tackling interior 52 Cambridge

[62rebelP23]

decided to see just what was behind Door #1 and Door #3 today (drivers' front and rear doors) and was amused to find that the '70's blue shag carpet covering the lower half of the panel was on top of maroon vinyl (?) that matches the bottom of the front seat. the upper half was white vinyl and this was on top of cotton batting on the original (?) double thickness for lack of a better term , tar paper panel. while i'm a fan of originality, i'm not big on tar paper. i think i shall replace these with masonite, padded with nylon batting instead of cotton. not entirely settled on an upholstery scheme yet.

i am taken with the design of the front armrests; they are very easy to take apart and recover. don't like the fact that the ivory plastic trim is heat-swaged to the mount; masking these off for painting will be a chore. the rubber pads are easy to duplicate if need be; they're pretty solid as is.

decided that the brittle and broken rubber floor mats could go, as well as the horsehair padding (most of which was gone on the driver's floor anyway) which only holds moisture next to the floor.

i toyed shortly with the simple wood door panel idea; it still appeals to me in a nautical sense!

if i can learn the art of woodgrain painting, i'll do all the interior sheetmetal with it, and stain the actual wood to complement it.

[Normspeed]

Norm, that's gonna cost you points at the national meet! Just kidding.

62, I plan on doing my interior panels in thin birch paneling. I think it will look great, like a woody interior. Black car, blonde wood panels. Still haven't decided on colors for garnish molding, windlace and carpet.

[BobT-47P15]

Probably correct.....points would be deducted for all that.

But.....so what......at the average non POC car show the people who see our

vehicles often don't know the difference and simply enjoy what

they see. My car has enough non-original stuff I'd probably wind

up with a "minus" score.

[BobT-47P15]

My door panels are 1/4 inch masonite covered with fairly cheap vinyl from

the fabric store. The upholstry shop re-covered the armrest. The only

problem I found was I could not put back on the cone-shaped springs

that go behind handles. I have the stainless trim for the door, but have

not gotten around to installing it. When I re-do the doors, will use the

black water resistant cardboard like original.

[David Maxwell]

...like you, I didn't want cotton batting back in there. It's a breeding ground for all kinds of problems. I have a thin layer of high density foam on mine covered with wool broadcloth like it was originally and maroon vinyl kick panels. I used 1/8" stain grade plywood. Holds up better than masonite. Note that my upholsterer layed out the pattern for all stainless trim etc., then adhered the foam, soaked the areas needing embossing with 3M adhesive and then formed the embossed areas. He then used more 3M adhesive to attach the wool to the foam so that it would grip and maintain the embossed pattern. He able to use the orginal stainless strip that seperates the vinyl from the wool by leaving a small amount of the plywood empty of foam and folding the two materials over a bar of the correct thickness to match the depth of the foam. He then butted the material covered bars up to the stainless. The effect is a perfect match to the original appearance.

decided to see just what was behind Door #1 and Door #3 today (drivers' front and rear doors) and was amused to find that the '70's blue shag carpet covering the lower half of the panel was on top of maroon vinyl (?) that matches the bottom of the front seat. the upper half was white vinyl and this was on top of cotton batting on the original (?) double thickness for lack of a better term , tar paper panel. while i'm a fan of originality, i'm not big on tar paper. i think i shall replace these with masonite, padded with nylon batting instead of cotton. not entirely settled on an upholstery scheme yet.

i am taken with the design of the front armrests; they are very easy to take apart and recover. don't like the fact that the ivory plastic trim is heat-swaged to the mount; masking these off for painting will be a chore. the rubber pads are easy to duplicate if need be; they're pretty solid as is.

decided that the brittle and broken rubber floor mats could go, as well as the horsehair padding (most of which was gone on the driver's floor anyway) which only holds moisture next to the floor.

i toyed shortly with the simple wood door panel idea; it still appeals to me in a nautical sense!

if i can learn the art of woodgrain painting, i'll do all the interior sheetmetal with it, and stain the actual wood to complement it.

[David Maxwell]

...I ended leaving mine out as well. I had blasted them and POR15 coated them and rushed over to the upholstery shop. He just laughed and said "I never put those things back in". Like yours, it turns out everything is fine without them. Eschutcheon is the correct spelling and it's RIDICULOUS. Haven't thought of a better name though. We should have a contest to come up with the best name for them

[old woolie]

I made the door panels for my 51 Dodge Regent [Canadian Dodge which is a Plymouth with Dodge badges and grille] out of coragated plastic signs which you would find at fast food places and gas stations. Got them free cause my daughter worked at McDonalds. Cut them to fit and glued black cloth on. 6 years now and still looking good.

[old woolie]

Oh by the way, the eschutcheons and springs fit just fine.

[62rebelP23]

now there's a good idea! those corrugated plastic panels are much lighter than masonite or some plywood, and are waterproof already. hmmmmmm.....

you know, the only catch to asking a question here is the flurry of good answers that come back!

[BobT-47P15]

Well, my roundy-rounds don't fit tight against the door panel. There is a

bit of space. But they still cover the pin that keeps the handles on.

Don't believe a single soul has ever commented about them. I guess if

a person wanted to go to the trouble, they could cut the springs down a

bit shorter and they would likely then work.

When I someday get the material I want for the seats (whatever that is,

I'm still not sure).....then the door panels, etc will need to be re-done to

match. For years, have thought the seats would be all maroon vinyl.

Then the next thought was vinyl with cloth inserts. Now, am thinking

maybe all cloth.....as that is what the original upholstry is (underneath

the seat covers.) Maroon with grey inserts.

Some converts had leather or leatherette on seats, but not mine.

Door and rear side panels were leather type material.

Of course, the car was originally Sumac Red, not yellow.

