Operation Inferior Interior 348ts

OK, so I've decided to record my activity here to share, keep track, and get motivated about finishing it this summer. Was just going to showcase the finished product inside and out, but maybe this is better and more interesting to see.

Here is what I started with. Not my favorite combo, dirty carpet, and though these pictures don't show, not all the creme leather was so blemish free, console and other parts were rather rough actually. Other than the sticky vents, at least the top of the dash wasn't shrinking, ditto for the top of the rear shelf, so that make stay safe from my ravage.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

So then the next step was to destroy everything in my path and hope I could put it back together again later. Tried to save screws, nuts and bolts in baggies, and also put many back in the original holes without the part to remember what goes where, and yet still some just got up and ran out the garage!

Look at the dirty brown filth! Besides the dirt, wasn't really feeling the extra 80s style, plush hairy Bentley shag carpet feel for my sports car anyhow.

Yes, in the far right side next to the seats is now my alternate mode of transportation, training wheels and all. Bottom of the picture shows a clue of the next step. Oh, and I made my top red and smooth, but the outside stuff for another time and place.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

With all the shag out of the way, found such a mess of wires that I thought I had a 355 with a better looking 348 body kit on it for a second! But then I discovered it was all for a junk tape deck with no door speakers anyhow with the craziest assortment of wiring and not useless extra console buttons that hairdressers like to push.

Also a radio antenna booster tied into a booster, making my booster boosted with a hidden boost button under the dash! That's not even all of it, more under the box and some the length of the car, but this gives you the idea of the wonderful mix

I knew the car didn't feel any faster when I pushed boost!!!
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Then it was time to figure out how to reduce noise and vibration, make the car feel a bit more solid, and reduce interior heat from the hot Texas roads and an engine at WOT with no cats for glorious Tubi music. However, I didn't want to add a lot of weight. Furthermore, though the top/windows are down 90% of the time, on the rare chance I want to hear myself think or have some driving beats, putting the windows up alone isn't enough.

Solution to all this!! A great Swedish invention starting somewhere around 1910, Aluminum Foil!! But then someone told me the car would explode if it came into contact with any electromagnetic waves with wavelengths longer than those of terahertz frequencies, (aka a microwave). Having heard Ferrari's are prone to fire as is, I found something thats looks about the same but works better from some boys in Ohio, and they called it DynaMat Extreme.

Entire floor board, rear firewall and shelf area, and the doors. I found out of all the tools to apply it into all the curvatures of the car was my hands and a D sized battery you'll find in your flashlight. On the doors, just around the speaker holes, because if I cover the entire thing, servicing the wires, or removing the cheese grater would be more difficult later, so I figure for the rest of the door, I'll stick it to the inside of the door panels perhaps. Doubled up with a 4 layer dynapad instead of the crap factory foam for the rear firewall that you see in the shelf area of the first picture, for added heat and noise protection plus the padding that is needed there under the carpet.

To get the pad to follow the lines of the area after cutting the general outline shape, so carpet looks the same later, took lots of snot glue, pressing and holding, and temporary duck tape for the corners and the top until it sets, however the dyanmat is self adhering and very thin.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Hey Jotec! Your mess'n up my picture flow, people will think I went from a pile of crap to done already!! And I'm far from that

 

The next step posted soon, may work on it some more this evening and take a few more pics on what is going on.

 

Hey Ernie. I think the weight gain is nil! Reason being is the DynoPad replaced the factory foam which was pretty heavy, and the dynomat on the floor and doors is more than offset by the seats and other parts. Its dense but extremely thin, so maybe about 10Lbs-15lbs there. The seats I have now are 30Lbs each, or about half stock weight (might sell them, omp, need to be recovered though), the new ones I'll be getting are 20lbs each for another 20lbs of weight saving or about 80lbs less comparing to stock seats alone. So overall, probably a more heat resistant, less rattle and noise prone car and still another 10Lbs lighter from before I started the interior project, and from my already lighter than production car (no cats, lighter 355 wheels, tubi exhaust, no exhausts heat shield, and a few other things)

 

Here we go again, hope to get more work done and back to ordering a few things tomorrow and Monday.

These are not little funny floor mats, but the piece of carpet you will find glued to the back of your console towards the rear of the car. The brown shag is original, the black one is the new English Wilton Wool. Looks better, fine texture, less of a shag mobile now....we maybe not, but that's another story. The part I had made in literally 4 minutes, I think you will find it more straight and evenly shaped then the original next to it.

Second shot shows the floor, no more dirty brown with gray spots for me! 5 yards turned out to be exactly enough. While decent carpet called premium by some OEM's can be had for about $20/yard, this cost me about 4 times that, but worth it I think. The fine texture and feel, and the black color should make everything that goes above it, stand out, like the pedals! Hill's dead pedal is going on also, but can't find the screws, so have to talk to ricambi about that.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Hmmm, something is missing next to that gas pedal, other than the console. I know, its this kick plate! Posted about this in another thread, but it was one of those pointless posts with no pictures, and of course Pap still responded.

Other then putting new carpet on it, I thought the plate could show off the fancy footwork and pedals even more by polishing it out, first for scuffs, then to a mirror shine! What this little project cost me other than a trim from the carpet? $40. So this is my response to all the other "bling" posts out there for 348 tad bits, so HA!
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Part of the carpet project was replacing the floor mats. Greg from the forum helped with that.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Floor mats were some of the best quality I have seen. Waiting to hear back from Greg (Gcalo) about a minor issue, will have to see if its too much red when done, but pictures don't do them justice.

 

So I replaced the wheel with a nice 360 challenge wheel and the original one made for nice art work in my office interior redesign. Box, glass, red velvet behind the wheel. Here it is above a side window that over looks a client area.

Kevlar seats are 80% will shows those soon, hope to get the leather items refinished and reinstalled by Feb. After the interior, its exterior, then engine plus power mods!
Image Unavailable, Please Login