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Interior Parts & Stereo, Part 4
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Panels & Upholstery
One of the pitfalls when it takes several years or more to complete a project is the tendency to change things. This was the case with Mark and the interior of the coupe. Mark decided to enlist the help of a talented upholsterer for new seats and interior design. He contacted Shawn Appleman at Aidan Original about their line of “Hot Seats”. We will show more on these seats in a future update.
Shawn also directed Mark to Schmidt America as a source for leather hides for the interior. The quality and size of the hides is outstanding. Pictured is one of the hides draped over the roof of the coupe to see if a one-piece headliner was feasible. The hide’s size is easily big enough and can even incorporate the sail panels too.
Mark still wanted to do some of the interior himself, so having the proper tools was necessary. He contacted Quality Sew about their Mini-Brute line of walking foot sewing machines. The extended arm machine and included accessories are pictured here. Having done some other interiors on machines not quite suited for it, Mark is looking forward to using a quality machine. To create a sewing work station, Mark modified an industrial computer desk by cutting a hole and routing an edge for the Mini-Brute machine. More feedback on this machine later.
While the interior design is being finalized the substrate panels were built and mounting requirements defined. A poster-board pattern was transferred to 1/8” Luan plywood for the doors. Mark decided to re-enforce all the edges and area around the window. 3” wide fiberglass and epoxy resin worked well. The window area was laid up first, then cut out. This prevented breaking the thin section areas. The recessed areas provide extra clearance for the power window drive and door latch linkage.
Spring clips hold the panel to the door. You can also see the speaker mount rings have been molded into the front kick panels.
In the trunk ¼” Luan was trimmed to fit and then overlaid with glass cloth and epoxy resin. Generally most epoxy resins offer a longer pot life than fiberglass resin, this can be very useful when working large areas or greater strength is desired. The borders were formed from 1” aluminum angle and then bonded to the bottom of the plywood. The back support was formed using a set of shrinker/stretcher dies. It bolts to the machined corner brackets and to two tabs welded to the hinge doublers.
Copyright © 1999-2008 Bob Shetrone