well, I broke down yesterday and geared myself to find out what kind of hidden rust my car had, and much to my surprise, none in the floors or anywhere. My girlfriend and I pulled the bench out, then we got all the plastic panels out, and removed the carpet. Found the build sheet hidding under some sound mat along with some other paper work. We had everything torn down in about 40 min, try doing that with a new car. Here are my questions, Is it normal for the carpet to be cut into 2 pieces? How does the back seat come out? And how do I remove the dashpad? Thanks in advance for any advice, I'm sure I will have more qestions as my resto goes along Shaun
You are lucky not find any rust. To remove the back seat is easy the bottom seat you kinda have to push in toward the trunk and lift up. The back part there is 2 bolts holding it from the bottom remove those and lift out. I think on 2 doors they put a 2 pieces for the carpet. The dash pad there is some nuts you have to remove. If you take out the instrument cluster and reach up and you can fill them. You may what to remove the lower tray also this will help in getting the rest of the nuts on the passenger side. good luck.
sweet, thanks for the tips, I'll be finishing stripping the interior tonight with some luck, and power washing the carpet. I think this car was garaged for some time, the bolts I've encountered so far arent even siezed up by rust. I was on the home page for this siite one day and I say a car identicle to mine with jersey plates. That car was a bit cleaner than mine, but who knows what could happen to a car in a few years
well, I poer washed the carpets, there was some nice brown water coming out of them, and I got the rear seat out, now I have to pull the dash apart so I can paint it. Thanks for the help, and does any one know what the ball park price is to getting the seats redone with new foam and a simply vinyl material? I need to start looking around and just want an idea what some of you guys might have paid to do the front and rear seats Thanks again Shaun
good luck with the dashpad. That is the stupidest way they could have attached it about 20 nuts. one every 3 inches A few would have done the job
Well, I called about getting my seat done, and the place I called wants $800 to do both, I think I'll pass and learn how to do it myself. I also go tthe guage cluster out but broke the clip off the speedometer cable, guess I need to figure out how to fix that. Taking the pad off tonight and painting the dash metalic blue if the weather clears up
Seat recovering is easy. Just takes a heavy duty sewing machine and time. Use the old seat covers as a pattern. Buy the vinyl or cloth from a furniture refinisher. Use thin carpet cell foam pad as a foam backing (much cheaper then the stuff advertised for seats, and a sheet as a backing when sewing the vinyl. Time and a girlfriend to help are good ways to save money. I sent my dash out and had it powder coated. Looks great and is tough. Be sure to check the cowl area above the heater for rust.
