Interior Redux

Last weekend I started the refinishing of my interior,  My plan is to go with a black interoir with white accents, and replace the front seats with white and black racing seats.
I started with the door panels and rear 1/4 panels.

The door panels were removed and I took off the inserts and map pockets.  I left the speaker grills in place because of how they are attached,  they are very hard to get back on:

The panels were scrubbed with degreaser and left in the sun to dry"

Once dry,  they got 3 coats of adhesion promotor before I started the dying:

The panels got 3 coats of black, and the inserts got 3 coats of white:

Same procedure for the door pulls and arm rests:

after everything was dry,  the door panels were re-assembled.  I was very pleased with the outcome:

The rear 1/4s were next,  completely same process as the door panels:

The right rear 1/4 was broken in the area that holds the speaker grill in place,  so I got some black PVC sheet, heated it in the oven until it was soft and molded it to the right shape,  Its secured with plastic epoxy:

everything was left over night to completely dry and cure,  then back in the car the next day:

Overall Im really happy with the way it came out,  although right now its looks a little convoluted with cheap seat covers on the front seats and the dash and center console are still grey.

Next will be the dash and either redye or replace the carpet,  but thats another project for another weekend....  then hopefully the new seats will come for my birthday.

Poking the sky

One thing that always bothered me about these Mustangs is the far too long antenna. So, I took it off, removed the little ball at the end, hacksawed it in half, reattached the little ball, repainted it and but it back on. Now it's level with the roof line. subtle change but makes a big difference. see before and after:

Before:



After:


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Just a beach shot

Took a few pics while at the beach Saturday, here's one:



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Interior

Since i'm going to dye most of the interior,  I decided to try out a little last night on the rear speaker covers, they were pretty nasty looking so they couldn't get much worse,  it will also give me a good feel for the black/white color combo I plan to use.  Here is the result,  keep in mind I only did the speaker covers, the rear panels, along with the door panels will be black:

Before:

they were stained bad, and about 10 different shades of white and gray

After:

Bright white with black mesh speaker grill.  Much better!

Cleaning time

I was really starting to think the stains on the white convertible top wouldn't come out.  I had tried just about everything from degreaser to clorox cleanup and the stains just wouldn't budge.  Being that this is my first convertible I was a little nervous about what I used to clean it,  the last thing I want to do is destroy the top or it's water repelling properties.  I eventually got to the 'screw it' point and decided to soak it in bathroom cleaner and scrub the hell out of it.  The result.... a bright white top!  a little armor all for UV protection and i'm a happy camper.

A lot of wax, polish, and time and here is how the car looks outside now:

Can't forget to detail the engine bay too:

Running Hot!

After I bypassed the heater core, I thought all was well with the coolant system.  I was wrong.   I noticed it started running too hot again, so I dusted off the parts of my brain that knew how to work on cars and started simple.  First check the coolant.... its was full.  The water pump appeared to be recently replaced, so I wasnt too concerned with that.  Next step,  change the thermostat.  I went with a Mr. Gasket heavy duty 180 thermostat.  It had no effect on the temp whatsoever.  I narrowed it down to the radiator.  I bought a stock replacement from Advance Auto Parts, and set out to remove the old radiator.  Now this should have been a 30 minute job,  BUT, the lower hose clamp broke and took me over 2 hours to finally get off.  After that I was eager to drop the new radiator in....  it didn't fit!  Pissed off and covered from head to toe in grease and antifreeze I took it back,  of course they didn't have another one, nor did the next 3 auto parts stores in the area.  The next day, calmed down and cleaned off,  I went to Pep Boys and bought one of theirs, I could tell right away it was going to be a much better fit.  I also sprung for the Mr. Gasket temp gauge radiator cap, just to confirm the stock gauge was working right.

Here is the inside of the original radiator:

And here with the new radiator in place and a close up of the Mr Gasket radiator cap:

Cooling Problem solved!

The Interior

As I said before,  the interior needs some serious help, and its not going to be cheap.  I think for now I will dye most of the panels black, as much as I like the white,  its going to be difficult to keep clean.  I'll spare you from seeing the actual front seats,  but here it is:

Luckily the dash and console are in great shape,  so most that will need are the soft interior parts.