Looks like a scene from a Bonnie and Clyde movie....love the old car and the dress just sets it off. Bet it would look cool with flowers growing out of the car too.

Keep it you just never know. DH bought a 55 Chevy first series 5 window pickup from an old man in 1980. He fully restored it and it was great until we moved from L.A. to the mountains and build our fist home and it got used. It was still really nice but we used it for hauling everything. We built another home it got a little ratty looking and for years DH just lost interest. Mechanically it’s fine and in the very small town we live in it’s almost a law that you have an old classic car. DH retired a few years ago and still the truck just sat there we couldn’t sell it we promised it to DGS when he was old enough to tell papa that was his truck. Out of nowhere a month ago after going to a car show where I was set on buying a 32 Chevy or Ford DH decided it was time and the truck is totally taken apart in the garage getting ready for new paint and upholstery. I don’t what all he ordered but a big pallet was delivered and he has been busy all day in the garage for the past week. I did see the bed wood and it beautiful just like new. DH worked for Chevy for 40 years so maybe the thought that I was looking at a Ford had something to do with.

The structure of the dashboard is some kind of plywood. No idea of the specifics; it's whatever Lotus could get in those days and they were known for playing fast and loose with supplies. The veneer is the part I'm renewing. I'm not sure what the original veneer was, as the varnish had dulled and yellowed so much that the grain was no longer very distinct. The veneer was also crackng and wrinkling, and the glue had decayed into a chalky powder, so it all had to go and a putty-knife was all I needed to scrape it off. The new veneer is a walnut burl, and I used a type that came pre-pressed to perfect smoothness and has a fiber backing (basically a tough, dense cardboard). I used Titebond III to glue it down, and used the glass top from my coffee table and a few heavy objects on top of that to keep it all pressed while curing. The new finish is polyurethane, and the labels for the switches and warning lights are dry-transfer reproductions of the original labels. The original labels were screen-printed on top of the varnish but can easily be scraped off when they get old, so I applied the dry transfer before applying the last couple of coats of polyurethane so they're protected. Now I just need to finish rubbing the poly to shiny smoothness, then I can start re-assembling the dashboard. The wiring will get all new terminals and the switches have all been cleaned, lubricated, and their black plastic restored. In other departments, the brake work is progressing slowly. I've got the rusty, greasy old pedal-box apart, now I need to get it cleaned up and painted and back in the car. Soon the master cylinder will get sent for sleeving, and once that's back I'll be ready to have a friend who knows how fab-up a couple of new brake lines to bypass the discarded servos. Meanwhile, I've got the parking brake lever out, repaired, and almost ready for paint. The other end of the parking brake system needs work too. Body insulation continues. The fuel tank is back in and just needs its vent-lines plumbed. The heater is rebuilt and ready to go back in, but not until I take advantage of its absence to service the wiper gears. That's the latest, but there's still a LONG way to go.

How do we, any of us, really know the truth about what happens to this car seat over time? We know what we are told by those whose profits are rooted in the industry. I am not advocating putting our children at risk, but let us not be naieve about how manipulative lobbyists can be for a consumer prouduct. Having anxious parents continuely buying new car seats is very profitable. Singer sewing machine company started this back when they offered a trade in for your old machine when you bought a new one. The old machine was still good and they did not want you passing the machine down, so they collected them with trade in value and destroyed them. Amazingly , a number of them survived. This was an early marketing scheme. Please dont paint me as someone who would put any child at risk. And, yes, I do realize that sewing machines are not saving the lives of children. I am not advocating a cavalier attitude towards child safety. However, it is quite evident that one cant put total trust in any baby.child product . Just look at some of the recalls and law suites that have happened . Some awful things had to happen for some of these recalls to be enacted. But, it would not be the first time that an industry got a law enacted to its benefit. That is what lobbyists do. A good example is the seat being renedered as unsafe after a minor accident that did not involve the seat. As for the seat belts....we use the seat belts in our cars and dont give a though to the notion of them being in the hot car. Those things last forever....quite literally. I saw an article in the media this morning about the state of Maine and the efforts to shift the resposiblity of disposal and recyle to the makers of the products that pose so many problems. Maybe car seats need to be made in some other manner than they are currently or the producers need to be held accountable for providing a means of retiring the prouduct. It is not child safety that I am questioning. However, the fleecing of the general public can be nowhere as strong as it can be when a parents fear is part of the equation. That is one of the most compelling marketing incentives that exists. I dont believe, for one minute, that the marketing gurus have not figured that out and used it fully to their advantage. I shudder to think of the old way that kids rode in cars. We used to ride up in the back window when I was a kid. And, my kids had no car seats in the mid 70s. I am not saying it was as good thing . Clearly it was not safe at any speed. But, this way of going about it is unsustainable. We need a better car seat. We need the industry to do better. Our children are going to have an awful environmental lot to deal with. Both their old car seat and their poopy diapers will still be sitting in a landfill long after their child hood has passed, along with all the old juice boxes and plastic straws and plastic pouches that once held some artificially flavored yougurt of dubious value other than the fact that it had a licensed character printed on it. If it were just car seats that we are dealing with, that would be one thing. But, we are dealing with mountains and oceans full of waste of all manner. I really do think that we could deal with the more important things, such as this, in a much more effective manner if we were not so burdened with such frivilous consumption as we are engaged in. The whole world could live better with less.