91 240 interior remodeling

[derosa]

Since the project is on going and will continue at a decent pace until I leave to do some archaeology in Cyprus. The first thing I did was the shifter boot which came out really well.

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/front.JPG

The rest of the interior looks like a drab tan and will eventually all be replaced. This was simply the first thing I could accomplish and I will be redoing it again when I can find some really thin black sheep skin that will crumple down better this leather is a little stiff for this purpose.

From the shifter I moved on to the area behind the rear seat. The headrests need to come out first, these are held in by a piece of metal on each post which I could reach through the center arm rest and by pulling up. The square seatbelt covers pull off with a little difficulty which would be easier if the seat was out, I'll pull the seat to put them back in. There are 3 buttons that look like they have a screwdriver slot on top, these just pull out and using a screw driver breaks them.

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/rear.JPG

Has the pic shows this piece was nearly bleached white and the material could be scratched off with a finger nail, I was inspired to do this by the amount of damagecaused when I tossed a torque wrench on it.

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/cleaned.JPG

The bottom piece is a form of rigid poster board that seems to be a cardboard/wood base. The top material with some care can mostly be pulled off, in my next attempt I'll try some sort of mild solvent to disolve the glue.

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/leather.jpg

Since I decided to use the suede side of the leather I took the material from the end of the leather hide where the smooth side is fairly wrinkled but the suede is still smooth. I cut out a piece just a bit wider and longer then I needed.

Then I used some 3m spray adhesive to glue it down, next time I think I'll use the spray for the center area but a squirt bottle for the edges, also roughing the smooth side may help, I also think I'll experiment with liquid nail and the scraps. I sprayed along the bottom edge then laid down the leather and proceeded up in rows so it could be smoothed as I went.

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/glued.jpg

Once the glue was mostly set and my patience for the drying had worn out I trimmed along the edges by pressing cardboard against it and cutting from the back, the results came out great and can be very carefully finely trimmed once the glue fully dries. At which point I will also cut out the vents and holes for the headrests. Black vents and hold downs will need to be gotten and I'm willing to take donations.

Note: for trimming the leather I found it was easiest, especially cutting out the holes to use several long gentle slices rather then a sawing motion to trim the material, both methods work well with a sharp knife but the repeated slight sliceing does get cleaner edges. Also 3m adheasive lies and takes far longer then an hour to set since after 5 hours the exposed, glued leather areas are still tackey.

Tomorrow I'm gonna pick up vinyl paint for the hearests and try painting the seatbelt covers and vent pieces. More pics to follow at that time.

[derosa]

Picking up from above this is what it looks like installed.

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/finished%20dash.JPG

and this

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_0317.JPG

It turns out the 3m adhesive isn't good for this since the heat keeps it from setting, since I wish to do two cars this piece will be pulled out and a pattern made then liquid nail will be used which should hold perminantly.

Next up is the rear seat.

[derosa]

guess I'm gonna start with the back seat and move my way foward, one since I haven't attempted anything like this before and so it could take awhile, and two because my wife flipped when she discovered it was her seat I was gonna walk off with first. The rear seat cushions are disgusting and will be yanked off and replaced.

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_0318.JPG

Pulling up the seat produced a crap load of stuff, there is what appears to be a headphone or speaker wire under the seat that progresses under the rug on the driver's side. If anyone actually reads all this, knows and cares to tell me it would be appreciated.

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_0319.JPG

As can be seen the rear cushion is disgusting, it has been shampooed repeatedly by me and the dealer I got it from to no effect. The side and center areas will be green while the stitched tush area will be black fabric.

I took a seam ripper and proceeded to dismantle the old cover, there are metal rods underneith that hold it in place, these should be saved for reuse, the origional attachment method won't work but these are still useful. The seat breaks down into several pieces, the top, the two side pieces, and a strip that goes from one side to the other accross the front. The cover has a thin foam sewn onto it, my plan is to lightly plasticoat the main coushin and apply the foam to the top and hopefully block any perminant odors.

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_0324.JPG
I cut the top cushin into several sections, the areas that are stitched in rows are cut out to form one piece. As you can see in the pic I left half the top intact to have an example for when it was time to start stitching, this was a brilliant idea since the side piece, not shown here but shown below didn't look like it went the wat it did and a lot of things could have been messed up, the biggest key is to flip the templet over to make the cutouts for the other side.

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_0322.JPG
This is all the top pieces stitched together. Annoyingly leather stretches a little when sewing which made things not seem to line up quite right.

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_0323.JPG
once the top pieces were together the first of the side pieces was attached. If I were to do this again I would have done the side pieces first then stitched the top together, these two side pieces require a lot of weird movement and there was just too much bunched up fabric.

