Spruce up

One of the most noticeable short-comings was the scratched dash/glovebox lid. Time for a tidy-up methinks.

Badges off...




Decided on gloss for the face and satin underneath the chrome strip, to match the existing (flat was too... flat)...




Paint goes on; five coats worth. This is the face being done...




Result...




Black everywhere, so a bit hard to see, but a million times better!

John

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>...



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...



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...



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 ...



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...





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.

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...



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

Worked well.

Half-way there

After much trimming and adjusting and gluing, the rear carpet is in place...





Notice also the rear seat; a couple of hours of trial fitting finally resulted in this...



Noice!


The front seat rails were cleaned-up and given a lick of paint a week ago...



Using them as a template, I could cut the front of the rear carpet to suit.

Getting close now!

J

FW: Carpet Stuff

From: JohnSent: Sunday, 15 July 2012 7:43 PM
To: JtC
Subject: Carpet Stuff

Howdy!

Glued the carpet to the underlay last night and used up all the last of the contact adhesive (which is good as the lid was glued shut and I had to puncture the can to pour the remnant out). Also made up a sheet of foam/vinyl laminate from off cuts to use to fill in gaps. I filled up a couple of gaps last night.

Today, got another tin of adhesive and a new brush. Glued down the front and trimmed the carpet back around the passenger-side B-pillar. Looks good.

I glued down enough to pick up the underlay, but I didn’t do any around the accel pedal as it would have been a fiddle doing it right with only one person. I figured that can be glued down out of the car.

I figure the plan from here on in is…
- take the carpet/underlay out of the car and finally glue it down.
- pack-up any low spots with underlay off-cuts + fill-in any sound insulation gaps that need doing.
- punch holes
- final trim of the carpet
- install trim/seats

Thoughts?

John

Jigsaw Puzzle #2

Day two of "Interior Weekend".

Weather was stunning, so we setup a make-shift workbench on the driveway in the sun and set to work gluing and trimming the vinyl onto the foam...



We got a bit of a production line going, so made-up all the patches before sitting them in place.

Once all the foam/vinyl laminate pieces were made, I had to head off. I left JtC to fine-tune the fit of the jigsaw puzzle on the floor pan, then tack them in place with a minimal amount of contact adhesive.

The result (before tacking down)...









The result is excellent! The mass loaded vinyl is very heavy, but very pliable, so it sits the foam/vinyl in place nicely.

All pieces are in place now, tacked-down and JtC finished the day by laying-out the rear carpet underlay; trimming it to suit.

Phew! A *massive* weekend of interior arts and crafts. Again, a HUGE thanks to JtC for coming up both days and knocking over a huge amount of work.

Carpet next, stay tuned...

John out

Jigsaw Puzzle #1

"Interior Weekend" begins!

Before JtC's arrival, the sound deadener went down.

Drumming the floor pan with my knuckles, I found where the resonance was worst. I then cut out paper templates and placed them in situ...





You can also see the flat black paint job and "CHEV" stamping on the floor pan under the rear seat.

The templates were then labelled and transferred onto the sheet of deadener, ready for cutting...




The sheet was then cut-up, floor pan cleaned with wax & grease remover, dried with the heat gun and the pieces stuck into position. The old skateboard that made an appearance previously in moulding the radiator fan shroud, was pressed into service again to press down each patch.

The result...





Voila!

JtC further masked off the dash and gauges. He then went to work respraying the column in satin black. It was scratched badly, so having an all-black steering column all freshly sprayed is excellent. The result is really good.

Amongst all this, Carl called and said the seats were ready! I hopped over and picked them up. Rats had eaten-out the rear DS back cushion, so Carl had to build it up with foam.

The result is stunning! Can't wait to get the interior finished now.

A strip of mass-loaded vinyl was placed over the body harness.

On my return, I cut the foam up into pieces, using the old sound deadener as templates. We stuck down the foam patches under the rear seat; then cut and glued patches of vinyl on top...





(the second photo shows the foam sections pre-cut and placed in situ)

This method was rubbish! Though the result was good, it was taking AGES. The decision was made to glue and trim the vinyl onto to foam out of the car... then fit the foam/vinyl laminate onto the floor.

Tomorrow's job!

It's all happening!

2nd coat of primer went on and picked-up the mass-loaded vinyl from Jaycar (04/07/2012).

This morning, dropped off the seats and covers to the trimmer (Carl @ North Rocks... all good, he was crook last week). He is currently doing the interior for a Chrysler 300C ready for MotorEx, but was happy to fit the Chev seats in between.

This evening, 1st coat of flat-black spray enamel on at ~ 6:30 PM. 2nd coat on at ~ midnight!

Needed to get all painting on and dry ready for a weekend of interior fit-out.

FW: Seats?

-----Original Message-----
From: John
Sent: Friday, 29 June 2012 10:15 AM
To: JtC
Subject: RE: Seats?

