felt tape to cut down on wind noise and slow water ingress into the pan, and while still available, there is way better out there today. (In spite of how it looked on my car though, it never leaked?!?! Wind noise was an issue with the shade open though) I decided on a rubber seal, and after getting a whole bunch of samples, the stuff I had initially ended up trying was pretty thin, but rigid strip of rubber. After gluing it on with 3M yellow weatherstrip adhesive (which does NOT work as good as the adhesive remover), I put the pan back in the car to see how it would work.
No photos of the failure here, but no good. The material was too rigid and too grippy, and would cause the roof to bind midway thru its travel. Then it tore off in the corners. Ugh! Pan back out, strip off the remaining seal and glue and go back to the drawing board. I ended up buying this
www.austinhardware.com/rubber-seal-single-500-rolls.htm
Which is a hollow piece of rubber that lets the panel travel without binding, and still squishes into a really tight seal. Looks like its out of stock now, but something with close to those measurements in a D-shape is a possibility for someone looking to reseal their ASC aftermarket sunroof. It was another 3M product, that was just a peel and stick affair-way easier than the yellow goopy adhesive route. Seems like a really strong bond, and seals fantastically against wind and water. 0 wind noise now, and no leaks in a downpour when parked, or cruising at highway speeds. Roof moves without binding now
I also decided to put the new seal onto the glass panel itself as it seems like that’s the easier life for it-if I put it around the opening, the pop rivets from the panel would abrade it. Super happy with this.
Next task was of course the headliner. With the pan now back in the car, I could take measurements and properly scribe/cut/fill the board as needed. Again, easier said than done. This was a weeks long ordeal between cutting the board, fiberglassing new material in, more cutting, more filling, coronavirus insanity, etc. Long story short, my roof was installed a few inches more aft than a factory roof would have been, which meant a lot of tweaking to get the kick-up over the rear passengers head in the right spot. Additionally, I needed to build out the map light drop down to accommodate the motor.
Here is the mess I ended up with
I also affixed strips of 3M dual-lock (it is like a heavy duty version of the stuff that holds in an Ezpass) to the back of the board and the pan to hold it tightly-the factory had attempted this with a similar product in the non-sunroof car headliner board. I was super skeptical that my fudgery would cover well at all, but I have to say that foam backed headliner material must be some of the most forgiving stuff around. This took me months to complete, working off and on from November thru April. Ultimately though, I’m happy with it.
While the interior was out, there was another thing I wanted to do. About a year ago, I was following a buddy as he took his Eldorado to drop off at a shop-couldn’t help but notice how small the brake lights (and the rest of the car) seemed compared to all the bulbous modern cars surrounding it. Then I had a couple of SUV’s roll up way too close for comfort on the back of the car-one was close enough that I launched the Eldorado up and to the side to avoid getting hit. Knowing that getting rear ended by a careless driver would probably result in my untimely incarceration, I set out to do something about rear visibility.
The federal government mandated 3rd brake lights for passenger cars for model year 1986. Cadillac was slightly ahead of the curve with this with the 1985 Deville/Fleetwoods which got these in the fall of ’84. Apparently the science is behind them and they do result in fewer rear end collisions. So I decided to add one of them to the Eldo.
There were a few different versions of these things made, with short, medium and long necks to mate with the rear window-one for a Fleetwood Brougham has the tall one, and one for an 80s Buick Riviera like the one seen above is short. The short one is the best size for the Eldo, any taller and it would look pretty bad. Then the gasket that seals it to the window is different for each different model. Fortunately a potato peeler does a great job of cutting things down to size to match the Eldos vertical rear window, and the material can be easily sanded to get out any little imperfections to make it seal nicely and not leak light. An ideal donor for one would be one an 86-91 Eldo or Seville without a factory vinyl or carriage roof.
