My new obsession

Did you cut your driver seat or use donor pass. seat? console is going to be my second project, curious how difficult to cut seat and what final results look like

rabalc wrote:

Did you cut your driver seat or use donor pass. seat? console is going to be my second project, curious how difficult to cut seat and what final results look like

That is a donor seat.

Well this project is close to done for now. The last bits have been installed. The console is in, a rear sway bar installed, new transmission, KYB shocks all around, heater core ran through my ultrasonic cleaner to rid the junk plugging it, new tires, wheels, brakes mufflers, paint, compounded, polished, trim redone/replaced, door cards refurbished, VATS light on problem fixed, new speakers front and rear, mud guards replaced. And lots of other bits of minutia. It should be ready to pick up the grand kids at the airport this summer. After that I will start looking for my next project. Thanks for all of your comments and interest.

IS THAT ALL!  You have accomplished more with your wagon than I have with mine in 10 years of ownership.How about some more pictures of the finished wagon outside in the sunlight whenever that finally happens!

Flasheroo wrote:

IS THAT ALL!  You have accomplished more with your wagon than I have with mine in 10 years of ownership.How about some more pictures of the finished wagon outside in the sunlight whenever that finally happens!

I sure will. Today is the first day that the temperature has been above freezing in a long long time. There is over 3' of compacted snow outside the shop door so I am thinking May. Maybe.

Yikes.....yes...yikes...

Nice work...

What did you use to attach the wood strips on the door panels? Looks like some custom stuff there! Console looks good too...I keep going back and forth about putting a console in my Roadmaster.

Chris

brokecello wrote:

What did you use to attach the wood strips on the door panels?  Looks like some custom stuff there!  Console looks good too...I keep going back and forth about putting a console in my Roadmaster.

 Chris

Well thanks. The "wood" strips are actually an eight foot plastic top cap for a Home Depot fence panel cut to sized pieces, painted trim color, cleared and attached with three allen head chrome screws through the door cards. I was going to use aluminum however $50.00 vs. $4.69 and there was an easy choice for me.

very nice, job well done, were your air shocks junk? I have one leaker would be interested in yours if one was useable. where are you at in WI. I am about 15 miles outside Rochester mn.

kadonte wrote:

brokecello wrote:

What did you use to attach the wood strips on the door panels?  Looks like some custom stuff there!  Console looks good too...I keep going back and forth about putting a console in my Roadmaster.

 Chris

Well thanks. The "wood" strips are actually an eight foot plastic top cap for a Home Depot fence panel cut to sized pieces, painted trim color, cleared and attached with three allen head chrome screws through the door cards. I was going to use aluminum however $50.00 vs. $4.69 and there was an easy choice for me.

If you would still like aluminum send me a template or good drawing, I work in a fab shop and have plenty of drop pieces I could make those out of for you

Rich

rabalc wrote:

kadonte wrote:

brokecello wrote:

What did you use to attach the wood strips on the door panels?  Looks like some custom stuff there!  Console looks good too...I keep going back and forth about putting a console in my Roadmaster.

 Chris

Well thanks. The "wood" strips are actually an eight foot plastic top cap for a Home Depot fence panel cut to sized pieces, painted trim color, cleared and attached with three allen head chrome screws through the door cards. I was going to use aluminum however $50.00 vs. $4.69 and there was an easy choice for me.

If you would still like aluminum send me a template or good  drawing, I work in a fab shop and have plenty of drop pieces I could make those out of for you

Rich

Thanks I will Pm the dimensions. Appreciate it.

Looks dam good and I love the two tone paint job very nice. My dad mixed his colors of his interior when he had his 92 Roadmaster back, about 8 years ago. Gives it a different vibe.

BigBlackBeaSSt wrote:

Boy that car is going to look sharp.  Reminds me of a certain car in Malone, NY..........

Hogansburg Ny but your close LOL!

