Build Thread '83 T-top Coupe - Cliff Notes Edition

Ok, so I may have a AR (anal retentive) problem.

I didn't like the way the GLX looked. Some of the lines where just not straight enough.

So what am I doing right now? Repainting it. I know.....I know.....

I used 1/16", 1/8", and 1/4" fine line tape and made it nice.

I'm letting the letters dry right now so I can clean up the tape residue. I'll clear coat it again shortly.

It will be a little brighter this time than the first time. I sprayed more color to obtain coverage. I think I like it this way.

Anyhow, picture of the GLX that makes me happy.

That's through page fifty!

Shiny now.

Now I will resand the middle, and spray it with semi-gloss. It might be Monday before I do that.

I got the left panel sanded down with 400 and sprayed the chip guard on it. Once that dries I'll sand it down lightly with 400 grit to just take away from the gritty feel, go over it with a red scotchbrite to score the rest of it. Then paint it, should be today sometime.
Here's a close up of the repaired area.

In the sun:

I figured out what I want to use. I sprayed a coat of eggshell matte clear and it had the sheen of the primer. Way too shiny. So I adjusted the mix from four parts matte clear and one part regular clear to eight parts to one. I call it half an eggshell.

Just so you can see the difference between eggshell and my half an eggshell.

I started on the lower rear seat today. I got the cover off, that was pretty easy. There are about 25 hog rings around the perimeter, none in the center areas like the front seats.

So the cover is in the washing machine right now.

I wanted to seperate the foam from the frame, but it is made inside the foam. Got to rethink my cleaning idea for the cushion..... Maybe the suggested bag, Lysol, and vacuum trick.

At least I know why now you can't buy the rear seat foam.

Alright, i couldn't stand it. I started thinking about what could have sat in that rear seat, drunk adults, sloppy kids, dogs with bladder control problems, space aliens dripping ectoplasm.

I filled the tub up about a foot deep with cool water, threw in a heaping capful of liquid laundry detergent, about a cup of bleach and then i tossed that offensive cushion in there too.

I went to town! I mashed, squished, squashed, stomped and squeezed all of that offensive stuff out of it.

I drained the tub, refilled a couple more times and rinsed it out.

All of that was the easy part. Did you know that cushion goes from weighing about ten pounds when dry to a good fifty when wet?

I spent the next half our squishing out as much water as i could. My arms are really tired now.

I've set the cushion in the garage up on one end that is resting on a five gallon bucket. I put an old fan at it's base blowing up and across it. I'll go out there in a couple hours and squish the water that travels down the cushion, and probably a couple hours after that too.

It sure smells nice now though.

The cover is just about through it's first wash. It'll get at least one more.

The bright side is, I only have the back rest cushion to do now. I have new cushions for the front seats.

I tore down the seat back this morning, about fourty staples, four hog rings and contact glue holding the fiberboard backing to the foam.

The foam is soaking in the tub right now, and the cover is tumbling away in the washing machine.

The bottom foam is almost dry already, i'll keep the fan blowing across it for awhile though

Getting ready to spray the semigloss. The GLX is nice and flat now.

Before and after.

Got the interior pieces i have shot today. I need to get back to my car and get more. I want to get the center console, the trim around the windshield, the passenger seat (it has mechanical problems), and probably take the glove compartment too.

I'll pull the dash pad to make it easy to get the windshield trim, I also want to have a serious look at the dash. It has a crack right above the glove compartment. I'll probably pull the dash next time and repair it, i guess i'll have easy access to the heater box that way. I need to replace the heater core and the air conditioning evaporator anyhow.

I tried spraying the seat cover with an interior dye today, i'm not too thrilled. i'll let you know what i do here.

Anyhow, pictures of today's progress.

RaggedGT said:

Would something like this work dave?
http://www.michaels.com/permanent-fabric-dye--velvet-black/D011231S.html?mkwid=s6r4KHmfe|pcrid|146148821500|pkw||pmt||pdv|m|prd|D011231S&cm_mmc=zadv_PLASearchgoogleSewing+&+FabricSewing+&+Fabric+-+Sale&utm_source=google&utm_term=&utm_campaign=Sewing+&+Fabric&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=s6r4KHmfe|pcrid|146148821500|pkw||pmt||pdv|m|prd|D011231S

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That's meant for natural or blended cloth that is porous. The silly cloth in our cars (and most others) won't absorb the dye. It needs to be coated to change the color and eventually wears off the fibers.

