1960 Ragtop Resurrection from Baja

[swharris]

Whoa, hold on cowboy. Are you binding your own carpet? Are you renting that? And if not how often does that get used?? lol. That is cool!

[Navydave73]

[quote="swharris"]Whoa, hold on cowboy. Are you binding your own carpet? Are you renting that? And if not how often does that get used?? lol. That is cool!

I have had that sewing machine longer than my kids. Ive reupholstered Smokey and The Bandit Trans Ams, my Jeep seats, Several Buses, and now a Bug. The biggest thing was a Sunbrella cover for our IBEW Local 18 22ft BBQ Trailer.

I don't use it that much, have thought many times about selling it but I always seem to find something to do with it.
"Native Americans believe that working with Hydes and Pelts releases the soul." Will Ferrell-Blades of Glory.

The Binder attachment is new, thought it would be easy but it is not!

[swharris]

[Navydave73]

Sure would be nice to start cutting some costs. Instead of $50 trim rings around the heater outlets, I’m going to attempt to bind the opening. I still suck with this attachment.

Using a round hole punch for the corners of the 2” x 3” opening and then cut the straight edges with a carpet knife.

Size looks good on this scrap piece

YIKES!!!! This looks like @#$%.

OK, second try is a little better but still not great. Believe it or not, I’m usually pretty good with this machine but the carpet binder is kicking my butt

on another note, my daughters buddy had this billabong backpack on her yesterday when we were at my sons water polo game. I was looking at it, pretty neat color combinations, even has the white piping. Headed to the upholstery shop today to see if i can find a match. This would look sweet in my Dove Blue/Arctic Bus.....just sayin!

[TDCTDI]

[Navydave73]

Using the faded original panels for a template to start.

Pretty wrinkled and shriveled. Almost 2 inches smaller in each direction

So I’m at the upholstery shop and i had a sample of the original door panels. I ran into another customer that seemed very interested in what i was trying to do. Turns out, he is a professional custom upholsterer. He gave me some tips on how to get back the factory pleats without heat seam equipment.

[Navydave73]

This is my first shot at it, driver side rear panel. I cut 5/8” strips of 1/8” panel board from Home Depot and glued them 1/4” apart. Then, after tons of glue, I used a screen door tool to press in the white vinyl into the gaps between the strips. First shot......OK.....learned a few things to try different.

[Navydave73]

Here is the second one. Much better. I left enough material around the edges for me to grab and wrap around. I also used glue instead of trying to staple the piping at the same time. I made some chalk marks to make sure the white vinyl was in the correct place and had my boy hold the material while i glued and rolled the seams with the screen door tool. The first time, i set the white vinyl on there and tried to stretch the material into the valleys and it did not stay. This time, i rolled each seam into the gap, smoothed the top of the next strip, and moved on. This is the way i will be doing it for the front panels. I am going to wait until i get the door kits with all the rubber trim so we can put them back together to ensure all of my holes are in the right place for the door handle and window roller.

[Navydave73]

The bottom looks crooked how the hell did that happen

This is the rear seat i bought with original upholstery. 11 1/4” gap between the pleated areas and the pleats are 2” apart.

Here is the top panel for the bottom of the seat.

[67ctbug]

The paint job looks wicked great! And you’re doing your own upholstery... awesome!
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'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[Navydave73]

The bottom seat

Laying out the lines for the pleats. Sewn pleats are technically not correct for a 60, but neither is Anthracite paint.

Poser shot with the seat belts!

Steering wheel. My boy remolded this steering wheel over the last few months. He used POR15 putty and spent a lot of time sanding and filing. We just painted it with single stage PPG that we matched off the WW spray can Silver Beige. LOOKS BEAUTIFUL!!!!! The 60-61 rebuilt wheels go for $700+ we saved a ton of money and it looks great. Now he is working on my buddy’s oval window wheel

[Navydave73]

I had original upholstery for all of the seats except the upper fronts. I borrowed an old seat from my buddy and used its seat cover for a template. It sucked, the sides were awful and you can see they don’t fit correctly. I re-did it on the passenger and its even worse. I’m making a template from scratch now, pics to follow

[Navydave73]

Bleeding the brakes. Fluids are going in, its becoming a real car. My boy crawled underneath the rear and held the tailpipes in making engine noises. What a dork! Love that kid

[Navydave73]

Here we are making the first front door panel

Decided to grow up and use real glue sprayed in one of my old primer guns instead of the expensive spray cans.

Spraying the backside while Logan holds the material tight.

Using the screen roller tool to press the vinyl down into the valleys between the strips of door panel board

Important to make sure the vinyl doesn’t stick to the top of the next strip before i push it down into the valley. Otherwise, this stretches the material and causes it to pull away making the seams less pronounced. That’s what happened on the first rear panel.

[Navydave73]

Finished product. I spent a lot of time making a perfect template so i can duplicate for the driver side and my friends bug. I put the holes for the clips to the rear of the holes on the door. This is a mistake because the clips barely fit in where the material folds over and the piping staples. I will move the holes on the door panel directly under where the holes would be on the door next time. I didn’t have any panels to look at while i was doing this and it didn’t occur to me until i was laying in bed that night. Doh!!

[57BLITZ]

Pretty amazing how much this project has progressed in such a short time . . . I just went back to take another look at the first page of this thread . . . GREAT JOB!!!!!
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Jesucristo es mi Señor y Salvador!

[Navydave73]

[EMPIImp69]

Nice work on the panels and seats.. - Did you make that table pictured above out of Trex? I have the same colored Beach Dune Trex on my deck and like that idea.
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1963 Ragtop Bug

[Navydave73]

[Jackrobbo]

Amazing build so far I will also be getting a Baja conversion and unbastardising soon.