A quick mockup
All of these lights mount the same way, with this little bracket cutting into the package shelf and screwing in to the metal underneath. This is not possible on the Eldo as the package shelf reinforcement under the center won’t let this happen. So I had to modify the bracket to sit flush on the package shelf, and add two holes to the shelf to get the screws through. They screw right into the package shelf reinforcement.
The next step was wiring. It is not as simple as tapping a brake light wire and running across the package shelf to the light. Since the Eldos tail lights do everything- brake, signal and hazard, just tapping a wire would cause the center light to flash with the signals or hazard. GM rectified this by using a different brake switch to prevent backfeeding. See the original gray switch, with an in and out, and the new beige one, with a supply, and two isolated outputs. This puts the 3rd brake light (acronym: CHMSL “Center High Mount Stoplight) on its own branch-but also means that you have to home run a wire all the way to it. The wire chase made quick work of this however. I had a pretty long link of 3rd brake light harness, but not quite enough to make it to the front of the car. I put another PED connector of the same kind that I used on the sail panels to join this blue wire I ran from the switch underneath the drivers side rear seat arm rest, which is accessible by removing the ash tray if need be. The stock package shelf reinforcement actually ended up being drilled for the wiring, so I’m not sure if this was something that was in the works for the Eldo.
The version of the brake switch I used allowed me to keep the cruise control connector, and only change the brake light connector itself (part 12117354). I wanted to keep this as non-invasive as possible as I hate being upside down under the dash (though I see to find myself in that position a lot…) I will search around for the part number for the brake light switch itself.
The last trick I wanted to pull before I put the interior back together was to replace the horrible rearview mirror. I forgot how bad these things were (or more like, no one ever noticed before there were LED headlights on other people’s cars that are tall enough to be flush with your back window) but it seems like the mirror was good for one thing; blindness. They have two settings-blindingly bright where others headlights fry your retinas at night, or completely blind, where you can’t see a thing behind you.
My daily driver has a great auto dimming mirror that still lets you see everything without blinding you, made by Gentex. About the same size as the Eldo rearview. I was casually browsing their offerings to see what kind of money we were talking, when I noticed they offered an upgraded unit as compared to the one installed on my car-one with an LED compass feature that was *drumroll* amber colored! Just like the center stack on the Eldorado! So needless to say, the project was underway quickly.
Wired it in cleanly to an existing ignition power on the fuse box
I had to buy a new button to mount it, stock Eldo one was too small to hold it. Check out the dashboard illustration on the glue I bought to stick it on with!
And here it is mounted up!
I am super happy with the mirror. It works great and is a really close match to the amber on the center stack. They even have the same segment check timing when you turn the ignition on Unfortunately it does not dim with the rest of the dash panel, so that’s a letdown, but if desired you can turn the compass off if you wanted to dim everything all the way as I like to do when I’m out of the city on a dark road.
Now, you may notice that the visors are all kinds of messed up. Progress has a price I guess. My long-fought for 1988 Deville visors are NG with the new headliner board-they’re just too big and interfere with the bump out for the map light. I wish I would have known as I could have easily shrunk this bump out when I was doing surgery on the board but its too late now. I’m at a crossroads of reinstalling my old red Eldo visors with known good arms swapped into them (which are probably super faded next to the new material but are impossible to reupholster right) or finding another late 80s more robust GM visor and reupholstering/swapping them in.
I still have more stuff to add to this which may come tomorrow as my fingers are about to fall off!
Day 15 cream
Raided the sewing box today, lots of different colours but all on cream reels. The cream thread will probably feature again one day.
Rather than trace tack as Claire Shaeffer suggests I tailor tack the seam and placement lines using a double thread of soft cotton.
I shall trace tack the centre front mark. I begin by placing several pins (marked with arrows) along the CF line…
UP Switcher uses side track out of Argo Yard to build a train, crossing Lucile Street in Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood. The track threads its way between a city park and retail buildings, then comes to a dead end about 1/4 mile south.
I created this piece to show the passion of my art- color, texture, hanging threads, sometimes wonky, and the surprise of the unexpected. cy365
Visiting the DMC factory in Mulhouse, France. DMC is one of the world's leading thread manufacturers.