My seat covers will be something I'll worry more about tomorrow, I think. My helper has to go to the doctor today so I'll be a busy little camper and won't be able to mess with them.

A little progress, I got the quarter louvers stripped and primered:
One up close:

I had room in the booth with some other parts I was painting today, so.....before after

Ok, i'm neither super genius nor R-tard.

Here's my idea, i wanted to make my old seat covers black. Why not paint them?

My reasoning is that interior dyes are simply a thin type of paint with adhesion promoters in them to aid in the binding with the plastics of the interior.

What i did is to take the rear bottom cover, scuff the bolsters and piping with a red scotchbrite, sprayed it with this adhesion promoter , to include the "cloth" area, then sprayed the same black (at high pressure to atomize the crap out of the paint) that i shot on the other interior pieces (except i added 10% hardener with it) and i ended up with this result .
I did a durability test on this to see how it would last, this consisted of throwing it in the washing machine and running it through a cycle.

That faded it ever so slightly and made the bolster area just a little bit patchy. I think the results are pretty dang good from this. I had worried that it would all come off and wash away. I'll take this back to work tomorrow and spray one more coat of black on it to cover the fading/patchy crap.

What does this mean? That i'm going to spray all of the covers this way.

The front covers look like crap, but the cloth is actually in pretty good condition. Hopefully i'll get to the yard this week to get all of the stuff I mentioned before and i can try this out on the front passenger seat.

I'll paint the back rest cover tomorrow when I shoot the bottom. I'll be able to put the seats back together maybe Thursday night.

The back cover has some seams that are splitting apart, tomorrow I'm going to stop and get some heavy sowing needles and nylon thread and sow them back up.

Noobz347 said:

Stop... Try getting your hands on something like VHT dye that you can spray out a gun.

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Ok Noobz, here's the problem i have with dyes. They won't absorb into the fabric of the cloth covers any better than my paint will.

I base this on the type of thread used to make the cloth for our seats. It's a nylon type thread that isn't porous and won't allow the dye to absorb into it. This is a key factor to me. I know paint molecules are larger than the molecules of dye. I also know that dyes don't use a binder (glue essentially) like paint to adhere to the threads of the cloth. So, the best results i would get with a dye over a paint would be a slightly less "stiff" feeling for the cloth. Though i already have tried a dye on this seat cover prior to using the paint and it was very close to the feeling that i got from the paint (I know this is subjective, but, that's what i felt), and I had to spray more material to achieve the same coverage.

Since the dye can't absorb into the thread, it just stays on the surface similar to paint. It's binding agents to the plastic thread (with the help of an adhesion promoter) are not as strong as a semi-catlyzed paint with an adhesion promoter.

Most dyes, including VHT products, require the use of an adhesion promoter to improve adhesion of the dye. Ironically, VHT recommends the exact adhesion promoter i used for the paint.

If the threads of the seat had a porosity to them, i would definitely use a dye since the smaller molecules would soak in far better than a paint based color.

Now, my test of the durability by washing might be even superior to what i got if i would give the paint an even longer period of time to dry/catalyze. I washed the seat cover roughly five hours after painting it, though it did receive a bake cycle at 150* for thirty minutes, followed by sitting under one of our heaters in my shop until i took it home to paint. VHT says to allow their product to dry for a week.

Since i'm not really in a big rush, I might try that with the paint. Give it a week to finish it's drying period and give it the old whirlpool durability test again.

If you have more information concerning dyes versus paint, i would appreciate any help you would provide. Like i've said in the past, i sure in the hell don't know everything. I want to be gooder though.

madmike1157 said:

I think that you're gonna end up being the guy walkin around MW w/ a transfer of the seat back and cushion on your ass.
Just remember to wear black shorts and T shirt when you drive it there.

** "Anybody seen Dave yet"?

"Yeah, He's over at the rescue tent,....Paramedics are trying to peel him and his son out of the car. It ain't pretty"

Personally,..for such a beautiful car, I think you should just stop trying to save old crusty sht.

Nothing says "Pullin out all the stops" like a new set of " My parents seat covers"

Just take a gander at these babies:


Can you even imagine the jealousy?

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Honestly mike, I ain't saving sht here. I just don't have the money to buy the new seat covers yet. I have so much more to get before that right now.

I tried testing out the sitting on it thing for a couple hours last night to see if it would transfer. White towel method. No transfer on that.

Maybe I need to try the sweaty as* method and make the towel damp and sit on a heating pad too while twisting around a bit? Sounds like a fun night, maybe some body oil and Nora Jones in the background?