Update 5/18/15: Interior Restoration Part One- Carpet Restoration:
All, since I have to drive the car this week, I opted to wait a few days to start exterior work. In the interim, I decided to begin the interior restoration work for the next several days, and finally get that done. While I haven't done much work to the interior, I've been procuring parts for months. I now have pretty much everything I need, so I've begun my resto work.
I began taking the car on a nice "diet"
How I organized the bolts and little bits:
I picked up some very clean 92-96 Prelude seats that I found for cheap on CL. They do not bolt up easily, I now find... BUT, I found a helpful thread
here, and I'm going to keep pressing forward with them!
Lots of adjustment abilities/knobs. Very comfy, and fairly aggressively bolstered. Also, they are very close to black in color, which is important aesthetically, for my interior theme.
Then, rolled over to JoAnne's, used a 50% off coupon, and picked up 7'x5' of black headliner material to turn the stock gray headliner into plush black.
I'm also going to give a go at adding some green stitching to the existing fabric on the door cards (after first dying the fabric black). Picked this thread up to match the green accents theme:
I then picked up my favorite carpet paints, glues, and plastic primer + spray dyes. Notice the Loctite Professional. Lowes: $10 per can. I've NEVER had good luck with doing headliners using the ever-so-popular 3M Super 77 or Permatex Headliner & Carpet Glue. While I LOVE the (old; adjustable) Permatex cans, neither it nor the Super 77 stood up well to summer heat, and the headliner would always sag withing 6 months or so in a few spots, especially with the Super 77. We'll, I'm hoping since the Loctite product is marked as heat-resistant on the can, that it will hold up better. Time will tell...
Removed the carpet:
Vacumed the carpet:
Used these in the vacuum process:
Took the (vacuumed) carpet down to my local coin-wash and pressured washed it. WOW! What a difference this made, and made the job CAKE, as compared to rinsing out the dirt with a garden hose, as I have done in the past. Took about 8 minutes worth of cleaning, or $2 x 2 for me at my wash.
Back at the house, I let the sun do the rest of the work:
As you can see, the carpet came out SUPER fresh.
Rust Inspection: PASSED. No rust to speak of on this VX.
Drove the VX to work today, no carpet nor seats (except the driver seat, duh!). I wanted to see how she would perform with weight reduction. I was both surprised and encouraged with the results. Pretty nuts difference (about 4-5 mpg shown on the highway).
My friends, until next time, thank
YOU for
ecoTuning in!