Charles T Schmitz wrote:
Subject: Re: Spitfire - Interior restoration questions
[snip]Ross - Thanks for the info - I think what you're saying makes a lot
of sense. At
one time I was planning on doing all the body work and paint myself until
I came to my senses and realized that I haven't the tools, time, talent,
or technology to do that. I'm coming around, slowly but surely, to the
realization that there are people out there that do stuff for a living
that I should avail myself of! From your reply I gather that you had the
complete interior done by a local shop. From what I remember of my
original interior panels there were "seams" that were heat molded into
the panels. Did your guy have the ability to recreate panels with the
original look? Or did he have a source of repro or NOS panels?
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Tom - I used Pete at Westminster Auto Upholstery in Westminster, California
(in Orange Co., near L.A.). He does a lot of custom hot rods, the usual
Porsches and Mercedes plus boats. He perfectly recreated the panels with
seams, including the small carpeted "kick" panel area at the lower front
corner of each door panel that was a standard feature on the Mk II Spits.
(yeah, I know, I have a Mk I Spit., but I couldn't resist having him add
it).
That's the advantage of using a professional shop to do the interior work -
what they don't buy they can make, and in some cases make it better in terms
of quality and durability than the NOS or "factory" replacement panels.
Plus he had all of the proper blind fasteners, etc. so it looks factory in
almost all respects. No exposed screws, etc.
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[snip]On the carpet - what is this German carpet called? Is it wool or
synthetic? I've done a bit of reading up on carpet and it seems that
there's scads of options here. I'd like to be able to ask for it by name.
On the '70 Spits I don't believe that leather was an option, but I like the
idea. I had pretty much discarded leather as an option due to the cost, but
after what you've related I think I'll at least ask.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
The carpet was left over from another project vehicle (I think it was a
lower, chopped and channeled 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery - with flames - very
impressive). It is synthetic (wool is very $$$$$), but looks like the
factory carpet in the new Mercedes - pretty rich and very soft. Before
delivering the car to him I purchased and installed the foil backed
underlayment using 3-M spray adhesive. Use tin snips to cut it to size - I
tried damn near everything else before finding that tin snips work best. He
then installed carpet over that and made up custom floor mats. I also had
him go a step further and carpet the trunk floor. Not original but it
really looks nice.
The seats have leather faces with white piping, and the proper stitching,
etc. The backs are vinyl. It would have bumped up the price about 30% to
do leather backs, too. The leather came from, you guessed it, the Ford
Sedan Delivery project car. That's another advantage to using a
professional shop for this kind of stuff - sometimes they can cut you a
significant break on materials if they have some excess stuff laying around
and you are not too choosy about color and texture. I was very lucky in
that he had plenty of black carpet and leather to play with.
I have to say that I admire those on the list that would tackle interior
work (and paint and body work, too). Maybe I'm a little jaded, but I just
don't think I'll ever be as good at interior and body work as the guys that
do it day in and day out.
Ross D. Vincenti
64 Spitfire 4
64 Porsche 356C Coupe
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