Interior Project – Update 27th August 2012

UPDATE – 27th August 2012
Well – the interior is now officially finished.  Fitting the door panels involved fixing up the mirror and central locking wiring plus also fabrivating a tempalte to cover up the old 6×9 holes in the door itself.  I’d say there was 3-4 hours in each door not including making the door panel itself.  Anyway, it’s all done and I am very happy with the level of finish for an amateur (being me!).

New carpet and dyed seats / parcel shelf

New seats at the front

All shows RSA door panels.

One finished door panel.

Not my car but these are the seats I’m using. Exposed floorboards are like mine as well – just the steering is on the wrong side in this car.

Like everything else I have completely removed the interior except the dash and it’s attached bits.  This gave me the opportunity to rethink the interior and so I made the following decisions:

1. RS America door panels – always loved them and now I’m going to have them..
2. Pulled the front seats to clean undeneath and they were so heavy I’m putting in R replicas
3. New carpet – still blue but darker and more suitable for extra black bits
4. Dyed rear seats and door tops black (from navy blue)
5. Remove the old 6×9’s in the door and replace with 6.25 = much nicer looking and sounding

More pics but also more text below:

Carpet cut and bound

Love it or hate it – these are carpet covered rear door panels.  For that luxurious touch 🙂

Some seals and seat belt action..

Dyed rear seat back plus some bumper trim and engine seal

The door panels came up well.  I made them up using a template, some 3mm MDF and a jigsaw.  After they were cut I sprayed with 3 light coats of clear 2 pack – excessive maybe but I had the paint so it was really no cost to me.  Now I know they are waterproof!

I’ll be using the red nylon pulls but also bought black in case the red was a bit too bright.  At the moment I’m loving the red.

Seats are Cobra R replicas.  They are new and I have all new sliders and brackets.  I bought these from a very nice fellow Porshce enthusiast.  I’m really happy and can’t wait to install them.  They are immensely lighter than the electric ones I had.

I had some carpet from when I redid the front mats.  The new carpet is darker (more midnight blue) than what was in there.  I am going to a predominantly black interior.  Fashion police will tell you blue and black don’t match but I like this combo.

I dyed the rear seats and door tops black.  I used the same product to do the hard plastics such as door locks and interior door handle bezels.  The result is excellent and it all looks new.  The rear parcel shelf has also been dyed.

When re-covering the rear side panels I decided carpet was a nice option.  I’ve seen this before and I think it looks good.  The kids decided it would be nicer for them – as they are pretty much the only ones small enough to fit back there anyway.

In the pics you’ll see how it’s come up.  Everything is pretty much ready to fit – just need a painted car back in my possession!  As a side point you’ll see some external rubbers that have been reconditioned.  I’m very happy with these as well.

Custom Footwells – Updated 21st Nov 2011

UPDATE – 21st November 2011

I finally got around to finishing the footwells.  The final touch was a new piece of carpet on the passenger wheel well plus a better floorboard mounting point.  I ended up going to a mdel shop and picking up what is effectively a 15mm M6 thread extender.  Ithen use a shallow head M6 bolt to secure it in place.  The pictures don’t really do it justice – it looks very neat.

Finished - new carpets make a difference to overall presentation

Should've taken the phone of the seat!

The thought of customising can often bring a shudder to the purist.  In my case I hope that it’s all done for the betterment of the car.  I had a need to make up a new dead pedal since the whole passenger floorboard setup  had be changed.  After removing the A/C I decided that this was an opportunity to give the passenger some proper legroom.  If you’ve been in an A/C RHD 911SC you’ll know that your knees almost touch your chest – even with the seat right back!

After purchasing the beautiful Rennline non A/C floorboard for passenger plus driver board I decided to back them with vinyl.  I wanted to expose them and liked the hole punched version.  The only drawback was the see through nature, so I vinyl backed them.  The idea is to place then over the carpet and it’s kind of a Singer look.  A bit racer but not hardcore.  I like it, not everyone will.

The dead pedal is made of 1.6mm alumium sheet, light and strong.  It’s covered in the same vinyl as the floorboards and also the console that I recovered.  I think consistency on the finishes is important for a neat and quality look.

I also had new carpets made up.  The passenger is shorter and tucks under the board.  The edging also follows the floorpan a bit better than factory.  The driver carpet is almost the same, only change is the larger vinyl panel so my heels don;t wear the carpet – the idea is it will stay nicer for longer.  I always seem to wear carpet in all my cars!!

Anyway, here’s some pics of the progress.

Aluminium cut and bent into shape.

Vinyl glued on

Test fit - pre vinyl

Test fit - post vinyl

Test fit - with console (took me 2 goes at recovering that thing)

Pedal Box Restoration

Ok – here we go again.  Started to clean up the under dash wiring and now I find myself removing the pedal box.  This will be stripped apart with some parts sandblasted and powder coated.  Already have the new bronze bushes.

You can see why I pulled this out...

Project – Leather/Carpet

Virtually as soon as I got the car I took it down to Garry Blackman to get some leather trimming done.  He had done the leather work in my old car (changed it from berber to leather) and his work is sensational.  He’s also a nice bloke to boot!

I had originally thought I would need to re-leather the front seats but Garry suggested that a leather reconditioner would do the trick.  I did however convince him to change the piping as it was very ratty.  Originally a white or cream colour it had been recoloured with a ‘magic marker’ and was very scrappy to say the least.

I also asked him to recover the steering wheel.  I deliberated alot over this because I had the idea to find an original tri spoke SC wheel.  In the end I liked this 930S wheel so decided to get it recovered.  Steering is a bit heavy at low speed but I can live with it.

Finally I had Garry make up a new front boot carpet.  The one I got with the car had the wrong side pieces – they were black and fabric was so wrong.  Garry has the ‘correct’ material so I turfed the whole lot and had all new put in.

I’m happy with the results.  Here are some pics of before and after.  I really hate the before shot – the interior looks so ratty.  Amazing what a good clean can do!

Note the replacemtn gear knob.  I tried to find an original SC but got too impatient and went for an early 911 repro instead.  It feels great, much more retro cool than the silver ball….  Since installing Porsche HQ have decided to stock new ones from the OEM supplier.  Not going to worry about it for now.