1961 Eureka-Cadillac Hi-Boy comes home

[Paul Steinberg]

That appears to be a Leece Naville alternator, and it might have been installed by Cadillac, however, the hole in the core support would have been there when the core support was manufactured. Compare the alternator with the one on the Pinner ambulance, because they are both the same vintage, so they should be alike.
The white switch is a Cole Hersee switch, and it has 2 or 3 pull out positions. Full in = off, first out = parking lights if it were used on a truck, so it might have been to activat the "running" lights, and second out, would have been headlamps, or in this case, the emergency beacon. If there is a third position, this was used for the high beams. The 3 position switch is quite rare to find today, because they were not common in the day of manufacture. I have a NOS 2 position switches, if you should need one.

 

[Kurt Arends]

Duplicating the etching is no big deal. There are plenty of people still doing etching. The important thing is that you have the pattern to copy. Make sure you try to keep it in one piece when removing it, if possible. I assume that the gold would have been simply gold paint painted on the inside(essentially reverse-painted). This was a common practice with advertising mirrors years ago. Reverse-painted, and then silvered over the paint.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

my guess on the holes were for the hangars to paint them. the curtain would cover them. I'll check this set here tomorrow, but think they are on them also

 

[Nicholas Studer]

Kurt - it's actually gold foil of some kind. Too perfectly smooth and consistent for me to believe it is paint - but could be wrong. Fascinating stuff.

Ed - please let me know what you find.

By the way - here is the rear roller shade - luckily the "guts" are still inside. I presume they still make shades that would attach to the roller?

Courtesy of Mr. Rich Litton and shared by Mr. Fred Goerlitz - article in the Gold Cross Magazine of the NJ First Aid Association covering the donation. Boy that's a lot of calls and a lot of miles. Very surprised the interior's in that condition with that kind of use even before sent out to the next group to use. So much for the 24K on the odometer.

"Old Faithful." Not bad.

 

[Kurt Arends]

If it appears to be gold foil, it is real gold leaf. Kind of pricey these days, but available at craft stores. No real trick in applying that yourself either.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

the shades are standard window stuff. I would think they are on all the rest of the glass also. the combo here has them in every window in back.

if you can't find them in the color you want you can die them with the sem vinyl paint. I had one here the roller was bad on went to the hardware store and had one cut to size transferred the colored vinyl to it and away we go

sorry got busy messing with the tail light. will post a picture of the center door curtain rod tomorrow

 

[Kurt Arends]

Ed is correct. Nothing unique about these roller shades. I have a house full of them still in use. They used to be found in EVERY home. They are still available in various materials from very cheap vinyl to very expensive fabrics. Wooden rods and the fabric can be cut to length on the rod. I used to have a roller shade cutter years ago. I still have multiple NOS beige fabric roller shades(still in their wrapping) that could be cut down, if interested. You simply pop one end off, cut that end off, and pop the end back on.

 

[John Royark JR]

While on the subject of roller shades without hijacking the thread too much, my 49 needs them too. I know I can get the cheap vinyl type at Menards, and thought about it, but think fabric would have been more accurate. I found a fabric I liked for it, but was wondering if I bought the rods and put the fabric on, is there a glue you would recommend to hold the fabric to the tube? Most likely they will never be used, but if I decide to pull them down, I would hate to see them just fall off the tube.
Thanks ED for the paint idea, I thought about that too, but was not sure how well it would work.

 

[Paul Steinberg]

The fabric was stapled to the wooden roller. The problem with cloth, is that you will have a ragged edge from cutting the material to size. In the old days, the fabric roller shades had material that was specific to the width of the roller. For this reason, I would go with a good quality vinyl shade material that can be cut to size.

 

[Nicholas Studer]

Thank you gentlemen. I am sure the wife can help me out with fabric, etc and cutting it to size. There's button snaps at the top of the door above the window where it'd clip in.

Does anyone have an example photo of what material Eureka generally used? All the photos in the Eureka book show the roller shades rolled-up/not visible.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

all right here is what I have. most of the shades in the 58 were melted and brittle but one did survive in tack. they has a even embossed pattern to brake up the shiny look. the man that made up the interior for us replace the maroon with a dark gray. then I cut the material to shape on the side glass. replaces one roller that he should have when I went to hang them. the original material was vinyl and that's what went back in there. these were a lot eraser to do then the set MM used. the doors pull up the side glass pulls down. here is the only picture I could find of the original. and my replacements. sorry about the size i forgot to make them smaller

 

[John ED Renstrom]

I remember today. here are the pictures of the center door curtain rods off the 58 Eureka. this set has one small hole in the right one and 2 in the left one. the front mounts with a chrome mount and the rear is with a spacer and a screw if memory doesn't fail me. I also found the shade off the back door. the vinyl is glued pretty tight on it but you can see te pattern. kind of like fish scales

 

[Nicholas Studer]

Thanks so much Ed. I see you have those holes at the top of the curve too. No appearance of corresponding to another on my door as far as I could tell. Maybe it was just for the chrome dipping process, but one would imagine they could've used either end too....

 

[Kurt Arends]

Cadillac Buckets

Photo currently on eBay. These are in a '66 M-M. I see what looks like a switch beneath the badge on the seat base. These seats and console are identical to the factory Cadillac bucket seats that I took out of a '64 Cadillac.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1966-Miller...302822?hash=item3abd04aaa6:g:3b0AAOSwu4BVjwWA