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Justin has been 'suggesting' that I post some pics of my latest project on the Roadster. After being without power for the past 48 hours due to the storms that clobbered the East Coast, here are some verbage and pics.
Compared to the projects that you guys have undertaken this is a small job.
I ordered the seat covers from Autos International to replace the ones that I had put on in 1975 that I got from Auto Mat that used to be in Hicksville, NY.
Here is a before pic.
Of course the first thing to do is remove the seats from the car. I did this one at a time starting with the passenger seat first. I removed the 6 screws holding the seat back in place, then laid the recliners forward and slide the seat forward to remove it from the rails and the car.
I didn't take the pics in the order that I should have or enough pics, but this will give you an idea.
This is the drivers seat removed.
and of course before the drivers seat was taken out.
I had already finished the passenger seat.
The thing that is tricky to do is cut the sides of the seat properly so that they will fit over the backs with out tearing. You must measure one inch from the back seam on each side and seven inchs up from the bottom. If done correctly the recliner hinges will cover the opening. 'Measure 2 or 3 times and cut once-thats the only cut that is critical without making a mistake-there is no correction once the cut is made'!
The back of the seat bottoms are held in place with tacks that go into a wood piece located at the base of the seat back. Autos International uses a air powered staple gun that I don't have. The originals were tacked in at Porsche.
The bottoms are fitted by slipping the covers over the seat frame and then compressing the seat springs so that the vinyl can be fitted into the U channel on the base of the seat. First make sure that the U channel is open and clean then using a long flat blade screw driver carefully push the vinyl into the channel. To keep it there as you work around the seat I had some thin wood molding left over from our kitchen cabinet project. I cut the molding into appropriate lenghts and tapped it in place as I worked around the base of the bottoms. In the seat cover 'kit' you are provided a one inch wide fiber board to keep the viynl in place. I removed the wood molding one pice at a time as I worked around the seat base. The rear piece of vinyl must be folded to smooth out the apperance. Once that is done 'hammer' the U channel closed so that the fiber board and viynl will not come out.
Here is the passenger seat installed with out the back on.
Before the back of the seat is installed find out where the screw hole anchors are. You can usually do this by feel. Once they have been located use a awl to poke thru the fabric, vinyl or leather-then with a 'sharp' single edge razor blade or knife carefully cut the fabric around the hole so when you put the recliner screws back in the material will not get jammed in the screw threads.
Here are a couple of shots of the seat covers finished from the passenger side and then the drivers side.
I am glad that I did this and am thinking about retaining the current side panels since they blend into the material on the dash.
More thought on that!
The latest is that last Thursday a noted car pub came to town and did a photo shoot on the shop and selected the Roadster and a nice 1970 911 that the shop did for a up coming issue. When the time of publication is announced I'll let you know the mag etc. We did many rolling and still shots around Richmond. Here is one at Rockettes Landing on the Jmaes River that I took. Rockettes Landing is where A. Lincoln landed in April 1865 when he came to Richmond after it was defeated during the Civil War. You can see the skyline of Ricmond and the James River in the back ground.
Enjoy,
Dick
Compared to the projects that you guys have undertaken this is a small job.
I ordered the seat covers from Autos International to replace the ones that I had put on in 1975 that I got from Auto Mat that used to be in Hicksville, NY.
Here is a before pic.
Of course the first thing to do is remove the seats from the car. I did this one at a time starting with the passenger seat first. I removed the 6 screws holding the seat back in place, then laid the recliners forward and slide the seat forward to remove it from the rails and the car.
I didn't take the pics in the order that I should have or enough pics, but this will give you an idea.
This is the drivers seat removed.
and of course before the drivers seat was taken out.
I had already finished the passenger seat.
The thing that is tricky to do is cut the sides of the seat properly so that they will fit over the backs with out tearing. You must measure one inch from the back seam on each side and seven inchs up from the bottom. If done correctly the recliner hinges will cover the opening. 'Measure 2 or 3 times and cut once-thats the only cut that is critical without making a mistake-there is no correction once the cut is made'!
The back of the seat bottoms are held in place with tacks that go into a wood piece located at the base of the seat back. Autos International uses a air powered staple gun that I don't have. The originals were tacked in at Porsche.
The bottoms are fitted by slipping the covers over the seat frame and then compressing the seat springs so that the vinyl can be fitted into the U channel on the base of the seat. First make sure that the U channel is open and clean then using a long flat blade screw driver carefully push the vinyl into the channel. To keep it there as you work around the seat I had some thin wood molding left over from our kitchen cabinet project. I cut the molding into appropriate lenghts and tapped it in place as I worked around the base of the bottoms. In the seat cover 'kit' you are provided a one inch wide fiber board to keep the viynl in place. I removed the wood molding one pice at a time as I worked around the seat base. The rear piece of vinyl must be folded to smooth out the apperance. Once that is done 'hammer' the U channel closed so that the fiber board and viynl will not come out.
Here is the passenger seat installed with out the back on.
Before the back of the seat is installed find out where the screw hole anchors are. You can usually do this by feel. Once they have been located use a awl to poke thru the fabric, vinyl or leather-then with a 'sharp' single edge razor blade or knife carefully cut the fabric around the hole so when you put the recliner screws back in the material will not get jammed in the screw threads.
Here are a couple of shots of the seat covers finished from the passenger side and then the drivers side.
I am glad that I did this and am thinking about retaining the current side panels since they blend into the material on the dash.
More thought on that!
The latest is that last Thursday a noted car pub came to town and did a photo shoot on the shop and selected the Roadster and a nice 1970 911 that the shop did for a up coming issue. When the time of publication is announced I'll let you know the mag etc. We did many rolling and still shots around Richmond. Here is one at Rockettes Landing on the Jmaes River that I took. Rockettes Landing is where A. Lincoln landed in April 1865 when he came to Richmond after it was defeated during the Civil War. You can see the skyline of Ricmond and the James River in the back ground.
Enjoy,
Dick
Now you want them as nice as the fenders...
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