Sunday 5 August 2012

Interior Done!

JtC came up to investigate my recent handiwork and to help put the front seat in.

First job was to fix up my shoddy work and locate the rear seat properly <slap forehead>...

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Metal tabs and clips on the body wrap around the rear seat back wire and clip through holes to hold the seat firmly in place. Don't want to do that more than necessary; I am sure bending these tabs a few times more would snap them off from fatigue; but the result is super solid.

Next was to finish the carpet and get it settled in its final resting position. Patches of contact adhesive in stubborn spots helped fix it in place. The rest of the carpet was weighed-down (with phone books, standing, pressing, etc.) and heated (with heat gun) to finally locate it...

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Any insulation backing to the kick panels had deteriorated into nothingness; so they were quickly cleaned up, new backing was profiled out of left-over foam and glued into place with contact adhesive...

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Finally it was time to fit the front seat. Two-man lift into the car, laid on the back seat and propped-up with a length of wood, ready to be fitted-out with mounting rails and chrome trim ...

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This method worked a treat as once mounting rails were fixed onto the seat, the seat was simply rotated into position for bolting to the floor.

One of the latch wire tensioners was missing, so JtC made up a replacement from a peg board hook. The result is fully-functioning seat adjustment. Noice!

The result...

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I am over the moon!

New seat covers + carpet has transformed the car and the interior now looks stunning! The black-on-black interior with chrome trim really makes the Impala look like the land yacht limo that it is... fabulous stuff!

HUGE thanks to JtC... couldn't have done it without you.

There is a layer of dust over everything, so time for a BIG clean.

John out.

Saturday 4 August 2012

Padding

A trial fit of the front carpet showed it wasn't sitting down too well across the transmission tunnel; more padding required.

I covered the whole tunnel with a second layer of foam...

Padded

...then another layer of underlay (didn't get a shot of that) to really increase the volume of the transmission tunnel.

Worked well.