Category Archives: Tips and Tricks

Electrical 22: Retain that Switch!

Posted on April 28, 2025 by RussD

The power window switches on old Chryslers have a fatal weakness – the spring clips that hold them in place break easily. The window switches are inserted into the door cards. Every time the door card is removed the switch … Continue reading →

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Electrical 21: New HVAC Dimmer

Posted on April 21, 2025 by RussD

I’m moderately proud of figuring out a way to use modern LED technology to replace the 60 year old electroluminescent technology in the HVAC (Heater Ventilation and Air Conditioning) controls. On the other hand, the mounting for the dimmer control … Continue reading →

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Tuning the Milling Machine

Posted on September 16, 2024 by RussD

I recently made a couple of parts on the milling machine. The first was for mounting a Quick Change Tool Post (QCTP) on the lathe. A QCTP makes it quick and easy to change cutting tools on a lathe and … Continue reading →

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Electrical 16: Heater Illumination

Posted on August 19, 2024 by RussD

The Imperial uses electroluminescent lighting for the instrument panel, heater controls and transmission controls. The heater and transmission use plastic pushbuttons with a panel beside them to light the button caps. Unfortunately these panels degrade over time and now barely … Continue reading →

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Learning with Cechaflo

Posted on May 28, 2024 by RussD

Tackling upholstery has been a learning experience in many ways. My usual approach when tackling a new skill is to get some books on the subject, see if any classes are available, start with practice pieces, and then tackle a … Continue reading →

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Re-Trimming the Car

Posted on May 2, 2023 by RussD

With the paint finally finished the next step was to reinstall all of the trim on the car – all 873 pieces of it. There are three types of trim pieces on this car – steel (mainly the bumpers), cast … Continue reading →

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Electrical 16: Headlighting

Posted on April 19, 2023 by RussD

Previous electrical: Electrical 15: Factory Wiring Diagrams. With the beautifully chromed headlight buckets ready to install it is time to complete the job of upgrading headlight wiring. You may recall from a previous post that I left the original factory … Continue reading →

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Electrical 15: Factory Wiring Diagrams

Posted on January 31, 2023 by RussD

Previous Electrical article: Electrical 14: MeterMatch While looking over the electrical posts I realized that I haven’t mentioned one of the most important resources for working on wiring – the wiring diagrams contained in the factory service manual. These are … Continue reading →

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I’m a Stripper…

Posted on June 12, 2022 by RussD

In the last article, Hoodie 2, we finished working on the hood. Which meant it was time to move on to the rest of the car. Paint serves many functions. It is the most visible part of a car, driving … Continue reading →

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Hoodie 2

Posted on May 18, 2022 by RussD

With the bottom of the hood done in Hoodie I flipped the hood over and tackled the top. The top of the hood has bothered me since I got the car – something had been laid on top of the … Continue reading →

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