Chapter IX -- Hood, Interior and Upholstery
So far I think I have all the materials to do the interior except for the carpet. I bought 6 yards of a medium tan (saddle maybe) vinyl for all the panels and everything but the seating surfaces. These will be a contrasting but proper English tweed for some contrast. I had to buy new foam padding for the seats, ridiculously priced at almost $200 per seat. The old foam was just too bad to use again. I have enough of the "waterproof fiber board" to replace all the panels except possibly the one separating the cockpit from the boot. That should be a heavier material, possibly masonite, but it has a bend built in that would be hard to reproduce. The old one seems to be in reasonable condition except the DPO cut a hole in it for a speaker that I will not want. I intend to do this over the winter while waiting for spring to paint the car. Meanwhile the first photo is one of the seat frames disassembled, cleaned and painted. Next is both frames, reassembled and leaning against a book case. The last one is the tweed fabric for the seating surfaces with the vinyl for everything else.
Before starting on the panels, I thought it prudent to more carefully check their fit. I will
replace the hardboard but would like to use them for patterns for their replacements. Here I
have them just set in place for that purpose. Some blue tape was needed to hold them. The fit
appears good so I will proceed. The hardboard looks like a compressed cardboard pretty close to
1/8 inch thick. On second thought it probably is untempered masonite. It is definitely thicker
than my fiberboard. I may consider masonite instead. The vinyl is pulled to the back side then
glued and stapled with staples short enough that they do not protrude through the board. I don't
know if I can find staples so short.
You can see in the photo where the lateral bend is in the boot panel, about 2 inches above the speaker hole. After removing the old vinyl and its padding from the boot panel, I thought it seemed a little thin. Also, patching that speaker hole needed something. I decided to cut a cardboard patch for the hole then fiberglass the entire front side and at least the cardboard on the back for added strength.
Here I have started on upholstery. I thought the scuttle pad had to be installed before the fascia
but now I am not sure. I will have to lie under and investigate. Covering the piece was not too
difficult. The existing cork was in good shape so no repair required. I elected to add a layer of
the thinnest quilt padding I could find. I should have tack glued it but did not. I was finally able
to get a quart of the thin contact cement and wrapped the vinyl around and glued it to the metal back.
The problem was the ends. The original cover was a very thin vinyl with no fabric backing. Mine is
somewhat thicker and has a typical double knit backing. Making the curves while hiding the backing
proved to be a challenge. After doing that, the door caps seemed a little easier. I did tack glue the
padding this time and that helped
Over a period of weeks, I managed to make a pattern from an old sheet that I thought could fit the seat bottom cushions. Knowing that was too thin, I bought a remnant to copy it in a little heavier fabric. Without thinking, the remnant I got was black and really hard to work with. Well, the pattern did not work as well with the heavier fabric. So over another period of weeks or maybe even more, I managed to adjust it so that I thought it would. This all took a lot longer than it should have. Too much other stuff got in the way and I was probably somewhat intimidated by it. But I finally did make myself cut into the final fabric and have a go at it. I think the result is at least satisfactory. The cover is not on the seat frame yet so it cannot be pulled tight, letting some wrinkles show here.
With one seat cushion finally finished and looking pretty good it was time to start the second. Since
the first one was made from the existing pattern without any changes I used it for the second seat as
is. Both did require a little extra padding, particularly around the corners above the center bucket.
Also, even having a good working pattern, it is still not trivial to get the thing assembled and fit
satisfactorily. A certain amount of redo was required. The final result is quite satisfactory I think
though.
Next, it was time to tackle the seat backs. This looks like a much simpler project as there is no significant forming necessary other than the side-to-side curve that is controlled by the frame. I do want to have seams up the back that match the seat seams for the deep bucket and it does need to fit tight naturally with no means to just pull the slack out in final fitting. To ease final fitting, I will put zippers in the center of the outer back.
