Nice work on the Center Console Skeleton.

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https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/092166.html

quote Originally posted by fierogtlt1: Nice work on the Center Console Skeleton.

I didn't really do anything, just lucky enough to get an undamaged skeleton, but thanks.

The Fiero Store black carpet for the cabin and the trunk arrived today, along with new sealant for the tail light housings! Looks good all though it is definitely thinner than the stock carpet.

Their shipping costs are high but they do deliver quickly.

Nolan

Minor update:

Painting of some of the interior components has started. After a bit of digging on the forum and elsewhere I found a decent how to video:



Based on that here are the products that I'm using in order from left to right:



The color coat is landau black.

And painting is underway:

Dash and glove box are done. I've retained the charcoal dash top and side vents as the centre console and shift cover will remain charcoal as well. Black is hard to photograph and some of the colors look a bit off in the pictures but not in real life.

Before:



After:







Progress!

Not a whole lot of exciting things to mention.

Door panels are painted, waiting now for the new lower covers and armrests. Cleaned up a bit of wiring through the tunnel below the center console. Plans for the upcoming week: I'm going to look at installing some LED projectors in the doors and possibly keyless entry. Once that's done I'll start to reassemble the dash.

Nolan

You are doing what I am just starting.
Thanks and I look forward to seeing your car this summer as I am only in Edmonton.

quote Originally posted by Inferno: You are doing what I am just starting. Thanks and I look forward to seeing your car this summer as I am only in Edmonton.

Hi!

I hope that my thread is helping you out a bit. What all are you planning for your car?

A bit of an update:

I went and picked up some 1/4" acrylic rods from a local supplier. A couple of these were cut to length:



Then they were lightly sanded with 220 grit sand paper, rounded the ends and cleaned with plastic cleaner:



After some self etching primer and paint I ended up with these:



I then used this adhesive which is transparent when it comes out of the bottle and dries transparent as well:



And finished up with this:





I did this to echo the red piping on my seats:



I then took a longer length of rod and formed it to the curved groove in the dash as well. My heat gun worked perfectly to soften the acrylic for forming:







After priming and painting I used my super advanced clamping method of small sockets and extensions to help the rod adhere to the dash:



And the end result:





I like it!

Also, my fiberglass headliner arrived from V8 Archie, need to cut out for the 3rd brake light, coat hooks and visors:



Oh and my hydrographics shop called, my trim pieces and bezels are ready for pick-up

[This message has been edited by Sourmug (edited 05-14-2014).]

Looks really good, Nolan.



Bob

If you sand the acrylic rods to frost them and then light the end of the acrylic rod with a light source (LED or 12v bulb), they will glow. I'm sure light would glow through the paint... If this is your thing ; )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXUBl9AR42s

Very nice work on the door panels and dash.The red trim really pops and matches the seats,Great Job.

Thanks guys.

I noticed that the tubing carries light well, but I don't think that's my thing for this car, thanks for the suggestion though.

Nolan

Yay, the head liner is in! Pain in the but, finicky but it's in and looks nice. I'd take a picture but all you would see is an expanse of black with a sunroof though it, you get the idea..

It's nice to be putting things back into the car.

[This message has been edited by Sourmug (edited 05-16-2014).]

That is how I did my door panels with grey 1/4" PVC in the groove...Turned out pretty good.
But that red and black looks bad ass.

[This message has been edited by fierogtlt1 (edited 05-16-2014).]

Yes the groove is just begging for something to be placed in it. Er, I'm not sure that came out right...

The grey and black looks great too!

Russ sent me a few pictures of how things are progressing:

Door Pockets


Door Panels


Visors

[This message has been edited by Sourmug (edited 05-16-2014).]

Picture of the armrests as well:

Wanted to add this about the rear speaker covers. I essentially duplicated the recovering method that I used way back when I was working on my 87 GT. The grilles are heat welded to the interior trim and if you try to remove them they will break the plastic pins that hold it in place. Here's my solution to the problem.

When you pull the grilles off this is what you will see, first the holes that are left in the trim piece:

The larger round hole is for the upper seat belt attachment. And the back of the grilles look like this once the existing fabric has been removed:

Here's how the plastic pins look:

There's no easy way to re-weld these back on so a different attachment is required. On the face of the grilles there are four small dimples that are over-top of the pin locations on the back. These are a result of the injection molding process and fortunately show the exact positing of each pin. The dimples can be hard to see but are visible in good light. I ground the pins off smooth on the back side and marked the dimples with a sharpie marker.

I the drilled out the dimples to suit #8 machine screws on the drill-press. I'm suing screws with a tapered head and need to flare the holes so that the screws sit flush with the grille surface. To do this I used a conical grinding stone in my dremel:


And carefully using the dremel on a low speed I matched the hole to the tapered screw:


The screw are then held in place with nuts on the back side:


After a test fit the grilles were then sprayed with a black self-etching primer and were left to dry overnight:

I purchased some grille cloth from Rodney Dickman, it comes in two rectangles large enough for the front speaker grilles:

And to attach the cloth I coated the grille faces with 3M spray adhesive:

The fabric was laid onto the grille after the adhesive was applied and carefully positioned and stretched so that it lays flat and smooth at the corners. Heres the back side after the cloth was attached:

And after the trimming to size:

The spray adhesive is very tacky and the cloth sticks to it right away. Make sure your work area is clean.
I then used a heat gun to run a bead of glue along the back of the grille and folded the excess cloth over the back edge:

The grilles were then inserted onto the trim piece and attached with nuts.