You've done a lot of quality work on your wagon this winter, very impressive!  

buickestate wrote:

You've done a lot of quality work on your wagon this winter, very impressive!  

Appreciate your comments and also Roady-man's. Now if it would only stop snowing. 5" more this weekend. At this rate it will never get driven.

The extra seat has become the shop chair. I welded a frame for it and mobilized it. Surprisingly not only comfortable but the arm rest makes it nice for a desk substitute, drink holder and such.

That'd be great at the office!   

I must have missed it but what car did that console come out of?

it's out of a blazer jim

Kadonte your skills around the shop are top notch! So glad you joined this little community...Very inspiring...for that matter,there are quite few people in this group who deserve the wow factor.

kadonte wrote:

The extra seat has become the shop chair. I welded a frame for it and mobilized it. Surprisingly not only comfortable but the arm rest makes it nice for a desk substitute, drink holder and such.

Nice way to keep a seat useful instead of throwing it away!

Thanks Pat,going to go look for one now.

Andebe wrote:

Kadonte your skills around the shop are top notch! So glad you joined this little community...Very inspiring...for that matter,there are quite few people in this group who deserve the wow factor.

This nice man has not been paid by me or any of my minions. Kidding aside, thank you for your kind words.

Another few feet of snow and I'll be able to get the wagon out of the shop.



In the meantime I have done some of the minutia projects. I put a rear sway bar on from a Town Car.





A new radiator, oil cooler lines and fresh antifreeze was replaced. New Moog suspension bushings replaced on the front end. Rock guard applied on the rocker sills. and the roof headliner taken out to replace the material.




Finally I worked a bit on the interior bits. To begin tying the color combinations together I painted the door handle surrounds to match the trim color, upholstered the B pillar part way up to match the vinyl color line and and covered the headrests with the matching vinyl color, and the console top. And not to forget, I replaced the interior lighting with blue LED. To come are six halo rings, also in blue set into the headliner.

The last post for this project. Covered the headliner in a light tan suede.




Snow melted so it came out of the shop. All seemed to be even on the paint match, vinyl has a couple self induced blemishes. Overall it's okay. Titled, registered and drove for the first time. All is well with the world. Thanks for all the good pointers and how to articles from this forum. It really helped.

WOW it looks beautiful. I really like the color combo, and that headliner is nice.   

why jim mini sticker??

phantom 309 wrote:

why jim mini sticker??

Tinker Bell stickers seemed a little silly to me.................

Looks awesome,love all the dark brown leather!

Really nice work!!

kadonte wrote:

phantom 309 wrote:

why jim mini sticker??

Tinker Bell stickers seemed a little silly to me.................

Something more manly i think,. like goofy,.oh wait,. that'd look better on an orange car,..

phantom 309 wrote:

kadonte wrote:

phantom 309 wrote:

why jim mini sticker??

Tinker Bell stickers seemed a little silly to me.................

Something more manly i think,. like goofy,.oh wait,. that'd look better on an orange car,..

Jiminy Cricket was the first cartoon that I saw on a color TV when I was a kid. Been an admirer of him since. He's well dressed, articulate and learned. We should all be more like him me thinks.  As a plus, the Grandchildren love it. And I have him stuck on most junk I own.

kadonte wrote:

We should all be more like him me thinks.  

I dunno,. too much like the penguin,.. the hat,. the brolly,.

and i,m short enough as it is,....

kadonte wrote:

phantom 309 wrote:

kadonte wrote:

phantom 309 wrote:

why jim mini sticker??

Tinker Bell stickers seemed a little silly to me.................

Something more manly i think,. like goofy,.oh wait,. that'd look better on an orange car,..

Jiminy Cricket was the first cartoon that I saw on a color TV when I was a kid. Been an admirer of him since. He's well dressed, articulate and learned. We should all be more like him me thinks.  As a plus, the Grandchildren love it. And I have him stuck on most junk I own.

NICE TOYS!

