When I decided it was time to re-do my interior I went through my Year One catalog and determined that I could spend about four times as much to buy everything I needed versus reusing/restoring what I could. So here is my budget interior restoration. Door panels Originally I was going to buy new door panels. The original owner had cut holes for door speakers before I bought the car in 1983. Upon inspection, the only damage was below the waffle insert, so I decided to repair them, and have an excuse to keep door speakers. I cut off everything below the waffle insert. I got matching grain vinyl at the local fabric store, and got this stuff at the craft store to replace the backing board. It was by the poster board and foam board.
I do not know if it has a real name, but I can best describe it as plastic corrugated cardboard. I glued the new vinyl between the original upholstery and backing board with contact cement, cut the plastic corrugated cardboard to shape, and glued the vinyl around the bottom of it.
Outside of the upholstery, the biggest cost in buying everything was in chromed plastic parts. BM 916 Headrest lock cover$39.95 set of four. BM915 SET Headrest lock assemblyuse with lock cover BM916$58 set of four. Dang, these things barely peek out from under the headrests when they are down!!! So I bought Motochrome paint and decided to see how it really worked. Even if it didnt really come out looking like chrome, I was sure it would be good enough for my bracket racer/driver. The instructions specify a glass-smooth black surface under the Motochrome paint. Take this seriously! This is the most important aspect of the process. Here is what you get if your base coat is not glass-smooth. Silver spray paint.
I sanded the parts down, applied two coats of spray can primer-surfacer, wet sanded with 400, applied two coats of gloss black enamel spray paint, and polished with toothpaste. The Motochrome instructions state to spray about four coats and stop when the part is opaque. Well, maybe my definition of opaque is less stringent than theirs. I assumed the part would get brighter as they dried. They didnt. With five coats the finish was deffinitely better than silver spray paint. It DID look like metal, but not chrome. The next day I decided to see what would happen if I applied more coats over the dried Motochrome paint. I took two headrest base locks and did three more coats to see if they got better or worse. They got noticibly brighter, so I gave everything three-four more coats. So, my advice is to spray until the part looks like chrome. If the part is flat you can look for the reflection of your airbrush/gun in the surface. The instructions imply that the problem with more than six coats arises with the final clear coat. I did not clear coat any of my parts, so I cannot speak to this.
My plastic seat backs were faded gray, but not chalky or deteriorating. I could have ordered SEM Landau Black from Year One, or found a local distributor, but I went cheap/lazy and bought Rustoleum Paint for Plastics Gloss Black at Home Depot. One light coat and the backs were black and not too glossy.
There was no cheaping out on front seat upholstery. Yes, that is black duct tape on the lower center waffle section.
The new seat covers from Legendary, through Year One, took forever to arrive. I thought I would have a new interior for 2005 GS Nats. Instead, at the car show I had a note taped to my parts store seat covers stating that my new seat covers, ordered in January, had not arrived. When I got home from BG, there they were! There appears to be no logic in what listing Legendary includes and what needs to be reused/replaced. I used electric bass strings for the listing I had to replace. (They are probably more expensive than plastic listing from the fabric store, but I had them on hand from my band days. I saved them because I figured they would be useful in model building. Elesco feedwater heater piping for you model railroad geeks! Actually, flat-wound strings are best for this.) Georges website www.buickperformance.com was invaluable in getting the re-upholstering off the ground. George recommends using carpet to replace the factory burlap. Sounded like a good idea. I had some scrap carpet lying around, so I went with that. I figured it would be easier to do the perimeter first and then do the listing around the waffle insert. WRONG!! I could not pull the waffle insert listing wires down to the springs. I took out the carpet and replaced it with this:
The craft store comes to the rescue again! A sheet is 39 cents. I bought eight, and used seven. This is meant to be latch hook rug backing material. You will find it in the cross stitch/embroidery section. I tied it to the seat frame with nylon fishing line so it wouldnt move. (There IS value in following the wife around the craft store!) Better living through plastics!
Proper hog ring pliers are essential. Dont even try to so this with regular pliers or Vice Grips. A couple of tips: If you cant pull the hog ring to its destination, try stabbing the hog ring through the upholstery and then hooking it around its attachment point, then putting the pliers around it and compressing it . In even more difficult situations, stab the hog ring through the upholstery, and then use a screwdriver to lever the other end of the hog ring into place like you would a brake spring. Then squeeze it with the pliers.
I have seen cars with the Year One reproduction piping around the seat back/skirts. It is about 1/4" diameter, whereas the factory piping is about 3/8" diameter. Not gonna fly in my car, so I decided to make my own. My friend Patrick came up with the idea of using vinyl plumbing tubing. I got 5/16" vinyl tubing at Home Depot, which, after being split and pressed around the seat back, is 3/8" wide. (Interestingly, the original factory piping is a clear tubing with a foil insert molded into it.) I initially tried to split the tubing freehand with the (f)utility knife, but I could not manage a straight cut. So I built a jig.
It still helps to have a finger on the back side of the tubing pushing it into the blade, but the cut is straight. I put a line of masking tape on the seat back just inside the bead, installed the tubing, then masked the rest of the seat back with two layers of newspaper. I was worried about the masking tape pulling the paint off the seat backs, but I had no problems with 3M blue tape, pressed on my jeans before installation, to lessen its adhesiveness. Two coats of Rustoleum Paint for Plastics and many coats of Motochrome. If anyone wants to do seat piping this way I would be more than willing to split the tubing and mail it for cost, or rent out the jig.
Wow, its amazing that the vinyl tubing, after the paint, really looks like the chrome tubing. did the paint crack at all when you put it on the seats, or did you put it on and then paint it?
nice totorial :TU: Is this the paint you used: http://www.innate.com/Paint/Chrome/Chrome.htm A couple of questions: Clean up? What gun did you use? Tip size? Does it go a long way? Trying to figure out if I should go this route or just get the plastics rechromed. Thanks, Rich
I was worried about cracking, so I put the tubing on the seat backs and painted it there. The tubing did distort slightly as I pulled the masking tape out from under it, and it didn't crack.
This is the stuff I used, but it is probably pretty much the same thing http://www.motostorm.com/gpage.html1.html The instructions did not specify what to use for clean up, but regular paint thinner did fine. I don't know what kind of paint it actually is. Doesn't smell like any usual solvents. Almost smells a little like alcohol. I painted everything with a Pasche airbrush with a #5 tip. I used maybe a half cup paint total, so yes, it goes a long way.
Seats Nick, Looks good! I'm sure you'll be a lot more comfortable driving to & from the Nats! And for me too when I ride to the local track with ya! :beer Steve
Very nice, Nick! Folks in the business of vinyl sign printing call the plastic corrugated stuff "coro-plast" It comes in various thicknesses (mil), and many different colors.
So, I guess I was kinda on the right track :grin: Cool stuff!!! I really would have liked to do the whole door panels. They are pretty wavy from humidity/water damage over the years. But I do not think my sewing machine would stitch through the plastic, or even fit the door panels up to the waffle area... And that is a little too much sewing to do by hand!
