Projects My $550 interior redo...

Hey everyone... So a couple of years ago Cliffy showed me his interior in his Lincoln and to my amazement he said that it was JC Whitney's finest. I couldn't believe it. It was really nice... He told me I should do my interior, and that it wasn't really that hard... OK... fast forward to last weekend. I decided to order new seat covers and an extra yard of material for the package tray and the kick panels. Go here to order your own.

This is NOT a Fat Lucky's type interior by any stroke of the imagination, but it is better than what I had.

So on with the fun...

Here is what I started with. ****py Red seat cover over a torn up seat.

Back seat torn and package tray is water damaged.


Here is what came in the box...

I chose pure white since it will look like the tuck and roll I have always wanted. It came as more of an Ivory. Which worked out nice since the dash and garnish moldings are brown.

The yellow you see is the foam from the original seats. It had literally turned to dust. Also the previous owner installed poorly fitting black carpet over the crumbling rubber mat.

Ever wonder what is holding your back seat base in place? Nothing but friction...

More to come!

 

OK... So the seat covers and material cost $345 including shipping. But this is where you get hosed... The foam sheets are STUPID Expensive. $80 each 2 ft by 6ft sheet! The polyester batting isn't too bad... total between the two things $201 including tax.

Start by laying down some batting.

Here is the lower seat cover attached. Take your time. Start from the center and work in the sun. You can do this!

Here both of the backs are done and attached. These three pieces took me almost all day today.

I started on the bad package tray. I decided to use the original and glue some material on top. First I cut off the loose stuff with a razor blade.

The material was about an inch short so... I got creative...

Split it down the middle and add a new section.


Now I just need to get the back seat done and everything re-installed before the Symco Shakedown! Looks like there will be some late nights in the garage this week!

 

Bot bad at all. I will have to keep that in mind.

 

Looks great! J.C Whitney will surprise you. I was planning doing something similar with my Riv's seats. The foam has completely crumbled away. Late 70's and up GM cars rear seat cushions are nothing but solid foam. I was thinking of getting a rear seat cushion that was close in size and cutting it up, They wouldn't want you tearing open a front seat and taking the cushion out, besides the front seats get all the wear. I'll post pics when I get to that point.

 

Crumbled away is an understatement on my seats....

 

Skip JCW and go right to their source. They are great to work with and will send you color samples and all. I've used quite a few of their covers. Even used them on my Galaxie. Just like in the 60's...... Great way to do it yourself and at a reasonable price.

http://www.customseatcovers.com/covers/covers.htm

 

Well I'll be damned! I would have gone that route had I known I could have... Thanks Jake...

 

Who woulda thought! Thanks for posting.

 

Nice job, most impressive! If you need batting or foam in the future, try a fabric store that stocks chair and couch rebuilding supplies.

Bob

 

Super nice.
Thanks for the post!

Jeff

 

looks good!

 

Good job! I may have to go that route too!
PAUL

 

Took the night off... gotta cold or something... maybe it is from breathing all that 50 year old foam dust!

 

Anybody else notice that the link to Autocraft Interiors (posted above) links you to EZ Boy Rod Interiors when you click the "General Public Inquiries" icon.
I thought that was kind of interesting...

The EZ Boy prices are sure a lot more than the JC Whitney covers.

Jay

 

good job

 

Ahaha, I'm not sure if this problem affects other fords, it probably does, but the seat in my '54 was the same way. If you even looked at it the wrong way, there would be a mountain of yellow dust underneath it!

Good looking interior! Great job!

 

One thing you should be aware of, there are some very important differences in foam rubber. Not just the quality, but the chemical make-up of the foam itself. There was quite a bit of really bad pubilicity concerning flamability of certain foam products. The comparison was made to 'gasoline in a solid form'. So before you go talkin' about getting ripped off for the foam, there are strict guidelines for upholstery foam used in automobiles, boats and even more so in aircraft. That non-flamible recipe is what you are paying for. Anybody foolish enough to use just any old foam, better be doing a burn test, and do it out in the open cause some of that stuff really goes up hot and fast!
If you lived during the Van Conversion craze of the '70's there were several fatalities which made front page news, when Vans went up too quickly for the drivers to get stopped, and the occupants to get out. Horrible way to go.

Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

You are right. I haven't ordered any thing from them for about 4 years or so. And what I had seen of EZ looked very similar to Autcraft. I see that Autocraft states "dealers" phone numbers. Looks like EZ is now the general public access to them. Too bad. Like I said - they were great to deal with. I guess it's back to JCW.

 

The batting stuff, is this what you replace that rotten nasty yellow stuff with?

How thick is it?

I was considering using a memory foam mattress topper. You can get a 4in. thick one for a king size bed for 140-200 bucks, and 2in ones considerably cheaper. And cutting it to fit my seats.

I thought that would be pretty f'ing comfy to sit on. I have one on my bed now and I love it.

Seems at 160.00 for that batting it would be cheaper, possibly uber comfortable to go this route?

 

Lookin good Mike!

Max

 

Job well done...congrats and looks great

 

Foam dust? More like fossilized farts you've been hufffing!

Bob

 

No... the batting goes over the burlap. About an inch or two thick. Then on top of that, goes the foam. I bought 3" thick foam. It comes in 2 foot wide slabs. You can get it in lengths up to 7 or 8 feet. You will only need about 5 to 6 feet. Use a kitchen electric carving knife to cut it into a rough shape overlapping by a couple inches so it wraps over the frame.

Steelsmith is right about the flame retardant properties of the foam. Definitely get some that is rated for furniture. I lit a small chunk up in the drive way and it took 4 re-lights with a Benzo-matic torch to get it to stay burning. Once it started burning, it kept burning, but VERY slow. Eventually it consumed the 3" square piece, but it took about 4 minutes. My complaint was that the lady at the fabric store told me that it goes on sale 2 or 3 times a year for 40% off. That is a HUGE discount!

Anyway, thanks for the kind words guys... I have been sick with a summer cold for the last few days so things have been at a stand still. Only a couple of days to get it all put together before Symco.

 

Did you get it all back together and installed? Any pics?

 

OMG! They actually look worse than mine.. I didn't think it was possible...

 

Yeah... I got it together the night before the Symco Shakedown. I don't think I have any pics of it all in the car, but maybe tomorrow night I will go out to the garage and snap a couple.

 

Did my Impala about 3 yrs ago. Good quality stuff I went directly to AutoCrafters, had a bad experience with JC Whitney. AutoCrafters were very easy to deal with very helpful. All you need is a good set of stretching plyers and hog ring plyers, got mine from Eastwood, and a understanding wife to help.

 

Here you go.





I still have enough flat stock to do the kick panels (when I get around to it) I still need to do the headliner, but it is "good enough" for now.

 

Looks pretty good man!!! WOW!!

 

Very nice Mike!