Interior Refreshening Project

[mattd1205]

Did the carpet get stiff when you applied the SEM? It looks so good that I?m tempted to try that!

 

[MSGGrunt]

I guess the fibers do get a little stiffer, but not enough to bother me. By the time you install factory floor mats a lot of the carpet is covered anyway. The stiffness is helped by brushing it out. I do it after the dye/paint dries otherwise I found that the fibers just matted together.

 

[MSGGrunt]

Rear shelf with my special, limited addition edge trimming. I am happy that this solution worked.

 

[nel621]

Looks good. If you revist that part I would consider mitering the upper corners and adding a small section connecting it to the vents.

 

[MSGGrunt]

I thought about that myself, but the edge of the shelf tucks up nicely against the back of the car and doesn't look bad in person.

 

[MSGGrunt]

I have another experiment. I bought a set of front OEM tan floor mats and of course they had faded over the years, so I thought I would see how durable the SEM color coat would be on them. I scrubbed them with purple power, rinsed them then washed them in the dish washer on the pots and pans cycle. I let them dry, sprayed them with two coats of adhesion promoter and then three coats of the SEM color coat. Time will only tell how durable they will be. I am not worried about the passenger side as that side gets very little use. The driver's side on the other hand does get more use. Of course I could save the refreshed mats just for special occasions, but what is the point in that?

 

[MSGGrunt]

The rear carpet went back in today after also getting the SEM treatment. I feel the carpets and the refreshed mats looks nice. I am now just waiting on the rear leather to arrive for the rear seat. The rear pillar "B", "C" whatever that one is called still needs to be installed, but that will wait until I recover the rear seat.

 

[nel621]

Maybe get a small rug style mat to place on top of the driver mat to help protect it a bit. The mats look great! May have to try this.

 

[districtmotors]

Did you have to ask lseat.com to make the rear seat custom? If so, can
I ask how much?

 

[MrBrown]

Holy crap this is amazing work and information. I commend you for taking the time to repair and document this for us. I was wanting to change my interior for a chocolate brown and now I know it can be done with the correct procedures and products. I hope it all lasts and keeps up with time for you! Great job and thanks for sharing.

 

[MrBrown]

Did you have to ask lseat.com to make the rear seat custom? If so, can
I ask how much?

I too am curious about the rear seat as they do not have them posted on the site for purchase other than by request. Now that they have made on for you, maybe they have the specs/template saved. Now about the wagon rear seat.....

 

[SML]

The rear carpet went back in today after also getting the SEM treatment. I feel the carpets and the refreshed mats looks nice. I am now just waiting on the rear leather to arrive for the rear seat. The rear pillar "B", "C" whatever that one is called still needs to be installed, but that will wait until I recover the rear seat.

There's just something so satisfying about this thread. It's like seeing a new Volvo in the showroom back in the day. Keep up the good work! This is super encouraging!

 

[MSGGrunt]

The rear seat covers are done and should be on their way shortly. I even had them make me an arm rest cover while they were at it so everything matches. The rear seat covers with no options cost $299.00. I got a discount because I provided them with a rear cover to use as a pattern. What you see in the picture cost me $179.00 and I added the piping option to match the front seats.

 

[nel621]

I too am curious about the rear seat as they do not have them posted on the site for purchase other than by request. Now that they have made on for you, maybe they have the specs/template saved. Now about the wagon rear seat.....

Send in your rear wagon seat cover and maybe you too can get a break on the covers.

 

[MSGGrunt]

The are very up front that if they don't have a certain vehicles pattern and you send yours in to be "sacrificed" they will give you 50% off. Of course I would Email them to confirm this first.

 

[MrBrown]

Awesome. Good info.

 

[MSGGrunt]

Swapped in a cleaned non deteriorated front passenger's door panel and a cleaned non deteriorated rear passenger's door panel. I am waiting to install the driver's side rear once I make a trip to my local pick n pull to see if I can find a good vapor barrier. I ordered two new ones for the front, but it appears the backs are NLA.

I am also looking for a good driver's side front door panel. The fiberboard on the lower part of mine is literally falling apart. Probably didn't help that the vapor barrier was missing. I used heavy duty Gorilla tape to install/seal the new barriers.

PM me if you have a nice tan panel you would like to part with.

 

[MSGGrunt]

Installed new "C" pillar trim pieces as well. These were originally black that I sprayed to match the rest of the interior.

I found that the contact for my window defroster had come "unstuck" from the window. Will have to look into a fix for that.

 

[MSGGrunt]

The original rear door panels came with speakers in them, but the very clean replacements I used did not. I thought about trying to remove and swap the speakers, but wasn't so sure it would work well.

Then I thought about using a speaker mount like the premium sound offered in the same era BMW E30's back on the parcel shelf, that is until I saw the price of what two of these speakers were selling for on eBay.

Still thinking along this line I searched surface mounted car speakers and found that back in the day Pioneer made a TS line that was just what I was looking for. The problem being these are as old as our cars and not many around and those that I did find were for parts, or damaged or not guaranteed to work. Then I stumbled upon a new, still in the box pair of TS-66 that I think will mount nicely on the back shelf. I plan on removing the speakers and painting the plastic housings the same as I have all the other plastic trim pieces so they blend in more than if I just left them black. Nothing fancy and surely not modern sophistication, but that is ok by me.

I have already fished the speaker wires out of the door and just need to extend them to reach back to the rear shelf.

More pics once they arrive, are painted and installed.

 

[nel621]

You could make your own vapor barrier with very heavy plastic sheeting available at your local home improvement store. Something like 4 mil if not thicker.