Things learned..
1. When you stitch leather wrong and have to pull the threads it stretches too much to be reused for its origional purpose.
2. A steam iron will not produce the desired shrinking effect to make it useful. Gad I learned this one since the idea was already in the back of my head should everything not turn out to be too loose.
3. A steam iron is needed to lay the old pieces flat to make the new cutouts. This is when you discover the new car smell is still lingering in the old fabric 15 years later, course so is the smell of old cigars, blood and puke so make sure the room is well vented.
4. A patient wife can sometimes be useful as soon as she realizes the swearing isn't directed at her and that she shouldn't respond by yelling at you, at which point the extra set of hands is quite useful.

[twotwodoors]

Any info on shift boot? I'l looking to replace my ugly black rubber one with an aftermarket one. Not sure about fitmet, where did you get yours? What brand is it? Thanks!

[derosa]

Any info on shift boot? I'l looking to replace my ugly black rubber one with an aftermarket one. Not sure about fitmet, where did you get yours? What brand is it? Thanks!
I'm looking into some thin sheepskin leather to possibly offer these in the fall, biggest problem with mine is the material is too thick so it doesn't sag right. Not certain what they go for but the price looks like it would be in the 25-40 range and tilted towards 30.

[derosa]

Continuing the seat from above

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_0327.JPG
this is the cover in its final stage and the fit is perfect. The origional had 1/8" thick foam stitched to the cover, I will be using 1/2" to give it a humped look and make it more comfortable. The origional attachment had a stitched in wire that then had metal rings holding it to the seat pad. I will be sewing the wires back in though at this point I can't screw it up, and using wire or cord to pull everything taunt. I should hit the padding store at 9am tomorrow and have a finished pic by 12 followed by an install pic and start on the seat back.

[RedFridge]

Looks good bud!

Real men know how to sew.
Looks like a really fun job and plan to do this in the future with some R-Sport patterns.

A++++++
Thanks for sharing the project.

[fryea]

im sooooo glad someone is finally paying attention to the volvo interior rather than the outside seeing as you spend 99.9% of driving time within the car

great stuff, i bought an upholstery book for this purpose, now im starting to see how all them words be comin together, hyuck

[Sinbad the Sailor]

What kind of sewing machine are you using? Running into any problems? I am looking into doing this but don't know what kind of equipment to get.

[RedFridge]

Keep All Of Your Patterns.

[derosa]

Keep All Of Your Patterns.
I'm hanging on to the origional covers rather then the pattern, mostly since the black seat stripes are 1cm to narrow each while the center piece is 2cm two narrow, not a lot but enough to annoy the perfectionist in me, thankfully I found out before starting the seat back so that has can now be seen in the new pic the stripes still line up perfectly.

What kind of sewing machine are you using? Running into any problems? I am looking into doing this but don't know what kind of equipment to get.
I'm using a 15 year old Kenmore to sew and upholstery thread. I picked up a knife with an extended blade that can have the end snap off, this is perfect for the leather. Cutting the cloth which frays easily requires chalk to draw the out line and a truely sharp pair of scissors, spend the extra at the craft store they're worth it.

[derosa]

Since the upholstery wholesaler was out of the foam thickness I need I decided to start on the seat back the results of which can be seen below.

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_0334.JPG
The center band is a touch too wide while the black stripes are just a touch too narrow, I attribute this to trying to start this while working over 60 hours for the week and too much rum and coke. Nonetheless the descrepincy was noticed in time and the top was cut using modifications to the origional patterns. I decided since the back seat isn't usually used and I have never seen the arm rest used it will be covered over though I mat try to create a way of moving it to the front seat.

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_0335.JPG
Having nothing better to do I finished the sewing on the seat back so it's ready to go, the stripes do line up which took some effort. The foam should be in at the wholesalers so maybe by tomorrow night I can have both these ready to install, before doing so the plastic side panels will need to be pulled and painted to match. More to follow.
Continuing the things learned from above
5. Rum and coke and sewing don't work well together but they can be made to work, it also keeps down the cursing.

[Camyman]

What kind of sewing machine are you using? Running into any problems? I am looking into doing this but don't know what kind of equipment to get.
if you are interested, i will be doing this same exact thing with leather and atacama. perhaps we could start a group buy for utah? i know of a few places that might have what we need.:cool:


as for the interior, rock on! are you painting the plastics green or black? im really digging this. tell me how the door panels go. my idea for the doors is a bit odd. but it SHOULD work. its similar in design to the design of the visors but with a real cup holder on it.

