Ok,...full update with little progress to actually display.
The day starts out normally enough (for a Sunday). I'm down in the garage at 9 AM,...wifes lounging around, and I decide to build the package tray, and attempt to upholster it.
Fairmont, and as I'd imagine Mustang notches, have three clips that hold the thing down in the back, with various screws holding it down in the front. Transferring those clips over to the new board became job 1. The factory just presses the clips into the board and little teeth bite into the surface, Easy enough to pry off, but trying to get it to bite into the new board proved futile. I ended up using big headed aluminum rivets, and smashing them flat with a hammer.
What can I say?....You do what you do when you're a hack.
So While I'm beating rivets flat, the window opens above my head, the wife sticks hers out of it, and "reminds me" that I'm committed for the afternoon, and I need to come in and get cleaned up.
Yippee.
The "commitment" was a food and drink venue outside with about 30 vendors offering samples of the food from their restaurants. This would've been a welcome diversion from the ordinary with one exception,........
It was hotter than the surface of the sun.
It was about 96 degrees today, and all of those people, jammed together waiting in line for a sample was jusssst a tad bit more than I wanted to mess with. Evidently the wife (Kate) was feeling the same way, because it took very little whining on my part to convince her that it was time to go.
So we leave and I'm back home, in garage clothes, back working on the package tray, seemingly impervious to the same hot assed temperature that was "way too hot" at the other place.
I had planned to use the same vinyl upholstery that I used on the headliner, but after looking at the scrap found out that it was way too small. I had enough of the black "backless" carpet that the Little Japanese Kids seat was upholstered in, but wanted to use something brown to offset all of that black at the back of the car. I grubbed through the leather and found two pieces that were wide enough,...but neither was long enough. I decided to seam them in the middle.
That plan did not turn out the way that I wanted.
So I adapted the plan. and made a cover plate to hide the seam. I believe that I can live with that.
The seam cover is a piece if 1/8th " aluminum. Glued down over the two butted together sides. What I didn't have was anymore of the stain that I used on all of the other leather, so that'll have to wait for another day.
I also cleaned up the bars that make up the console,...popped the thing into place,...and promptly moved the two man bags that make up my "glove compartment" forward two inches.
They were too far back in their original configuration,...when the seats are mounted, they were almost at the front edge of the seat. I wanted them forward.
So,..where does that leave me?...
I still have a door panel to fabricate for the passenger side. The speaker box that stands off of the door panel,.and.........all of that upholstery. These doors have the manual window regulators in them, and use an after market electric drive system to "motorize" the windows. That motor system also fits in that box. I'm curious as to how long these things will last,..but I'd imagine that the smoother the regulator operates, the better that'll be. Both of the regulators move about as freely as I think anybody could expect them to.
There are no rocker trim pieces. Mine were broken. You cannot buy them (for a fairmont) When I get the kicks in place, I'll start looking to see whether or not Mustang pieces will work.
The day starts out normally enough (for a Sunday). I'm down in the garage at 9 AM,...wifes lounging around, and I decide to build the package tray, and attempt to upholster it.
Fairmont, and as I'd imagine Mustang notches, have three clips that hold the thing down in the back, with various screws holding it down in the front. Transferring those clips over to the new board became job 1. The factory just presses the clips into the board and little teeth bite into the surface, Easy enough to pry off, but trying to get it to bite into the new board proved futile. I ended up using big headed aluminum rivets, and smashing them flat with a hammer.
What can I say?....You do what you do when you're a hack.
So While I'm beating rivets flat, the window opens above my head, the wife sticks hers out of it, and "reminds me" that I'm committed for the afternoon, and I need to come in and get cleaned up.
Yippee.
The "commitment" was a food and drink venue outside with about 30 vendors offering samples of the food from their restaurants. This would've been a welcome diversion from the ordinary with one exception,........
It was hotter than the surface of the sun.
It was about 96 degrees today, and all of those people, jammed together waiting in line for a sample was jusssst a tad bit more than I wanted to mess with. Evidently the wife (Kate) was feeling the same way, because it took very little whining on my part to convince her that it was time to go.
So we leave and I'm back home, in garage clothes, back working on the package tray, seemingly impervious to the same hot assed temperature that was "way too hot" at the other place.
I had planned to use the same vinyl upholstery that I used on the headliner, but after looking at the scrap found out that it was way too small. I had enough of the black "backless" carpet that the Little Japanese Kids seat was upholstered in, but wanted to use something brown to offset all of that black at the back of the car. I grubbed through the leather and found two pieces that were wide enough,...but neither was long enough. I decided to seam them in the middle.
That plan did not turn out the way that I wanted.
So I adapted the plan. and made a cover plate to hide the seam. I believe that I can live with that.
The seam cover is a piece if 1/8th " aluminum. Glued down over the two butted together sides. What I didn't have was anymore of the stain that I used on all of the other leather, so that'll have to wait for another day.
I also cleaned up the bars that make up the console,...popped the thing into place,...and promptly moved the two man bags that make up my "glove compartment" forward two inches.
They were too far back in their original configuration,...when the seats are mounted, they were almost at the front edge of the seat. I wanted them forward.
So,..where does that leave me?...
I still have a door panel to fabricate for the passenger side. The speaker box that stands off of the door panel,.and.........all of that upholstery. These doors have the manual window regulators in them, and use an after market electric drive system to "motorize" the windows. That motor system also fits in that box. I'm curious as to how long these things will last,..but I'd imagine that the smoother the regulator operates, the better that'll be. Both of the regulators move about as freely as I think anybody could expect them to.
There are no rocker trim pieces. Mine were broken. You cannot buy them (for a fairmont) When I get the kicks in place, I'll start looking to see whether or not Mustang pieces will work.
.