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Polar White and Rust - a restoration epic, can it even be done?


IanMc
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2 hours ago, Jessopia74 said:

Is the Felt? Rubber window seal/scraper/insert available to renew?

No idea Jess, they seem to last well though.

2 hours ago, Julian said:

The red material on the very top of the door card Ian, what material is it? my car interior is in mint condition except for a what I think is a cigarette burn in that card top on the drivers door, I' ve been meaning to see to it for years now, but think it's time to get it done!!! but to get the correct colour and the correct material won't be easy, what do you suggest?.

Hi mate,

It appears to be a textured Vinyl. This looks like it is going to be the hardest of all the door card materials to get in the right colour.

Keep watching matey, as I will make sure that I post links to everything that I end up using.

 I expect this ‘material sourcing’ mini project to take 1-2 weeks - it’s going to be a bit frustrating, but it just has to be right...

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This evening I cut all of the slots that will accept the tangs for the chrome diving strips:

 

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My next job is to seal both sides of both cards with PVA sealant. This is on order, so might take a few days to arrive. While I am waiting I will continue to investigate the material and carpet options... (yawn  :lol:).

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Been pottering about today and make a bit of progress.

I seem to have found a better match for the self adhesive 'vinyl wood', you might remember that the last lot was too Red - I'm pretty happy with the new one.

The material is still not quite right. 40 year old 'Red'material is proving tricky to match up with all of the other parts to get a good result. This latest one is actually Terracotta - in some situations its looks OK, but it others its miles out... I think the search will continue for this.

 

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Turning my attention to the carpeted lower parts of the door cards this evening, I toddled off to the local Carpetright to see what they had. It turns out that not only was the place deserted, but the one member of Staff that was present was a similar age and also an old car nut. He was interested to know what car I was restoring and immediately said "nice car, I nearly bought one of those back in the day - but opted for a Celica instead, which was probably the wrong choice..." - top man, we were now definitely buddies  :lol:

He noticed the door carpet in my hand and then proceeded to describe the material and after inspection how well it had lasted. His advice was not to replace, but to recolour it with automotive spray - a tip he had picked up from his days of Triumph Stag ownership. Conveniently there is a Halfords pretty much right next door, so off I went.

I made my colour selection - which felt completely appropriate  :thumbup By the way the clean, bright bit of carpet in the photo is where the door pocket had shielded it from the UV, the rest is very noticeably sun bleached, but not brittle or pulling away at all.

 

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Will this work? - who knows! - but regardless it was a very enjoyable 20 minutes chatting to my new car friend from Braintree Carpetright

Watch this space.

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Morning all,

Even though I have not been posting here, its been a busy week try to source suitably coloured and textured materials for the Cav's interior.

I have several samples of different shades of Red vinyl on the way for the door cappings and another sample Red fabric in a different shade. In the end I took all three parts of the door card (bottom carpet, middle fabric and top vinyl) to different locations in an attempt to reach what is hopefully an acceptable compromise - which lets be honest, is what it was always going to be...

So after selecting some variants from the shop swatches, I now wait for my own samples to arrive. Of course if I can match this all up, they I can place my orders and soldier on.

In the mean time I picked this up on Friday after Archery:

 

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It about 99.9% more than I needed, but I'm sure I will need it for something else one day?!  :lol:

So after preparing a mix of 4 parts water to 1 part PVA I sealed/primed both sides of both door cards:

 

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At this point I am now praying that they dont warp from water ingress!  :unsure:

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3 hours ago, markyspark said:

Lots of labour hours in these, you do have patience!   sure if they dry slowly they remain straight... as an arrow:D

 

I am very pleased to report that they are now dry and they are straight - yes!

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The materials sourcing mini nightmare goes on  :lol:

Today the selection of Red vinyl samples arrived - and none of them are any good...

In this photo you can see the original door cap and the small section I cut out to use as a guide:

 

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And here it is compared to the samples I received:

 

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I am now thinking that Maroon Leatherette might be the answer - here is a photo of my screen after ordering a 20 x 10 cm sample to see how it will look - it has to be closer than those Red vinyls, plus it has texture!

 

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Then I have to wait until my new/latest fabric sample arrives to see how that compares... This is becoming a vicious circle at the moment, but I have to get this right.

I will keep looking and trying   :thumbup

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1 hour ago, 1200bandit said:

How did the paint runs come out 

 

Not sorted those out yet Wayne.

Interior first then back to the paint. That way it will be well and truly dried right through.

1 minute ago, KAA said:

Hi Ian,

Try Martrim, they have all the vinyl colours and textures available and are quick to send samples.

https://www.martrim.co.uk/car-trimming-supplies/auto-seat-vinyl.php?page=5

 

They look really good - thanks KAA  :thumbup

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My new door panel clips arrived today. Originally I was quite concerned that I had wasted more money:

 

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But I am pleased to report that with a bit of effort while turning they do work:

 

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Thats another little piece of the jigsaw...

 

 

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While I wait for yet more material samples to arrive, I thought I would break the boredom and work on something else.

The 'wood' strip that surround the door pull and the lock slider seemed like a decent job to get stuck in to, so away we went.

You can see that the chrome surround was held in place by some shallow staples on the back:

 

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Here you can get a feel for the reason I am doing the parts again, basically the base material is missing or flaking away around the two cut outs:

 

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I am pleased to report that my trusty wing man continues to supervise my progress on this project - well sort of...   :lol:  He continues to do well, which is great news  :thumbup

 

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Once all the little staples are out, you can separate the frame from the main wood strip:

 

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Next it was time to take the 5 mm plywood I had purchased a use the old strip as a template for the two new ones:

 

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As you can see, our other Cat decided she wanted to join the party as well - she really is a proper little Daddies girl - I can now officially introduce you to Lola everyone  :rolleyes:

The weather forecast for tomorrow is awful, so with any luck I can get these cut out, PVA sealed and then perhaps even get the new wood effect vinyl on them - we shall see.

Have a nice evening everyone.

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I know what you mean of course, but Lola is a house cat (her choosing) and Domino can’t really jump and climb much these days, so he limits his ‘business’ to our garden areas.

It seems to be the lazy dog owners that are the bigger problem round here at the moment - you wouldn’t think there was a £1000 fine if caught! 🤷‍♂️

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