Guttin'

It's been a bit since I've written, but that's not for lack of progress. It's just that I'm juggling the remaining tasks while not getting any actually completed. The motor works. The transmission works. That crazy electric overdrive thingiemajigger works. If you don't count the questionable brakes and shot suspension bearings, I have a functioning car! Now I just need to turn it into something my lovely girlfriend would be happy to ride in. Which leads to the final countdown: rust repair, paint, and interior. At some point I'll do one more post about the stereo setup, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. First up, interior.

You've seen the starting pictures (and if you haven't, go read the old posts, you lazy bastage). Crusty dark blue skin that used to be vinyl barely clinging on over a foam that has long since turned to a pale orange powder. Gross. So to start with, let's rip the shit out of it.

Something was definitely living back there...

Interesting how much plywood you find in an old car. At least it's easy to replace... The shelf in the rear is a pair of plywood sheets screwed to a bit of a hinge. The rear seat-back is built on a piece of plywood. I'm told the headliner is stretched across a wooden frame. Strange, nowadays the only "wood" in a car is the veneer trim put there to look classy. If a car's measure of class is the amount of dead tree in it, mine wins hands down!

Speaking of which, let's pull the doors apart while we're at it...

The mechanicals in the doors are all in good working order. I'll give them a decent cleaning and lubing, then stuff the doors with vibration damper and Thinsulate Acoustic before wrapping them back up again and burying them behind the door panels. All of the interior panels are simply flat pieces of fiberboard with some vinyl stretched across. I'll see if I can pull that off myself, wish me luck. I'll be using generous amounts of sound deadener before I reassemble - I want this car to be better than new. The wheel humps look to be two pieces of vinyl stitched in a curve, maybe I'll exchange stitching new wheel humps for some fine beer (any stitchers feel like taking me up on that?). My cheap-o carpet kit might be an object lesson in why not to get cheap-o carpet kits, but I won't know that until I get to em.

But Wait, There's More!!

I picked up my seats from Classic Restorations in Verdi Nevada, and they are looking great! They're refinished in leather for all the parts that matter, vinyl on the rest. The back seats are vinyl as well, but only Isis the dog and stinky children sit back there anyway, so who really cares if it's not perfect? New foam, new elastic webbing, and cleaned up mechanicals. They're looking and feeling great. I'll need to replace the rear seat webbing, but I'll burn that bridge when I get there.

So fresh and so clean!

Isis goes here.

(or more likely, on the top with the seat folded down)

We're getting down to the last few tasks, but it feels like there's still so much left to do!