My initial appraisal may have been in error. The seat back may be as hard as the seat after all. Oh, the problems are different as there is no sudden depression. Getting the face to conform to the concave side-to-side curve seems to be another matter. My first attempt was a cloth pattern configured from the foam cushion. I thought it fit better than I expected except at the top. I had tried to take into account the way the foam changes to conform to the frame but didn't do it very well.
Next. I retrieved a back cover that I took off the seat initially. The covers were not original and were made to fit worn out foam but it seemed to fit a little better than my first pattern although it was a bit tight, particularly in the face. The top looked pretty close to right. So I took it apart and used it for the second pattern. I tried to compensate for the tightness by adding a half inch to both the face and the outer back. Thinking this would be very close to the final pattern, I made paper patterns first then cut the test fabric from those. To my surprise, after sewing it all together and test fitting, it still seems to be too tight and I still can't get the top to fit like I want it.
The third pattern may finally be the answer. I added another full inch to the width of both the face and the outer back. Then I adjusted the tops a little by taking a little off the shoulders. I was sure it would be too loose this time but I was wrong again. After fitting, it actually looked pretty good with just a little looseness at the shoulders on the outer back. I am trying to use the outer back to compensate for any looseness in the face so I deepened both shoulders about another half inch and the fit is very close, almost acceptable as it is.
Closer inspection revealed another, possibly the most significant, problem. I made the top section of the boxing to roughly match the old vinyl but mostly the curve of the seat back frame. In place, the actual seat back top is much straighter than that, in fact almost straight. This leaves some significant puckering along the back edge, the longer, outside of the curve. I once again disassembled the cover and cut a replacement piece, reducing the curve from 1-3/4 inch to just 1/2 inch.
This made the fit look pretty good, probably acceptable, in fact. Any remaining puckering or looseness was slight enough to be acceptable, especially since it was all on the outer back. All but one glaring error, that is. The face was finally too wide. The side with the offset, away from the door, wrapped around into the boxing a little less than an inch from below the shoulder almost to the bottom. Yet another new pattern will be necessary.
I carefully marked the face where it was too wide then disassembled the whole thing to make the new pattern. I trimmed the face to the previous marking then cut a new outer back to make up that difference by adding the cut off from the face plus a little extra to ease the fit somewhat. This fit pretty well but left some looseness at the top of the outer back. I removed it one more time and took out another 1/2 inch or so, making the curve a little flatter. This made the fit acceptable, if not perfect. Since I had installed the cover pretty much without taking advantage of the zipper, I began to wonder if the zipper was really needed after all. Therefore, I uninstalled and reinstalled the cover, leaving the zipper closed the whole time. Omitting it may cause a little more effort with the rubberized backing on the fabric but it eliminates some tedious effort and some potential failure points. I will make new paper patterns for everything and proceed with no zipper.
I disassembled the test piece and made the patterns from them and cut the materials for the first seat back from them. Assembly of the first cover was relatively uneventful except for doing the top stitching for the outer back to the boxing. Without the zipper, it would not lay anywhere near flat so the sewing had to be done a couple of inches at a time while deep inside the narrow cover. I didn't think about that when I decided to eliminate the zipper. It was still the right decision though. The first photo below tries to indicate at least some of that difficulty. The others are of the seat finished, front and back. The second seat back was done the same and was uneventful except for that same top stitching.
With the seats finished, I decided to tackle the carpet next. That turned out to be a small error as we shall see later. Several weeks ago, I purchased the exact same carpet material from Gipson's that I had used on the Volkswagen where it has lasted for many years. The total cost for the car and the boot was $47 whereas Moss gets almost $600 for their version. Theirs is real car carpet though and I will have to add carpet pads in the foot wells to take the wear. I also found a piece of suitable brown fabric at Hobby Lobby to make the binding tapes; everything is bound except for the glued pieces. I cut the sections for under the seats first, probably because they are the easiest. My plan is to let the seat rails do the actual hold-down. We'll see how that works out. Most of the smaller pieces are actually glued down and most of the rest is held down be sticky-backed velcro. Again, time will tell whether this works.
