Ferrari Mailing List: Re: carpet behind seats ('81 308)

[Doug & Terri (dnt]

OK – here’s my shade tree, unprofessional solution.  We’ve got a ’78 GTS.  Interior naugahyde is falling off so I peek behind it and lo and behold – the “crumbly’ disease !!  try to find some 1/8 inch foam – no luck.  I need something that will give the slight puffy look but not look too puffy.  I end up at a yardage (you know – the place that sells cloth to make dresses and shirts) shop – found some 1/8 inch flannel.  Voila. 

 

Back to the removed parts.  Use a vacuum cleaner and scrub off the disintegrating from.  That’s good enough.  Now for the glue.

 

Tried over the counter, supposedly AAA +++ spray can stuff that, according to the acned teen age clerk assured me EVERYONE uses.  Crap.  And its expensive too. 

 

What’s this stuff in the paint can?  Hmmmm – contact cement for Formica table tops, linoleum floor tiles – instructions say to use with plenty of ventilation or you could get your last high.  Label says “hazardous – flammable, you may bleed from the eyes, ears and mouth.  Drops birds from the sky.”  Ahh, my cup of tea.  DAP Weldwood Contact Cement in the RED can.  Ayep – Kalifornia sells tiny tiny cans of this red can stuff but will allow sales of the BIG, politically correct green can stuff: water soluble.  Label says you can drink it.  I tried gluing with both.  Green can?  Crap.  Red can – wonderful.  Problem – no big red cans seem to be sold in Kalifornia.  But since I am preaching to the choir here – you have already thought - - - Amazon.  You did, didn’t you.  So from some evil state that can still sell products that work Amazon shipped me two 16 oz. cans and some disposable (the shame of it all) paint brushes.

 

Away I wnet.  And, just like Goldilocks would say, the interior looked just right.  Trick is NOT to cover the entire piece (like door jamb parts) if the cover wraps around to the back side but to leave the material that wraps around back sort of bare.  Not too much overlap, but not overlapped which covers the entire piece.  That way you’ll get a nice looking soft radius transition.

 

And that is my 2 cents.  In bocca al lupo - - good luck!

 

Onward

 

DOUG

PS – and for Charles who has to contend with hood braces – do a little at a time.  Trying to snake a fully contact cemented piece pass spots that aren’t the spot for it may lead to homicidal tendencies.  I watched Tony Nancy build a Daytona seat a little at a time.  What a seat.  Two hoops of pipe.  Tony clamped about 2 inches of the seat cover to the hoop then continued  – 6 inches at a time.  Snip snip, glue glue, clamp clamp – snip snip glue glue clamp clamp and so it went.  He complained bitterly about the early Ferrari body – seems the L & R doors aren’t the same size – off by an inch!!  But hey, but who’s counting when Jr’s House of Color is painting the rig.

 

From: Ferrari [mailto:ferrari-bounces+dnt=dock.net [at] ferrarilist.com] On Behalf Of Charles Perry
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2016 6:14 AM
To: DOUG <dnt [at] dock.net>
Cc: The FerrariList <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] carpet behind seats ('81 308)

 

I’d also be interested in hearing what you guys come up with. The hood liner in my TR has been falling off for a year or two. It has the same ancient foam under it. Like Peter, I’ve tried gluing it back, but the foam residue just keeps separating. I can take it all the way off and clean the foam remnants off the underside of the hood, but I don’t know if I can “restore” the original fabric and re-use it, and I don’t really know how to get it properly glued under the metal cross braces under the hood, which is a little harder than the carpet problem.