defianty wrote:All looking really good Andrew.
My car is almost in the same state of yours now except I'm taking everything apart!
I'm interested to hear about you recovering your rear targa bar. Mine is cracked and I'm looking to repair it at some point. Any tips would be appreciated.
Ive just looked for photos and Ive taken shots of just about everything else, Dashboard recover, door panels etc but not the roll bar. I can only assume I was getting reasonably proficient at it by then so I just did it quickly.
Stuff I used:-
- vinyl (4 ways stretch if you can, I used 2 way and it was ok just harder to work with)
- pot of upholstery glue and brushes (glue both the pad and the vinyl)
- pot of glue solvent (cleaning brushes and just starting again if it goes wrong)
- stanley knife (cutting out around the cracks)
- bumper filler (for filling cracks)
- handheld sander
- hair dryer (for softening vinyl to push it into shape)
- various bits of wood/ round / flat tools to push the vinyl into nooks and crannys
- good pair of sharp scissors
I had a bit of practice before I did the roll bar. It helps to play with the hair drier and the glue to see how long it takes to soften and also how long it takes the glue to melt. Sometimes the glue needed to be dry to bond on impact (most of the straight bits) and sometimes it was better for the glue to be a bit tacky so that you could bend the shape of the vinyl into a hole or inward curve.
If it all goes wrong you can just rip it off and clean up with solvent and have a beer then try again.
I cut the vinyl into the approx. shape Id need. Obviously cut out anything thats cracked or would show throw the new vinyl. Take you time with the bumper filler and build up the cut out cracks, using the sander to flatten back anything that not flat. I took ages just getting the filler nice and flat. Once your happy with that, clean it all down with, I think I used wipes or I may have used the glue solvent. Cant remember.
Do the pad in stages.
In terms of the gluing order (I might need to get an old pad out and work it through again to get this right):-
- I glued on the back of the edge that sits under the targa roof first to give the vinyl something to stick to. I think I started here as it was a straightish edge and an easy bit to make a good start. You can do the fiddly bits then with out a lot of vinyl flapping about
- The vinyl will then roll around on to the face you can see thats sits under the drivers head. Glue the face dont worry about the sides and the holes where the latches go, you cut them out later. Use the hair dryer to help stretch the vinyl to cover with out lumps and dry the glue, as soon as your happy that its ready then stretch and place at the same time smoothing out. It you mis place then just stop and pull it off, you might need to start again, you might be able to apply solvent to the back of the vinyl and the pad to remove the lumps to try again.
- Let it dry and then glue the front of the pad (that you look at when its fitted to the car). This bit is a bit more tricky as you have the curves and holes to contend with but if I remember correctly I stuck the vinyl on the front and left a bit to stick to the back of the bad to finish later.
- glue the ends and use the hair drier to pull the vinyl around the tips of the pad
- trim the vinyl so that you have an inch or so that will fit round the back of the pad and glue it in place
- now the fun bit, the latch plates. You need to cut these with a X and trim with a stanley knife. Apply glue to the underneath and use the hairdryer to push into place. It took a while to get this bit right. Im not sure Ive done this bit right as Im found it hard to get the plastic latch plates to fit. Im sure I can get them to sit properly. I may even suggest not to vinyl underneath the latch plates as they are all covered anyway with the plastic covers.
Anyway, might be difficult to follow without pictures but I dont mid digging out an old pad and working through the main bits with pics and arrows when the time comes. Actually I dont mind doing this sort of thing for folk if they want help, I quite enjoyed it. Need to finish my car first though:-)
A