All our threads are made in France since 1841.
Blogged: Blogged: elblogdedmc.blogspot.com/2011/09/visitando-la-fabrica-de-...
Photos by DMC Spain.
Edward Etheridge threading nylon webbing.
J. Foster Scott, photographer
Dare County Tourist Bureau Collection
Prints and Greeting Cards: joana-kruse.artistwebsites.com/?tab=artworkgalleries
www.cadillacforums.com/threads/puttin-on-the-ritz-1984-el...
This installment begins back, way way back,back into time. In the days we could have large gatherings, touch our faces, eat inside restaurants, and lived perilously close to the edge of running out of toilet paper. Picture it, Thanksgiving weekend, 2019…Oh wait, back a bit further…August, 1983.
Some dunderhead salesman in southern California takes an order from a buyer with great taste, a beautifully optioned 1984 Eldorado Biarritz in the ultimate color combination of Black/Black/Red. Said dunderhead gets everything right on the order-except for one tiny detail. The desire for a CF5 Astroroof is lost in translation from the prospective buyer and never makes it into the POS.
Car arrives in September. No sunroof. What gives? Our apologies sir, we’ll get that taken care of right away. Car is driven to an ASC installer. Another dunderhead gets out a jigsaw and cuts a hole thru the roof. A 38” (the biggest you can fit in an Eldorado with roof-mounted seatbelts) ASC sunroof is installed. Car is returned to dealership, buyer eagerly accepts delivery, none the wiser about factory vs aftermarket sunroofs.
For those who don’t know, when you order a car with a sunroof, the car is born with a hole in the roof. Mounts are cast into the roof panel, and the sunroof assembly seats in them and the glass panel has a channel for a nice rubber gasket that seals everything up nice. Then a vacuum formed headliner backing board is cast to perfectly hide everything. When you get an aftermarket sunroof, someone gets a stencil and a jigsaw, and cuts your roof panel and headliner open, pops a trim ring in the hole, and hangs a sunroof pan on the trim ring. If you’re lucky they will drill additional reinforcements to marry the pan to the roof structure. Then they get a bunch of headliner material, pull it taught from the corners of the car to the opening in the roof, and send you on down the road.
Anyway, back to Thanksgiving 2019, and the jigsaw dunderhead’s work starts to come undone.
When I had purchased this car, it needed headliner help. The material was loose, but not sagging appreciably. Additionally, someone had tried to superglue the material all around the perimeter. The material was kind of floating in place, which I thought was weird. I ended up getting some super strong neodymium magnets to hold it taught-which worked ok until it was humid out, or driving on the highway with the windows down as the liner would look something like a sailboat in the wind.
My fix was simple-find a factory sunroof equipped car and get the headliner board out of it and pop it into my car. Found out that that was easier said than done, and after a lot of junkyard expedition, kept coming up empty handed. Finally after years, I came into someone parting a factory sunroof Eldo on ebay and after a lot of trouble was able to get it shipped to me
The board needed some help, and after getting all the old foam off of it and some repairs made to restore the structure (the sunroof headliner board is really thin and flimsy, even compared to the stock non-sunroof board) I tore the interior apart to facilitate getting it in and out as I knew I would have to make “some” tweaks to reconcile the aftermarket hole location to the factory one. The sunroof assembly would also need to come out to recover the sunshade; as well as reseal the panel.
We can see here how the trim ring supports the pan assembly from the center. I have to say though, this was about as clean an install as an aftermarket sunroof can come with lots of extra bracing and no factory roof reinforcements cut. We can also see a very chintzy felt seal stuck to the trim ring
Got the sunshade recovered quickly. I later removed the black plastic covered jute that was glued to the pan-factory did not have this and it would have made the board sit too low when installed in the car. The gray rubbery stuff at the front of the pan was also stripped off for the same reason. I also swapped to the factory grab handle that was included with the board.
