Headliner is done

We went to Pollard's Trim Shop to pick up my car today. The headliner looks great. They did a really nice job. They had some trouble with the weatherstipping on the windows. I had bought a new set made by Empi. The window guy said that the rubber was to soft and just shredded when he tried to install the windows. He was able to use the old rubber on the rear and side windows, but I had to order a new piece for the windshield.

You can see the old headliner on the right, the new one on the left. I'm hoping to start the carpeting today, then finish up the seat upholstery over the weekend.

On a side note, my son got a new queen sized bed today, he was too big for the double bed. He must like it because he made up his bed and cleaned his room for the first time ever.

Seat Upholstery - Finally

I purchased my seat upholstery first, because I really don't know what I'm doing and didn't realize how much other repair had to be done first. However, I finally got to start doing the seats today.

Shout out to my brother-in-law who brought over a work table this morning so I would have a good surface to work on.


I had blue vinyl seat covers that were in really bad shape, with black snap on covers that were also in really bad shape. I dutifully watched my "how to" video several times before I started. It certainly seemed easy enough. Remove the old upholstery, clean up the horsehair (yes, horsehair for the padding), bend up the spikes, apply new upholstery. It only took 15 minutes on the video. Not as easy in real life.

The first time I asked my husband for help was just taking the seat apart. The back is bolted to the bottom. The back frame slips over the two bolts. A normal female cannot pry the frame off of the bolts, so request number one for help. He took the seat apart, making me feel feeble, but grateful.

Next step was to strip the old upholstery and padding off of the bottom. The spikes do not just "bend up" like in the video. I had to get a flat head screwdriver to pry them up enough to get the needle nose pliers underneath to then bend them up. Three bandaids later, I had the seat bottom done. By the way, request for help number two from my husband was a band-aid on the skin between my thumb and index finger.

The horsehair is another adventure. The pad itself peels off fairly easily, but the stuff goes everywhere. And it is very strange but there were quite a few acorn shells that kept appearing in the mess. I don't know if it was a messy previous owner, or part of the seat padding. The shop vac got a lot of use during the cleanup phase.

I removed the upholstery and padding, and was left with a fairly good frame, with a lot of junk stuck in and around the springs. I used a bottle brush, scrub brush, and sponge to get as much as possible off the springs. In short order I was ready to start the upholstery process.

The process starts with a layer of burlap that is installed over the top of the springs to protect the foam and fabric from the springs. It is installed using hog-rings, little metal clips attached to the springs using a special set of pliers. Sounds hard, but it was probably the easiest thing I did all day.

After the burlap is attached, you apply foam. I purchased a foam set, but in addition I needed a section of 1" foam to put on top of the burlap, under the formed foam pad. Off to Wal-Mart, where I found a nice 1" foam package for $13.

I cut a section of foam to fit the top of the seat, and applied to the burlap with spray glue. The I added some additional spray glue on top and applied the foam pad. So far so good, I was ready to put on the upholstery.

The cut and sew upholstery came from TMI, via jbugs.com. I pulled the fabric over my foamed seat frame. I pulled, and pulled, and pulled. I have tweed seat covers, so they do not stretch like the vinyl in the video. The goal was to pull the front and back edges down over the bottom of the frame, and hook them onto the metal spikes on the bottom. I could get close, but finally I gave up and made my third request for help from my husband. He kindly came out and helped push down the springs so I could hook the fabric over the spikes. Another bandaid later, we had the seat upholstery done on the seat bottom.

I was feeling pretty good because the seat bottom looked very good. So I tackled the back rest. I went through the same fabric removal, cleaning, burlap and foam process. Unfortunately, when I pulled the fabric up and off of the spikes, one broke off. So I sent a call for help to the Yahoo message board, and asked my brother-in-law if we could weld the tiny spike back on. Welding was not an option. Thinking back to my trusty video, I remember some fabric is just held on with hog-rings. Looking at the seat back I figured maybe I could just hog ring it to the frame. So I continued.

When I tried to put the upholstery on the seat, it would not go on. Remembering a tip from the video, I pulled out an old dry cleaning bag and covered the foam with the plastic. The upholstery slipped right on. I called my husband out for a fourth time, and we proceeded to hook the fabric over the remaining spikes. That's when the second of the three spikes broke off, so now I only had the center spike. I tried using the hog rings to hook the sides to the frame, but it didn't do as well as I had hoped.

