Pattern for sill threshold vinyl needed.

Hello-

After many years of working on the body, I am at last getting ready to restore the interior of my GT and was doing an inventory of all the interior parts I stored away many years ago (I work slow). I found all of my trim parts except for the left and right sill threshold vinyl. I have no idea why they are not with the other pieces but I have run out of places to look.

Has anyone saved their interior vinyl pieces when they restored their interior. I do not need the actual pieces- a tracing of each along with a picture would be great. A picture would tell me where the factory made cuts in them so they would lay in correctly. I am not sure if the GT is any different from the Spider but either is welcome.

Thanks again-- reading the great restoration threads have gotten me motivated again.

 

Mark,
I have never had mine out so I will have to guess. OmgJon should have pictures somewhere in all the posts he has made. Try post #95. Mine look like formed sheet aluminum with grained vinyl glued on. There are no cuts anywhere that is visible. A pattern would be a simple rectangle with darts at the corners. I can take pictures but not much to see. If you have the hard backing hidden somewhere that will dictate the size of the vinyl pieces. No compound curves. Some GTS have lights in that panel, my 72 GT does not. Neither does Jon's car. Good luck.
John

 

Thanks John-

OmgJon's picture #93 (wish I had taken such great pictures-thanks OmgJon!) shows the two sill sheets. Mine were just Dino vinyl glued over about 3/8" thick foam. There was no hard backing in my GT. I have been offered a GTS panel to copy by a generous lister. Does anyone know if there is any different between the GTS and the GT sill covering? I committed the carnal sin of restoration--never lose or toss any part until the restoration is 100% finished.

 

Just recovered mine and the vinyl was laid on top of the foam as the prevoius poster points out. 246Gt Euro 1973

Use a good high density foam and stretch the vinyl over the foam, dont stick it on the foam itself but glue all the sides. I tucked the top edge down past the door cill and the polished SS cill covered it up.

Watch the ends where the carpet and bulkhead cover are. Bit tricky to get right, made an end template the second attempt))

 

Tony-

Did you find that the left and right pieces were mirror images of each other. I will be getting only one side as a pattern and I am assuming that all I have to do is flip it over to cut my second pattern.

Were you able to take any pictures of your installation--and of your template?. If you did could you PM them to me.

Thanks for responding.

 

I recently had the door sills recovered in my 246 coupe. We did not save the old ones but I do not think they would have done you any good anyway because no 2 cars are exactly the same. I used a good professional upholstryman with a lot of experience doing Ferraris. He stripped the old material and foam off. Glued the new foam to the door sills than trimmed it after it was glued. He than glued tha grained vynel material to the foam leaving some excess on each side and trimmed it last. Hope this helps. PM me if you want any more information or would like to speak to the upholsterer.

 

Tim-

Thanks for your insight and offer to consult with your trimmer.

I know that putting on an oversize piece and then trimming to fit is how the professional would install these pieces. I am doing the carpet and sill vinyl myself. I hope to use an original piece as a pattern to get me in the right direction and will modify a bit based upon what I find when I test fit the original piece to my Dino. Unfortunately my trimmer skills are a bit limited. I have found with my other pieces of trim-- having the original piece showed me the nips, folds, and cuts that the factory used. This is very helpful to me in order to get a smooth fit. A good trimmer has been doing this work for years which I consider an art. I am a good hack after doing many 356 Porsche interiors over the years. So knowing my limitation, I depend upon seeing what the factory did as a starting point rather then free form it myself.

Thanks again for your offer to PM

 

Mark.

As Tim rightly points out no two cars are the same and on my car the left and right cills are different too. So i would be very wary of cutting a pattern from just one side.

I did mine myself and with a little care and attention it is relatively easy. I would advise not to glue the vinyl to the foam and you need to stretch the vinyl over the foam and then glue down the seams. I spoke to my Trimmer who is re-uphosltering the seats in leather and he recommended to do it that way. Turned out to be the best way for me.

The ends are the trickiest and after messing up one piece i decided to cut a template of each corner and then transfer it onto the material, leaving a small excess. Cutting and trimming can be done in position. work form the top of the cill down to the floor first and then finish of the ends

Bear in mind the ends are mostly covered by the trim panels, carpet and bulkhead cover, so any slight mistakes will not be seen!

Use a good contact adhesive as when you stretch the vinyl (not too much) you need it to stay in place and not move around. Leave cutting the holes for the seat belts untill last , a small scalpel can then trim out the hole in the right position.

Will try and get a photo of the finished covers later on tomorrow, left my camera at work!!

Tony