Also recovered the sail panels. I chose to leave the foam backing on these as it is not the usual headliner stuff that turns to jelly, its more like a sponge material and seemed to be holding up just fine.
I also added PED connectors to the sail panel interior lights that the factory curiously left out. Not sure how they installed these as the harness is one giant piece, but it means that you can’t take the sail panels out without having the lights dangling in the back. This will become important later.
I then devised a new seal. I threw away all the felt and used some 3M Adhesive remover to get rid of the stuff they had glued it with. Nasty stuff but did a good job. The new seal was the first part of this that took a LONG time. Aftermarket roofs from this time use some kind of felt tape to cut down on wind noise and slow water ingress into the pan, and while still available, there is way better out there today. (In spite of how it looked on my car though, it never leaked?!?! Wind noise was an issue with the shade open though) I decided on a rubber seal, and after getting a whole bunch of samples, the stuff I had initially ended up trying was pretty thin, but rigid strip of rubber. After gluing it on with 3M yellow weatherstrip adhesive (which does NOT work as good as the adhesive remover), I put the pan back in the car to see how it would work.
No photos of the failure here, but no good. The material was too rigid and too grippy, and would cause the roof to bind midway thru its travel. Then it tore off in the corners. Ugh! Pan back out, strip off the remaining seal and glue and go back to the drawing board. I ended up buying this
www.austinhardware.com/rubber-seal-single-500-rolls.htm
Which is a hollow piece of rubber that lets the panel travel without binding, and still squishes into a really tight seal. Looks like its out of stock now, but something with close to those measurements in a D-shape is a possibility for someone looking to reseal their ASC aftermarket sunroof. It was another 3M product, that was just a peel and stick affair-way easier than the yellow goopy adhesive route. Seems like a really strong bond, and seals fantastically against wind and water. 0 wind noise now, and no leaks in a downpour when parked, or cruising at highway speeds. Roof moves without binding now
I also decided to put the new seal onto the glass panel itself as it seems like that’s the easier life for it-if I put it around the opening, the pop rivets from the panel would abrade it. Super happy with this.
Next task was of course the headliner. With the pan now back in the car, I could take measurements and properly scribe/cut/fill the board as needed. Again, easier said than done. This was a weeks long ordeal between cutting the board, fiberglassing new material in, more cutting, more filling, coronavirus insanity, etc. Long story short, my roof was installed a few inches more aft than a factory roof would have been, which meant a lot of tweaking to get the kick-up over the rear passengers head in the right spot. Additionally, I needed to build out the map light drop down to accommodate the motor.
Here is the mess I ended up with
I also affixed strips of 3M dual-lock (it is like a heavy duty version of the stuff that holds in an Ezpass) to the back of the board and the pan to hold it tightly-the factory had attempted this with a similar product in the non-sunroof car headliner board. I was super skeptical that my fudgery would cover well at all, but I have to say that foam backed headliner material must be some of the most forgiving stuff around. This took me months to complete, working off and on from November thru April. Ultimately though, I’m happy with it.
While the interior was out, there was another thing I wanted to do. About a year ago, I was following a buddy as he took his Eldorado to drop off at a shop-couldn’t help but notice how small the brake lights (and the rest of the car) seemed compared to all the bulbous modern cars surrounding it. Then I had a couple of SUV’s roll up way too close for comfort on the back of the car-one was close enough that I launched the Eldorado up and to the side to avoid getting hit. Knowing that getting rear ended by a careless driver would probably result in my untimely incarceration, I set out to do something about rear visibility.
The federal government mandated 3rd brake lights for passenger cars for model year 1986. Cadillac was slightly ahead of the curve with this with the 1985 Deville/Fleetwoods which got these in the fall of ’84. Apparently the science is behind them and they do result in fewer rear end collisions. So I decided to add one of them to the Eldo.
