Build Thread 1990 Lx 5.0 Restomod Build

#41
Not trying to hijack the thread, but a few years back I did away with my map pockets and covered it in black vinyl, as well as the inserts above the armrest. I'm still going to replace the speaker grill and armrest pad with black pieces also, just haven't done it yet.


 
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#42

Looks sweet. I'm looking at doing the same areas in black carpet. I can't make up my mind though. My car is silver with black interior so I though of adding a little silver to the all black.
 
#45
Door Panel Inserts

As I said before my map pockets were long gone, and the vinyl which covered the map pocket insert was just barely hanging on. I don't really care for the map pockets, and besides, who uses maps anymore? Your phone can tell you where to go, where to turn, how much further until your next turn and then "strongly encourage" you to make a u-turn when you've f-ed up.

Once the door panel is off, flip it over. There are a bunch of metal tabs along the back.



Bend those so they stick straight out. This will allow you to remove the insert from the door panel.



I bought some black carpet from Autozone for $9.99 for a 3'x6' roll. I bought 2 rolls since I'd be doing my trunk also. They call it "replacement carpet" and it's right by the floor maps/Betty Boop steering wheel covers. I also bought 2 cans of Permatex Fabric/Carpet Adhesive spray from Autozone for $10.99.

Set up a good workspace, well ventilated and where you don't mind if excess adhesive falls on the ground as you spray it.

Spray the back of the carpet and the door panel insert with the adhesive and let it dry for about 5 minutes. For the second coat, go in the opposite direction of the first (first coat is left and right then second coat is up and down). This will ensure there aren't any places without adhesive. After the second coat let dry another 3-5 minutes.




Both surfaces should now be tacky. You've only got one good shot to get this lined up. Pulling the two pieces apart if things are misaligned is a pain in the ass. I usually lay the carpet on a table, then lay the piece I'm carpeting on top of it. After you do this, spray a bit more adhesive around the perimeter of the back of the piece. This will give the carpet something to stick to as you fold it over.

Carefully fold the edges of the carpet over the back of the piece. You'll have to trim at the corners since the carpet will overlap.

Once you're done you have a finished carpeted door panel insert.



Installation onto the door panel is the reverse of removal. Line up the metal tabs with the holes in the door panel and slide the insert in. Flip the door panel so the back is exposed to you (do this on a table also). As you start bending the metal tabs over make sure and push down on the door panel. This will make sure you get a tight fit between the panel and the insert.





Hopefully I'll be ordering new armrest pads, door handle bezels, and mirror trim pieces next week. This should allow me to get the door panels back on and the majority of the interior finished.
 
#46
Building a new trunk floor

Previously mentioned, I hate the flimsy OEM carpet that slides around in the back of trunks. It gets dirty, smelly, and generally looks like poo. The below steps give, what I believe to be, a far superior looking trunk floor surface in just about any car.

Start with a piece of plywood, minimum 4' x 3'. I used 1/2" thick. Lay the plywood on a couple sawhorses (or something flat) and then lay the OEM carpet over the top of it making sure the carpet is relatively centered on the wood. Trace around the perimeter of the carpet to give you an outline for where to cut the wood. The carpet that was in my trunk was a bit bigger than the actual space so it stuck up on the sides a bit. Obviously this means that when I cut the wood to the same size the wood would be too big. That's OK. Remember, measure twice and cut once. In this scenario it's measure once, trim a bunch of times, then success!



It took me probably 5-6 times of trimming before I could even get the piece of wood to sit in the trunk relatively flat. Again, I trimmed in small increments. Nothing worse then trimming too much and ending up with a big gap.



You can see in the next pictures that the majortiy of my trimming needed to be against the front of the trunk (where the tail lights are)




Once I got it all trimmed I was able to set the piece of wood flat in the trunk.

The OEM carpet is one big piece that has a section which travels up against the back of the seat and clips onto the metal "brackets" that the rear seats snap into. I didn't like this. Since I don't plan on putting my rear seats up and down really at all, I was OK with a more permanent solution. I cut a trapezoidal piece of wood that would cover these metal brackets. We'll get to how I made the transition between the wood, carpet and brackets later. I believe this piece measured 43-3/4" at the top and 40-1/8" at the bottom. This allowed for a snug fit without the carpet so I knew it was going to be nearly perfect after it was carpeted.



Next is carpeting...
 
#47


I bought the exact same black carpet at Autozone yesterday! I'm glad to see it turned out looking so good. I ordered some new door panel hardware from latemodelresto which should be here tomorrow. I also picked up some nice dark gray vinyl from a local fabric shop. I'm going to try and do some gray inserts on mine as well. I'll post some pics once I get it done this weekend. Thanks again for taking the time to share all this information. Nice work.
 
#48
Process is the same as the door panel inserts. Roll the carpet out on a table or flat surface, spray both pieces with adhesive twice, then put the piece on top of the carpet. Spray the edges of the back of the piece and fold the carpet over to complete.




Here's the finished floor back in the trunk.





I had about a 1.25 - 1.50" "top" to overcome where the piece of wood met the top of the metal seat backs.



My plan was to carpet the piece of wood and leave enough carpet at the top that I could fold it over both the top of the wood and the metal seat back essentially attaching the wood to the metal seat back via the carpet. I left about an extra 4-5" of carpet off the top of the piece of wood. Again, more is better. You can always trim the carpet if it's too much.



Carefully, and I mean carefully, spray the top portion of the metal seat back which faces the back of the rear seats. You don't want to spray the interior panels with the adhesive. This is where the carpet will fold over and adhere to.



Install the carpeted piece of wood into the trunk as it's going to sit. Obviously the extra flap of carpet will be at the top. The next part is a bit trick. Squeeze the metal seat back and the piece of wood together. While holding them together fold the carpet over and stick it to the metal seat back. Squeezing these pieces together will ensure a nice tight fit at the top where the carpet transitions over from the wood to the metal seat back.

Finished product


 
#49

You Sir have mad skills. Nice!
 
#50
Lastly today I finished up installing new door lock actuators. I followed jrichker's how-to on this process and it worked out great. There were a couple of things that differeed in my install.

1. At the beginning of the write-up he details how to fabricate the actuator linkage. The dimensions indicate that each hole is to be 1/4" from the end of the tube stock. For the end which attaches to the plastic eye on the actuator, 1/4" is too much. The centerline of the hole needs to be closer to 1/8" away from the end of the tube stock. I don't know if the company has slightly changed the design of the actuator eye mounting point or what, but things didn't line up with the hole 1/4" from the end.

2. My actuator mounts were out of the car. At one point during his write up a bit more than halfway through he talks about drilling a hole in the side of the door. I think this has to do with if the mount is still inside the door. I didn't do this. I did have to use 1/4" bolts and fender washers to hold the actuator in place and bolt it together since I have the plastic actuator mounts. I also put a bit of Locktite on the threads before I tightened the nut up. I'm hoping that holds everything together. I did use nuts with nylon inserts everywhere else as he recommends.

They work great and lock/unlock the doors as they're supposed to. The driver's switch doesn't work, so I'm guessing perhaps the switch is bad. I've already cleaned up the terminals with no luck so I'll replace the switch and see if that fixes it.
 
#58
Looking great boost. Hell of a transformation from where you started. I'm probably going to use your prep/paint method to freshen up a couple of the black pieces that I have as well. Well done.
 
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