Another Katatak Fiero Adventure! (Page 35/72)
katatak APR 02, 12:18 AM
No updates - been in New York for the last few days - I needed a boat to get around in. I was going to try and make it out o Kickhill farms and rummage around through the Fiero stuff but a lot of roads in New England were closed due to high water this week. I'll be working on the headliner tomorrow - I still have not found the material I want yet. I have one more place to try in the AM.

Pat
katatak APR 02, 06:07 PM
Made some progress today. Spent most the morning running around looking for some headliner material. The last one did not stick. Not sure if it was lack of glue or bad glue - most likely operator error. I was able to find the exact same material but I was afraid that it may not be "headliner" material. Meaning that if it gets hot, it may pull and not stay where it is supposed to stay. I ended up down at the big Foam and Fabric store and picked up some regular headliner material that has the foam backing. It was fairly cheap too so I bought enough to do the Formula as well. 10.00 a yard.

I was impressed at how easy it was to put on.

Here's the "buckskin" I got for the Formula - it's a little on the darker side compared to the stock color but I think the contrast is cool.


A little 3M 77, a solid headliner board and new material. Here we go!


Laid out 1/2 at a time.


Sprayed the board and the material and let it set for a minute then started from the center out on each side.


After smoothing out the wrinkles, trimming off the extra and gluing the edges down.




After it sets and cures, I will reinstall - then I can start putting the interior back together - I'd like to have it all done by Sunday. I just need to keep my head down and get it done.

More later!

Pat

[This message has been edited by katatak (edited 04-03-2010).]

katatak APR 03, 12:30 PM
Installed the headliner this AM. Turned out better than the first one.




Will be installing carpet, trim, seats and center console this afternoon.

Pat
Sofa King APR 03, 12:45 PM
Hey P,

The headliner really tuned out NICE. It's a good feeling checking off one project and then moving to the next.
katatak APR 03, 09:51 PM
Hey Greg, you are 100% correct. I felt like I have been neglecting this project and after following your thread the last few weeks, I have been motivated to get back on it. Thanks for the kick in the butt.

I got a little side tracked today. Went to lunch with the Fiero bunch to celabrate one of the guy's B Day. As usual, we burned up a lot of day light BSing....... While I was out, I took an opportunity for a photo op with the Formula. Here's a brief intermission while I wait for my afternoon progress pics to load.

Looking South East over El Paso:




I'll have some more progress pics here in a minute.

Pat
katatak APR 03, 10:28 PM
After lunch today I was feeling like a nap - had some great Fish Tacos and spent a lot of time BSing with the guys about Fiero's and Corvettes. Anyway, when I got home I got a wild hair and decided to get after the interior in the Coupe. I got so wound up in is that I did not get many pics of the process but I think most folks know how to install an interior.

Once I figured out where all the carpet pad went, I installed the carpet on both sides. This is aftermarket carpet that was in the car when I got it. If you look back in this thread you will see that it was grey that was dyed blue. I shampooed out the dye and used some fabric spray to color it black. It turned out good but not exactly the way I wanted. It will do for now. I had to do some trimming along the door side so that all the screw bosses where the trim screwed to was not covered by the carpet. Once I got each side fitted the way I liked, I sprayed some 3M adheasive on the carpet pad layed out in the pan and a coat on the back side of the carpet. I wanted to make sure that the carpet pad did not move under the carpet and ball up under the pedals so I glued them together.

Once the carpet was in, I put the A pillar trim in. I was pretty happy with how easy these snapped in place. I have had epic battles with these in other cars n the past. Next was the B pillar trim. These were a little tricky due to the new headliner - it's a little thicker than the factory stuff and I had to be careful not to snag or tear a hole in the new material. All in all, they went in pretty easy. Last was the door sill/kick panel trim. These were easy except for the usual "stripped" hole here and there. I just used a slightly larger screws for the bad ones. Last thing I did was snap all the screw covers in and then it was getting dark.

