PAGE 4
The Heat Goes On
After the novelty of having a car that moved under it's own power wore off, I began to think about the next step in the restoration. It was now the summer of 2007 and in the south - it was HOT around here, so I took it slow and started on the interior. All of this work was done in my spacious DRIVEWAY! No Shade.
Even though the dash looked sorta okay at a distance, it has surface rust all over it. For a match for Chevrolet's Fawn interior color, I again went with Dupli Color. Arizona Beige is a near match for the factory color.
and an hour later...
The radio hole had already been buggered somewhere in the last 40 years, so I did not feel bad about taking my metal nibbling tool and opening a hole for a new modern radio.
Stewart Warner guages, a Sun Tach, and Hurst shifter. My Classic Car.
Now here is another example of counting your blessings: my car had no seats when I bought it, and you can't just drive out to the nearest junk yard and find them, so I went looking for what ever I could find. Ebay once again came up with a complete 1963 Chevrolet Impala 2 door interior. Some guy had bought the stuff, (a complete kit) had the covers installed, and then sold the car before he put in the interior. I bought it all for $650! All I had to get was the correct headliner and a pair or $12 kick panels.
A 2 door hard top Impala door panel on a 2 door sedan Bel Air door! I had to move the arm rest mounting speed nuts on the inner door, but that was as bad as it got.
I decided to try J C Whitney's sound/heat reduction padding and installed it from the under dash, to the trunk area. It went in easily, the hard part is cutting the padding for proper fitment. They send you everything you need to install it. The bottom side is like aluminum foil, the top side is soft padding, much like home carpet.
It was so hot when I took this picture, the lens fogged. Anyway, here is the ACS carpet finally put in it's place.
The finished interior is shown on Page 5