Markeb01 Build Thread

[piratexpress1369a]

that looks awesome mark!!

[markeb01]

Thanks guys. Family matters took up the morning so I only got in about 5 hours on the seat today. Here’s how it sits this evening compared to a stock Procar Low Back:



The front corners remain to be finished. I called my younger son for advice (he’s a professional upholstery guy). I’m performing some experiments tonight (on scrap material) to see whether hand sewing, using contact cement, or a combination of the two is the best solution for the front seams. I’m done for the night as I’m too tired to continue without making a mistake.

It took both of us pushing and shoving to get the top and bottom reassembled, but once in place it fits and operates perfectly. I’m darn happy with the results considering this is only the 2nd time I’ve attempted tufting and the 1st time ever doing a car seat. The tufting adds extra padding, but it also looks bigger because it’s sitting on a kitchen chair that’s much taller than the one on the right. The foam & covers are a nice and tight and feel luxurious to sit on compared to the stock vinyl cover.

It’s interesting to note the chair on the right has puckers (that look like a pair of lips) in the center of the back and bottom. This results from indifferent assembly. The first two seats I bought apparently had more hand assembly as the covers had no puckers at all.

If I can work uninterrupted, I may be able to complete the passenger side seat by tomorrow night. I’m pretty sure I’ll start on the door panels and kick panels next. If nothing goes wrong I’m hoping to have the entire interior completed within a week or so.

[Ta2Don]

Seat is

[likaroc13]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Seat is

x2...love the side-by-side comparison

[Grizz1963]

Looking at these seats Mark, you will have to be very very careful when you use them as you won't be wanting to get out of them once you sit down.

Thanks as mentioned above for your tutorial style of reporting progress.

[piratexpress1369a]

so how does it feel when you are sitting on it

[markeb01]

Originally Posted by piratexpress1369a

so how does it feel when you are sitting on it

The tufted seat is incredibly comfortable. It feels “rich”, partially because tufted surfaces naturally feel that way. The padding and fabric also make a huge improvement. For starters the marine vinyl I’m using is nearly $20/yard and the stuff Procar uses is more like $4/yard. Not that I’ve had any complaints about the stock seats. They’ve very supportive, have been comfortable and held up like new for over a decade with absolutely no deterioration.

Speaking of which, I noted previously all the current production Low Back seats have puckers in the “dip” of the covers, while my earlier seats did not.

I think I’ve discovered the reason. Here’s a photo of my original passenger seat. Note the absence of puckers:



Here’s a photo of the bottom of the same seat.



The blue arrow points to a hidden piece of piano wire that runs through a listing (just like in an older headliner) that is sewn to the back of the cover. In the early seats this wire/listing is pulled tight to the seat springs and fastened at each end with a pair of hog rings. This same arrangement is found on the reverse side of the seat back, once the cover is un-hog ringed and rolled up the cushion. On the newer seats, they either left off the hog rings, or the listings are too big, cause the wire to not be pulled tight enough. I only mention this in case anyone has the later seats with the puckers, and wants to eliminate that visual defect.

Today’s progress saw the driver seat completed and installed in the truck. Here’s a comparison shot showing the difference:





I’m hoping to knock out the passenger seat tomorrow. It should go pretty fast as I have weeks of prep already done, so I can go almost directly to installing the upholstery. As soon as the other seat is installed I’m definitely jumping in on the door panels. Rather than just covering the lower portion of the door below the removable pan, the new versions will cover the entire door from the top of where the removable pan attaches all the way to the bottom. And of course the new panels with have the new larger diamond size matching the seats.

[pdxhall]

That seat looks d@mn nice sitting in that cab. Superior work as usual, Mark.

[Indian113]

Wow, That really looks nice.

[Ta2Don]

Sweet!!!

[Jeff La]

Seat looks great

[markeb01]

Thanks guys for the comments and checking out the thread at all with all this boring stuff going on. It should really come alive and finally make sense once the door and kick panels are in place.

[Indian113]

Actually your truck is a inspiration for me. I like the way it's transformed into what it is today. I can only hope my 64 turns out as nice.

