wow, way too long since I last posted. I have been working on a number of niggling issues in the interior.
My sun visors had some bad stains from 50+ years of having a red cardboard document pocket clipped to it. Managed to clean off 95% of the staining. The stitching thread was rotting with age so I re-stitched them both. The headliner cleaned up really nice, there are a couple of small marks, but nothing major.
The armrest pads were cracked with age and the bottom bracket was chrome plated plastic from the factory. The chrome was worn off to the white plastic in spots. They are available but we are trying to keep this car original so we repainted with ‘chrome’ spray paint. Turned out very nice: not true chrome but looks much nicer. I have some correct original vinyl (from a 63 donor car) so I recovered the pads. All the doors chrome and stainless bits have all been polished too.
I also decided to replace the mirror in my rear-view as the bracketry was all so nice. I just used regular mirror, reattached it to the soft rubbery backing the factory piece was attached to and glued it back in. It will not be non glare but it cost me less than 3 bucks.
The rear seat bottom; the seams were split just above where the seat bottom meets the carpet. Both corners – the vinyl was really tight with shrinkage and the stitching had popped. The frame work has a rolled edge on the bottom but the top edge was rather sharp and turned outwards slightly. Stupid design so as the vinyl shrank the metal slit the vinyl and popped the stitches. (one side has a small 1/2″ slit, the other was nearly 2 inches long) I took a spare piece of vinyl and wrapped that sharp edge so it would not happen again, I also glued a patch of vinyl on the seat cover behind the slit in the vinyl and re-stitched the seam. I used a heat gun to give the vinyl flex as I stretched the cover back over that framework.
