The 'Stuff I Build' thread. Or...the 'Why I don't have a build thread', thread.

[sewlow]

One of the finished projects posted earlier in their various stages.

The '37 Ford Roadster (?!) (It's Plastic!)

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Yea, the Lincoln is still hangin' around! Electrical issues.

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A 'well liner'. The only storage in the whole vehicle. Made the same as a well liner for a convertible top.The owner uses it for his waxes, jackets, sweaters, drinks, etc., & his registration papers. (Which I made a pocket attached to the inside for, but didn't get a pic of.)

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I didn't design this interior. Just a recover of the original panels. Not what I wanted to do, or would of done if I had designed it originally. But, gotta respect the customer's wants, & his pocket book!

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Trunk liner, or speaker box cloth (whatever!) is what's under the tonneau.

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This stuff! Originally used for kitchen chairs. It's over top of the staples used to attach that well-liner. The center between the 2 beads opens up to be able to throw staples in there, after which it closes up & over to hide the them. A much simpler design than the original way it was done. Easier & cheaper in both time & materials, too! Plus I got it on nice & straight, tucked up nice & close to the body line. Customer was impressed! Gotta love Hot-Rods! No rules!

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Michelle (the 'Apprentice'!) Think she's done this before?
One shot! Attagirl!
(It's a Vid. Click on it.)

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[df2x4]

Very cool! That gauge cluster looks very familiar, I know it's out of a newer GM product but I cannot for the life of me remember where I've seen it before.

 

[polar]

I think it's out of a camaro or similar stuff


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[sewlow]

I have no idea where that came from!

 

[Old77]

Yes that's a Camaro cluster

 

[sewlow]

So, during my hiatus, I've been pretty busy but haven't taken a whole lotta pix.
This one I did, because I knew the customer was going to want to see why I charged him the amount I did.
Besides, he had already had 2 shops say the job couldn't be done & another just outright refused to even attempt it.
Wusses! That's all the encouragement I need!

Here's the project.
Late '90's 5.0 'Stang convertible. Customer dropped off & picked up the seats, so I don't have a final installed pic of the seats in the vehicle.
I have seen the car before, though. Really nice shape! I'll try to get some pix of the finished job when I get to the shop he works for. (I'm doing his boss's '56 Ford. Think I've posted the pix of the headliner I've already done in that car before.)
The owner, Paulo, picked up a seat of fr.& rr. seats out of a Cobra. Front seats are the ones with the big side bolsters & multi-adjust. Apparently, kinda hard to find. Huge improvement over the originals.
But because the donor was a coupe, there was no way that that seat was gonna fit in the convertible. Way too wide. And they're a formed seat. Not like the original convertible rear seat, which is basically flat. Paulo wanted the formed coupe seat skins on the convertible rear seat frame. Not only that, but the backrest from the coupe is a split fold-down style, whereas the conv. is not.

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Covers off. You can see how much larger the coupe cushion is.

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So, instead of trying to make up the foam to match the formed covers of the Cobra, why not do this? The foam is the right shape on the Coupe seat, so I'm gonna modify & use that.
All I'm gonna do is cut off the raised part flat with the lowest part of the cushion face.
Like this.

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As my foam cutter got knocked off of the bench & broke, I'm cutting with a razor knife. Not the most accurate, so I cut down deeper from the line in order to give me a bit of a 'cushion'. Easier to remove the excess from the bottom side than to try to build it up & still be accurate enough for the covers to fit.

More in a bit...

 

[sewlow]

Here's the top of the coupe's foam cut off. As my foam cutter was knocked off the bench & broke, ($300.00!) I'm using a razor knife. Not the most accurate so I cut deeper into the base from the line. This way, I can cut down the excess from the underside of the part I'm using. Easier to do that than try to add foam & maintain the shape I need on top. I used a mini-grinder to flatten that out. No pix of that. Foam crud everywhere!

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Way too big! I'm gonna cut down the center in order to bring those sides in to the listing pockets in the conv.'s cushion.

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Ignore those outer line, but remember them.
This is the amount that I cut outa the center. The total of the distance from the listing pockets to the inner edge of the coupe's top foam.