Good work the wagon looks beautiful...

Looks good! Glad you have it out and are enjoying it!

Chris

Looks pretty good.

Great work,love the headliner.

bamalongroof wrote:

Good work the wagon looks beautiful...

Thank you, it was a lot of fun for me to try this project.

brokecello wrote:

Looks good!  Glad you have it out and are enjoying it!

 Chris

Thank you, It made it's maiden voyage to the ice cream shop. The kids all wanted to ride in the third seat. All ice cream was eaten out of doors.

1993 Roady-man wrote:

Looks pretty good.

Thank you, I wish I had your talent in the paint and body work area.

Andebe wrote:

Great work,love the headliner.

Headliner was not as bad to do as I had feared. Thank you for the compliment. I'm going to enjoy it for the summer and then look for my next winters project.

Looks beautiful,you can stop acting like you're a novice builder now!  

Flasheroo wrote:

Looks beautiful,you can stop acting like you're a novice builder now!  

Novice is being too kind. 

Wow what an impressive transformation! I really like the interior changes. My wagon also suffers from upper door panel fade, and I was thinking about new upholstery for the uppers like you did. Could you provide some specific details how you got the upholstery to fit so tightly? Did you go over the existing vinyl or tear it off? And how about the headliner? Did you clean off the old cloth and pad? Was your new fabric already padded, or did you do it in two steps? Once again, congrats for a job very well done!!

Mark 96 Roady wrote:

Wow what an impressive transformation! I really like the interior changes. My wagon also suffers from upper door panel fade, and I was thinking about new upholstery for the uppers like you did. Could you provide some specific details how you got the upholstery to fit so tightly? Did you go over the existing vinyl or tear it off? And how about the headliner? Did you clean off the old cloth and pad? Was your new fabric already padded, or did you do it in two steps? Once again, congrats for a job very well done!!

Thank you.

I learned a few lessons on the upholstery application. All cost me time and money. But finally I found a combination that worked well. I applied the vinyl over the existing vinyl interior. None of the 3M spray formulas worked to my liking on this application. The glue lifted off the door vinyl too easily and caused air pockets. I tried 77,80,and 90. Finally I bought a can of DAP Weldwood Landau Top & Trim High Heat Resistant Contact Cement. I used it on the last of the interior pieces as well as the headliner material. It is a spray-able product and sprayed well through my Harbor Freight spray gun. Secondly was the Vinyl material choice. Again through mistakes I learned that the vinyl advertised as "2 way stretch" was my friend. Start in the middle of the panel and work your way out to the edges. The headliner was a material with a 1/4" foam backing. I passed up on the cheap products in this category and tried for a high end material. It is quality control measured in "rubs", so I went for high rub resistance. I cleaned the headliner pan of all old material and foam before applying the new headliner. Worked 1/2 at a time, center to edge and it came out okay. Hope this assists you. Have fun.

Thanks for your response. If you had it to do over again, would you strip the existing vinyl off the door cards, instead of trying to glue over the old stuff? Recently I was in a junk yard, and tore some of the vinyl off of a damaged Roady door card. Underneath the material the door card looked like the same material as the headliner base. Given the sharp angles the vinyl has to follow near the door pulls, I was just wondering if you thought stripping it all might give a better, longer lasting job.

Mark 96 Roady wrote:

Thanks for your response. If you had it to do over again, would you strip the existing vinyl off the door cards, instead of trying to glue over the old stuff? Recently I was in a junk yard, and tore some of the vinyl off of a damaged Roady door card. Underneath the material the door card looked like the same material as the headliner base. Given the sharp angles the vinyl has to follow near the door pulls, I was just wondering if you thought stripping it all might give a better, longer lasting job.

I don't think you want to strip the old door covering. It is padded and heat molded giving definition to the door features. The vinyl adhered nicely once the correct glue formulation was found. Good luck.

What a very nice job you did with the car. My compliments on a job well done!
Pete