Gerahead's 71 Dart
Time to get caught up with progress on the project. Over the winter I have been working on installing the new seat covers. For the most part, it has gone pretty well. I took many pix of the original covers and how they were installed before I started tearing the old covers off to help with the new ones. It came in really handy since I referred to them many times. The rear seat and the front base went pretty smoothly and turned out really well, I think.
The front seat backs have been a bit of a struggle. I did the passenger side first and when sliding the cover over the frame, a busted a stitch on the outside edge. The Legendary vids warned of this and I was being very careful in rolling the cover right side out, but at the bottom, the cover is so stiff that it tore in spite of my diligence. Once the cover was fully installed (but not stapled together yet) I wasn't really happy with how the top part of the cover was filled out. The original foam padding was molded with a pocket that slid over the top of the frame and the Legendary vids don't show it padded that way. Before attempting the driver side, I figured that I could cut and glue the foam padding to form that same sort of pocket with a flat sheet of foam. I was able to pull that off and reinforced it with a strip of muslin to hold it in place. With the cover installed, it filled out the top of the seat much better. Then I realized that there was something sharp pushing out from the frame. It's not a hog ring so I have to pull the cover pack off to see what it is, grind it down, repaint and recover. I also had to acquire some additional materials to repad the passenger side and recover it. A local shop was able to stich up the tear in the seam from my first attempt.
I decided to start at the rear of the car to start replacing parts so I dug the fuel/vapor lines, filler neck and vapor filter out of the shed to clean them up. I spent an entire day with a brass wire wheel on a drill and ScotchBrite pads cleaning the parts so that I could clear coat them! I think it turned out to be worth it in the end, but it was a pain in the a$$.
Before and after - lots of dirt and undercoating, but very little corrosion thankfully so they cleaned up really nicely and I know they will fit properly.
The fuel lines are like wrestling a pig to handle while cleaning them because of their length. I was able to just hang them between a step ladder and my parts hanger to paint them.
While digging the parts out of my shed, I had my first real "ah ****" moment. A couple of brackets were lying in the pile that didn't have any labels on them. I was very intentional about bagging and tagging everything when I disassembled the car, but somehow, these didn't get tagged and I had no idea what they were for! The were covered with oily dirt and grime, so i figured they were from either the engine compartment or near the transmission. Thank God I bought a set of the Faxon books last year. I thumbed through the chassis manual and found them! They go from the bottom of the bellhousing area to the engine block. Crisis averted! Now as soon as my shipment of parts arrives, I can start slapping some of this stuff back on and then repeat the process on the brake lines. L8r!
Jim
Time to get caught up with progress on the project. Over the winter I have been working on installing the new seat covers. For the most part, it has gone pretty well. I took many pix of the original covers and how they were installed before I started tearing the old covers off to help with the new ones. It came in really handy since I referred to them many times. The rear seat and the front base went pretty smoothly and turned out really well, I think.
The front seat backs have been a bit of a struggle. I did the passenger side first and when sliding the cover over the frame, a busted a stitch on the outside edge. The Legendary vids warned of this and I was being very careful in rolling the cover right side out, but at the bottom, the cover is so stiff that it tore in spite of my diligence. Once the cover was fully installed (but not stapled together yet) I wasn't really happy with how the top part of the cover was filled out. The original foam padding was molded with a pocket that slid over the top of the frame and the Legendary vids don't show it padded that way. Before attempting the driver side, I figured that I could cut and glue the foam padding to form that same sort of pocket with a flat sheet of foam. I was able to pull that off and reinforced it with a strip of muslin to hold it in place. With the cover installed, it filled out the top of the seat much better. Then I realized that there was something sharp pushing out from the frame. It's not a hog ring so I have to pull the cover pack off to see what it is, grind it down, repaint and recover. I also had to acquire some additional materials to repad the passenger side and recover it. A local shop was able to stich up the tear in the seam from my first attempt.
I decided to start at the rear of the car to start replacing parts so I dug the fuel/vapor lines, filler neck and vapor filter out of the shed to clean them up. I spent an entire day with a brass wire wheel on a drill and ScotchBrite pads cleaning the parts so that I could clear coat them! I think it turned out to be worth it in the end, but it was a pain in the a$$.
Before and after - lots of dirt and undercoating, but very little corrosion thankfully so they cleaned up really nicely and I know they will fit properly.
The fuel lines are like wrestling a pig to handle while cleaning them because of their length. I was able to just hang them between a step ladder and my parts hanger to paint them.
While digging the parts out of my shed, I had my first real "ah ****" moment. A couple of brackets were lying in the pile that didn't have any labels on them. I was very intentional about bagging and tagging everything when I disassembled the car, but somehow, these didn't get tagged and I had no idea what they were for! The were covered with oily dirt and grime, so i figured they were from either the engine compartment or near the transmission. Thank God I bought a set of the Faxon books last year. I thumbed through the chassis manual and found them! They go from the bottom of the bellhousing area to the engine block. Crisis averted! Now as soon as my shipment of parts arrives, I can start slapping some of this stuff back on and then repeat the process on the brake lines. L8r!
Jim
