fltche1

So i have decided that it is time to get busy on the interior since winter weather is here in WA and painting is not an option with the cold. I have a nice set of Autometer gauges in the works for the bird. I asked an upholstery shop if they would re-upholster my dash but they said forget it because its too much of a time investment to do it. No big deal I am going to do the headliner myself. I will get some seat covers made and install them myself. The carpet is in good condition so I will re-use the original carpet. With a 305 and Magnaflow exhaust it is loud... I need to put some sound deadening material in that car to quiet it down a bit. I also don't like that T handle shifter and the cheap plastic feel... I am going to replace that too. I am thinking old school muscle is the direction I am going to take the interior. I know everybody likes the stories with the pictures so I will take as many as I can and hopefully it will save some headaches for somebody else.

fltche1

Got all the trim out of the car to drop the headliner including my overhead console. Uhoh... Found some rust... I am going to have to fix that... drat more work! Luckily its not too bad yet so at least I caught it sooner rather than later.

fltche1

These speakers are pretty weak. There have to go. Already know what speakers and head unit are going in due to the fact I was already planning on doing that. For the sail panels I will use Alpine spr-69's and for the dash speakers I will use alpine SPS-406's. I will match it up to a Kenwood KDC-448u and that should be a nice little setup.

fltche1

Had the fabric sitting in my closet waiting for the right day and i have decided to go do the headliner cause I CAN'T STAND IT NO MORE!!!! I hate that sagging headliner hitting my head.

Got the material cut out. I have some contact cement I might see how that works out on the vinyl. The contact cement is working out well. but sadly I just ran out. So it looks like I am going to have to run into town and get more.

fltche1

Now that I know that I cut out the right size and it fits its time to clean the headliner board. This foam is old and falling aparts. A bondo spatula works well for scraping all the aged foam off. There is still some good foam left on the board so I am not going to worry about new foam backing. I just have to remember to be careful with that glue not to soak the material. Got back from town but I stopped by my local Orielly's and found this headliner adhesive and I think i am going to give it a try and see how I like it and maybe it will be beter than the contact cement. And I discoverd that I had enough material left over fromthe headliner that I had enough to recover my sail panels as well. They look like they shouldn't be too hard... Got all the old material off the sail panels too. Also got the material cut out for the sail panels.

fltche1

Ok good so the material is the right size. I left some extra on the sides so I can wrap the material around so i looks good like a professional did it hopefully . Glue is setting... Good thing I have some tunes playing... Dance around the shop to keep warm and enjoy the tunes lol. And no I don't have any pictures of that sorry.

fltche1

Good news it that i finished the sail panels and I quite pleased with how they turned out! I need to take heat gun to them and finish shrinking the vinyl but otherwise they are ready to go back into the car when i get to that part. The bad news... I ran out of that headliner adhesive... That stuff is amazing! If anybody ventures to do this themselves like I did don't even waste your time with the contact cement. That headliner adhesive is so much nicer to use. The enduratex perforated vinyl looks so much better than the cloth did. And with that I think it is time to call it a night. I will grab some more adhesive tomorrow morning and try to finish that headliner before I go to work.

fltche1

Just got 25 sq ft of sound deadening material for the roof. Will work on that and the headliner. I am going to make sure the job done on this car is a . This will be a pleasure to drive for sure.

86WS6

iTrader: (1)

Sail Panels look great! That material will look cool with the OE black interior plastic panels.

fltche1

Thanks 86WS6. I think so. Enduratex makes that same vinyl unperforated. I will be using that to try and re-upholster my dash and when I build the new center console. I also had a chat with Hawks third gen about a set of seat covers (sewing is not something that I can do so I won't even try to make seat covers) and they said that if I added about 50 bucks to their price they would add the perforated vinyl to the middle of the seats. I will keep solid vinyl on the outside of the seats but where the middle pleating is I will get it done is silver/gray perforated vinyl. (I do realize thats a second gen seat however it gives you a good idea about the pleating and what I am shooting for. Just take that concept and put it on a thirdgen seat.) i also have some silver firebird patches for the headrest and the sail panels. Well back out to the shop I go to see what I can get done before work.

fltche1

I tried to use a rolling method to get the fabric to lay down flat. It worked pretty well. These corners where the seat belts and trim goes is a little difficult to cover. But they still turned out right. I really had to take my time on them. I cut off the excess material and now all I have to do is glue and wrap the rest of the material onto the back of the headliner board and cut out the holes for the overhead console.

fltche1

I thought i would take a picture and show how I was wrapping the edges around...

Good news I finished the headliner! All the holes cut out. I highly recommend that you flip it over when you have all the material wrapped and do a mock up with your overhead console if you have one and see what material needs to stay. If you mess that up you are back to square one so don't get hasty. This will look really good up there on the roof. I Can't wait to have the rest of the car done. I am quite pleased with the results and can't wait to see these pieces back in the car.

