Thread: Followed Me Home, '33 Build

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Thanks guys, for all of the nice comments. I'm reminded that doing things our own way is what makes this such a great hobby, and what makes our cars unique and personal
I thought I'd post a few more shots of the steps I went through on the interior, not that I did it right, but just that I muddled through learning as I went.
There are a bunch of arm rest products out there, but if you have a shape in mind they can be formed from foam and fiberglassed, or for me formed from a chunk of scrap 2x4 on the band saw, router table and belt sander to get the conture you want.Armrest 002.jpgArmrest 001.jpg I hit the top with some Weldwood cement, glued a little 1/4" dense foam to the top for padding, contured the edge a bit on the belt sander and then covered them with vinyl. My interior guy told me later that he uses steam to warm the material, and gets everything smooth and tight that way, but he told me that after I had done mine

I finally decided that my door panels would have 1/4" foam on top, above the walnut accent strip/door pull; 1/8" foam in the middle, and no foam in an arc at the bottom because of clearance to the floor pan area in the very front. I installed the accent strip and marked the top edge, took it off and masked the area below to keep glue away. I cut a piece of 1/4" foam a little oversize, gently roughed the back side with 100 grit sandpaper to break the skin and improve the glue bond, and sprayed both the door panel and foam with a good coating of glue. I used Weldwood glue and an old siphon spray gun to apply it. It doesn't plug up much at all, and if it does it will be a skin of glue over the outside of the orifice, or at worst a soft plug just inside the orifice that can be blown clear with a nozzle and air through the siphon tube easily.Headliner & Panels 002.jpg Weldwood.jpg Now the trick is to not get impatient - let the glue dry until it is no longer tacky at all, up to 1/2 hour or more depending on the weather, and it will be much more forgiving. Run a razor blade on your tape line, pull the tape, place the foam, installed the accent strip to use as a cut line, and trimmed the foam to the line using a very sharp utility blade. Next it's mask off the upper foam, make a cardboard pattern for the lower section which gets no foam, and mask off that section, leaving the center open - same drill, using 1/8" foam. Once all foam is in place just gently sand the surface to break the skin on the foam, shoot it and your vinyl with glue and let them dry thoroughly before attaching the vinyl to the foam. I covered most of the panel with craft paper, leaving only a couple of inches of glue exposed, aligned my vinyl and started laying it in place, smoothing any wrinkles and defining edges as I pulled paper and slowly went down the panel. Here's the finished panel - next time I do them I'll figure out how to cover the spring clips so the heads don't show so much but they'll do for now... I'll show some shots of the steps in another post using the headliner to show the process, and how I aligned floating inserts.Door Panel 001.jpg