Interior Adventure

Come along with me for a fun ride into the mystical world of "What the F#$K Was I Thinking!" So you yank one 308 motor, tear it down to nothing, rebuild it, hear it fire up and WHOA....you think you can do ANYTHING! This is a case of "Well.....while I'm at it....." run amuck.
Just to bring everyone up to date, I had a timing belt jump...valves hit pistons yada yada yada. Pulled the motor and tore it completely down, swapped in a new set of 10.25 : 1 pistons while I was at it, rebuilt it and low and behold she lives. Understand my car is a driver with 80,000 miles on it, was pretty rough when I got it, so concourse originality is not a concern, enjoying my car is.
So........now that she's fired back up, I turned my attention to those pesky window motors....and of course while I had the door apart that gave me a good chance to really examine things closely. I've never really liked my interior, and have owned the car 12 years this coming Valentine's Day. The previous owner had severely neglected the car; seats were/are filthy, cracked, hard as a rock and feel like plastic. The carpet is filthy, never been a fan of the color and had cigarette burns in it. Time for a change.
I've been doing MUCH reading on here with regards to Leatherique and figure with as bad as my seats are....I can't mess them up much worse...so why not give it a try. I began this evening with the driver's door panel and have stripped the old "dye" off. I suspect that somewhere along the line the interior was redone either by dying or spraying as when I applied the lacquer thinner, the finish just turned to goo. I have further stripping to do once the materials arrive from Leatherique, this is just night one. So I invite you to follow along on my adventure...it's sure to be a trip!
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A few more shots.
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Doug,

I saw your car.....STUNNING! I'll probably ultimately end up doing that...but for this winter...this will be my project...I figure it's worth $200 to try it?!

 

This evenings progress. Driver's side stripped (laquer thinner only), you can really see the difference between stripped (lighter obviously) and the unstripped passenger side. LOTS of rags and LOTS of time spent with a toothbrush! Time for one seat, about 4 hours, and I'm sure It would be easy to spend 8! Next step for the dirvers seat....lots of rejuvinator oil.
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Seats being "rejuvinated." I am on my third application of the oil, something I spray on generously and then rub in by hand. You will become intimately familiar with your seats and door panels thats for sure! Next is the joy of center console removal. Starting at the front, the foremost piece of the tunnel comes out easily just removing the 4 phillips screws. Next came the center section, after removing the ashtray and using a trim tool to carefully slide between the panels to help them apart (they were stuck together after years of crude getting down in there.) Unbolt, unclip all wires, switches and wiring harnesses. Next came the main body of the console...not fun. IF you can get the e-brake up far enough it may not be a bad job, mine however, only moves about 3 clicks and I was not able to slide the console forward without hitting the shifter, and could not lift up due to the e-brake being just past horizontal. Solution, slide the console as far forward as possible to reveal the 3 bolts holding the e-brake, loosen all three enough to get some play down at the connection point to the cable. Undid the cotter pin, removed the cable, pulled the e-brake handle straight up and off comes the console. NOTE: This would be next to impossible to do with the pass side seat in.
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Well heck....while we've gone this far.....might as well update the radio.

All the leather has had a solid week of rejuvinator oil treatment followed liberal cleaning with the pristine clean. The seats are MUCH softer, however not "glove soft" as many claim. Seeing as I'm taking on this project in the middle of an Indiana winter, I dont have the benefit of parking the car in the sun with the windows rolled up to "steam" the seats. I think the rejuvination process is a multi step one which will be on going. I'm sure once we see warmer weather, the leather will continue to soften.

Next phase was to "wet sand" using 400 grit and their prepping agent, however something about sanding made me nervous. I instead, went over everything with a green scotch brite pad with a generous amount of the prepping agent. We'll see if this comes back to bite me as inadequate prep. I'm going to go over everything one more time with the pad and the prep, will post detailed pics after that.
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I cleaned with PC between oil treatments the first few sessions as It was floating all kinds of gunk to the top so I wanted to remove that. As the seats became "cleaner" more oil began to be absorbed so I would return to a "dry" seat and simply reapply the oil.

 

Just got these back from the shop. Material is vinyl from Gahh 4 yds @ $57/yd. probably could have gotten away with 3yds...but better to be safe. Color is Jaguar 5002 Magnolia which is almost right on Ferrari's 4197 Magnolia which is what the seats, console and doors will be. The match is SO close, if I didn't tell you they were different, only the most decerning eye would notice. Shop charges were $300 from:

Miranda's Customs
811 South Earl Avenue
Lafayette, IN 47904-3349
(765) 447-3074

http://mirandascustom.com/

Total cost out the door, $528
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Ok...hole repair time. Not sure if you can really see it in the first pics or not, but on the drivers side bolster there is a hole about the size of a dime. In the first pic I have inserted a slightly oversize patch made from an extra piece of leather from under the console, fuzy side to fuzy side with a little bit of Gorilla Glue, and situated things using an ice pick. Next picture is after using Leatherique's Crack Filler. NOTE: this is a use sparingly item! It goes on with the consitancey of cold maple syrup and can be spread easily, however a little goes a long way! I experiemented with using a 1 inch plastic putty knife and a 1 inch paint brush. The brush seems to give the best results. After about 30 mins of dry time it can be sanded smooth using 400 and the green scotchbite pad. I had intended to go over everything again with prep agent for one final sanding, however I discovered that the prep agent disolves the crack filler! So....the good news is if you get a little liberal with the filler or get it somewhere you dont want it (in the threads) just use a little prep agent....bad news....after the filler you are not going to be doing any more surface prep...so make sure you're ready to dye when you lay down the filler!
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Going back and forth between sponging it on with a clean rag vs spraying. What are your thoughts?

 

honestly I'm leaning towards spraying not only for easy of application, but also for time. I think I'll get the most even coverage that way.

 

Ok......going to try the spraying approach. Keep your fingers crossed for me! First two are the seat back, bottom one is the seat cushion.
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Thanks for the tips! Ok....teaser shots here....results after two coats. VERY happy with the spray technique. Spraying at 40psi with a HVLP using a VERY fine mist and diluted 10% with bottled water. LOTS of control and no build up in the threads. Only bad thing is, some of my threads are freyed, which wasn't noticeable before, but is now VERY noticeable. Any ideas on how to trim these? Electric razor? LOL.
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