A Newer Project!

[CC Rider]

Nice TA Steve. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

We got back from camping a couple days ago. Nothing like spending a week in the middle of no-where in the July heat, with no A/C and then have the A/C go out on the truck the moment you start the 300 mile trip back home. Ugh! It was like a Clark Griswold family vacation nightmare from the 1960's. I ended up ordering a new condenser from rockauto while on the road and it was delivered just in time for our arrival at the homestead. I then spent an evening at my buddy's garage installing it. After 19 years, the original condenser sprung a leak at the factory seam. The new AC/Delco unit bolted right up...after some modification to the original brackets.

So the next day me and the boy tackled the smoke impregnated factory carpet. I had him remove everything and he did very well. I'm glad we pulled the old carpet since it appears that the prior owner must have tried to clean the driver's foot well area and soaked the carpet so badly that the jute and the foam padding was too wet to reuse.

Here's the boy hard at work removing the rear seat attachments. He spent most of the day with me (9:00 AM to around 4:00 PM when he dumped me to go to a movie with his sister). [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/no.gif[/img] The kid has no stamina.




And here is the old carpet once we pulled it out. Many cups of coffee found their way onto the floor by the cup holder area of the console. And the driver's foot well section was just as nasty. We ended up pulling off and reusing the all factory jute backing sections from every spot but the driver's seat area, since that was soaked and moldy smelling.




And the nice clean floor area...after vacuuming. We found $1.95 in change!

[njsteve]

That new carpet from Auto Custom Carpet weighed a ton with the optional rubberized backing. To add to the grief is the fact that the Firebird used a one-piece carpet that goes from the dash to the rear hatch area. It took a very long time to get it centered and then installed. I quit at 9:00 PM after getting the carpet in and the surrounding moldings.




I pulled out the factory foam backed headliner and gently scrubbed it with a damp cloth soaked with dishwashing detergent and water. I let it dry overnight and Fabreze'd the heck out of it the next day. That seemed to work to get the smoke out.

[njsteve]

Here's the finished product. After scrubbing all the seats and applying leather preservative, my son and I spent the afternoon reinstalling it all. The car actually smells nice now. No more smoke residue.





I was able to salvage the cracked polypropylene seat bolster by using the plastic welder and extra polypropylene welding rods. The repair is underneath and on the back side so it is invisible unless you remove the seats.

I also used some flexible bumper repair material, supported by wire mesh, along with a couple zip-ties, to the pull the two large cracks together on the driver's door panel and then permanently repair the cracks. There is still a visible repair spot but not nearly as visible as the original 1/16&quot; fractures.

We pulled the passenger side panel to reconnoiter the condition and found one tiny crack about to start in the same locations - the 90 degree angles that are cut into the panel where the inner weatherstrip attaches. We removed the factory staples, reinstalled new staples in a non-stressed locations and then used the flexible bumper repair material to form a layer of internal bracing to the area.

All is well now, until we can find a nice unbroken (and inexpensive) driver's side panel.

[njsteve]

We went out to the local cruise night tonight and the Firebird and Camaro just so happened to be tonight's featured car. There were several dozen first, second, third, and fourth gen Firebirds there. Another black WS6 pulled in and parked next to me right after this photo was taken. (It was an 2002 with an automatic...and a baby seat in the back.)