Interior questions

Ok i'm getting ready to start building a interior for a rod.. well not a rod but want the rod look,, Does anybody here know where to begin.. I'm going to have someone do the seats, but i will need to do the door panels and console...
So my questions are
What do I use for a backing panel
what is the best way to mold the panel for the Right look
what material would be the best to use.. on a budget on this one so don't want to use a pure leather.. something imitation..
what adhesive for this is the best
what's the best way to form the material to fit the design on the door
what's the best place to order materials from

I think that's it for now..lol i'm sure i'll have more questions. but I have some ideas of how it's done I just want someone to tell me the steps. or a website with the steps.
thanks in advance for anyone that can help.

Go to www.hotrodders.com There is a lot of threads on interiors there with JUST the info you are looking for. They use certain kind of foam for the back and sometimes some kind of board... just all depends on what you want to do...

sweet i will definetely give that one a try...
like I said any help is appreciated

If you have that tool company you are doing you should try and get with some companies that sell things like seat foam, rings, etc for interior.... Would save you money and give me a place to buy some of that stuff online! :D

Hmmm. now that is one hell of a idea... why didn't I think of that..lol...
I found this place too.... www.roddoors.com i think there was 2 d's if not try it without one..

Rod Doors is a nice company (they came to some shows here in NC) and they have a real nice product but WAY overpriced and they aren't upholstered you have to pay extra for that. I have a few places saved...
Let me look right now for them and I will post them.

www.autoheadliner.com
http://www.alanhorvath.com/54chevy/i...ion_phase1.php <---that guy has lots of great idea's on things to save money.

Well I had 3 more sites that were much better but I can't seem to find them now. They sold stuff for boats, tonel (sp) covers for beds and lots of vinyl, etc. If I can find it I will send it later.

Thanks for any help you can give.. and as far as upolstery goes, i kinda want to do that all myself also... a friend of mind did his own upohlstery in his 34 vicky, and it's nice sho he's gonna give me some pointers

Yeah interior work looks pretty fun to me. I plan to do all the interior work myself in 3 of my vehicles besides the seat since I have no sewing machine for it.... Only way to learn is to just do it I guess. Not like they have any or many schools for it either.

well my theory is that if I can get good at it I can add it as one of my services as there is no one out here that does it. there's a few interior places but for some odd reason they won't build interior from scratch.. so I want to try it and see how it goes.. I think it'll be fun to. plus that way when I get done with a build I can say I built the car myself and didn't send as much to other shops, if ya know what I mean.. I don't do engine building either but a good friend of mine as built many for me, and he does it at my shop so it's still done there.. so the only really missing link would be interior.. Well and glass blasting but i'll probably pass on that one..lol

I know exactly what you mean. That is why I would love to do my own resto kind of shop doing EVERYTHING. I went to goodguys show here in NC and every car I saw was really nice and they had a list on the front that says what was done by them and what wasn't... Interior and paint was something that WAS NOT done by them. I didn't see a single one I don't think. I did see that MOST of them there used PPG red paint haha. Around here there is no interior shops either. There are a few about 30 minutes or so but they are like what you said, they will just recover a seat and sew up a tear, etc. Nothing major or custom. When I am done with college I will probably look into something like interior and maybe start something if I am lucky and work my tail off, and I am sure it would be good money since not many people around here doing it. All just a matter of money and actually DOING it to learn.

www.dogpile.com <--- go there and type in Automotive Interior Supplies or such. dogpile.com searches everything together like google, ask geeves, yahoo search, MSN search, etc... It will come up with A TON of things I am sure.

the site hotrodders.com as been the most helpful

Glad you like it. Yeah it has a ton of info on it. www.chevytalk.com has their own interior section as well.... Check it out. Not as good but still there are lots of guys there that know a lot.

Yeah thanks for the help, i've got things ordered already...
here's a pic of the dash i'm putting in the truck that's getting all the interior work...

Sweet! Where are you getting the foam, etc at? What are you using on the dash, door panels and headliner?

i'm getting most of the stuff from keyston bros, there a supply place in ohio.. but the dash is getting painted.. and for the door panels were going to use the pvc board as a backer...headliner will probably just get recovered.