[piratexpress1369a]

what a differnce that makes great job mark

[McMurphy]

Wow !!
Amazing how much more contiguous looking the whole cab looks now, the deliberate continuity between the seats and the rest of the diamond tuck you did shows and displays very nicely !

[markeb01]

Thanks guys. The passenger seat was wrapped up and installed this afternoon. I can’t wait to show off the interior once the new door & kick panels are in place:



Tomorrow I’ll have everything cleaned up and reset at which time I’ll pull the metal pans off the doors and see what is required to fit the full size ABS panels. I’ll need to establish what size fillers are required on the sides of the main door panels, location and quantity of attaching probes (or any other brackets/fasteners needed), what bracing may be required to keep the panel solid in the center, and if/how the passenger car door handles will fit and whether the handle spacers are needed. The Corvette window cranks never shipped, so I went with Danchuk 57 Chevy handles and winders instead. They’re scheduled to arrive tomorrow.

Only the doors take figuring out. The rest of the interior is simply a matter of pulling out what’s there, stripping the foam and upholstery, cutting/punching the new foam and reinstalling new tufting in the larger pattern. Flat panels are simple compared to upholstering the seats. I wouldn’t say any of this is easy, but what’s left shouldn’t take very long. I’m thinking days instead of weeks.

[likaroc13]

The seats look awesome Mark, & I look forward to seeing the other panels done in a matching pattern. Keep up the nice work!

[Jmorales3181]

Wow... Very nice work!!!

[NEWFISHER]

Great job on the interior and thanks for sharing the piano wire trick. I'm no professional but try my hand at cover installs and have had similar issues that next time I will overcome using the tricks you pointed out.

Your seats/interior look very comfy and inviting. I keep thining 60's back curtain mob boss itailian joint booth with dinner cleared and a poker game starting up.

[piratexpress1369a]

looks awesome mark

[1963c-10]

Great job on the seat Mark. I bet they look even better in person, and no falling asleep in them while driving....they look really comfortable.

[Ta2Don]

Those seats look more inviting than my recliner, and I really like my recliner!

[markeb01]

Thanks guys for all the feedback and observations. I share some of the same thoughts. Even though I’ve created this stuff I’m still boggled. This is only the second time I’ve ever tried anything like this. I’ve sewn up some crappy door panels and a reasonably decent Chevelle dash pad long ago, but nothing on this magnitude.

I can see the mob boss back room looking like this. Or perhaps a bordello had I done the interior in red velvet! But I’m also thinking Grandpa Munster would have been happy with this for his truck had they provided one like it instead of a coffin dragster!

I got started on the driver side door panel today. Both the metal pan and the upholstered panel were removed and brought in the house. After two hours of effort I finally stripped the foam and upholstery. What a pain. There were tons of buttons and hundreds of staples before I got to the foam which was really glued in place! My squeeze has volunteered to take over stripping the rest of the panels so I can keep progressing on the upholstery.

After I was down to the ABS backer I laid out the two pieces on the new ABS sheet, after first covering it with blue masking tape:



I was hoping to use part of the hole pattern on the new panel, but everything was off so I had to start over completely, calculating how the buttons and edge hems would look. 3 hours later here’s the master: The picture looks terrible as my camera would not focus on the dull surface:



This will be cut and drilled tomorrow, fitted to the door and then duplicated on the other sheet for the passenger side. I studied the door itself only briefly, but enough to be convinced I can make these full size panels work.

Also the inside passenger car handles showed up today. They’re beautiful reproductions:



I think they’ll make nice upgrades along with the 1933 door pulls.

[Ta2Don]

Originally Posted by markeb01

Thanks guys for all the feedback and observations. But I’m also thinking Grandpa Munster would have been happy with this for his truck had they provided one like it instead of a coffin dragster!

Awesome work and documentation!!!

[markeb01]

Here’s one last photo for the night:



While my wife was stripping all the upholstery panels, I sliced up and ground the door panel to fit. It just needs some small ABS filler pieces on the top rear and upper rear edge. When completed the fillers will just look like additional padding.