Tomorrow I will get the console side of the carpet clipped into place and then install the console. I had to make a bracket on the rear firewall for the rear console to rest on and fasten too. I'll take close pics of that tomorrow. Once I get the console in I have to work on mounting my MP3 amp. I've had it in the car already so it's just a matter of finish work. After that, it's the seats. I hope to get that far tomorrow. That will leave the gauge pod over the AC surround and the Insrument cluster - it will be getting a slight tweak with some glass work so it may be awhile to get that done. Here's a few pics - some are not good - I think my camera is getting ready to give up on me.

Carpet Before:


Carpet After - it needs a good vacuuming to clean it up after sitting in the shed for so long.


I really like how the B pillar trim turned out:


A pillar:


It was a beautiful day here in Far West Texas - as the sun was going down:


More tomorrow!

Pat

[This message has been edited by katatak (edited 04-03-2010).]

Sofa King APR 04, 12:42 AM
Looks good. I love it when things start falling into place. What about the console? Any thought on how to move forward? Also, you had mentioned a larger gauge in the middle? How are you going to incorporate this into the overall design?
katatak APR 04, 04:14 PM
Well I spent most the day so far working on the Coupe interior. I wanted to get most of it complete so I could sit back and contemplate what was next.

I put the console in as is and then the seats. Now I can step back and think:









This will pretty much be close to the finished product - at least for this version. I am planning something quite a bit different for the future but that's a ways off - I have a lot of other projects to finsh up first. This will do for this summers thrashing of the car as I plan to make as many passes down the quarter as I can till either the motor or the trans goes South. Then it will be time for version 2. I have a few little things left to finish.

1. Mount the MP3 Amp and finish the AC surround.
2. Install the instrument pod and finish the gauge pod.
3. Dew wipes and door panels.
4. Tires and wheels
5. Some exterior clean up and freshen up the paint on the rear grills, luggage rack and bumper pads.

More in a bit.

Pat
katatak APR 04, 04:30 PM
Now that the pics have loaded, on with today's fun and games. I have to build a box for the lower part of the AC surround - where the stock radio goes will be a "covey hole" kind of thing. The MP3 amp will be mounted in the slot where the AC/Heater control box would normally be.

Here's the holes I have to fill:


Taking my que from my old buddy Greg (Sofa King), I decided to build the box out of foam core.


Then I had to test fit it:


With the surround and face plate on:


With the MP3 amp kind of in place and the gauge pod:


The next step is to cut the box apart so I can use the flat pieces for templates. Next I made a flat piece of fiberglass (Yeah - I'm playing with glass again!). Again, following Greg's lead, once the glass was set, I laid the tmeplates down and cut them out with my exacto knife. I then pulled the excess off the and will have to let the pieces completely cure. Oncetheya are cure, I will build the box with the glass parts and hot glue the outer edges of the corners. Next I will add glass and resin to the inside of the corners and lay one more layer of cloth on the inside. Once it's set. I will trim off the hot glus and add some resin and glas strand to the outer corners for added strength. A littl sanding and trimming and it should slide into place. Not sure how I will fasten it to the skeleton yet but I'll figure that out when it's done. The box will also give me a nice platform to mount the MP3 Amp too. Some shimming will be needed and I'll have to make a face plate to fill the voids on each side of the Amp.

Waiting for the parts to cure:


More to come!

Pat
katatak APR 04, 08:13 PM
Ok, here's where I left off.

After letting the parts cure, I pulled them from the glass and started to build the box:


Using hot glue on the outside to hold it together:



Once I had it all glued together it was time for a test fit:


I layed in a couple of layers of cloth on the inside corners:


And I poured what was left of my resin in the bottom to seal it:






Once it's sets over night, I will lightly sand the insode and outside and give it some proimer and charcoal paint. The inside of the box - at least the bottom and side's will be lined with the snti skid shelf stuff so that anything I throw in there will not rattle around to much when I launch it from the line at 6k! That's it for this week - I hope to be stuffing the 4.9 in the XTC next weekend so it may be a few weeks before I get back to work on the V8 Coupe.

Later!

Pat