There were a few different versions of these things made, with short, medium and long necks to mate with the rear window-one for a Fleetwood Brougham has the tall one, and one for an 80s Buick Riviera like the one seen above is short. The short one is the best size for the Eldo, any taller and it would look pretty bad. Then the gasket that seals it to the window is different for each different model. Fortunately a potato peeler does a great job of cutting things down to size to match the Eldos vertical rear window, and the material can be easily sanded to get out any little imperfections to make it seal nicely and not leak light. An ideal donor for one would be one an 86-91 Eldo or Seville without a factory vinyl or carriage roof.
A quick mockup
All of these lights mount the same way, with this little bracket cutting into the package shelf and screwing in to the metal underneath. This is not possible on the Eldo as the package shelf reinforcement under the center won’t let this happen. So I had to modify the bracket to sit flush on the package shelf, and add two holes to the shelf to get the screws through. They screw right into the package shelf reinforcement.
The next step was wiring. It is not as simple as tapping a brake light wire and running across the package shelf to the light. Since the Eldos tail lights do everything- brake, signal and hazard, just tapping a wire would cause the center light to flash with the signals or hazard. GM rectified this by using a different brake switch to prevent backfeeding. See the original gray switch, with an in and out, and the new beige one, with a supply, and two isolated outputs. This puts the 3rd brake light (acronym: CHMSL “Center High Mount Stoplight) on its own branch-but also means that you have to home run a wire all the way to it. The wire chase made quick work of this however. I had a pretty long link of 3rd brake light harness, but not quite enough to make it to the front of the car. I put another PED connector of the same kind that I used on the sail panels to join this blue wire I ran from the switch underneath the drivers side rear seat arm rest, which is accessible by removing the ash tray if need be. The stock package shelf reinforcement actually ended up being drilled for the wiring, so I’m not sure if this was something that was in the works for the Eldo.
The version of the brake switch I used allowed me to keep the cruise control connector, and only change the brake light connector itself (part 12117354). I wanted to keep this as non-invasive as possible as I hate being upside down under the dash (though I see to find myself in that position a lot…) I will search around for the part number for the brake light switch itself.
The last trick I wanted to pull before I put the interior back together was to replace the horrible rearview mirror. I forgot how bad these things were (or more like, no one ever noticed before there were LED headlights on other people’s cars that are tall enough to be flush with your back window) but it seems like the mirror was good for one thing; blindness. They have two settings-blindingly bright where others headlights fry your retinas at night, or completely blind, where you can’t see a thing behind you.
My daily driver has a great auto dimming mirror that still lets you see everything without blinding you, made by Gentex. About the same size as the Eldo rearview. I was casually browsing their offerings to see what kind of money we were talking, when I noticed they offered an upgraded unit as compared to the one installed on my car-one with an LED compass feature that was *drumroll* amber colored! Just like the center stack on the Eldorado! So needless to say, the project was underway quickly.
Wired it in cleanly to an existing ignition power on the fuse box
I had to buy a new button to mount it, stock Eldo one was too small to hold it. Check out the dashboard illustration on the glue I bought to stick it on with!
And here it is mounted up!
I am super happy with the mirror. It works great and is a really close match to the amber on the center stack. They even have the same segment check timing when you turn the ignition on Unfortunately it does not dim with the rest of the dash panel, so that’s a letdown, but if desired you can turn the compass off if you wanted to dim everything all the way as I like to do when I’m out of the city on a dark road.
Now, you may notice that the visors are all kinds of messed up. Progress has a price I guess. My long-fought for 1988 Deville visors are NG with the new headliner board-they’re just too big and interfere with the bump out for the map light. I wish I would have known as I could have easily shrunk this bump out when I was doing surgery on the board but its too late now. I’m at a crossroads of reinstalling my old red Eldo visors with known good arms swapped into them (which are probably super faded next to the new material but are impossible to reupholster right) or finding another late 80s more robust GM visor and reupholstering/swapping them in.
I still have more stuff to add to this which may come tomorrow as my fingers are about to fall off!