Interior Mustang Mods

Thanks Andy. Now she'll pass the 5 MPH bumper test.

 

More rain coming up from California, again! You'd think that the 2-year olds who run the National Forecasting service would stick to their guns. They had it forecast for today, 3 days ago, then changed it to Sunny until Monday, then changed it this morning at 5:00 for rain from 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM today! Bah humbug!

Anyway, I brought some stuff inside to work on. First thing is the visors. I stripped them and measured and marked. These are the ones from the 1980 Lincoln Signature that we took some power door lock motors from.

Further up in the thread is a link to a guy who actually did this for his own Fox-bodied LTD, but I found him on the first search page looking for "recovering Lincoln sunvisors".
http://home.earthlink.net/~jopeterson/SunVisors.htm

He doesn't mention that the fabric is held inplace by glue and pressure only on the inside edge. No sewn seams.

I took the vanity mirrors off - 4 small screws, under the lenses (pry out with a thin, narrow screwdriver), and 2 slip on electrical wires, one is the ground, going through the aluminum foil inside to the metal/chrome visor mount.


As he mentions, the rubber tips do dry out and he's shown a replacement part number from a 1971 visor "D1DZ-6204115A" for these 1980 visor tips. He also mentions that the rods were also made in chromed steel rod. Mine is plastic. Either type are held in place in a plastic split sleeve and come out with a good yank, as TBird mentioned above.



The plastic sleeve is about 2-3/8" deep, which just happens to be the length of visor that I have to cut off to use my own modified Lincoln visor supports. That extended curved section goes, and the plastic insert gets refitted inside what's left.:


The fabric is the usual Headliner foam-backed stuff, OR, in my case, what I have from the seat-back foam leftovers that I can't use on the Mustang split back seats. I'll use the Lincoln fabric for a template:


Getting the fabric out, is pretty easy, but careful and slow. You need a butter knife to start opening the edge just a bit (1/16" to 1/8") and slip a clean, stiff edge tool (I used a paint scraper) to pry it wider (makes no impressions in the visor edge plastic, without knicking the fabric. You'll find more glue in the corners and curves, than the straight edges, but poke around to find a spot that lets you get some of the fabric coming out cleanly, then you can tug at it pretty successfully and get more of the old dried glue out with it.


The tan one was in mine, from a 1982 Zephyr - passenger side only. It has a sewn seam, so I used SEM's vinyl/fabric dye on it. It uses the modern headliner, foam-backed fabric. The Driver's side doesn't have the vanity mirror, and uses the fabric only, glued on a cardboard back. The SEM's paint reacted with the glue on that one and sagged, hence the replacement. The vanity mirror is bigger in the Zephyr mirror unit, but the 4 bulbs and switch and wires are the same.


He also mentions that you have to use a hacksaw to nip off the Lincoln stand-offs in the mounting bracket. Yep, in this modern day and age of powertools for everything, you have to use a manual-operated saw, then a file to smooth off and deburr the stand-offs. The positioning prongs fit right into the stock Fox mounting holes and align with the factory screw holes.


I kept some of the thin plastic beading in the seat upholstery (white plastic cord?), which I might use to secure the new fabric in place.

I'll cut and prep the visors and the Lincoln support clip this afternoon and cut my fabric.

These visors are wider (20 inches) and deeper by one inch, than the Zephyr visors, which are also deeper than the stock cardboard Fairmont visors. I use them a lot on long sunny, hot trips. The vanity mirrors are a plus.:2_thumbs_up_-_anima

Progress pics to come.

 

I admire the guys that write good 'DIY' picumentaries. I know I'm verbose, but I forgive myself.

So, with the rain yesterday, I dug out some room to use my small bandsaw and trim the visors. I used the bandsaw because it leaves a smooth edge, and I can control the speeds far better than my variable speed jigsaw, plus the blade is really thin and this one has very tiny teeth (36 per inch).

First, I cut the Lincoln Support 'Clip' (SC) in half:

I left it in two parts, until I get the visors reassembled. They have to snug up to the Map light, which is dead center where the single SC would go. I know I'll have to trim the width down, and maybe adjust some of the moulded structure underneath.

Next I cleaned out the fabric grooves (FG) with an Exacto knife, using the back edge of the blade to scrape out the pieces of foam that were in there. I don't want the new stuff to not bond to the visor plastic.


Then, I grew a pair, and nipped off the excess visor:


That's where the support shaft is supposed to go, but it can't:


This one shows why. The shaft sits and snaps into that tubular 'shaft'. It's a molded piece that gets molded into the visor shell.:


SOOO, I went looking at how the 1982 Zephyr visors did it. The Vanity visor has a nice steel shaft with the same rubber tip knurl at the inside end, and a flimsy plastic clamp. What good is only one? So, I stripped the driver's side, and that shaft is longer and the springy steel shaft is long enough to make 2 support shafts, BUT, why do all that?

The other end, where the wire goes in, uses a Glass Fuse clip to hold the shaft in place and clip the ground to the shaft. BINGO! I've got lots of those from the old fuseblock. I'll fit that in and use a long drill to get the shafts to go into the next molded internal web!

More pics later.

