Finally almost sort of done with the interior panels
Well, this interior job has certainly been chock full of learning experiences. It's all centered around not having any rear seats. No rear seats means no rear seatbelts. (We will also have to deal with finding solutions for no/modified rear door panels as well as rear deck panel but that's another blog entry.)
Sooo, it was my bright idea to remove the rear seatbelts altogether and then cover up the seatbelt hole in the c-pillar panel with fiberglass and then using some thin layers of Bondo to smooth everything out. Well, I spent a whole week of sanding, filling, sanding and then filling again to later realize that although I had a smoothed panel now, I also had a smoothed panel now. i.e. There was no longer the fake vinyl texture anymore. Doh.
Well, that kind of sucked so I decided to possibly cover all of the panels with the denim I used to do the headliner. Yeah, that didn't work either because the MK3 pieces have such severe curves to them, the fabric wouldn't stretch even after shooting it with heat. So, painting it was.
I painted all of the pieces except the c-pillars because I still had no idea what I was going to do with that texture. One night I had an idea of possibly making a mold of the texture with epoxy resin and then somehow pressing the mold on the panel when it had a thin layer of filler or possibly wet paint.
Taped off for the mold...
Pouring the resin
Then once the mold was dry (and it actually worked and made a nice texture in it), I applied a thin layer of filler but it was just too think. Fuck up #42...
I then sprayed the panel with the black paint and dabbed the mold on it and it sort of worked but after obsessing about it in bed for 2 hours instead of sleeping, I admitted to myself that it just looked like shit. Even though it was a "C" if I graded it , I would always know that it looked like ass if I actually put it in the car.
Back to the drawing boards.
Kate and I went back to the fabric store on saturday to find a stretchier denim to cover all of the pillar panels but couldn't find anything. Then we found vinyl but it was either too thick or too shiny. On the way up the stairs, I stopped and asked kate what the original idea of this build was all about and maybe it wasn't supposed to be so "perfect" looking. After all, the inspiration of this build was that of function over form and maybe an all black interior was the wrong idea and would look too factory OEM (if that's such a thing).
Kate suggested that we try a two-tone interior and all of a sudden it seemed like the perfect idea. (Kate rules... period.)
So we found a nice dark dark green fabric that almost had the same exact weave as the denim but it stretched nine ways to tuesday. Score.
After all day of gluing, cursing and washing sticky fingers 143 times, we were done. But I will still go on record to say that the MK3 interior is by far the fucking hardest interior to cover in all of automobile land. Special thanks to kate for helping me wrap the pieces after I struggled on the kitchen floor for damn near an hour before asking her for help. She was pretty much the deciding factor of these pieces looking as fantastic as the do.
The green against the new black sunroof cover,
Higher exposure of the green to show what it would look like when sun hit it. w00t!
*note: only 2 hours after finished and the fucking things already have dog hair on them. I need to shave Carson STAT =)
Sooo, it was my bright idea to remove the rear seatbelts altogether and then cover up the seatbelt hole in the c-pillar panel with fiberglass and then using some thin layers of Bondo to smooth everything out. Well, I spent a whole week of sanding, filling, sanding and then filling again to later realize that although I had a smoothed panel now, I also had a smoothed panel now. i.e. There was no longer the fake vinyl texture anymore. Doh.
Well, that kind of sucked so I decided to possibly cover all of the panels with the denim I used to do the headliner. Yeah, that didn't work either because the MK3 pieces have such severe curves to them, the fabric wouldn't stretch even after shooting it with heat. So, painting it was.
I painted all of the pieces except the c-pillars because I still had no idea what I was going to do with that texture. One night I had an idea of possibly making a mold of the texture with epoxy resin and then somehow pressing the mold on the panel when it had a thin layer of filler or possibly wet paint.
Taped off for the mold...
Pouring the resin
Then once the mold was dry (and it actually worked and made a nice texture in it), I applied a thin layer of filler but it was just too think. Fuck up #42...
I then sprayed the panel with the black paint and dabbed the mold on it and it sort of worked but after obsessing about it in bed for 2 hours instead of sleeping, I admitted to myself that it just looked like shit. Even though it was a "C" if I graded it , I would always know that it looked like ass if I actually put it in the car.
Back to the drawing boards.
Kate and I went back to the fabric store on saturday to find a stretchier denim to cover all of the pillar panels but couldn't find anything. Then we found vinyl but it was either too thick or too shiny. On the way up the stairs, I stopped and asked kate what the original idea of this build was all about and maybe it wasn't supposed to be so "perfect" looking. After all, the inspiration of this build was that of function over form and maybe an all black interior was the wrong idea and would look too factory OEM (if that's such a thing).
Kate suggested that we try a two-tone interior and all of a sudden it seemed like the perfect idea. (Kate rules... period.)
So we found a nice dark dark green fabric that almost had the same exact weave as the denim but it stretched nine ways to tuesday. Score.
After all day of gluing, cursing and washing sticky fingers 143 times, we were done. But I will still go on record to say that the MK3 interior is by far the fucking hardest interior to cover in all of automobile land. Special thanks to kate for helping me wrap the pieces after I struggled on the kitchen floor for damn near an hour before asking her for help. She was pretty much the deciding factor of these pieces looking as fantastic as the do.
The green against the new black sunroof cover,
Higher exposure of the green to show what it would look like when sun hit it. w00t!
*note: only 2 hours after finished and the fucking things already have dog hair on them. I need to shave Carson STAT =)
March 18, 2007 6:43 PM
you better not put those damn things in without me!!!
March 18, 2007 9:55 PM
It's still hard to see the difference between the green and the black, but it sounds like it worked out well. Congrats on pushing on through all of your mishaps with the panels. ;)