Yeah, you know like when you're really cool and you drop out of school, you yell at the teachers "take these books and shove them up your ass".
A rear window is crated up and allegedly on its way to Texas. Yes they are apparently that hard to get.
I was hoping to get a professional to sand and polish a bunch of deep scratches in this window before installing it, but that just didn't happen. It's car show season in Texas, and I haven't had a car for four months. So we threw it in. Maybe it will get polished later, but for now I'm happy just to have a drivable car again.
Glad it's back together again! I've found it's a lot safer and easier to buff out glass once it's mounted in the car anyway, really hard to do that on a sawhorse or something. I had really good results buffing my own horrible windshield in my '57 Chevy with cerium oxide, you can buy little tubs of it off of eBay and it's pretty cheap. I used an old foam buffing pad (like you'd use for paint with a big paint buffer) and you get it wet to make a kind of paste and buff with it just like buffing compound. You need to keep it very, very wet, so I kept a spray bottle nearby and constantly wet down the area. Also that shit slings everywhere, so you want to have the whole rest of the car masked off with plastic or something, otherwise you'll have a huge mess to clean up, wouldn't be a bad idea to tape it off just past the gasket so the gasket doesn't get full. I also accidentally sent a wiper blade into the stratosphere because I didn't have it taped down, won't be an issue on a rear window though. And it takes a long time, I spent at least a half hour or 45 minutes buffing on my windshield and I think I could do more. Patience is the key. You don't need much material, you keep it wet, and you move your buffer around a lot to not build up heat. But you could do that yourself and get a really good result. I used a tiny fraction of my $28 tub of cerium oxide and less than an hour and my windshield went from dangerously hazy (a glare was blinding) to much more functional. You might not get it perfect, (some of your scratches look fairly deep) but I bet you could improve it a ton, for very little time and cost.
@Squablow Good info, but I had to laugh. I'm telling you, Mask everything off -> shows pic of unmasked car. Learn from my mistakes!
For sure, I definitely learned that lesson the hard way. Doing it outside on a shady day would probably be even better, keep the tool boxes clean as well.
Yes, this is among my all-time favorites on the HAMB. My best friend and next-door neighbor had a '57 DeSoto four-door with a 341 hemi while in high school. Big white whale of a car that we used to pull a homemade camping trailer all over Missouri's lakes region back in the '60s. Those MoPars had monstrous torque and the tailfins were magnificent. My friend is long gone, but I think I know where that old DeSoto is, in an outbuilding on a family farm in northern Missouri. I fantasize that someday I'll win the lottery, take a day trip with a truck and trailer and go fetch that car.
Man, I can’t get this thing out of my head. Had to reverse google image search it and found this thread. So many cool little details that I didn’t have time at the ‘Roc to drool over and take in! I’ve always said the devil is in the details and that’s where a hot rod or kustom really gets set apart from the rest. Gorgeous car brother.
Thank you for the pictures! We had a great time at the Roc. My dad jumped at the chance to drive this little roadster into the show. I had to share this photo once I realized his flamed shoes match the car.
It was great to meet you and your dad. And to get to tell you in person about the exploding back window. Snowman ⛄️
The Jalopy Journal
