Greg Rogers

My wife and I have owned our Convertible since 1994. It has always been a fun car and I would fix it up little by little. About 10 years ago we had a it restored at a old school 1 man hot rod shop. At that time we decided to leave the interior as is. The previous owner had the front seat repaired and I had put new carpet in it at some point but the rear seat was all dried out and it needed redone. Over the years I have collected consoles and bucket seats to change it over to bucket seats and floor shift. My wife is 5'2" and I am 6'3" so that's a good reason to have buckets over bench because when she drives I am jammed up against the dash in the passenger seat. But....
While looking through my assembly manual one day I looked at available interior combinations from the factory and found that if a Cutlass Supreme convertible came with white bucket seats, it would have a black dash, carpeting and console with white seats and door panels. A blue bucket seat interior in a convertible wasn't on the recommended "list"- maybe you could have special ordered it that way but who would? Blue buckets were available on the hardtop but not recommended on a convertible. Also my data plate says the car is a blue bench seat interior. So we decided to go with the split bench again.














I called Legendary Auto Interiors yesterday and ordered new seat covers, door panels, carpet, etc. They are having a sale but it still cost $1795.00!! I talked to a local upholstery shop and he impressed me so He is going to do the covers. I have followed Rob's excellent thread on this interior redo and it is a great resource. If you are looking at this thread to get ideas for your interior project check out his thread.

Greg Rogers

When I ordered the new stuff from Legendary, I found I needed to send in the rear side panel upper rails. You only need to do this if it's a convertible. I guess they don't repop them for a convertible. I have some old rear panels for a Cutlass Supreme hardtop and see they are different. I took out the seats and rear panels last week before the snow fell. I drove car back into it's winter resting place sitting on a cement block! I brought the rear panels inside and removed the upper rails. The rep from Legendary said the panels would be plastic and they probably would be cracked. I told him mine were ok and not broken, but I was wrong. When I got them out they were broken in places. It was a matter of prying under the staples and removing them trying not to do more damage to the brittle rails. I got them out and packaged them up to sent to Legendary. The rep gave me a return merchandise number to put on the package so it ties the package to my order. I marked the bad spots and I hope the panel maker can glue or somehow fix them. Legendary makes this stuff at their plant in the USA. The rep said I would get the carpet first then the panels and seat covers hopefully around the first of February.

TenMidgets

Greg - good luck on this project! I will be watching as I am going through a similar effort to spruce up the interior on my '71 vert as well.

I'm finding the key is getting the best result / bang for your buck!

Bill

Greg Rogers

I sent in the rear rails and got a call from Legendary. They want a extra $75.00 to fix them up. I told them to go ahead and do it.

Greg Rogers

I got the carpet a few days ago. I never thought I was color blind but I can't really tell for sure if the heel pad is black or dark blue. I took some pics , one with the dimmer grommet on top of the pad. The grommet is defiantly black. Seems like the blue was more "blue" or lighter on the old carpet pad. I may give them a call about this.

lshlsh2

Good luck, I'm going to follow as I have a 71 convertible too.

Greg Rogers

Wife says the pad on carpet is blue so that's ok. I talked to Kolor Korrect yesterday. (The people who have matched vinyl paint recommended by Legendary) They said they don't have the paint in aerosol cans, only sell by the pint or more and very costly, and needs to be sprayed w/ a spray gun. So I guess that won't work for me. I went on to SEM's website to check out their interior paint and couldn't find any blue. I found out that O'Reilys carries the SEM products so I stopped in there after work. They didn't have any SEM products on the shelf but I did find some Dupli Color for vinyl in a blue. I bought a can and am going to see if it's a decent match. Really all I need to do is the plastic piece around the folding armrest, and the aftermarket kick panels which are now black (w/ speakers). I went on Dupli Color's web site and see they recommend degreasing the plastic with their PS100 prep spray and using their CP199 adhesion promoter, so I'll check into that.

Greg Rogers

Found both the prep spray and adhesion promoter at O'Reily's. So I guess I am all set. The cap on the paint seems to match my blue. I hope I get my stuff from Legendary soon, getting closer to spring.

Fun71

Enjoy it while you can. Looks as if we're going straight into summer.

Greg Rogers

Wow I guess so.. Here it has been cold. It was 4 below Saturday morning with a high of about 15. But next weekend its supposed to be in the 40's.