I guess I hadn't been to Lowe's yet this weekend, so it was about time. A very helpful woman walked through the store for a half hour helping me look at various options for attaching the seat upholstery. I don't think I ever gave her a good mental picture of how it worked, because she showed me lawn spikes and other non-workable options. Finally, we found the cotter pins. Simple, and only cost $0.60 for a whole pack. So I took my cotter pins and headed home.

I slipped a cotter pin upwards onto the frame, forced the ends through the fabric, and hammered the ends down. Perfect! My seat back is done! I will need my husband's help to put the back and bottom together, but we can do that later. I didn't want to waste my help time because I knew I still had the backrest for the rear seat to do.

I had stripped the rear seat back rest while I was pondering the broken spike problem. There are many spikes on the rear seats. Fortunately, none of them broke because there was not a good place to use a cotter pin on those. After the obligatory burlap and foam pad, I remembered to put the dry cleaner bag on the top of the foam. Then I slipped the seat upholstery over the foam and called my husband out for the fifth time. Thankfully, he doesn't seem to mind helping. But there were so many spikes we pulled out the gloves to do this one. After much pulling, and pushing on the springs, we managed to get everything attached to the spikes. There were a few places that I had to cut on the side to allow important hardware to poke out of the fabric. I'm not thrilled with the holes in the side of the seat, but hopefully it won't be visible when the seat is installed.

Next I need to install the carpet on the back of the back rest for the rear seat, then I'll have the driver's side seat and the bench for the rear seat left to finish. I'll get my car back Monday, and have Wednesday off for July 4th so hopefully I can be done this week.

Small fire in the rear

I have to relate this second hand because I didn't witness the incident. My son and husband were going to drive the Beetle to the parts store this afternoon. My husband, who is a large man, sat on the back bench seat on top of the battery. My son started driving toward the parts store. According to the son, my husband started "screaming like a girl that his butt hurt" and the car filled up with smoke. According to them, the seat pressed down onto the battery and the springs and material started burning. So I need to find out if there is a weight limit on the back seat, or if there is something I can use to protect the seat from the battery.

What great fun. Sorry I missed it.

Ready for the Headliner

I wasn't sure we could get it done, but all of our prep work is ready and we are good to go tomorrow night to the headliner shop.

First order of business this morning was to reattach the dashboard. I had a strip of the old ugly paint on the passenger side so I used paint thinner and sand paper to get the majority of it off. Then I tried to widen the openings for the hand bar so it would fit snugly. No such luck, there is a piece of metal running through the dash that is in the way, so it's still on my to-do list. But all of the lights and knobs (except the fresh air vents) are re-attached and in place.

Once I got everything connected, I turned on the power and none of my dash lights worked. Oh was I unhappy. After tracing all of the wires, I finally realized the painter's tape was still over the fuses. When I checked, sure enough the fuse was at the end and was painted over. I replaced the fuse, and my lights came right on!

With everything restored to it's former glory, I got my new door jamb light switches and dome light and installed them. First try, I had lights. And they also work with the door switches. When you open the door the light goes on, when you close it the light goes off. Most excellent.

Next I reattached the door hardware so I could close and latch the doors. And I had the heater vent cables (cut when my brother-in-law welded the battery pan) so I installed those. Had to make a trip to Lowes for this one. I pulled out the vent flaps, and disconnected the wires. Then discovered those wires are important, you disconnect them at the small piece of hardware that requires a VERY tiny screwdriver. I now own one of those courtesy of Lowes. Of course there are two channels, one for each side. When I first ran the wires I switched them up - one was too short and one was too long. Didn't take a braniac to figure out I had them backwards. So I pulled them out and ran them through correctly. Then I attached the vent flaps. Once again, switched them and one wire was too long the other too short. You'd think on these 50/50 situations I'd be right half the time.

Next, I installed my new wiper motor. Of course another trip to Lowes. I needed e-clips to fasten the moving arm. Removed the old motor, attached the new motor. Then installed in the car. Also attached my new wiper blades that arrived this week. The motor works great if the arms are up, but they won't move at all if the wiper blades are in contact with the window. My on-line experts think either the nuts are not tight enough or I need to lubricate the moving parts. We can try both easily.

