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

[kberkel]

Originally Posted by ryoma

nice! I was looking into sound deadening to improve the audio in the car. I have no prior knowledge about any of this so your write up was nice. have you also removed the sound tube in the engine bay? that will also reduce noise entering your cabin.

Yeah I removed the tube.. then I got a Top Speed Catback which is outrageously loud.

Usually I just bump music, but whenever I drive with passengers it always reminds me how loud the exhaust is.

They are always like.. "You drive this every day? "

[wootwoot]

Why do the pieces you made look so much better than the crap I paid JP Coachworks to make for me?

Nice work!

[GotBRZ1691]

Damn dude I am quite impressed

Can we get a full interior picture? I want to see all the panels in place

[DustinS]

In for more. Good looking work!

[LOLS2K]

Mad Skillz

[jayhoang]

Sweet! Looks awesome.

[adamg]

this is some amazing work

[kberkel]

Thanks guys!

Here is a little sewing trick that prevents me from crying when my cheap sewing machine messes up

Fixing Bad Stitches (jams, etc.)

- You can only do this if your holes are spaced evenly. If you short stitched or stitched crooked, those holes are permanent and you can't fix.
- Your thread will lose tension.. I usually tape my folds down before I top stitch, so I don't worry about about the material bulging back up

Here you can see my thread snagged, tension was way too high, I freed it, then kept sewing.



After you've spent hours on a part, there's no way you can just start over

So I cut on the dotted line (top and bottom thread)

Flip over, and pull up on the bobbin thread. This pulls the thread through.







Now.. start sewing right where the previous top stitch ends. Carefully make sure you use the exact holes.



You'll end up with this.



Now flip over.. and pull on the inner bobbin threads to pull the top stitch through



You'll get this.



And boom! Hard to tell you even messed up



I usually just glue down on the seam before I wrap and it is perfectly good.

[Leonardo]

Great thread! Very inspiring! Please post some pics of the pieces you wrapped installed in your car. Thank you!

[kberkel]

Originally Posted by Leonardo

Great thread! Very inspiring! Please post some pics of the pieces you wrapped installed in your car. Thank you!

Thanks! I will soon, the car has been in pieces for a while. Ended up taking apart the center console to do the inner knee pads tonight.

Also still working on the door piece. The door piece is fighting me every step of the way. The fiberglass problems, the sewing problems. Ugh



It needs to be stretched, so some areas look bad when it's just laying there. It's hard to visualize, the alcantara will be cut to surround the armrest. Should turn out good though.

[kberkel]

Inner Knee Pads



Sooo.. these were so easy to sew, but annoying to wrap.

Here you can see I made a simple template for the outer stitch.. tape it to the fabric, then taped around the edge.



Then I sew on the edge of the tape.




Didn't take many pictures. The top surface was easy, but it was meticulous cutting the edges to fit right.



Had some carbon fiber vinyl laying around.. so I wrapped the silver trim. Really happy with how these turned out

[kberkel]

Wrapped Shifter Surround



I rewrapped since my last one wasn't perfect and bubbled on one side. I forgot how completely annoying this thing is to wrap. It's also hard to hold while your wrapping so you don't keep touching the adhesive. I hope this is the last time.

Sooo.. cut to size:



Peel the backing off.. and lay over the top. Check to make sure your placement is good!



Press down the flat areas.



The outer curved part gave me tons of trouble.. For these problems, I usually lift up, apply a little heat, then use my fingers to push the creases outwards. I had to do this inch by inch, it took a while.



The worst part is over.



Getting the sides completely covered without creases.



Cut and wrapped around the back. Now time for the holes.



I continuously heat and push down to stretch the material. It has some spring-back when you apply heat again, but it stays partially stretched.

Generally there is not much worry for creases here.. just keep pushing downward to stretch it until it reaches the inner edge.



DONE!

[kberkel]

Some random updates.. things haven't been working out lately

Fiberglass Door-Panel Wrap
So.. I went to wrap the piece, and my skill level just wasn't up to par. Too many odd concave curves. You can see I glued some CCF to some sections. I saw this tip on TheHogRing.. if you've ever been in a modern cadillac, they have a similar feel. Firm, but not "fabric on plastic."





So, I cut off the entire outer portion.. so I would just have a fiberglass cover for the perforated center piece.

I refinished the entire perimeter. I made it PERFECT.



In the picture below.. it's not adhered to the door.. it would normally sit perfectly flush.



I wrapped it.. but ended up hating it. The cheap alcantara I bought just never looked good. So.. I scrapped the project all together

The wrapped speaker panels are enough uniqueness for me.

Sound Proofing
Nothing much to see here.

Just in case anyone wants to see how how I MLV/CCF'd the rear panels.




Wrapped Rear Arm Rests???
I was bored.. and the panels were sitting in my living room, so I thought.. what the hell, I'll try it.

Here's how I make patterns now. The tape method was OK, but posterboard is cheaper than tape and I don't have to transfer the 'tape patterns' into official patterns on posterboard. I can just mock these up, pull them off, and use them! I did this for the knee pads also.




I then top stitched it with red stitching.. but when I mocked it up, it just looked terrible, so I scrapped the project.

Cluster Hood Remake
I need to make extra money.. so now I'm mainstreaming some of my projects that work 100% of the time.







Gonna try a couple different versions and sell them. If anyone has any suggestions for designs, let me know! I am still not taking custom orders.. but I will entertain ideas and sell prototypes.

[Porcupint]

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