Well, im workign on an interior project. Finishing the interior panels in black, red/black seats, custom sub box, some glow, etc. Here are some progress pics.

this is the very rear trunk part. I started by applying filler primer, and sanding with 800 (2x) and then more filler primer and sanding with 1000 (2x) THe peice is completely smooth, no stock grain left.


Driver side trunk panel. Same priming and sanding stages as the previous peice. This one is also smooth.


This is the driver side peice fromt he backseat. After being sanded w/ 800 (2x) and filled (2x). Its ready for 1000 grit and more filler primer.


This is the backseat after black dye. The inset of the seats will be red. I cleaned these w/ a mixture of water and palmolive and scrubbed with a scotch-brite. Cleaned a lot of grime off, dye seems to have adhered well. I think the red will go on tomorrow, depending on the humidity.


Final pic, this is the cargo cover dressed in bondo, and a little spot putty. I did a pretty crappy bondo job, but it should come out alright after more sanding.




I know you can't really tell whats going on in the pics, but i should have more in the following days, hopefully some that have better detail so you can see. Tell me what you think.

Looking good so far. Keep us updated.

-T

keep up the good work ian

do you think you will have a problem with the bondo cracking with all the rattles associated with a stereo

tbehling said:

do you think you will have a problem with the bondo cracking with all the rattles associated with a stereo

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I don't think so. My stereo isn't overly powerful. If it starts cracking, i could always just get a new one and try a different method.

Looking good. Did you apply the bondo right over the cloth on the cargo cover or did you strip it down?

What kind of dye did you use on the seats? Do you plan on doing the front ones too?

Yea, i applied the bondo right over the carpet. I sanded it down qith a 120grit sanding screen, and then applied another layer of bondo on top. I sanded that 2nd layer fairly smooth witht he screen, and the spot putty is just filling in the little ridges i didn't get out. I'll start progressing more fine on the sandpaper this next week, and hopefully be close to painting in a week or two, i just wanna get everythign else finished first (since the cover isn't a very necessary part to the interior).

eclipseman - i used the dupli-color spray dye. It worked well on my door panels, and on my dash. It seems ot be working well on the seats also. I tried to scratch some of it off today as a test.. no dice, that dye is on there for good.

Looking good.

I think for the hatch cover I would have just applied resin to the cloth on the cover first and then bondo, but it looks like the bondo is working well for you.

dsmnate said:

Looking good.

I think for the hatch cover I would have just applied resin to the cloth on the cover first and then bondo, but it looks like the bondo is working well for you.

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I was thinking about doing that, but i just decided to bondo the whole thing. If i did it again, i would probably resin then bondo.

I havent done much on the whole thing since i posted this the other day... maybe i'll get something done soon.

good god - i would have rather just bought one of leo's CF cargo covers and painted it.
man thats ALOT of work.

keep the pix comin

dave99gst said:

good god - i would have rather just bought one of leo's CF cargo covers and painted it.
man thats ALOT of work.

keep the pix comin

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Yea, I would have a lot of leo's stuff if i wasnt a poor 18yr old All the work required is 1/2 the fun.. when people ask what shop you took your car to, and you tell them you did it youself... its the best feeling.


Well, a little update but no pics.

Today i got the peices for the backseat finished, they are ready for paint, i just have to pull out the window surrounds and do those (thats for tomorrow).

I'm also nearly finished with all the hatch peices (besides the cargo cover). After i get those finished and ready for paint they are going back into the car so i can make the enclosure. It's going to sit directly behind the rear seat (exactly like dsmnates) and be molded to the side hatch panels for a seamless transition. The sides and top of the box will be fiberglass, and i'll probably throw in a 'DSM' on the top of the box for a little flair. The amp will sit in the little alcove that is in the passenger side panel, and will have a lexan cover on it.

For lighting, i'll have a short underbody tube in the back bottom corner of the trunk projecting red light up onto the sub box, and i'll have glow-in-the-dark wire covering on all the wires, and probably a mini blacklight in the amp rack to light em up.


It's a big project, but i expect to be getting to the sub box within the next 2 weeks, and hopefully be finishing by the end of june. As soon as im done w/ the interior comes some go mods (14b, suspension) to back all this up.

I would kill for a full black interior......I wish I had your guts. I hate my ugly stock Tan leather . You make it look too easy man, good job so far.

I did that to my GS, I just sanded down all the trunk peices and painted them. I didnt think ahead and now its starting to chip away. I'll have to go back over them again but your stuff looks awesome, I cant wait to see the finished product.