The boot carpet presented a new problem. All of it required a certain amount of "bending-over" time and, dealing with two partially collapsed lungs made that very difficult. I did get it done though, eventually. All the boot carpet is glued down and none of it is bound. Then reaching back under the wings, there are support braces on both sides making it very hard to retrieve anything that might roll or fall there. So, I made carpet-covered panels to mostly cover those braces and try to keep things in the boot where they belong.
So now the explanation of that "small error" mentioned above. It seems that some of the panels should be installed before the carpet. I discovered this after installing all the off side foot well carpet with velcro. Peeling that industrial strength stuff is not a easy task and must be done with a great deal of care. Fortunately, I learned this before sticking down the near side. With the pedals and all, it would have been a lot harder.
There is not much interesting to tell about the panels or their construction except that the ones I have appear to have come from another car as their screw holes do not match the respective ones in the body. They are covered in the same vinyl, of course, as the seats. The panel material is from Gipson's and is called "waterproof fiberboard". It is pretty thin but I think it will work. I glued the vinyl to the backs with Lokweld professional contact cement. The stuff is intended to be sprayed but I elected to brush it instead. I didn't find it much thinner than regular Weldwood although it does dry, ready for contact, much quicker, maybe 5 minutes or so rather than 15-20. Also, I was not able to find any really short staples and with the already thin fiberboard, I did not want sharp points poking through the vinyl so I omitted the staples. Another experiment that only time will tell.
Besides the fabric seat surfaces, I took one other possible liberty with authenticity. Through the '66 model year, the doors still had a nice pocket inside as there were no roll up windows yet. I found a photo of one '67 in "The Original Sprite and Midget" book that used the '66 door card with a matching vinyl covered steel insert whereas the proper door card for the MK IV was solid, at least all but maybe the earliest versions. I don't yet know the manufacture date of my car but its VIN appears to be a fairly early version. Since I had both sets of door cards and ultimately found those steel inserts, I elected to use the earlier cards, and I covered the insert with my seat fabric. I really like the look.
After a couple more days and more shopping and dollars expended, I think I finally have the interior upholstery finished with the exception of installing the seats. I wanted to get some good photos of just the carpet and panels without the seats obstructing the view. It turns out that there was a flaw or two in the panels I had. The screw holes did not match up to their corresponding holes in the body. The outer foot well panels were not notched for the door retainer straps; this probably explains why there was such a deep door gouge in the off side A post. Finally, there was a half inch gap between the under door panels and the outer foot well panels. I solved the hole mismatch by installing temporary screws in the body holes with a lot of chalk on their heads then positioning the panels and tapping over the screws to mark the hole location. I covered the panel gap with matching vinyl glued to the body between. So here are the photos. I think it looks pretty good.
Meanwhile, Rick and Suzanne bought me a new Robbins black vinyl top for my birthday. They said I "have too much time and money in the car and it is just too nice to have a worn out but repaired top." As much as I appreciate that, and I truly do, I still will not be installing it soon. My goal has been, and still is, to get the car on the road to take Judy for a drive around the lake before winter. Some time over the winter, I will now install the new top instead of repairing and installing the old one. It should add value to the car substantially more than the cost of the top.
Update: What has ben slowing me down is a collapsed lung. Finally had surgery to repair it cost 11 days in hospital and I still have drain tubes. It may be a while before I can do the rest. It is still in the same condition as above, waiting for the seats to be installed. I hope to get back soon but I can't even go to the shop yet. Oops, I forgot. I did get the seat belts installed on the last day before surgery. Here they are.
Well, I finally got enough energy and strength to install the seats. I installed them without their backs and added tjem later. That was a mistake as access to the bolts and brackets is very limited. The passenger seat is fine but I may have to remove or at least loosen the mounting bolts for the driver seat. It is too far forward and I have not been able to adjust it. As y ou can see in one of the photos below, the seat has to be forward in order to reach the rear mounting bolts.
