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MY INTERIOR - Traditional or Custom


joysterm

2,577 views

First some background...

 

From the day I committed to this project and  up until just a few months ago, close to some 4 years now,  I struggled with a clear plan or direction when it came to the interior and what I wanted it to be.

 

I remember receiving a message from a member of the FAQ shortly after introducing my car the the site saying “what ever you do to it, do not paint it...leave it as a survivor. Your car is more valuable without any fancy upgrades.”  At the time I was somewhat confused by the suggestion, after all it had been some 30+ years since I had experienced the joy of driving it. I just wanted to have that feeling again.

 

With that said knew I wanted more than something a stock O2 was going to offer me. Fortunately,  I was now in a better position that would allow me to sink a few dollars in it to make it go a lil faster and handle just a bit better. All the rest was not at the forefront of my thinking. So once I decided what I wanted performance wise I knew it was no longer going to be a survivor. To be honest, the car was more important as a source of enjoyment rather as a potential investment.

 

So with all that in mind, I struggled with what I wanted to do with the interior. I was however committed to keeping the car as close to its roots as possible and  more importantly, what works for me. So, I started searching for ideas and collecting examples of what I consider to be something I would like to have sitting in my car. That part of the process took me about a year. After all I had I had a bit of time before I was even close to starting the work.

 

My predicament now was how far do I push the envelope in terms of trying to stay true to my pledge. What do I keep and what to I change to suit my tastes. This decision was somewhat easier to make once I started to see progress in the other areas of my build.  Seeing what others had done with their builds also was a huge help. It provided me with both comfort and inspiration with what I wanted to do. Finally, I now had a plan that I could follow but I was to quickly learn it would not be without a lot of trail and error. A lot of the former and more of the latter.

 

But first some prep work was required was going to be required before I could start. This work was all completed before the car went to the restoration shop. I have covered this step in an earlier post but thought it worthwhile to provide some continuity. 

 

Some befores of the first job....taking out.the sound proofing. Fortunately  no worries of rust to deal with.

 

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After a few pounds of dry ice and a quick bead blast.....

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....it was ready for a  quick blast of epoxy.

 

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Next plugged the holes

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.....It would soon be ready for the next step.....mocking up the rear seats and console.

 

First some DYNA-MAT

 

But first the complete install of  Dyna-Mat. It did take a few nights to complete with the help of a heat gun and roller to help in dealing with all the the contour and ridges of the floor pan and bulk heads. A little more than 100 sq. ft were used to cover everything, including the roof and door skins. This was a logical place to start for me seeing as this was the first experience with the product. 

 

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Once the sound deadening was complete I was ready to deal with more of the stuff you could actually appreciate and SEE.  As mentioned earlier I struggled with what I was going to do with the seats. I was torn with using the stock seats. They were in near perfect condition but after researching some different ideas I slowly started to think of a complete redesign when it came to the interior. After seeing a lot of projects with Recaros, I thought about taking the upgrade a lil farther with changing the rears as well. It certainly has its drawbacks with this upgrade but I was prepared to make it work.  So after sending a few more weeks looking at different interiors I decided that I would try to source a set of E24 rear seats to  match up with a period set of Recaros. Fortunately I found a pair rears first from another FAQ member who was relatively close to me.  The fronts would take a lil longer to land.

 

Once I had them in my possession I was anxious to get them in so after doing some more research I was set. I made a  few strategic  cuts and some fine tuning with a trusty cut off tool the seats were in and positioned within a couple of hours. I thought they looked great.

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For those contemplating a similar install beware there is a consideracble amount of retro fitting. I was faced with a sizeable gap between the top of the rear bulkhead and the back of the seat. In addition there was another area between the respective rear cards and the edge of the seats that I would have to be address to help achieve that custom look.  I will endeavour to illustrate that in the next post. But for now they fit pretty snug. I just had to figure out how I was going to secure and finish them off.

 

To secure the base I decided to use the stock lower brackets on the E24 seat. They lined up perfectly with the top of the cars rear seat bulkhead. I just had to drill an appropriate size hole for a machine bolt and clip nut. Securing the top portion of the seat was a little more of a challenge. Here  I had to fabricate a L shape bracket and riveted to the rear of the seat. A similar bracket was then fixed to the rear bulkhead  to accept a 10m bolt. The downside to all this ....it would have to be accessed from the trunk to remove these brackets.

 

I should also point out I decided to use the centre console design and try to incorporate a 3rd brake light to take advantage of the higher profile of the top portion of the console. This would be cut into a redesigned self tray. It would also help filling that gap created by the new seats. I will try to detail those issues in the next post.  

 

Thanks for taking the time to have a look.

 

Regards

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Hi-I am taking on this as well. Do I need to remove seat belt next to rear cards? I have a space between door card and e24 seat. Please help! Thanks!

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I had  the same issues, so to address that I made new cards with a wider molded pocket to fill that gap.  Just make sure you allow clearance for the seat belt retractor to function properly.

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Ok. Thank you. That makes sense. You did a beautiful job! Too adventurous for me! I see others have removed seat belts or added shoulder belts? Also, do you have any pictures on how you cut back of center console? And,are seat tabs at bottom of seats in the car side or behind the little wall? Thanks!

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the alternative is to expand the outer bolster to fill the side gap to the std rear card. its easy to do by shaping spray foam on the shell when recovering the seats. IMG_0039.thumb.jpeg.b62ff50523ae4108282d03a890536a57.jpeg

 

there is enough upholstery in the std pattern to cover the amount of expansion needed and the seats are asymmetric from the factory anyway.

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11 hours ago, 02RESCUE said:

Ok. Thank you. That makes sense. You did a beautiful job! Too adventurous for me! I see others have removed seat belts or added shoulder belts? Also, do you have any pictures on how you cut back of center console? And,are seat tabs at bottom of seats in the car side or behind the little wall? Thanks!

As I recall the tabs are on the inside off the bulkhead I use self taping screws to secure them. The Center console I just trimmed away until I got the back to sit against the rear bulkhead as best as I could and to narrow the gap between the rear deck the upper section of the arm rear. I will try to dig up the pics for you… good luck with yours.

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the more seatpan you cut off the outer back side the better the seats fit around the wheel well.

 

I replaced what i cut out with glass layup molded in the car between sheets of wax paper. the pic below if the first layer which shows the well print. pan can then be built up from the seat side.

 

the front tabs on the seat can go to the back of the bulkhead. i welded some metal on the front seat tabs so that they hook into the top fold of the bulkhead. seats are then only bolted through trunk wall into a nut mounted to sheet metal riveted to the cushion side of seatpan. its nice to be able to remove the seats in under 5min.IMG_3979.thumb.jpeg.c2b1d1d0e9350288b8de199fb7de6f18.jpeg

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dont have many pics, but here is one from a test fit. unfortunately the parcel shelf is in there at the top.

 

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i basically boxed the two triangles stamped into the truck divider closest to the sides using 14g. this supports a headrest bracket which is on trunk side and takes the four bolts in the image. the single hole passing through the bracket and the boxed divider section is for a bolt from trunk side that screws into a nut affixed to another piece of sheet metal that is riveted across the top of inside/cushion side of seat pan. seat pan is then sandwiched down pretty good with thread draw of bolt.  

 

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