Captain's Comet

Want me to come over and give you a hand?

 

Dave, I don't want to cut into your beach time too much, when you are down here, but I did have it in mind to get you over to the house here so you can see the mayhem firsthand.

 

Got started on the bucket seats. I have two passenger side seats here, so I tore, er, surgically removed, the cover off of the worst one to see if the frame and foam are salvageable ... both are a little rough. But, it did serve as a good dry run for disassembling the better one.

That one is in much better condition ... good foam, and the frame needs little more than paint. Already made the latch work much better ... there was a lot of slop in it.

Can't wait to recover it.

 

Well ... I have upholstered the passenger seat upper and seat twice each, and was getting ready to take one more try at the upper early this AM, but thought better of it. The band plays tonight and doing this upholstery work is making my hands hurt ... got to save them for the show.

I am reusing the seat foam, and perhaps it has settled a bit. The skins should fit fairly tight. This presented an opportunity. I am adding high density foam to the bolster areas, so while the seats do look period-correct, they are shaped a little more like modern seats. I am happy with what I see so far, but I need to fasten the upper skin a bit better internally. It is very, very close, but if I don't go back in one more time, it will nag me until I get it right.

I always heard upholstery work will drive most people crazy ....

I did shift gears and worked a bit on restoring the underdash tray. Got a really nice one here from Frank 71Gold a while ago and currently have it all apart.

A couple of tips ...

The A/C vents are globes that ride on two strips of felt. After struggling with them for a while, I found that you can get them apart .... there is a steel ring that is pressed in from the back and swedged to pin it into place. One felt strip attaches to the ring, the other to a lip inside the vent housing. You can push the ring back out by using a long punch, inserted through the vent, and carefully tapping it with a light hammer. Work it out in a spiral, a bit at a time, as just pushing it out hard on one side may crack the housing. Tap it down, turn it 90 degress, tap some more, and so on. After cleaning, new felt strips can be installed. I salvaged two of the four felts ... may try black foam rubber that I have left over from my heater box rebuild in the back positions. I think it may make the vents a little less floppy, too. I will be lining up the swedge marks when I press it back together.

The outside of the vents are shiny hard black plastic, and one side by parking brake shows a bit of wear. I coated that side with Future Floor Wax, and voila ... new again. This is a trick learned from messing with model cars and restoring old Hot Wheels. This works very well on clear plastics, too. You can take an old plastic lens, wet-sand it until smooth but hazy, lay a couple coats of Future on it, and bam ... like brand new. Future is an acrylic, so it pretty much is liquid plastic. If you mess it up or get streaks, you can wipe it again with more until it looks good. The new coat will dissolve the old coat.

The Mercury Head in my icon is in a mid-60s Mercury badge where I made a whole new lens out of Future. Cleaned it up, set it level, poured Future on it it and let it sit for a few days.

 

go to arts and craft store-I used hobby lobby-and buy felt with adhesive on back and cut to size.Worked well for me.

 

I did my seats last winter. The seat bottoms fit like a glove. I had a little hole/dip in one seat I glued a little foam patch and it's almost invisible.
The seatbacks were a little more difficult and I have a little slack in both of them. Shortly after I finished the job; I saw on TV car show they added regular batt house insulation in the low spots. I was to lazy to pull the seats out and give that method a try. It was almost the time of year to go cruising/car shows - so I let it go. Also, switched the seat bottoms, putting the pass seat on the drivers side.

 

That is a good tip on the hobby store felt.

I tried the foam rubber on one vent, and it worked, but I had to put it back together a bit shallower than original, or else it was pinching the vent too hard.

I did scrap together enough felt to do the other vent like original.

I put the tray back together and was eager to install it. When mocking up the console, I checked to see that it would fit well with the tray, and it does. Unfortunately, I did not check to see if you can get the tray in and out with the console installed.