86WS6

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like a great plan. Looking foreward to seeing your progress.

fltche1

Just ordered the rear speakers for the bird. I ordered the Alpine SPR69's for the rear. Thanks to afermont for helping me with finding those SPR69's and information on how he liked them in his car. They should be here about the same time as the sound deadening material. I will take some of that sound deadening material and stick it behind the speakers as well so that the panels of the car don't interfear with the audio. More pictures to come!!!! Good news for anybody who wants to know... Condensation will ruin your head liners (going to get technical) If you have a temperature difference for example a glass of ice water in a hot room, the glass will "sweat". This is due to the fact that warm air holds more moisture than cold air. when the warm air comes into contact with the cold air it cools depositting the moisture onto the surface. The theory of that glass applies to our cars as well. Part of the reason why our headliners get ruined is due to the fact that all that condensation that is happening on our roofs is soaked up by our headliners. Headliners don't like water. If you take a product like hushmat, fatmat, or whatever product you want to use so long as it is a insulative material that has a material that is water resistant/proof such as rubber. Your problems of condensation ruining your headliner is solved and your headliner should last longer. Also that foam backing in the headliner doesn't like water either. Not only will this quiet the interior of the car (So you can rock out to your tunes) but it also helps insulate your car. (Bonus!!!)

SolarGoldRaptor

Cool !

If you don't know what to do with your old rear speakers boxes...I do ^^

fltche1

Sadly the parts did not arrive in time to do anything this weekend. It looks like I will have to wait until next weekend.

86black&gold

Awesome posting. I have an 86 Trans Am. My headliner was already done when i got the car and I took the sunvisors and sail panels somewhere to be done. I went with cloth though since i have cloth seats. I Really like the vinyl idea that you did i bet it will look great in the car.

mantaguy

iTrader: (5)

Wouldn't what your doing to the interior be considered a modification rather than a restoration??

fltche1

Yes and no. There was a factory option for vinyl in the car. I am not sure what all was covered in vinyl with that option. The speakers are still going in the factory locations but they are better components. So I am not totally sure what it is, but it is going to look good what ever you want to call it.

Also my Fatmat arrived and the speakers should be here tomorrow. This weekend looks like I will be working on my car and finishing off the roof.

fltche1

Got started cleaning the surface rust off of the T/A. Unfortunetly I only got half done before the angle grinder with a scuff pad had to be taken apart and rebuilt. I have tomorrow off and will continue work first thing in the morning. I will have some more pictures too.

fltche1

I got both sides sanded down and cleaned up. That center strip of metal for the overhead console mount was pain to clean up. Then I took some laquer thinner and cleaned up the metal. Found my space heater in the garrage and threw it inside the car with the windows cracked for ventilation and warmed up the interior. Using some Zerorust as an antirust agent I got it mixed up. I discovered this was going to be a bit messy while mixing the zerorust and i got a sheet of visqueen and covered my interior so I wouldn't drip... I still mannaged to drip but it cleaned up with a paper towel and all the pieces i accidently dripped on are going to be replaced anyways so I am not crying over it. Applied the zerorust and letting the heater keep things nice and warm to get it cured. Tomorrow morning I will go out and sand it down a little bit so the Fatmat has a nice surface to grab onto.

1Aauto

Looking pretty good!

fltche1

I got some more work done on the interior today. The roof is now covered with fatmat. I have the sail panels removed from the car and have the old speakers removed. But here is where I have run into a problem... I have the performance sound package option in my car... There is a little plastic box with material in it. I have a picture of it. Would this be worth trying to modify to fit the new 6x9's to gain a bit of audio quality or would it be a waste of time? If it won't gain me anything in audio quality then it isn't really worth while. Otherwise there is nothing but a metal panel back behind where that plastic box was. My guess is that it was the factories attempt at a sub box.

fltche1

A picture of a the serious lack of insulation and sound deadening material that makes our v8 cars so noisey. I know this picture is out of order but that is how the roof looked before i got the fatmat down after i got the zero rust applied.

mantaguy

iTrader: (5)

Did you ever consider RESTORING you sound system??

86WS6

iTrader: (1)

The performance sound system has factory subwoofers mounted in those sub boxes in the sail panels with 4x6 speakers mounted at the top and outside of the box. Your subwoofer amp is under the passenger kick panel.

I just rebuilt mine, and it sounds decent.

Otherwise you can get some adaptor plates from a non-performance sound car to mount 6x9 speakers.

Ian Kee at Kee Audio, Atlanta supplied the parts to restore my system. The subs were custom made.

<keeaudio.com>