And the extra screw length was cut off and the nuts secured using Loctite.

[This message has been edited by Sourmug (edited 05-17-2014).]

The hydro graphics look great and the extra detail on the glove box....Definitely makes me want to go redo all my interior now.

I'm getting ready to do my interior color change tomorrow. Yours looks FANTASTIC! I can't wait to see those parts installed!

quote Originally posted by Steven Snyder: I'm getting ready to do my interior color change tomorrow. Yours looks FANTASTIC! I can't wait to see those parts installed!

Thanks!

I'm looking forward to it too!

I managed to get the new Fiero Store trunk carpet installed along wit the new trunk seal that I purchased nearly 2 years ago:




It certainly takes some wrestling to get into the nooks and crannies and in the end it is not a perfect fit compared to the OEM carpet. It is pre-formed to the structure of the trunk though which helps all the holes have to be cut and it's pretty darn stiff. Not perfect but not bad either.

Nolan

My gaaawd man! You've motivated me in ways I only thought women could do. I've read all 6 pages and I'm keen to get my sorry arse back into the garage and work it!!! Who knows maybe one day my 88 will be as beautiful as yours! Thank you for the inspiration.
Regards
B.J.

quote Originally posted by quins&dads88: My gaaawd man! You've motivated me in ways I only thought women could do. I've read all 6 pages and I'm keen to get my sorry arse back into the garage and work it!!! Who knows maybe one day my 88 will be as beautiful as yours! Thank you for the inspiration. Regards B.J.

Err, umm Thanks, glad I could inspire you, LOL.

The cup holder dilemma...

I have a TXGOOD cup holder for the centre console which I think is a great, well crafted product. I like it but I find that putting a drink in it makes it a bit hard to shift. I've spent a fair bit of time looking for options and I think most of the aftermarket options are just "bandaid" solutions. I wanted something that pulls out and is relatively concealed when closed. I settled on the 4th generation Jetta cup holder:





This unit is 6.9" wide X 5.6"front to back, pulls out just over 3" and most importantly is just under 3/4"thick. Consequently, it will fit nicely under my glove box with a bit of cutting on the dash.

Dash cut marked:



And cut using a cut off wheel in my dremel:



I drilled some mounting holes through the top and some matching but larger holes on the bottom for access to the holes for the screws. The screws will mount into the bottom of the glove box which has a 1/2" plywood frame:



Test fit without the glove box:



There are a few things to be aware of.

1. The glove box door in the open position swings under the glove box bottom by 1/4"+/- so the cup holder door has to stop before that.
2. The cup holder door swings up and cant be tight to the underside of the glove box, a spacer is needed.
3. The case of the cup holder cant have pressure points applied to pinch the case or the mechanism won't function.

Installed position , screwed in place (again, can't distort the case) and then caulked with silicone:





The back side:



Closed:



And open:



Yay, a functioning cup holder!

I'll add some coloring to the silicone but you won't really be able to see it once the dash is in the car anyways.
Nolan

My LED kit arrived for the tail lights, manufactured and designed by doublec4 and assembled by Danyel. Well worth the cost I'd say. Can't wait to see how the finished product looks!

OK, so I reassemble the dash and all the wiring is connected, no wiring modifications. My two map lights won't illuminate and there's way too much base from the performance sound subwoofer. Suggestions?

Thanks

quote Originally posted by Sourmug: OK, so I reassemble the dash and all the wiring is connected, no wiring modifications. My two map lights won't illuminate and there's way too much base from the performance sound subwoofer. Suggestions? Thanks

The map lights ground through a metal tab under one of the mounting screws. You probably painted over it.

quote Originally posted by Steven Snyder: The map lights ground through a metal tab under one of the mounting screws. You probably painted over it.

I didn't paint the center area but perhaps the clip is off. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll have a look at her tomorrow. A pile of people are coming to our house today for the father in-law's 80th birthday.

Nolan

Well, I feel sheepish...

Steven you were on the right track, however it wasn't paint per se. Thanks again for the tip, I should have just checked it right away.
Note to self, when fastening a component through a connection that has a grounding tab use the uncoated fastener shown on the left rather than the coated one on the right. It also helps to remember the specific fasteners used...



Also, this appears to have corrected the performance sound baes level, the slider is now working too.

Sometimes it's the simplest things that just want to make you scream...

Now, onto the carpet install.

Edit to add that I have given you a +.

[This message has been edited by Sourmug (edited 05-25-2014).]

Looking good, Nolan.

You should grab the red seat belts mike myers has for sale. They'd look good with your colors.

Bob

Thanks Bob.

I saw his posting but they are shorter than the stock belts and to be honest I don't know how much excess my belts have when I'm in the car. If they were the stock length then I'd pick them up for sure.

Nolan

[This message has been edited by Sourmug (edited 05-25-2014).]

Well, the carpet, firewall cover and the door trim pieces are all in. Just waiting for my other interior goodies to arrive.

Not a great picture, I'll take better ones once the car gets outdoors.

quote Originally posted by Sourmug: Well, the carpet, firewall cover and the door trim pieces are all in. Just waiting for my other interior goodies to arrive. Not a great picture, I'll take better ones once the car gets outdoors.

I am really liking those b-pillar and a-pillar covers! How durable is the finish?