Progress on Red to Biege conversion...

radiopilot · Post by **radiopilot** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 1:49 pm

Here are my latest efforts on my son's project car since he hated the red color...

The stock wood pieces are now cherry veneered and ready for the top clear coat before installation:

http://home.earthlink.net/~nrios/nikon/ ... pieces.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~nrios/nikon/ ... detail.jpg

Here is the re-upholstered seat, he didn't like the original style so I made it slightly different ala Ferrari 328 style:

http://home.earthlink.net/~nrios/nikon/seat.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~nrios/nikon/rear%20seat.jpg

This is the dash recovered and SEM painted vents:

http://home.earthlink.net/~nrios/nikon/dash2.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~nrios/nikon/dash3.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~nrios/nikon/dash4.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~nrios/nikon/dash5.jpg

And of course the armrests painted in SEM:

http://home.earthlink.net/~nrios/nikon/armrest.jpg

Still more to come....

Danno · Post by **Danno** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 1:56 pm

looking good. can't wait to see it all in place. the veneer job is nice, It'll look even better once you get the clear coat on it.

radiopilot · Post by **radiopilot** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 1:59 pm

Thanks....

Yes I am thinking a good polyurethane, but maybe a marine varnish might last longer.

I know I took the stock look of the seats away but it really looks great in the car when we tested the fit....

Nick

Danno · Post by **Danno** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 2:01 pm

no, i think the style is good for those seats. the vinyl seems to be a little loose on it though. theoretically you want it as tight as you can get it. wonder if you can tag it under a little tighter, or is it too late to add some foam in specific spots? It's not that bad though, I might just be nitpicking. Lord knows that whatever you do it's 100x better than mine.

manoa matt · Post by **manoa matt** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 4:01 pm

You may want to consider a two part clear epoxy resin instead of polyurethane. The sun will turn the polyurethane yellow in a few weeks. The epoxy resin will be harder and less suceptable to moisture infiltration.

natesky · Post by **natesky** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 9:19 pm

Wow, I really like what you did with the front seats. I'd love to have something like that in my car...

Well done!

-Nathan

radiopilot · Post by **radiopilot** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:16 am

Danno wrote:no, i think the style is good for those seats. the vinyl seems to be a little loose on it though. theoretically you want it as tight as you can get it. wonder if you can tag it under a little tighter, or is it too late to add some foam in specific spots? It's not that bad though, I might just be nitpicking. Lord knows that whatever you do it's 100x better than mine.

The material I bought will shrink some, and I like the loose fit as it looks more plush, the pics don't give it justice, the foam is new and I added 1/2" soft foam over the new foam to give it more a 'glove' feel to it and it has 1/4" foam w/fabric backing adhered to the vinyl leather (it's German vinyl - BMW stuff), so not only was the German vinyl soft, the added 1/4" foam to it REALLY makes it supple almost like baby bottom skin!

Anyway thanks and when it's put together I'm sure the car will look nice, I'm putting in 60 oz. pile carpet (same stuff as the Ferrari carpets) into his car, expensive but I only needed 6 yards of the stuff to do the inside and the trunk space... really luxurious stuff, not the low loop carpets it had before!

Here is a sample of the carpet on the 328:

http://www.ferraricars.org/img/ferrari- ... ior-01.jpg

Nick

radiopilot · Post by **radiopilot** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:21 am

manoa matt wrote:You may want to consider a two part clear epoxy resin instead of polyurethane. The sun will turn the polyurethane yellow in a few weeks. The epoxy resin will be harder and less suceptable to moisture infiltration.

I might do that if I could find a good thinner and just pour the epoxy over the wood and let it settle into a thin coat without brush strokes.

The polyurethane spray I have now is outdoors stuff and it's guaranteed not to yellow outdoors ever? It's like Varathane (boat stuff) I had left over from my boating days, used it on teak, spruce, mahogany, etc.

Maybe I'll test some samples with three coats, epoxy, polyurethane, and varnish and leave it out for several weeks while I work on other things in the car and see what happens to the test samples.

Nick

radiopilot · Post by **radiopilot** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:28 am

natesky wrote:Wow, I really like what you did with the front seats. I'd love to have something like that in my car...

Well done!

-Nathan

Thanks Nathan and welcome to the boards.

It wasn't that bad an experience doing the seats, if you have some time, patience (lots) and plenty of hair to pull out of your head, go for it...

The sewing took some time and patience to get the stitching done evenly, I did alot of sample pieces first to get the 'feel' for the material and my wife's sewing machine... make sure you buy plenty of heavy duty needles as you'll go through plenty.. not sure what they use at upholstery shops but I give them all the kudos and they are well worth the money you pay them to do the re-upholstery.

Give it a try, especially if the seats need re-upholsetering and you like a more modern look for your seats....

Nick

mbouse · Post by **mbouse** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:28 pm

Hey, Nick.

What is under the vinyl on the dash? OEM foam, or something else?

and, do you think it is possible to do the dash without that seam on each side that separates the top from the front?

getting ready to redo my dash before driving season, and am hungry for suggestions. I'll be redoing my door panels in the same vinyl.

radiopilot · Post by **radiopilot** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:43 pm

I first applied 1/4 foam with fabric backing to the entire dash with contact/foam cement.

The dash will not recover with one piece of vinyl, to do so you need a mold or die to heat the vinyl to the dash, if that was so I would have been the first to try it!

Some other pics I'd seen of the dash had four pieces instead of the three I have, the vinyl will not conform to the angles around the steering wheel columne and around the instrument/glove box angle... no matter how I tried, and even with the pieces I have it needed to be stapled until the contact cement took hold... the vinyl was then glued to the 1/4 foam very slowly, glueing & pulling, etc.

What I like about it is that it's supple and soft like the seats, it had a plastic dash cover which was horrible and glued incorrectly, when I removed the cover the dash had multitudes of cracks, I used flexible filler to fill in the cracks and smoothed the filler, then epoxied the filler and sanded the dash smooth until you couldn't feel any cracks or lines as you would feel it over the foam/vinyl if you didn't sand it smooth.

It really looks and feels great... the pics just don't give it justice.. gotta feel it... probably the way the dash was when it came off the factory!

Take a look at Tony's Import car or this site:

http://tonyimportcar.com/upholstery.html

I used his site as a guide to do most of what I've done.

Nick

mbouse · Post by **mbouse** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 3:30 pm

looks good from here. When can i see it in person?

radiopilot · Post by **radiopilot** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:54 am

mbouse wrote:looks good from here. When can i see it in person?

It's a little too cold for me in the north for now, perhaps we can have a regional Fiat/Italian fest sometime next summer... pick a place midway in the country where all can meet and exchange stories, laughs, etc.

We have the Hilton Head Concour's de Elegance here and I go to that event each year, very nice classic elegant cars but it's out of the league for the Spider unless you have a mint original condition spider... most are Ferraris (rare) and other rare Italian cars...

http://www.ameliaconcours.org/

Nick

mbouse · Post by **mbouse** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:11 am

I'll be heading to FFO 2008 in the Pocono Mountains in July ... how about you?

25th anniversary

radiopilot · Post by **radiopilot** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 10:17 am

mbouse wrote:I'll be heading to FFO 2008 in the Pocono Mountains in July ... how about you?

25th anniversary

Man... that sounds great, unfortunately we have a Luau during this time of year for my daughter on her birthday July 4th. so can't make it for the FFO...

Perhaps some other event we can swing it, maybe I'll have my second Spider up and running and restored.

Nick