 

Washing 1982 Seatback Velour - Question

I went through my old seat upholstery from the beige 1982 Zephyr interior. The backrest dotted panels are the same pattern as the new 1984 Marquis seats, black houndstooth on beige, instead of chocolate. Perfect length and width for the new visor size and shape.



I just soaked them in cold water and 2 tablespoons of coldwater tide. I cruised the WWW for "Rayon Shrinking", and almost all said coldwater and airdry. As far as I know, this velour is a highgrade Rayon/Nylon fabric from Dupont, and probably has UVA/UVB sun protectants in the dye and fibres, because after almost 29 years, its in better shape than the fabric around it. Even fading-wise.

So my question is:

Am I doing it right? I'll use 3M's Scotchgard after to restore any of the UVA/UVB protection it may have lost over the years. It just has enough of the tan coloring to blend in. I don't want to dye it, until I get a new headliner.

 

What do mean by you "soaked" them? You did'nt drown them in water did you?

Can't count how many times I've washed my interiours.....especially tan/biege fox wagon ones

I've allways used a wet/dry shop vack with a scrub brush and rather than soak the interiour wisk it up with the brush and use as much soapy foam as possible compared to soapy water, this also helps drying time. I use laundry deturgant also plus a little amount of bleach for unbleachables, "VIM" makes a good product for that IMO. IMO all those auto aupolstry shampoos are a waist of $$. I also only use HOT water, never had a problem.

My wifes van (blue interiour) and my Buick+last Fox wagon (red interiour) I've also added per bucket 1 tea spoon of "RIT" fabric dye (You can buy it at Wall Mart cheap). It just seems to sparkle things up a bit more and I've never experience colour staining on any plastic trims etc.

I don't use Scotch gaurd any more....not pet friendly I've been told, have blankets for that.

 

It's just these two panels. The old tailgate is by the fence. That's the SEM's dye on the inside of the tailgate panels. The colour tint seems to be in keeping with the headliner and windshield trim.

I washed them by hand after soaking them, then rinsed them until no more suds came out and hung them on the line. On the length, I had about 3/4" of extra material than the new visor length needs. I can't see it shrinking that much on 22 inches.

I sure like your tips about the RIT dye. This one is right up there, with the first bunch.

 

Ahhh OK, I thought you were "soaking" your seats...in the car:confused: I was getting ready to PM Andy and tell him to get you out of the hot sun!

IMPORTANT!!!>>>> If your going to use RIT or any other dye in the washer, when done have the washer with some soap no cloths go through tis cycle again. If not you could tint the next batch of cloths.

 

Nah, we've got liquid sunshine all day. Inside work today. It stopped long enough to put them out to dry. Really humid. 25C and 32C with 77% humidity and no breeze. Sucks big time.

 

Just doing a trial run for fitting. I trimmed off a little bit (3/8" on each side of the panels.) Perfect length and width.

I'm only using a dull butter knife, and a small flat screwdriver to spread the visor shape. This fabric isn't foam-backed, but it is almost the same or a bit thicker so it really grips inside the visor groove:


I'll get the edges all in and cleaned up, then insert the vanity mirror, after I get the support rods worked out. It's gonna look good.

 

I'm bagged. It started off raining and cold, then stopped long enough to get out, grind off the rust, then drizzled for 2 hours and right back out to zero-rust the whole thing, and put the first coat of SEMS on the inside and filler on the outside. I've got 4 hours in the morning to sand it down, and laydown the first coat of Tremclad. I'm spraying it this time. Too small an area to bother with rollering. Looking real fine. Pics tomorrow. Almost going below the minimum temperature (10C - 50F) in the City, tonight..

 

Looks like we won't get rain until late this afternoon or evening. I might get 2 coats on and a whole bunch of details!:2_thumbs_up_-_anima

Raises a question though. If we're seeing all this flooding worldwide, why isn't the media reporting the droughts in other parts?:confused:

Our Drought watch page:
http://www.agr.gc.ca/pfra/drought/prpay10_e.htm

US and International sites:
http://www.agr.gc.ca/pfra/drought/drsites_e.htm

Here's the US Drought Monitor:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/drought/nadm/index.html

I can see food price hikes coming even faster.

 

Woodgrain problem and maybe a solution

I thought I had a nice chunk left over from the roll I got from JC Whitney. I do, if I use all the leftovers.

But I need the car running and towing and it takes 2 weeks to get here, sooo... I'm gonna paint my own woodgrain. Found a couple tips, plus what guys have done on our site. We'll see what we'll see. I can always get a small piece from JCW anyway.

http://forums.aaca.org/f154/faux-woodgrain-paint-dash-trim-what-269258.html

This is interior, but the materials are probably better.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-156684.html

 

Woodgrain flicks!

This is awesome stuff! 11 free videos on doing different types of woodgrain finishes. Very nice intro into the craft. Dashes, radios, etc.

http://www.woodgraining.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=11

 

Running and Roadworthy by Sunday - The Goal

Nights are really getting too cold this month. Going to 4C (39F) tonight, and the paint needs a minimum 10 hours at no less than 50F. So the heat's on to GET 'ER DONE! 3 days of sunshine and day temps of around 63F. I'll take pics and post later. Have a good weekend guys. Its our Labour Day long weekend, and I'll be labouring like a blue-a$$ed fly in mating season.

 

Here ya go Norm!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rAHnwWfsaY&NR=1