Greg Rogers

Got the interior from Legendary. I opened it all and unwrapped everything all looks good. Next weekend I plan to work in the garage and take the seats and covers over to the upholstery shop. It ended up being cj=heaper than I was told. I think the rep didn't take out the discount when he told me how much. He told me it would be $1795. But it ended up being $1515. Actually $1580 with the $75. extra to repair the rear rails. It looks like they repaired them with a epoxy or bondo type stuff. I'm happy.

Greg Rogers

Started work today. I have 3 old seats to work with. My original blue one had been partially recovered at some time. The surround around the folding armrest has been painted before. I thought the blue one would be the best one to use until I saw the repaint job. I also have a extra white seat but that surround is absolutely shot. I have a 72 Cutlass Supreme parts car that has (I should say "had") a green cloth interior has been a home for raccoons, possums and mice for the last 15 years. It actually has the best surround of them all but it's green and real faded. I cleaned up both the blue and green ones using the duplicolor prep spray and scotchbrite pads. I couldn't get all the paint off the blue one and sure enough when I sprayed on the adhesion promoter I got a reaction - bubbling up. I stopped on that one. The green one cleaned up nice. I painted the green one after cleaning it w/ prep spray and scotchbrite. It came out pretty nice. Not sure about the color. It's a little lighter than I want but it hardly shows. The only one who really sees it is someone sitting in the back seat.

Greg Rogers

These are seat belt holders that were on the bottom of the "armrests" in the rear seat side panels of my convertible. I was told along time ago they were not correct and I think they were added at some time because I can see no use for them. You guys know?? Thanks, Greg.

Greg Rogers

All three of six of the seat belt "grommets" I have are in poor condition. Anyone know if I can buy new ones??

Greg Rogers

Went out and moved the car from it's winter resting place and moved it to the working side of the garage. I found out what those seat belt holders are. It looks like a PO made them out of the regular seat belt hangers that are on the front of the bottom rear seat. Looks like the rivets were drilled out and then the plastic hangers were attached to the rear side panels with screws. I'm going to leave them off.

Greg Rogers

Well it's finally time to get back to it. The left convertible cylinder appeared to be leaking at the lower fitting so I am going to fix that while the interior is out. After looking at it better I see it's actually leaking out the top cylinder seal and following down the side of the cylinder. After looking closer I see that the top of the cylinder is actually broken! The cylinder slides onto a peg on the outside and then there is a special bolt with a peg that attaches it on the inside. The hole where the outside peg goes in is broken. It appears to be plastic. This lets the cylinder **** a little when under load. This is what may have caused the cylinder to start leaking. Look close at the pics and you can see the break. I also took a pic of the right side which seems ok. I am going to replace both cylinders. Well this will slow things down a bit.

Greg Rogers

After finding out about the cylinders needing replaced I decided to shift gears. I decided to put new plastic faces on the speedo, clock, fuel gauges and also replace the face plate. I bought a face place that was new and had a new wood grain installed on it. I didn't want to spend the full price for a new chrome plate and a new wood grain but when I saw one available I bought it. When I opened it up it looked ok, so I put it away. Today I got it out of the box and looked at it a little better. It was glued together but was pulling apart. Also there were smudges on the wood grain that I thought would clean off. But I think the smudges were glue that had gotten on the face and they won't come off. Since this is something I will see every time I drive the car I decided I am at least going to buy a new wood grain and probably will buy a new chrome piece. I wish I would stop being so cheap. It always costs more in the long run. So after 2 disappointing events I decided to quit for the day.

oddball

Word to the wise, the various wood grain inserts and plastic pieces available are NOT compatible across vendors! If you're buying both, buy them from the same place. I specifically could not get a Parts Place insert to fit a Fusick frame.

If you're just buying the insert, it may need trimming. I've used a die grinder with a carbide, but it feathered the vinyl. YMMV.

I broke down and bought both parts from Fusick. Good fit and finish. And, as you noted, it's great to do a job three times.

Greg Rogers

I ordered 2 new convertible cylinders from Hydro E lectric . I figured I better get 2 and do this job once. I called H&H classic interior and talked to them about what is the best way to glue the dash plate together. I told him about the problem I had with the one I bought. I asked if he would glue me up one and he said he would! I should have it in a week or so, That is awesome. They seem to be good guys to deal with. As others have said, "that's what they do". I should be back out working on the project next weekend.