Urgh... slight problem with trimmer. No answer on mobile, no answer on
work phone, waited around till 10AM yesterday - no show. Tried to phone
again this morning... no luck.

Perhaps he is on holidays/sick?

Am contemplating trying a trimmer close to work, otherwise I'll wait-out
the weekend and try again on Monday on the hope he has simply taken this
week off.

On the sound deadener front, I now have a sheet of deadener from Jaycar
to cut up and stick to the metal in patches.

They didn't have enough stock of the heavy vinyl (replacement for
tar-backed cardboard) so are ordering it in and that is expected to
arrive Tue.

I also have 5 mm foam and spray adhesive from Clark Rubber.

So we certainly have some bits and pieces to start with tomorrow.

J

-----Original Message-----
From: JtC
Sent: Friday, 29 June 2012 10:00 AM
To: John
Subject: Seats?

How is all your running around sourcing stuff for tomorrow going? Lemme
know if I can do anything.
Did you deliver the seats and trim ok?
Very exciting.

Packed

2nd (and final) coat of primer went on the front passenger-side foot well this evening, then packed the Commodore with the benches and new seat covers ready to drop-off to the trimmer tomorrow morning.

Prepping the Floor

Acquired a heat gun to put some heat into the floor to aid paint drying, as well as a 80 grit flapper disc for the angle grinder to assist cleaning-up any surface rust.

After wire-brushing but before sanding with the flapper disc...




All fawn colouring isn't rust, but remnants of the old carpet underlay.

The worst of the corrosion was in the passenger side front foot well, so I hit it with the flapper disc.

Result...




Cleaning ensued and the bare metal hit with Galmet primer...





Hopefully I can hit it with a 2nd coat through the week, ready to put sound deadener down next weekend.

J

Reverse Jigsaw

Sound deadener has been stripped out and the floor pan is in good nick...




I have kept and labelled each piece to use as templates for the replacement pieces; here stacked in the boot for storage...



J

A cunning plan...

After doing a bit of research, this is the plan for replacing the carpet:

1.
Remove all material back to the painted metal, keep existing tar-backed sound deadener for the moment.

2.
Vacuum and clean. Wire brush/flapper disc surface rust where required. Wet and dry sand. Wipe down with oil, wax and grease remover.

3.
Touch-up with Galmet Keytite Steel Primer where needed (hopefully don't have to do too much of this!).

4.
Small patches of self-adhesive Butyl Based Sound Deadening Material in the middle of large, flat surfaces that can vibrate (i.e. under the front and rear seats only).

5.
Closed Cell Foam (EVA or equivalent), glued to the floor pan with as little adhesive as possible; just enough to hold it in place (perhaps not required?).
This replaces the felt attached to the tar board.

6.
Vinyl sound barrier; glued to the closed cell foam.
This replaces the tar board backing.

7.
Underlay (Knox carpet).

8.
Carpet (Knox carpet).

There may well be existing stuff that I can reuse, so perhaps the above gets used only in the rear where the vermin made their home!

J

Strip the interior

JtC came up in the evening to pull the seats and remove the carpet.

Results...




The sound deadener looks like it is in good condition...



A great example of why the carpet needs replacing...




Lost treasure!



The upholstery under the cover, under the cover...



Now to source some carpet, underlay and decide what to do with the seats.

Stay tuned!

John

Small Update

Picked up...
- boot lock
- rear brake hose
- brake pedal pad
...through the week.

Brake pedal pad new vs. old



Today's tasks were to slip on the new brake pedal pad and fit the boot lock which are all done.

Finished off by removing (and ditching) the old seat cover off the rear seat base and giving both the rear seat base and back a good scrub with a brush, before cleaning multiple times with interior cleaner.

Came up a treat!

Chased the indicator switch cam as I haven't see it yet. Apparently Aus customs/quarantine industrial disputes have caused delays. Lets hope I see it soon.

Seats

Time to bite the bullet... the 60's car seat covers are coming off!

The rear seat base and back rest have been out of the car for ages (to enable access to the boot without a key) so it was there that we made a start.

As you can see, the frame is in great condition for a 40+ year old car...




...and the covers are held on by C-clips.

(if I clip on a new cover, I must remember to dig out by C-clip pliers used during the garage build for constructing the sediment fence).

Under the seat cover, the cover's foam backing has completely deteriorated leaving a fluffy foam residue that can (mostly) be brushed off, but will need some sort of cleaner to get rid of the remnants.




Besides the very top of the back rest - which is perished from exposure to the sun - the seat is in darn good nick.



More tomorrow!

Rear Seat Removal

IIRC, you push back on the seat and lift up on the front. Then pull forward to remove. This will give you access to 2-3 bolts that hold in the bottom of the back. Remove bolts, swing bottom out, and lift up.