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Here's the center piece of foam cut out & it all glued back together. See how close those 'wrong' lines are now?
And check how the new top foam's inner edges of the insert is aligned with those listing pockets in the conv.'s cushion.
The new top foam is now glued to the conv.'s cushion.

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Back to this for a sec.
The coupe's cover was held in by velcro on 3 sides, with a listing on either side of that center hump.
The convert's seat cover just had a listing on the outer edge of the inserts.
Gotta make this work. Hmmm...I can't really get a listing into the conv.'s cushion & trust it to last. The originals in the coupe are embedded when the foam is poured.
And gluing foam into the conv.'s outer listing holes so that I can glue velcro on top is gonna work just as well. I hate stuff coming back.
O.K. A trick from the aircraft days.
I hijacked that outer listing & inner rod off of the convert's cover & sewed it into the coupes cover. It's already the right length & width for the pocket in the foam cushion.
Then, on the inner side of the insert next to that center hump, (The part on the coupe's cover that had the listing. The no velcro side.) I sewed on a 2" wide strip of velcro. The 'soft' part.

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I have to glue the other side of the velcro into a slice that I've made into the convert's foam. I repurpose tools to hold the foam apart so I can spray in the glue & keep it apart while it dries!
I've got the back strip of 1" velcro glued on, but not the front one yet in the pic.

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The velcro for inside the foam glued.

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Once that is done, I set it aside so the glue would have a chance to dry.
Onto the cover.
I cut the same amount out of it as I did the foam with the exception off 1/2" added for seam allowance.

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The amount that I removed is exactly lined up with the original stitch marks from the sewn in seat belt pockets! Holy crap! What are the odds? Amazing how stuff works out like that!

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cont...

 

[sewlow]

Too late now!

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Hard to take pix & sew! I'd need 3 hands.
At this point, the velcro has been glued inside the foam, & onto the rest of it too for the inserts.
The cover has been sewn back together but without the sides.
Time for a test fit.

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Notice that the outer edge of the insert is not pulled in as much as the inner. I'll shorten that listing a bit before the final install.

This is how much the new top foam hung over the edge of the conv.'s cushion.

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No prob. Cut it off!

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Test fitting without the sides so I can pattern those.

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Trace it out & cut it off.

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Remove the cover, then fold it in 1/2 & duplicate that shape on the other side.
After the sides were patterned & sewn-on plus the other adjustments, the cover was installed.

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Onto the backrests.

 

[sewlow]

Notice how the outer side of the insert s not pulled down as far as the inner side.
I'll shorten that listing up & get to a few other tweaks on the cover before the final install.

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[sewlow]

I thought that the backrests were gonna be more work than the cushion.
Nope! Way easier! I didn't show all that procedure here as it's so similar to the work on the cushion. Only with no listing/velcro work, & the outer sides needed no modification!
Because the backrest was a split fold-down, the foam was already a bit narrower than the cushion.
I cut just enough foam so that the center hump was the same width as the cushion's.

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I then peeled the original foam off of the conv. backrest's metal pan. PitA! Ford didn't want that to ever move!
You can see the pan in the pic above.
Once that was done, I laid the new backrest foam on it & found that the fit was damn near perfect! All I had to do was round off the corners of the pan to fit the contour of the top outside edges of the foam. About a 1" circumference.
Glued the new foam pieces together then glued them to the pan.

The cover had the corresponding amount of vinyl removed from the center & was then resewn back together

On the original fold down backrests, there was a couple of releases with plastic escutcheons. Had to fill the holes in the foam at the top, (no biggie!) & then figure out a way to cover the cut-outs in the top of the seats fabric.
Hmmm...what to do.
Hey! I removed the inner panels of the backrests! Perfect! I can use that vinyl to patch in a panel in the insert tops.

Stitch it on, not even cut. Just use the edge where it's the straightest. Made sure that the vinyl was big enough to cover the original fabric that will be cut off.

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Now I can cut it to shape. Without the cut-out for the seat releases, of course!
Once I have that patterned, cut off the old bit.

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After that, it's just a matter of some stitch time, followed by the install of the cover. There was some modifying of the band, but it was so minimal it's not worth showing.

So here's the finished job.

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The customer was beyond happy! Phoned me after the seat had been installed & said that it fit perfect!
I like doing stuff that others have refused, or said can't be done!