It is very, very close, but the tray won't go in. I may drill out the rivets in that center bracket, and replace them with bolts, and then I think it will clear without removing the console. Not a big deal to unbolt the console, but if this mod will do the trick, it may save a bit of hassle later.

Worked the seat upper a third time. Along with the foam, I got cotton batting. I added some more batting, and fastened the center of the cover a bit better. I am much happier with it, and will probably leave it alone now.

The foam came from friends that reupholster home furniture. They told me they don't do car upholstery ... "it is too frustrating, and you have to keep tweaking it ..." That made me feel a lot better.

 

Small celebration here ....

... got the passenger seat back together ....



Worked hard to beef up the bolster areas, so these aren't as flat as a typical Mustang seat.

 

Nioe work Jeff. Are those Stang covers? What's the condx. of the rear seats and spring?

 

looks great....

 

Thanks guys.

Everett, if you go back to page 6 of the thread, that is where I detailed the back seat. They are 71-73 Mustang coupe covers made by TMI.

The rear upper frame is within an inch of a Mustang coupe frame, and the skin can be used as is, just tuck it a lot tighter.

The rear lower frame is a lot taller in a Mav than in a Mustang. I cut all the springs and reduced the overall height 3 inches on an LDO frame. The foam on the LDO seat bottom is closer to the Mustang, more like two rear buckets. If using a stock Mav bottom frame, you would have to cut it down about two inches, but I dont think the skin would sit on it as nicely.

The other solution is to add material to the seat bottom skin. I believe that is what Tody did to his.

 

Well ... came to the conclusion that the console needs to get popped back out to get the tray in.

While I am at it, I need to revise the hodge-podge of stereo wiring in the dash ... about three generations of stuff there. Started trying to decipher that. Pretty sure I still have the manual here ... Alpine AM/FM Cassette purchased in the early 90s. Keeping it .... gotta be able to play my cassettes somewhere ....

I did get the rear amp reinstalled under the package tray and wired up. Man, I used to be pretty limber back when I was in my 30s ... I remember lying in the trunk, knees folded over the trunk lip, when I installed this beast. It went a little slower this time ...

I've had to mess with my daily driver, so attention is being diverted there. Changed out a catalytic convertor yesterday ... bought a Magnaflow direct-fit replacement ... much better design than the original, you can tell it will flow much better, just by looking at it.

Got that project off to a proper start ... dropped the rolling jack directly on my foot ... first thing ... got that self-inflicted pain and agony out of the way, and everything went pretty smoothly after that.

 

Noy only are we not as limber, we are not as strong so we tend to drop stuff. Sometimes willingly

 

OMG !!! That seat looks Great Jeff!

Very Very Nice work!!! I can't wait to see more pictures!

 

Thanks! ... I got it mounted in place finally.... feels nice to sit in it. I have LDO seat tracks, and the seating position is perfect for me at 6'1". I have a hand-width between my noggin and the headliner. The seat just clears the Versailles console, too. Very nice fit.

On my seat tracks, the inboard rear bolt (that passes through that big riser block) must have snapped off right where the nut was, when removing them from their original car. When I was mocking them up, it looked like there was still enough threads left to bolt them in, but with the floor sound-proofed and insulated, and the carpet in place, it just wasn't meant to be. Turns out it snapped off right at floor level, which does make sense after all.

The bolt is fastened to the seat track with an odd joint, and I couldn't figure out how to cleanly replace it. I had already refinished the tracks. I cut the bolt back a bit more, and welding a piece of threaded rod onto the end of it. (5/16-18tpi rod, same as the original bolt). The weld joint is hidden by the big riser block, making sure to grind the welds down enough that they pass through the hole in the block. I also tapered the end of the rod a bit on the grinder to make it easier to pass through the floor.

The best part was having my 7 year old grandson helping me cut the threaded rod.... his first time using a hacksaw and working with any kind of metal fab. Sure took a looooonnnngggg time, but it was fun. We cut off a second piece, cleaned it up, and I gave it to him with a couple of matching nuts as a souvenir.