Kevin's Random DIY (upholstery, fiberglass, etc.)

[kberkel]

Originally Posted by Porcupint

Just fair warning, be careful about selling stuff without a vendor account.

Good point, thanks for the warning

[toysub]

Originally Posted by kberkel

Sound Deadening

Fatmat+MLV+CCF for the doors
For each door I did:
3 sqft fatmat
6 sqft CCF + MLV ( full coverage)



It definitely helped.. but it's just the doors.. so now I hear other noise sources. From just the doors:
- Windows are much quieter (who cares )
- Driving next to a barrier is much quieter (much less high frequency tire noise)

But.. my tire noise is still loud in the foot wells. And my exhaust is super loud.

I made some progress cutting pieces for the trunk today.. but I have too many projects going so I couldn't finish.

Thanks for the great posts. Question on the door, did you have to tape the CCF/MLV to the panel when reinstalling? Was there any problems with fitment?

Looking forward to any updates you have on the wheel wells as I'm considering doing this since I'll be upgrading the sound system.

[ichitaka05]

This is freaking awesome read!!! Keep up the great work!

[kberkel]

Originally Posted by toysub

Thanks for the great posts. Question on the door, did you have to tape the CCF/MLV to the panel when reinstalling? Was there any problems with fitment?

Looking forward to any updates you have on the wheel wells as I'm considering doing this since I'll be upgrading the sound system.

I glued the all the CCF to the MLV. I used 3M Super 90 in the beginning.. but now I use the Weldwood Landau adhesive since it's better and I have tons of it.

I only ran into a few problems on the doors.

1. For the Styrofoam insert on the doors, I didn't realize I would have a problem there. I simply cut a straight line from the bottom up about 6 inches (centered between the two clip holes) to allow it to "spread" as it got pushed inwards.

2. I also had some fitment issues where the door switch harness clips to the door frame (about 6 inches above the speaker). There are two holes there (one for the door panel and one for the wire harness). In my pics I only have one hole cut. I ended up cutting two separate holes.. but it was very tight.. so I ended up just cutting one large hole there instead of two separate holes.

3. I also noticed the wiring for the door light was way shorter on my driver door. I originally had my MLV/CCF mirrored right and left, but I had to cut a different slot on the left door.

4. I cut about another inch off the entire bottom, closer to the actual clips/holes.

Originally Posted by ichitaka05

This is freaking awesome read!!! Keep up the great work!

Thanks!! It's been fun

[alex345]

is there anyway you might produce the cluster hood? I'm super interested in that design! keep up the good work

[kberkel]

I picked up a new material. Another member suggested polyurethane rather than vinyl, so I bought some. It is much softer than the vinyl, and actually behaves a lot like real leather when you fold it.

It's the bottom left. The top is my previous material, the bottom right is OEM GM vinyl.




Working on a gauge hood right now, hoping it turns out awesome The only downside is tape doesn't like sticking to it, so I spend much more time using pins on all my corners to keep them aligned when I go to sew.

If it works out.. I want to do a french seam on the molded dash piece.. then I plan to sell a bunch of my parts already wrapped with the previous material:
- Padded gauge hood, molded dash trim, vent rings

[chaoskaze]

Just found this thread! Subbed 😍 keep up the good stuff. Maybe I can finally get the JDM/EDM armrest I want cuz all my stitches in the car is blue....watch & learn. >.>

Please do that next!

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[kberkel]

Working on the new material. So far I think it looks fantastic stitched up. I will do everything with this material from now on.



You can see on the old one in the background, I'm having problems with too much bulk where the seam wraps around. Usually you can just "float" the material, but it still becomes visible at the edge. Or you can cut the overlapped area before you top stitch. I might just pad these pieces since it makes it feel great.

I will finish that next week.

Also tried out a flat felled seam with the old material. Looks pretty cool to me:



Also working on a two piece dash with french seams. That that one should look cool

[ryoma]

do you know if this material will encounter fade from the sun over time?

[Porcupint]

I think you might need one of those tools that thins the material. Cant remember what its called but using it on the edges should help to make it lay flat.

Edit: Something like a wood planer is what I'm thinking of.

[kberkel]

Originally Posted by ryoma

do you know if this material will encounter fade from the sun over time?

I'm not familiar enough to know, but I would imagine it would be very stable.

http://www.yourautotrim.com/fusionblack.html

Almost twice as long UV testing compared to the boating vinyls.. but the cluster hood would reach 1000 hours of UV rather quickly. I imagine no color fade.

[chaoskaze]

Originally Posted by kberkel

Also working on a two piece dash with french seams. That that one should look cool

Can't wait for how the 2 piece dash gonna look like!


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[kberkel]

Originally Posted by Porcupint

I think you might need one of those tools that thins the material. Cant remember what its called but using it on the edges should help to make it lay flat.

Edit: Something like a wood planer is what I'm thinking of.

I'm not sure if I can skive this material. I think that's what you mean.

Generally, instead of folding the flaps on the backside and top stitching through those, I could cut close to the blind seam and then the top stitch only goes through one layer. Not as strong, but in this application, doesn't matter.

[kberkel]

Working on a 2-piece dash piece.



My template is the outline for the blind seam.. then I have to draw the seam allowance. I do it with a tiny template, inch by inch.





Here's with all the double-sided tape applied. I still use about 5-6 pins on each corner just to make sure the sew line is perfectly lined up since the tape won't hold.



The corners on the outer piece need to expand, so they must stretch to meet the inner piece.. this is why the tape is on the inner piece (since the inner piece does not stretch or bend while I sew the blind seam).

I'll then line all the edges up.. sew the blind seam.. then work on getting all the edges flattened so I can top seam them.