I generally focus on one goal at a time, so I’ll be obsessed with completing the seats and door panels before anything else gets in the way. Both seats will be done first, and once they’re installed I’ll immediately start on the new full size door panels. I have all the materials on hand.
There’s probably only 40-60 hours of work to complete those two projects, but it may take me until the spring because of the arthritis in my hands. Tufting is a labor of love, but it is really brutal because it requires so much pinching, tugging, stretching, and multi-tasking all at maximum effort. Tonight my right hand looks like it’s been smashed with a hammer and I can’t close my fingers, so I moved everything back downstairs to avoid being tempted to work on it for a couple of days. Once they normalize again I’ll repeat the cycle. I’m thankful it just takes longer instead of not being able to do the work at all.
Once the seats and doors are done, I still haven’t given up on a headliner. I’d like a diamond tufted or diamond stitched presentation, but I’ve also been thinking about how much I loved the chrome headliner bows in my parents 52 Oldsmobile years ago. If I can do something that’s never been done in one of these trucks with smooth Naugahyde and chrome or stainless bows, I might lean in that direction.
No matter how long this takes I’d like to have it all done by spring so I can show it off at a few rod runs next year.
In my spare time I want to get more resin people painted for the Universal Diorama,
complete more 1/25th cars I’ve been saving up, and perhaps build another couple of variations on the model of my real truck – one gasser style and another with a full diamond tufted interior. If I can find a place to put it, I’m also thinking about building another diorama of a drive in theater with a flat screen in front to show real movies to all the patrons!
Hopefully that will keep me out of trouble until the weather gets better.