Alright cool. I need to find a place around here or on the net to buy foam to make my bucket seat, etc. I will probably just recover this one with the old springs but I would like to take them out and use that flexy elastic band stuff you weave instead of those old springs. I would like to use the old outter frame of my seat and then take out the springs and use the elastic like stuff (I don't remember the name of it but I saw it on TV before) and then use about 8 inches of foam thick on top of it and form the bench seat like two bucket seats you know. It will still be a bench but have the contour of two bucket seats with a little bit of sides and still have a middle seat. Hard to explain but I am sure since you work on customs and all you have seen them.

Yeah i know what your talking about.. should look good.. but seats are the area of interior that i'm hesitant to wonder into as of yet.. but maybe in the future..

From what I have seen in pictures and on TV, etc they use more than just one layer on a seat. It takes like multiple layers. The big square on top and the back and then this green 2 inch looking kind on top that they start making the shape with, etc. Guess it would take a lot of practice to do something like that from scrap....

Looking at the date of the posts I'm guessing you're past this but you could try American Trim and Upholstery.

American Trim and Upholstery

I've got a few things in but still having a hard time finding what i'm looking for for the 2nd one i need to do... have everything for the first.. but i'll check that site... i'd like to start doing interior work, so i need someone to deal with for ordering stuff,, so your never too late.. actually was making backing panels for the first one today.. they are turning out good, just taking time.. but what doesn't

thanks for the help though

Hey guys,, here's our first door panels.. what you guys think.. any suggestions/advice??

Mopar!!! Where have ya been? Looks GREAT! Find out the materials you need to make that? If you don't mind, can you email me the info you got on what materials to use and any little tips? I have been looking (or was looking a few months ago for a couple months) but I never found any SOLID information. I got a bunch of "I think you can use this", "you can probably use this" , " I tried using this" type of information. BTW, is that a dark grey or black? Material?

Ok the material is Rave, which is a imitation leather,, they say imitation isn't the best to use tho, as it tends to show flaws but i think it came out good.. the pvc board I used was bought at a local sign shop that my friend had.. he just closed up tho.. but you should be able to get them from any sign shop.. the Rave, foam and spray adhesive came from keyston.. i think their site is www.Keyston.com the color is black.... i've talked to some people that say you can use allante, naugahyde with good success, and they say it is more forgiving.. but like I said i had good luck with the rave but will try something different next time...

As far as me i've been around,, been keeping busy on quite a few projects,, too many things to do... although I did sneak outta here for a week to go to mexico..lol.. but that's about it... if you have any more ?'s hit me up... my email is mopar978@yahoo.com

Awesome man, sounds good. Thanks a lot for the help! That is the stuff that I heard about from the sign shop. I heard it called something else but it's the same thing. That website isn't working but I will see if I can do a search for it.

I know you dont want to spend a ton , but on one of my restoration projects I went through SMS auto fabrics. they will help you out, the guy on the phone seemed to be able to know axactly what I was looking for and sent me free samples to look at.

they have both highend leather hides trrough to the fake cheep stuff, so you may want to be specific when talking to any supplier.

also if none has mentioned . kanter they have some good prices

the links are>

SMS Auto Fabrics
350 South Redwood St.
Canby, OR
97013
503-263-3535
EMAIL - info@smsautofabrics.com

Kanter Auto Parts
76 Monroe Street
Boonton, NJ
07005
973-334-9575 or 800-526-1096
EMAIL - asales@kanter.com

with both you can send in a pattern , pictures and measurments and they can build a dash , doorpanels, headliners. custom made to you.

hope this helps

Awesome thanks a lot! I am going to look into both of those and see what I can come up with.

Here give this a try www.keystonbros.com there's a bunch of branch locations.. so they should be able to hook you up.. sorry it took so long to respond, i've been busy as can be.. just added paint dist to my sales.. line so that's been keepin me busy and have a shop full of work, and more to come.. ahh..