-Terry

[QUOTE='96_Talon_TSi]All the work required is 1/2 the fun.. when people ask what shop you took your car to, and you tell them you did it youself... its the best feeling.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah its definatly alot of hard work and sometimes can get depressing that you dont' get further along than you are at a certian time. Hell my car has been in pieces since December...just don't get alot of time to work on it. However in the end when its all done and you can say you did it yourself rather than give the credit to some shop it is all worth the work and time spent.

Turbo_Frog said:

I would kill for a full black interior......I wish I had your guts. I hate my ugly stock Tan leather . You make it look too easy man, good job so far.

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Well, i'd be more than willing to do some parts for you. I can go to a junkyard and pull out any of the parts you want, do em and ship em to ya.


It really didn't take much guts, ive gotten used to driving around a gutted car.

When i got the car my parents told me they didn't want me doing any real performance mods to the car. So i was basically stuck w/ aesthetics. Its a pretty funny story actually. I asked them if i could do all this to my interior last summer, and they said no. Well, one day while they were at work i pulled out the whole 'cockpit' interior (doors, dash, center console) ANd started to sand and paint.. there wasn't much they could really do about it after that, and now they are cool with it.

As far as all the plastics panels like what exactly were the steps that you did so the paint won't chip off and all. Did you use dye or what. Basically what I got from what you were saying is you took them off, sanded them down, used primer fill, repeatedly sanded until perfectly smooth and then painted. But could you be a little more specific on what kind of paint, what grit paper and all the specs. If you wouldn't mind PM me and let me know, I'm really interested in all this. I'm also with you on doing everything yourself rather than a shop. I've done all my body work, mobile video, audio equipment, alarm and performance. But my next step is dressing up the interior. I have a 97 GS-T with the dark grey interior but I want everythig swapped out to black with blue accents. Any help would be awsome man, Thanks in advance, Mike

Time for some more pics...

The bottom part of the rear seat is finished, tomorrow i'll yank out the driver side back, and do that. The center part is a little more burgandy than i woulda liked, but its still has a nice full red color to it.

Yea, i know there is a peice where the dye is missing. I musta goofed up when i masked it off and not noticed or something. it WILL be fixed tomorrow.

Here is the passenger side trunk panel. Only needs to be gone over with 1000 grit one more time to get all those last little pesky peice of stock grain out. DIE STOCK GRAIN!!


This is the passnger side backseat. In the same stage as the passenger side trunk panel. needs a litle more sanding and its good.


Real quick question.. for those of you that have pulled out your window surrounds, how in the heck did you get the seatbelts unclipped to pull it out, or does the rear seatbelt assembly come out with the window surround? What about the front seatbelt parts?

Lookin real good ...

the seat belts are just bolted in.
ya gota pull the plastic covers off first. ya kinda just slide then upwards. there just clipped on there.

looking real good, any work done by yourself is the best you can do. YOu can't learn alot by having someone else do it. Keep up the good work. I also have a gs with that damn tan leather interior and then the black dash, center console and door control part. I need to get rid of the tan also, but thought about it and looked at the work involved. I may do it once school is out and I have more time. I have red racing seats to go in, so I was going to do the back seat similar, but I would need it a brighter red then that. So any ideas, let me know,

keep up the good work!

wow, when i first browsed thru, (i cant read! i just lookit purty pics) i didnt care much.

NOW i understand whats going on and it looks great!!!!!

I seriously look foward to completed pics!!!!!!!

adgators - i do know that SEM makes a 'fire red' dye. I'm sure that would be an intense red color.

Here comes a part where i turn to my fellow DSMer's for some ideas. I'm thinking about putting the amp in the little alcove that the passenger side trunk peice has, and then covering it with some lexan, maybe putting a little glow in there. Just try to picture all the peices in all black, and some red lighting in there with a rockford amp, what do you think?

Also, think i should make the box squarish, or have the front bottom edge (bottom edge that faces into the trunk) have some curves. Basically im asking do you guys think squareish, or rounded.

alcove? do you mean the speaker cover? if so it wont fit.

rounded, def rounded. square is for the easy rounded is harder to do and impresses more.

The whole thing looks really good. Definetely looking forward to seeing the finished project, I wish i knew and had the time to do the whole thing to my car as well, FULL BLACK interior would definetely look a lot nicer, the seats are awesome. your right a little more burgandy than what you would imagine but still looking very very good. Keep us posted! Good Job, and i encourage you who decided to do it yourself, you're right...no better feeling than saying you did it yourself.

Firebretha - speaker cover? on this pic i circled what i mean I think it should fit well in there. It might ned a bit of modding, but i think it would work.