72 TA : New Project

[njsteve]

And here's the door skin. Heavily infested with the dreaded "Bondo Worms." Gotta love 1970's dent repair. Drill a few hundred holes, use the dent puller and then smear the Bondo on til it squeezes through the holes.

[njsteve]

Ok, since it's been raining cats and dogs outside for the past four days and it looks like I'm not loading up to go to Musclepalooza in a hurricane I thought I'd reupholster the front seats. I took over the dining room table, laid out some carpet on top and made myself a workbench. (It sure helps when the wife is visiting her relatives for the week and I have the house to myself). I ordered the PUI seat cover set last week and spent the past few days tugging and pulling and hog ringing til my hands were numb.

[njsteve]

I found the best way to get the covers on with the least amount of wrinkles was to asemble them onto the foam backing and hog ring them on. After that's done you can slide the metal frame into the seat cover (this works for the seat back far easier than for the seat bottoms) Here's a shot of the hinge assembly: those chrome push-on retainers are bear to get off. You have to pry them into oblivian before they release. Amazingly, Home Depot had the exact ones in their hardware aisle for 45 cents each. (Note to self: when you do the other side don't try to hold the cap in place while hitting it with the large wooden mallet pictured in the previous photo. OUCH! )

[njsteve]

Here are the finished products. The seat on the right has the original upper material (this was originally the passenger seat back cover. I was able to pull the upper cover and foam off of the passenger side frame and switch it to the driver's side frame since the cover was nearly perfect. Both seat bottoms and the left seat back are the PUI pieces. They still need some heat gun time to smooth out the pull marks and wrinkles but they look pretty decent. Here's a close up of the material differences in the 1972 Tetra grain inserts used on the 1972 deluxe seats. You can see that the PUI cover on the left has slightly larger perforations than the pin-sized holes on the original material on the right.

[njsteve]

It's finally sunny out so I have the seats cooking in the mid-day sun on the driveway. Had some spare time (family still away) so I bolted up the nose brackets. I am definitely learning something about Pontiacs. -They must have had some Rube-Goldberg type engineer thinking this stuff up: if one bracket would work on on a Chevy, Pontiac had to use three or four. If you have ever seen how Pontiac designed the a/c compressor brackets you'll know what I mean. There are support brackets bracing other support brackets that hold other brackets in place...Well anyway the front bumper/grill brackets also brace the radiator support, each with its own adjustment, hence the masking tape to protect the paint for the time being. Oh, and the horns now work, too!

[Dave Rifkin]

This is without question my favorite thread from any site that I've visited in the years that I have been searching the web. I love to see the progress on a car that I admire and also to see the outstanding results that can be had by a car owner working out of his garage.
This restoration and all of its documentation via photographs should be made into a book.
I know I'd love to read about the methods used to create such great results.
Keep up the good work; I look forward to each and every update. I think I'll be a bit disappointed when it's finally complete; you'll have to find another car and start again (only kidding)

[njsteve]

Glad to be of service. I like to do things with my own hands. I can never understand the guys that want to buy a complete finished car: Where is the satifaction in having something that is yours simply through purchase power alone? Anyone can buy a finished car but doing it yourself (or as much as you can do yourself) is where the enjoyment is. My theory is "It's not mine until I've either broken something on it or I've bled on it somewhere, while trying to fix it."

Now where is that bottle of Advil. My thumb is throbbing from hitting it with a mallet. My forearms feel like Popeye's and I need a tetanus shot from crimping too many of those damn hog-rings onto my fingers.

Oh and I still have to hook up the new VCR/DVD in the living room after the five year old thought the DVD disc would play better with butter on it to fill in all the scratches.

[Jeff H]

Steve, I did the seat covers on my 70 SS396 a month ago. They are the black/white houndstooth seats that are a one year only design so I was happy to even find a set of PUI covers. They are a close match to the originals but definitely not 100%, probably closer to 90% match. And they didn't have as many places to hog ring as the originals but it doesn't look like that was a problem for me. The TA is looking good. You need to bring it down to Jackson Outlets so we can park them together!

[Dave Rifkin]

[ QUOTE ]
Steve, I did the seat covers on my 70 SS396 a month ago. They are the black/white houndstooth seats that are a one year only design so I was happy to even find a set of PUI covers. They are a close match to the originals but definitely not 100%, probably closer to 90% match. And they didn't have as many places to hog ring as the originals but it doesn't look like that was a problem for me. The TA is looking good. You need to bring it down to Jackson Outlets so we can park them together!

[/ QUOTE ]

When is the Jackson outlets gathering; I have heard good things about that show.

[Turbo Regal]

[ QUOTE ]
This is without question my favorite thread from any site that I've visited in the years that I have been searching the web. I love to see the progress on a car that I admire and also to see the outstanding results that can be had by a car owner working out of his garage.
This restoration and all of its documentation via photographs should be made into a book.
I know I'd love to read about the methods used to create such great results.
Keep up the good work; I look forward to each and every update. I think I'll be a bit disappointed when it's finally complete; you'll have to find another car and start again (only kidding)

[/ QUOTE ]I agree!