78 TA project.
07-17-2009, 04:31 PM
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78 TA project. so I decided to wait a to share with you guy´s until a Was foreseeing the project being finished. Ill add text to explain as i go
So first off I bought this car back in the beginning of may. the car, the pictures make the car look nicer than it really was, the body was in fair condition, the engine and drivetrain were in excellent condition. and the Interior in my opinion was just nasty!
after a almost 24 hour trip to the boarders of north and south Carolina I arrived home tired but snapped a couple of pictures before I went to sleep.
so the first thing I did was to remove the A arms and clean them up and replace the completely worn out bushings
here is one of the A arms half cleaned
and finally sprayed (in hindsight I should have painted the part with a flatter black)
after that It was time to do the interior and i´ll pretty much let the Pics speak for themselves.
the speakers were the wrong size and the package tray was warped and discolored
for some reason, the dog just loves being inside cars no matter how warm it is outside
the old covers VS the new
this was the result from the first weekend.
the package tray was nasty and the speakers didn't fit in any shape or fashion.
for 30 year old floormats, they were in pretty good shape so i decided to re-dye them
the dash had several cracks and warpage so I opted for a dash cover in stead of trying to find a new dash.
Trunk mat, just to make the trunk look nicer.
this guy was done after that weekend.
So first off I bought this car back in the beginning of may. the car, the pictures make the car look nicer than it really was, the body was in fair condition, the engine and drivetrain were in excellent condition. and the Interior in my opinion was just nasty!
after a almost 24 hour trip to the boarders of north and south Carolina I arrived home tired but snapped a couple of pictures before I went to sleep.
so the first thing I did was to remove the A arms and clean them up and replace the completely worn out bushings
here is one of the A arms half cleaned
and finally sprayed (in hindsight I should have painted the part with a flatter black)
after that It was time to do the interior and i´ll pretty much let the Pics speak for themselves.
the speakers were the wrong size and the package tray was warped and discolored
for some reason, the dog just loves being inside cars no matter how warm it is outside
the old covers VS the new
this was the result from the first weekend.
the package tray was nasty and the speakers didn't fit in any shape or fashion.
for 30 year old floormats, they were in pretty good shape so i decided to re-dye them
the dash had several cracks and warpage so I opted for a dash cover in stead of trying to find a new dash.
Trunk mat, just to make the trunk look nicer.
this guy was done after that weekend.
07-17-2009, 04:32 PM
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Before
After
the rear seats were cracked an nasty so it was time to replace them as well
before
after
Sadly I had to redo the exhaust system in order for the car to pass the state inspection but that's fine. I also had the car tinted so here are some picture of the final product (the headliner was also redone as well as the sunvisors resprayed but I didnt take any pics of that. here are a couple of pictures of the final product as well as some pictures of the before and after tinting, on a side note, I just dropped the car of for a complete overhaul on the body as well as a nice new paintjob, so I will keep you guys updated when it gets done.
´
After
the rear seats were cracked an nasty so it was time to replace them as well
before
after
Sadly I had to redo the exhaust system in order for the car to pass the state inspection but that's fine. I also had the car tinted so here are some picture of the final product (the headliner was also redone as well as the sunvisors resprayed but I didnt take any pics of that. here are a couple of pictures of the final product as well as some pictures of the before and after tinting, on a side note, I just dropped the car of for a complete overhaul on the body as well as a nice new paintjob, so I will keep you guys updated when it gets done.
´
Last edited by old and good; 07-17-2009 at 04:40 PM.
07-18-2009, 04:45 AM
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Wow. Some great ideas for our 79 we are trying to piece back together.. unfortunately ours car has some cancer...interior looks amazing man!
Names/technique of products used?
Names/technique of products used?
07-18-2009, 01:44 PM
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Im actually living in VA at the moment
I sold my old bird before I moved down to the states, and just got this one... I was getting bird withdrawal symptoms hehe.
joshiedoom. sadly these older birds are all steel and after 30 years under the sun, some cancer is bound to appear. i just took a look at my car in the bodyshop today and they just uncovered an unholy amount of rust under the panel, between the back window and trunklid, it´s probably going to an extra 300$ to fix but oh well!
the interior parts were surprisingly cheap. I think in total the interior was about a 1000$ or so, I got most of them from the national parts depot (i know its against the rules of the forum to mention non sponsors but since this is a company specializing in restoration parts for older cars and isnt really stealing any business from the sponsors here Im sure the mods wont mind). I really prefer to buy from a small family operated company´s but they were just consistently cheaper than anywhere else I looked. also if youre working on restoring a classic firebird, Pat at musclecar junk helped me out with a lot of interior parts that i needed replaced that had been dry rotted and he almost gave them away compared to buying new stuff.
I thought I would only use the vinyl dye on a couple of parts but I ended up using 6 cans so depending on the condition of the interior of your car make sure you have enough, as soon as you spray one part you are going to want to spray the part next to it and the one next to that and so forth and so forth. also when spraying the vinyl spray on, I found that doing it in the sun works well as the part dries very fast between coats, and also don´t dye parts when it´s very humid as the paint will get a weird mist on it´s finish!
If you are redoing the seats in yours, make sure you buy hog ring pliers, the job is doable without them and I didnt purchase them myself, but they will make the job go a lot smoother!
these cars are pretty raw and easy to work on so it really shouldn't be to much of a hassle for you to put the interior back together, if you are doing the headliner like i did, make sure you have a friend to work with. that´s probably the only thing where a buddy could really come to good use!
I sold my old bird before I moved down to the states, and just got this one... I was getting bird withdrawal symptoms hehe. joshiedoom. sadly these older birds are all steel and after 30 years under the sun, some cancer is bound to appear. i just took a look at my car in the bodyshop today and they just uncovered an unholy amount of rust under the panel, between the back window and trunklid, it´s probably going to an extra 300$ to fix but oh well!
the interior parts were surprisingly cheap. I think in total the interior was about a 1000$ or so, I got most of them from the national parts depot (i know its against the rules of the forum to mention non sponsors but since this is a company specializing in restoration parts for older cars and isnt really stealing any business from the sponsors here Im sure the mods wont mind). I really prefer to buy from a small family operated company´s but they were just consistently cheaper than anywhere else I looked. also if youre working on restoring a classic firebird, Pat at musclecar junk helped me out with a lot of interior parts that i needed replaced that had been dry rotted and he almost gave them away compared to buying new stuff.
I thought I would only use the vinyl dye on a couple of parts but I ended up using 6 cans so depending on the condition of the interior of your car make sure you have enough, as soon as you spray one part you are going to want to spray the part next to it and the one next to that and so forth and so forth. also when spraying the vinyl spray on, I found that doing it in the sun works well as the part dries very fast between coats, and also don´t dye parts when it´s very humid as the paint will get a weird mist on it´s finish!
If you are redoing the seats in yours, make sure you buy hog ring pliers, the job is doable without them and I didnt purchase them myself, but they will make the job go a lot smoother!
these cars are pretty raw and easy to work on so it really shouldn't be to much of a hassle for you to put the interior back together, if you are doing the headliner like i did, make sure you have a friend to work with. that´s probably the only thing where a buddy could really come to good use!