[62rebelP23]

i still have covers on the seats, but where the seams are splitting i can see nice grey mohair. unfortunately the front seat bottom fabric is falling apart.

i may take a piece of it to a fabric store to see if i can match or come close to it. the more time i spend with the car, the more i feel like the interior should look like a suit.......

[greg g]

Hmmmmm. Was coroplast a MOPAR item??? I know I had a GM car that had Coroplast as divider trim for the trunk to back seat panel. But I haven't seen it used on any Mopars..........

[Don Coatney]

... Eschutcheon is the correct spelling and it's RIDICULOUS. Haven't thought of a better name though. We should have a contest to come up with the best name for them

Couple of suggestions. We could call them Norm hole covers or possibly norm plugs:D

I am off to sit in the corner now.............

[Rodney Bullock]

I am not sure if the the arm rests in my car are even mopar. I stuff was in the interior shop for a couple of months and my guy lost them so I went to the junk yard and got another pair. I made sure the holes were the same size. I think all arm rest from the 40's can interchange. The material we use must be based on how well it stands up to the weather, water runs though our doors so it's about protecting the investment. As far as a POC meet although my car looks nice I don't think I would place:mad: I made changes for "art" sake. So I am in the same boat. I would like to hear what the POC would say about my car:)

[62rebelP23]

i pulled the other two door panels today and the pass side b pillar trim; the tack strips are in pretty good condition and the doors themselves are all pretty sound for 56 years. found a bolt lying in the bottom of the door that looks like it's been there all that time. oops dropsie.

quick question:

how do the REAR armrests come off the body? i haven't gone so far as to remove the rear seat back, just the bottom, and didn't notice anything there.

funny how "empty" the car sounds when i shut the doors now! not "tinny" like a modern, sort of a "55 gallon drum" boom.

[62rebelP23]

found out that they simply slide into place similar to the back seat. pulled the dead rubber floor mats and horsehair pads out; no significant damage except in front floors which i'm already repairing. i'm really getting to dislike rats, though, they've been pulling the cotton out of my seats.

[BloodyKnuckles]

i pulled the other two door panels today and the pass side b pillar trim; the tack strips are in pretty good condition and the doors themselves are all pretty sound for 56 years. found a bolt lying in the bottom of the door that looks like it's been there all that time. oops dropsie.

quick question:

how do the REAR armrests come off the body? i haven't gone so far as to remove the rear seat back, just the bottom, and didn't notice anything there.

funny how "empty" the car sounds when i shut the doors now! not "tinny" like a modern, sort of a "55 gallon drum" boom.

Arm rests are attached to the panel not the body.

BloodyKnuckles

[David Maxwell]

...for the P15. There were two velour options and four pinstriped wool broadcloth options. Mohair is a little different and not used in the P15 or any Plymouths that I'm aware of. Here's pic of the exact reproduction material I got from Lebaron Bonney. They cater to Ford and Chevy, but one of the Ford options happened to be the same as Plymouth which was not that uncommon. Anyhow, worked out great for me. Here's the link to my old website that has the swatch images. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see them. http://www.angelfire.com/ca/bojeta/indexpage2.html

Here's a direct link to a pic of my car's front seat next to the brochure image. The photo was taken right after I had it reupholstered.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/bojeta/47%20Plymouth%20Restoration/1ba1.gif

i still have covers on the seats, but where the seams are splitting i can see nice grey mohair. unfortunately the front seat bottom fabric is falling apart.

i may take a piece of it to a fabric store to see if i can match or come close to it. the more time i spend with the car, the more i feel like the interior should look like a suit.......

[62rebelP23]

you're right; it's my A Model upbringing showing through. Dad's A's had mohair and i assume all cars of an age carry the same stuff. it is a nice grey pinstripe broadcloth and in some areas has held up amazingly well! unfortunately not so well in others.

i decided to go with 5.2mm luaun ply for the panels; i cut them out yesterday with my RotoZip tool. let's explore this machine and it's drawbacks.... it is probably the noisiest power tool i own. bar none. it wanders when it encounters any sort of irregularity in the material. it snaps bits with alarming ease. BUT it does make short work of plywood.

i still have to sand the edges to get them even and smooth, and put some sort of sealer on the panels front and back. still working out how to fasten the rear panels so that they follow the contour of the door; the fronts are no problem as the armrest pulls them down snug. i'm not keen on using screws yet; the panels are thin and screws would require more holes in the door and washers under the heads. got some odd double ended panel bolts from my olf job at VW....hmmmmm...

[62rebelP23]

went at the panels today with some sandpaper to knock the rough edges off; bought a quart of minwax poly sealer/stain in oak and put a coat on just as the sky began to darken up warning of impending Tstorm (that never came!) so had to hustle and get all back inside under cover. had disassembled and repainted the front armrest bases and decided to cover them with some black leather from a VW seat cushion. sprayed a heavy coat of adhesive to the leather and the foam/top of the armrest and pulled the leather tightly into place, then trapped it in place reassembling the armrest. easiest thing i've done on the whole car!

i've worked out a way to retain the rear door panels, which lack armrests, using the factory holes in the door panel and some hardware i've accumulated. the front panels seem happy with just the armrest screws holding the panel in place, but i can add the same hardware if needed to the front. and still a weekend left to play.....

[Normspeed]

I sure hope you can post some pictures. This is a job I'm really looking forward to and I hope to pick up some good ideas before I start.

When I did my teardrop interior in birch ply, I didn't stain it but I put several coats of a great water based sealer on it, both sides of the panels and all the edges. Once it dries and cures, it's very water resistant over the long haul. Varathane crystal clear waterborne diamond wood finish. I used the outdoor satin on everything wood in my teardrop and it still looks like new after several years of use. Or at least it was looking good to me on this particular day:D