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.

Floor Pan Priming

Taped masking paper throughout the interior and glass and sanded-back any remaining areas of surface rust.

Under the rear seat there was a little bit, due to the urine from the vermin that lived there. It was good JtC wasn’t there for that as it STANK big time! He would have been dry-reaching all over the place.

All tidied up now. Washed down, heat gun to dry, prepsol to clean, heat gun again then paint. Finished off the can so will get another can on Monday to do a final coat through the week.

Also, I let all the smoke out of my $5 drill that we were using for wire-brushing. It just shut off in my hand with spoke pouring out of it. Glad I wasn’t electrocuted.

Result...





J

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.

Christmas in July (well... late June)

Both the new seat covers and my new tail lights (a birthday gift... thanks baby!) turned up at work today.

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