More interior work done

[chevynut]

As I was removing my rear seat and other parts to put into storage I decided to finish some more work on the interior of the storage compartment. I had planned to do it later, but as I thought about how I would attach the panels I decided I needed to weld tabs onto the seat. So I made a bunch of aluminum tabs to weld to the rear of the seat frame.

I'm going to use hardboard for the panels because I figure it's less apt to rattle than metal panels. Larry may decide to do it differently, so he can use these as a pattern if he wants to. They will be covered with carpet. I also rough-cut the plywood for the access door out of 3/8" European Baltic Birch plywood and have enough left for the cargo area cover when we decide how to finish it off. Hopefully all of this will cut Larry's interior labor time way down.

So now it can all go into storage and I can move forward and finish a few things.

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[chevynut]

his father was *bragging* that the interior was over $30K...

Maybe he meant "ONLY" $30K! Surely Shannon gave him a discount on it. I don't think a lot of guys realize how expensive custom leather interiors are. That's a really nice interior though.

Wonder why he doesn't have any tailgate hinge covers

[BamaNomad]

Yes, I loved the interior (and the car), but when they are owned by someone who has to 'tell you how much each part cost'... I tend to lose interest... .. if he had just referred me to his son who did the interior it would have been good, even if he said it would be 'expensive', but for him to tell me (it costs over $30... as if I couldn't afford it... it definitely was a turnoff.. although I probably wouldn't spend that much on an interior...

Re the hinge covers: Sometimes in doing body work, the holes are filled/smooothed, and perhaps after the paint, they (forgot or didn't know) that it was supposed to have hinge covers.. and there IS a lot of confusion over hinge covers, between the wagon and nomad covers (they are different) and they have screws/holes in different places .. although many Nomad owners install the wagon covers if they have them.

There are several outstanding interior guys in Alabama. Among them are Shannon and also Paul Atkins of worldwide reknown who has sewn the interiors for several Riddler award winners and Outstanding Rods of the year winners.. (Paul is now doing complete restorations)

http://www.paulatkinsinteriors.com/Interior_Shop.html

[chevynut]

when they are owned by someone who has to 'tell you how much each part cost'... I tend to lose interest... .. if he had just referred me to his son who did the interior it would have been good, even if he said it would be 'expensive', but for him to tell me (it costs over $30... as if I couldn't afford it... it definitely was a turnoff..

It doesn't bother me when someone tells me how much something cost. It's more of a turn-off when someone brags about how he "built" his car when a shop did all the work on it and he just wrote checks.

[BamaNomad]

I'm with you on that also CN re 'someone who built their car by writing checks', but that seems to be the 'norm' anymore. When I'm admiring someone's car at a show/etc, I generally try to find out how much the owner did themselves. I have more personal respect for owners who 'do it themselves', even if the quality isn't up to the $150K 'check built' cars...

But very obviously, anyone who is bragging about how much a portion of his car cost was only 'writing checks' as well... I much prefer to hear a person say .. "I built this myself and it only cost me $_x_ for the materials..."

[chevynut]

Moving right along ....I needed to figure out a way to mount my Polk Audio tweeters before painting the car. I decided long ago that I wanted them up in the corner of the windshield, in the headliner, just outside of the visors. They have a surface mount receptacle they can be mounted into. After contemplating how to mount them, I decided to make a piece of sheetmetal to double up the roof so I had something to attach them to. Here's what I came up with. I will need to weld a nut or tab onto this piece so the height and angle can be adjusted when the headliner is installed.

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[chevynut]

I worked a little more on the tweeter mounts and made tabs to attach to the plates that will be welded to the body. I welded some 6-32 screws into the plates to keep them from turning and so I can change the tab later if I need to. Then I drilled a hole for an 8-32 PEM to hold the tweeter and a couple more to keep the tweeter from rotating.....they put tabs on the mount for a different reason, I think.

Now I need to prime and weld the plates in. The tabs are made so they can be bent to set the tweeters at the correct height and angle once we work on the headliner.

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[WagonCrazy]

I like the bendable tab system. Yes, you'll need to fine tune the final depth relative to the headliner up in that corner, and that bendable tab seems like it will be easy to do that.

[chevynut]

Yes, you'll need to fine tune the final depth relative to the headliner up in that corner, and that bendable tab seems like it will be easy to do that.

That's also why I made it removable...in case I have to re-design the tab if we can't get the angle right.

[chevynut]

I epoxy primed the topside of the tweeter mounts and welded them in. I put a piece of sound deadener between the mount and the roof before welding.

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[chevynut]

Today I met with Larry to finalize the perforation size for the tan leather, and the color of the charcoal leather so he could get it ordered. He had picked out a charcoal leather for me a couple of years ago and it has both stainproofing and fireproofing treatment since he uses this supplier for his aircraft work. I found out that the fireproofing adds $300 per hide so asked him to find another supplier that has the same or similar color hides without the fireproofing which I don' think I need. Unfortunately the only thing he could find was quite a bit lighter gray in color, which I didn't like with the tan, or almost black which I didn't want either. So I'm stuck with paying the price and told him to order it. He figures we need 2 1/2 hides of charcoal.

He also gave me another sample of the charcoal leather, supposedly from the same supplier, but it has a different texture. I kind of like the more grainy texture of the first sample better, but he said it will be smoother than that. I guess the leather varies some from one hide to another. This is all Italian leather that comes from cows that are kept in rubber rooms to protect them from getting scratched....LOL!

Here's the two charcoal leather samples....they seem somewhat different to me. The camera really screws up the colors but you can see the difference in texture:

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Here's the two round perforation patterns his supplier offers. I had picked the larger holes from a dark sample he had, but I started wondering about it later. He sent 1 1/2 hides to get perforated and I asked him to put it on hold and get samples on the actual leather. I looked at them today and picked the smaller holes, since they look more "rich" and more "subtle" but still give the leather a different texture. I'm not really trying to ventilate the seats but it will be on the seating surfaces.

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And here's the final colors all together, all sitting on a panel painted body color which I plan to bring inside the car somehow. Starting from the left is the wool carpet, perforated tan leather, solid tan leather, charcoal leather, and wool headliner. I can't seem to find my charcoal seatbelt sample .

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[BamaNomad]

Your interior is going to be as impressive as your chassis, CN... We can't wait to see it all together!

[WagonCrazy]

Are you sewing/installing the headliner same as stock? (seamed sections with the metal rods inserted at left and right) Or are you making a 1 piece molded/formed backer to glue that wool material to? (alot of work there if so).

[chevynut]

Are you sewing/installing the headliner same as stock? (seamed sections with the metal rods inserted at left and right) Or are you making a 1 piece molded/formed backer to glue that wool material to? (alot of work there if so).

Nomads don't use the metal rods, the chrome bows hold the headliner up. I had a headliner made once that the guy sewed cardboard strips to that slid into the bows. I'm pretty sure that's how it was done stock.

Larry is handling the headliner and with 40+ years of experience I think he's done some Nomads. He said he does it differently than most guys and has no seam at the top of the b-pillar so it take a little more material to do. The headliner is the last thing we'll do and it's possible I'll change my mind about material or color by the time we get there, after seeing the rest of the interior take shape.

[chevynut]

Got all my electrical switches.....

These will be used for my power window switches :



This is my door lock switch (console mounted):



These are my power VENT window switches:



And this is the switch for my exhaust cutouts :





I thought the images on the switches work out pretty well. The window switches will be mounted on the console, with the lock switch between them. The vent window switches will be at each end of the dash valence, and the cutout switch will be either somewhere near the steering column on one side or the other.