[derosa]

if you are interested, i will be doing this same exact thing with leather and atacama. perhaps we could start a group buy for utah? i know of a few places that might have what we need.:cool:


as for the interior, rock on! are you painting the plastics green or black? im really digging this. tell me how the door panels go. my idea for the doors is a bit odd. but it SHOULD work. its similar in design to the design of the visors but with a real cup holder on it.
You're gonna put flip down cup holders in the doors? That would be different. Plastics will all be black for a better mesh since half the plastic was black and not tan to start with. For the door panels I was thinking od using some sort of thin plexiglass and heating the end with a shrink wrap gun to get it to bend at the window. The door knobs will be ditched to be replaced with a switch in the center consol in preperation for door poppers in the far future.

[derosa]

Continuing along, once the covers are stitched up it is necessary to sew strips on that the wires can run through, these bars can then be sewn to the bars embedded in the seat foam like below.
http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_0341.JPG

For the bottom I can a cord through instead of the wire and pulled it really tight which pulled the seat cover down accross the bottom of the seat. I then sewed the cover in the front and back to the embedded wire, the cord was also sewn in as part of it, because the cord was sewn in the sides didn't need to be. The end results can be seen below.
http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_0344.JPG

The method used on the seat bottom won't work on the seat back due to the curves on the sides so that is still having the cover sewn on and will be finished tomorrow.

http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_0343.JPG
I also felt the need to post a pic of my help. When sewing down the cover there needs to ba a second person to hold it in place. My wife has "patiently" shown me how to use the machine to sew it all together and has helped hold everything in place.

[BDKR]

Nice work so far. And +1 for the wife too. Every man needs a woman as cool as her.

[derosa]

Finally got everything stitched up, tied down and put in place. I made sure to pull the tan side panels to paint them black, to do this pop off the decorative seatbelt cover, it's held in place with a 16mm bolt, the seatbelt mechanism cover needs to be pulled off, removes the door edging trim, once this is done pull the edge out about an inch and pull the panel towards you about an inch, it'll be a little tight, once it pulls out it has to be pulled down.

Install is the reverse of installation.

And the finished product once the pieces are painted and the seat covers put in...
http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_0371.JPG

and
http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_0373.JPG
There is some wrinkling in the center seat back which the upholstery lady downstairs says is difficult to avoid due to the raised center in the seat back from leaving the armrest in place. If I do this again I'll stitch up a piece for the arm rest and that'll pull everything perfectly into place. after they've been in the car awhile and the heat has gotten to them they'll shrink a little bit.

Because I only have another week to spare before I leave I'm gonna skip trying to do the front seats and focus on the door panels.

[Sinbad the Sailor]

if you are interested, i will be doing this same exact thing with leather and atacama. perhaps we could start a group buy for utah? i know of a few places that might have what we need.:cool:

For sure. I will probably be starting sometime around August. PM me with any details you get. I would love to go leather, and might be making custom front seats with moar support yo!

Great job man. Looks awesome. Great attention to detail too. Thanks for the write up.

Spencer

[derosa]

Been a while since I posted any updates to this and what a long year it has been for the poor car. Seems most of the pics above are missing and I have no clue where they went so onto new stuff.
Since the last post the car has been +T'd, unfortunately this has turned the engine bay into a bit of a rat's nest. I'll be cleaning up the wiring over the next couple weeks.
http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_1019.JPG

After the turbo addition the car had a close encounter with a toyota tacoma and as always he with the highest bumper wins. This has had the car off the road for the last 4 months, fortunately a 93 240 wagon from a rear end collision will be offering up its front end soon and gloss rustoleum will be used to turn the borrowed silver bits black.
http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_1016.JPG

Somehow the car squeeked past inspection last year with barely functioning brakes and no e-brake. That problem will be solved for this year. Ready to go on are new rear calipers.
http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_1015.JPG

I've been attempting to remove the front calipers which were replaced 2 years ago for cleaning. After 1.5 hours I had stripped out a generic 15mm socket and cracked a craftsmen socket, discovered I didn't have an 11mm for the lines, only managed to unbolt one caliper and came to the conclusion I need an impact wrench. Once the front calipers are removed they'll be cleaned up and painted to match the rears.
Of course to complement the new calipers are metalmaster pads F&R, all new discs, superblue fluid and FCP's stainless lines. For the first time since buying the car it will have working e-brakes with new pads, lines and hardware.
http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_1017.JPG

Course the need for new brakes to stop the extra power from the +T only occures if the car can get the extra power to the ground so of course a new clutch kit and cable are waiting to go.
http://www.albany.edu/~rr5699/100_1018.JPG

Not fully shown but included into the whole mix is a new water pump shown painted above, a timing belt and all new front and rear seals. The next couple weeks are going to be busy but it looks like I will be able to snag 2 spare days next week where the only thing I have to do is work on my car and get all this stuff installed.