This ABS board is great, very flexible but doesn't feel flimsy. Very easy to work with, actually looks good enough to use as-is. Very well-formed as well, though perhaps slightly small.
Very nice Xanth! Nice to see other 88's here in MA. That vinyl material looks pretty slick! I bought the ABS liner with the dk. gray cloth. I figured my sunroof strip would be mangled like you said and bought another one. I have the Rodney Dickman speaker grill cloth and a factory subwoofer system going in as well. I'll post when I actually get my lazy butt going on it.
------------------ =-Eric the Dread
1988 Fiero GT 2.8L V6 2001 Grand Prix GTP SC3.8L V6
I spy a laundry basket. You are going to recover that, too, aren't you?
lol. Though now that you mention it
I doubt anyone will guess what the second item is
quote
Originally posted by 88 Dread GT:
Very nice Xanth! Nice to see other 88's here in MA. That vinyl material looks pretty slick! I bought the ABS liner with the dk. gray cloth. I figured my sunroof strip would be mangled like you said and bought another one. I have the Rodney Dickman speaker grill cloth and a factory subwoofer system going in as well. I'll post when I actually get my lazy butt going on it.
I think there's a few of us around here, I've seen other cars around that I'm fairly sure aren't on PFF. Think you'll go down to the Kick Hill swapmeet in CT? The factory subwoofer system, with a better speaker is an excellent upgrade
quote
Originally posted by IMSA GT:
That vinyl looks clean as hell on the headliner !! I may have to steal your idea I'll add this to the build thread list.
I wish I had a better camera, the vinyl looks even better in person. and with the 1/4 of foam it is very soft to the touch, feels like leather. If you give it a go, try and get the most stretchy vinyl you can find in the pattern and color you want. Mine is moderately stretchy but the corners around the sunroof are difficult. I did mess up the very front right corner, the glue set before I could fix it but its not really noticable.
"I think there's a few of us around here, I've seen other cars around that I'm fairly sure aren't on PFF. Think you'll go down to the Kick Hill swapmeet in CT? The factory subwoofer system, with a better speaker is an excellent upgrade"
When's the Kickhill Farm swap meet? I got my 1st engine replacement from them back in '96. It was from an '87 w/62K miles. I now know why the engine vibrated slightly... I never changed to the '87 flexplate and flywheel. It wasn't resolved until I bought a brand new block for an '88 back in 2001.
As for your secret project, steering wheel rewrap?
------------------ =-Eric the Dread
1988 Fiero GT 2.8L V6 2001 Grand Prix GTP SC3.8L V6
If you make it you can see everything in person, hopefully it all holds together
quote
Originally posted by Jake_Dragon:
That came out nice!
Try using the Mr.Clean sponges on the plastic parts, you will be amazed at how clean they will come.
I've heard good things about those, I think we sell them at work, I'll have to pick one up and give it a try. My plastic pieces seem to be in great shape, just quite dirty. The pollen lately has been terrible as well, it coats everything.
So, did you do the recover of the shades? Tell us who did. It all looks real good. Now I have some new projects for my 86. Everytime I get in here, I add something to the list. Gotta get the AC finished first..... Thanks for sharing.....
The visors and Sunshade were done by FieroNews.net, FieroThomas on here.
The visors are beautiful, I know he had some issues with my chosen material but they came out very nice.
The new sunshade bag is very nice, made of Faux leather it feels of very high-quality. It is very supple to the touch, much nicer than the factory vinyl bag. It doesn't have the thick lining on the inside, but I don't think that is a problem at all.
Well, I forgot to grab a picture but I managed to snag one of the older FieroStore repro carpets on ebay. It has the correct salt and pepper pattern to match the factory carpet.
What I need to do now is find a way to remove the foot pads from a factory carpet and put them on this one.
That's looking absolutely incredible, I may have to borrow a few of your ideas when I get around to the interior of my project car. I second the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers NOTHING cleans out all the ground in dirt as easily.
Okay, a while ago I acquired an old FieroStore carpet off Ebay. The thing that makes it special is it actually has the correct salt and pepper style pattern as stock, unlike the solid colors available now.
First thing, take apart the interior pieces and pull out the old carpet piece:
Now, the common practice with these seems to be to install the new FieroStore carpet directly over the old carpet. The FieroStore carpet does not have the molded foam, only a pad underneath so I can understand why. However, I am not going to get new carpet just to leave my old carpet underneath.
Here is the underside of the original carpet, showing the molded foam:
And here is the molded foam, now liberated from the carpet:
Oh noes! This side of the car was soaked in coolant from a broken heater core before I got it, I'm guessing that's what caused this. Project for another day.
Xanth, how hard was it to lay the carpet? I'm looking at putting new carpet in myself from automotiveinteriors.com and would like to know what I'm getting myself into... What tools are needed? What all needs to be removed to get the old carpet out?
Can't wait to see how this turns out, looks really good so far.
Oh yea, how hard was it to redo the speaker grills? I have new covers coming from Rodney's website... What did you use for glue to stick everything down?
Doing the carpet isn't too bad, the fitment is decent, not great. I haven't used an automotive interiors carpet. though it will probably be similar. Its a bit wrinkly right now, but I expect it will smooth out over time then I may use some trim adhesive to bond it to the foam backing.
To make things easier for yourself, take out the interior 1/4 panel, the lower trim, and the center console pieces. As you can see in the pics I left the front console in, but its actually easier if you take it out. All you really need is the 13mm wrench for the seats, a torx for the seatbelt bolts (I can't remember what the size is), the interior torx bit, and the 7mm driver for the interior trim screws. The carpet just pulls up, it will probably stick to the floor a bit but its not really secured down. You can carefully remove the foam backing just prying at it with your fingers, or at least I was able to. The difficult of removing the foam probably depends on the condition of the carpet. Some good snips are very helpful, with the Fierostore carpet there was some trimming needed on the outer edges, there is some excess allowing you to work the carpet into place.
When putting in the new carpet, spend as much time as you need to be certain you have the carpet in the right place before cutting the bolt and seat belt holes. I accidentally cut away too much for the driver's side seatbelt hole, fortunately its not really visible.
The speaker grills weren't too hard. I used a combination of Soldering iron and trim adhesive to do them. I started along one edge, aligning the material with the grain going the direction I wanted. I then used a razor blade to hold a section in place on the bottom, and use the soldering iron to melt the plastic frame into the new material. Do one end, then the opposite end while pulling it tight. I folded the excess material over and used trim adhesive on the underside of the frame. Careful not to spray any adhesive on the underside of your top material, it ruins it.
It is much easier to redo it if you leave in the honeycomb material, but I found the sound was noticeably improved by removing all that material. I'll see if I have any images better showing off the process.
[This message has been edited by Xanth (edited 09-19-2008).]
