Well I dropped the front buckets and rear seat along with the dash pad out of my 66 GS at the upholstery shop and I believe we are on the same page. I drove home on a beach/sand chair the height was perfect I was even able to use my lap belt.It was hard to get in and out since it has arm rests. With the help of my sons I finished taking the rest of the carpet and kick panels out along with the console and the dash pad and the headliner and sail panel boards. I had to show the 14 yr old what the old man can do when it came time to remove the seat belt bolts as they were tight. We then removed the stock radio and secured the new speakers in the rear deck.The new retro style radio that fits in the stock opening should be here in a few days and I hope to run the speaker wires after I finish pulling up the carpet underlay and giving the floor pan a good vacuuming. The floors are solid with just a little surface rust. I have a few cans of black rustoleum and I will give the floor pan a good coating and maybe it will last another 45 years I want to finish painting the bottom of the dash and the steering column also this week. I got the kids and the wife to start sanding the seat backs and bottoms and I am sure I will find many spots they missed but it still saves me some labor. . I got lots of other things going on like the cleaning of the rear arm rest panels etc. I will take some pics after work of the stripped interior. Bill
Did the same thing:laugh: Very impressed by my local upholstery shop.:laugh: My seats,handed to them were just short of a $400 bill including everything. What was your cost?:beer Ill post mine in a seperate thread.
For 800 he is doing the seats and dash pad and supplying the material. He is also doing the headliner and visors for wich I supplied the materials. Bill
I want pictures! :kodak: Sounds like a very good deal... Bill we will need to run into each other in the future since you sound like you've got your act together. (66 is the year of the Buick) I'm a bit south of you and may need to get the name of the shop doing the work.... Scott
A beach chair? :grin: Well, it is Florida right. Just toss a cooler in the back and you're good to go. :beer You got a good price, $800.00 including the material. I wouldn't think twice if I got that price and I knew the work was nice. :TU:
There is a guy that is a regular at car shows around here that has beach chairs permanently installed in his car. Welcome to Florida where the current temp in Fort Lauderdale is 78 degrees. Scott
Thanks and Scott I will work on the pics this weekend as I run speaker wires and install the carpet. I do think I will have to lean on the upholstery guy a bit next week to get it all done as he is busy and a bit slow for me but I will be patient till about Wednesday ( he seems like a artist and I never met one of those who was fast) the retro radio and other parts from opg are still slowly on their way according to fed ex tracking (no wonder ups is #1) all the year one stuff got here fast. I also bought a simpson racing car seat that is going to look so cool with the new interior for my 10 month old daughter . I am a mechanic and have always done everything on my 2 Buicks myself because I am impatient and short on funds. Bill
I installed the retro look cutom autosound radio. I installed the am/fm custom autosound radio I got from OPG and wired the speakers etc. A young neighbor who is into stereos modified the stock kick panels with a cardboard ring and some bondo to fit a pair of 4 inch pioneers and covered them with vinyl for the cost of the parts as I help him with his cars. He did a great job and it all looks great. The radio looks old school when off but goes digital when turned on and the wife and kids love they can hook the ipods to it. A pair of 3 by 7 pioneers are in the rear deck. I repaired the rust around the windshield when I had it replaced a few months ago. While I was under the dash I caulked some spots where the original seam sealer deteriorated and filled any old unused holes in the firewall and removed the deteriorated original firewall pad. It passed the hose test and it was worth the trouble because cowl water leaks can lead to lots of problems. Another buddy with thousands of dollars worth of stereo stuff gave me enough left over dynamat he had to do the inside of the firewall instead of replacing the stock type one. A heavy coat of leftover cans of high heat and flat rustoleum went over the floor before I installed the original type black carpet underlayment. I modified the original inside radio knobs to go over the shafts on the stereo before I installed the inner and outer knobs supplied and put the strap support on the radio.I will do a lil paint work to the metal dash this week and the wife took a toothbrush and polish do the metal fins on the dash and its nice and clean and shiny . My son will be here next weekend my camera and I will get some pics posted. I am not a big football fan but I am going to toss back a few buds with the neighbors because I deserve it and got a lot done this weekend. Bill
Its a slow go and lots of work. The dash pad and the headliner along with the rear deck cover are all back in the car and look great. The custom autosound retro radio works great. The seats are looking good but not done yet Bill
Hey Bill it looks great! so what are the plans for the speakers in the kick panel area? Let me know how it sounds as I am considering it, but was wondering about cutting into the metal behind where the speaker mounts. Scott
Scott years ago a neighbor using a cardboard ring and some bondo did my kick panels up to hold those front speakers. I also have a pair of 5 x 7 in the rear deck so I should cut up that new rear deck but I just do not want to. I have a 300 watt amp and one ten inch kicker woofer in the trunk. I love the look of the stereo and it sounds great. I will get more pics up after I get the kick panels in. Thanks everybody for your comments and help. The painting and cleaning of the interior metal was tedious labor and I found that just lightly sanding the original paint would not cut it and by the time I got to the dash I sanded it all then spray bombed it with primer and semi flat black and while its not original it looks good and new again.The tops of the doors I did in gloss black and had to redo one as the paint did all funny kinds of stuff from fish eyes to lifting before I primed it first. I was told the original paint was lacquer and I could just lightly sand it and paint it. I replaced every screw with a new stainless one out of a 420 piece set I got on e-bay ( a few screws were junk) but it was nice having new ones without lots of trips to the store. It is one of those jobs that you just have to push on as you keep finding more stuff to do. Bill
Lookin good bill keep the pics commin :TU: thanks for the 411 on the 420 kit stainless on ebay ive had those on my watch list to get for a month or two now and was curious as to how many i could actually use versus ones that dont work to replace the oem screws. :beers2:
Re: The Interior job. New Pics Well I am Just about finished now. I am very happy with the work on the seats and dash and the headliner along with the rear deck panel. So I paid just over a hundred bucks for the headliner and for 800 the trim shop installed it and supplied materials and labor to do the 2 front buckets the rear seats and the dashpad and rear deck. I did remove it all and repaint the dash and the metal inside over the door panels and I also sanded primed and painted all the seat backs and bottoms along with installing the new chrome and the bullet ends. It took longer then I thought and was a lot of work. It was all worth it today when we all went for a ride with the retro stereo blasting! Bill
