Cool McCool's Garage

Because I don’t have enough projects going already with Kim’s ’63 Riviera, sprucing up Craig’s ’68 Mustang convert to sell, and the perennial ’59 Thunderbird, I started on the ’47 Spartan Manor we got from the Heighton family in Manton Michigan.  It’s been setting in our back yard since we brought it home three years ago, with no progress aside from collecting some of the components we’ll need to build it.  Selling the ’46 Manor last December and now being without a comfortable RV to camp and travel in this summer may be a motivating factor.

Two weeks ago I took a chance on a guy in New York who had a set of windows made for his own Spartan project and was offering sets of the molded windows to offset his cost.  They are acrylic (plexi-glass) not Lexan, but that shouldn’t make a difference, and I wanted properly formed windows.  These were also a couple hundred dollars less than I could get them from elsewhere, so I bravely Pay-Pal’d him hundreds of dollars and hoped for the best.

They turned out to be great, and the day they came, I spent several hours and installed the street side curved window.  I originally tried to re-use the original rubber gasket, which seemed pliable, but I couldn’t get the rubber tucked over the “glass”,  In the garage I had a partial roll of windshield gasket left over from our first Manor, and ended up using it.  After I gave up on the original, and used the new windows, the window went in easily, with just a little trimming with a grinder. It looks fantastic, so now I’m inspired to get started on the project.  The original curtains, “Up North Cottage” style look hilariously decrepit through the crystal clear window, so that’s a nice touch.

I have to get some more of the rubber gasket, as I’m about a foot short of having enough to all three (of course), but I can get matching stuff locally.   Now the fun part, picking flooring, countertops and lighting, it’ll be a fun project.

Stay tuned, there’s more to come!