Once I got all the parts installed, I cleaned up the floor to get all of the sanding residue up. Then we went to re-attach the clutch cable. We hate doing that, but the clutch pedal fell forward while we were painting and the cable slipped off. My son was not in a good mood when this started. So I did all the pre-work and took out the pedal assembly. Richard came out to help push the cable through so I could reattach. He was grumbling a lot, so when he asked if he could try putting the bolts in I said "no you'll get mad and throw stuff". So he left and went inside. Unfortunately I was holding the clutch, and my ratchet was in the garage. So I was stuck. He waited almost 20 minutes to come back outside - and I was hot. I was cursing like a sailor and my arm hurt like crazy from holding the clutch. He did take the clutch back and help. But not before he got mad (like I expected) and threw a wrench across the yard. Like I said, we don't like doing the clutch cable.

Finally, all was done so we popped a seat in and took it for a drive. I drove out and my son drove home. Amazing how much he has improved since we replaced the shifter and put the shift plate in place. Being able to find the gears makes a big difference.

So Tuesday is the big day, and once the headliner is done, we'll start on carpet and upholstery.

Paint - 2nd Attempt

We have now painted the interior the same color we will eventually paint the exterior. I have to admit, my son was right. It looks good.

Of course our project started with a trip to Home Depot. In case I forget, Lowes is much better than Home Depot, I won't go back. My son had already called me twice on Friday to inform me there was no way we could get all of the sanding done and the car painted by Monday. So I went to Home Depot and bought a small orbital sander. What a great tool! We finished all of the sanding after I got off of work Friday. My husband and I went ahead and removed the dashboard completely. Don't be lazy when you paint, take the time up front to get as much out of the way as possible. You end up with a quicker paint job, and fewer mistakes.

Saturday morning I got up and double checked the sanding job. Then I taped up the doors and vinyl stuff that I wanted to protect. Plastic garbage bags are great for covering the big stuff. Seems like I just did this a couple of days ago. Yup, dejavu all over again.

After it was all taped up, I sprayed another coat of primer over all the metal. Interesting, as I was sanding and priming the car again, I found whole sections that we had missed painting the first time. So I guess we're getting better as we go.

Once it was primed, we had to mix the paint. The paint was purchased from O'Reilly Auto Parts, and is a really nice metallic green/blue. We also purchased a spray kit that has a glass jar for the paint with an aerosol pump that fits on the top. It worked suprisingly well. Two parts paint to one part thinner, shake well, and spray just like a spray paint can.

My son helped me paint this time. He said he didn't help the first time because the paint was ugly, but now that we have good paint it was worth his effort to help. I was quite thankful for his help, my index finger was still sore from the first paint job. And he has longer arms to reach under the dashboard. He only leaned up against the paint once, and that was early on in the process. He learns fast.

I asked him to take a picture of me painting too. I think he got my best side for sure.

I was amazed that we did the entire interior with less than one pint of paint. I guess the auto paints give a much better coverage than your standard spray paint. I was impressed. It's not perfect, but come on. The car is 35 years old and looks like it. There are some rough spots, and a few where the color is slightly uneven. But overall, in my humble opinion it looks very nice, and definitely better than before we painted. And absolutely better than the first paint job.

After we let the paint dry for an hour, we put four coats of clear coat over the paint. My son seemed disappointed that it didn't turn out shinier. Again, my expectations are much lower. I think it looks very nice. It's even, sort of shiny, and a very pretty color.

After an all-day project, we finally were able to remove the tape and painters paper and look at the finished product. Tomorrow I'll put the dashboard back in place. I can't wait until after the headliner is installed on Tuesday so we can start putting in carpet, door panels and seat upholstery.

Paint Summit

We had a bit of a family conclave last night to look at the paint. My husband evened out the paint on one of the doors so we could take a look. The paint itself actually looks good. But when we held up one of the new door panels to see how the finished door would be, it was apparent that the paint is a tan that tends toward grey, and the door panel is a lighter tan that is definitely brown. The two don't match.

No one was happier than my son, who had hounded me for an entire day that the color was awful and I was ruining my car. I guess he was right. He kindly volunteered to sand down the paint we've done, so we can paint the interior the same color that we'll use on the exterior.

My husband and son will be heading to the paint store this morning to get paint and the aerosol spray cans. I still have to be done by Monday night, so we are starting over pretty late in the game.

Paint Failure

My son informed me that the paint I chose is "hideous". So he is going to the paint store to see if they can do paint that matches the color we will eventually use on the exterior. If he can get it, we'll be sanding like crazy tonight to get the textured paint smoothed out, and repainting the interior metal.

It's going to look awful until we can get the exterior painted, but at least yellow and blue match.