Upgrading my interior (WIP)

martyjer · Post by **martyjer** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 11:33 am

Upgrading my interior to a kevlar interior, (like carbon fibre but the cloth is red and black instead of grey and black, its to match the red recaros). Its something I havent seen done on an FTO yet and thought it would make an interesting project and hopefully an interesting final finish.
Topic below on fto-ireland;
http://www.fto-ireland.com/forum/phpBB2 ... php?t=9090

sublime19 · Post by **sublime19** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 11:42 am

Nicely done

For anybody in aus trying something like this - http://www.aquadip.com.au/index.html

martyjer · Post by **martyjer** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 11:51 am

Hopefully I'll be doing the same and maybe more to an FTO in NZ in around June once I move there, if I can source the bits that is! Its the resin is a killer to get my hands on! Though with all the surfing and water sports down in that hemisphere it shouldnt be too hard to get hold of hopefully. Was planning on doing the rear blade of the spoiler, and the rear parcel shelf on the back window.

J · Post by J » Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:28 pm

ive been thinking of doing this as cf coating just doesnt look as good as some of these examples.

A and b pillar insides, rear parcel, and most of the front will look sweet

tenji · Post by **tenji** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 4:14 pm

cant wait to see the final result.

carbon kevlar isnt cheap either.

martyjer · Post by **martyjer** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 12:16 pm

Small bit done tonight, getting closer to completion now;

Gear lever surround, 90% complete;

Trimmed the area around the cigarette lighter and applied resin to same;

Lower centre console 95% complete;

@tenji - the kevlar cost me 45 euros for a metre squared delivered from USA to Ireland. Thats about 90 Aus Dollars. The resin cost approx 100 euro (200 Aus Dollars), and I've used a hell of a lot of paintbrushes!!! One use is all they do cause the resin sets in them quickly and cleaning is pointless, cheaper to buy new ones.

martyjer · Post by **martyjer** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:11 am

UPDATE:

Got the first coat of resin on the hood for the speedo;

The cloth for the upper centre console trimmed back, first coat of resin yet to be applied;

Getting close to completion now! All pieces only have resin coats left, plus the final sanding and laquer. Hoping to have it done by next week.

Post by **dstocks** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:27 am

ive been thinking of doing this as cf coating just doesnt look as good as some of these examples.

Jay, have you seen mine.... I would have to disagree on that comment. Mine has been coated and looks as good as that. Not as strong though.

martyjer · Post by **martyjer** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 2:01 pm

I think thats the whole point of using real kevlar/carbon fibre over warp, its easy to see the difference, the wrap looks fake cause there no dimension to it, the real stuff has a somewhat 3d effect to it, because there is 4-5 coats of resin over it, which makes it look better, thats just my personal opinion though, with the wrap it looks like its just stuck on, at least with the real stuff it looks like a new console unit.

J · Post by J » Sun Feb 22, 2009 10:54 am

dstocks wrote:
ive been thinking of doing this as cf coating just doesnt look as good as some of these examples.
Jay, have you seen mine.... I would have to disagree on that comment. Mine has been coated and looks as good as that. Not as strong though.

Yeh i've seens some pics of your cf coating and your woodgrain coating. Dont get me wrong they look sweet.... But the grey/black cf clothes just look more real and have that cf shine.

Hey dstocks how much did it cost you.... They arent replying to my emails

Post by **dstocks** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 5:21 pm

depends on what you get done. Will get back to you soon with some figures

martyjer · Post by **martyjer** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 8:42 pm

Bit more done recently;

Upper centre console resined. (Hood for gauges is too but still a bit of work to be done to it so not going to put up pics yet).

Had to be done in 4 seperate pieces as the shape of the piece is too awkward to do in one piece, the top was one, the bottom was one, and the holes for the gauges were one each too;

The bits tie in not too badly when resined up. Hopefully after sanding and laquer they will be less noticeable;

Nice shine off the top;

J · Post by J » Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:23 pm

hmmmmmm. I hope it looks smooth when sanded as the bumps in the resin look a bit dodgy. But the shine is incredible.

martyjer · Post by **martyjer** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:05 pm

Its coming out smooth all right, I'e started sanding the lower centre console today and that was pretty bumpy in places too but its coming out well thankfully. The upper console just needs another small coat I think before I sand that done, want to have a bit more resin for a bit of leeway in case I need to sand down some of more than the rest.

Tippin · Post by **Tippin** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 5:57 pm

looks great

one thing though, i think u will find that when putting the centre console back in that it is is going to be really tight, maybe too tight as you have increased the thickness with that kevlar and resin

i noticed this just by spraying my centre console and ended up cracking it again

martyjer · Post by **martyjer** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:04 pm

I see where you'rre coming from tippin and I'd thought of this when planning the cuts and shaping the cloth. I've stopped the cloth short flush with where any switches or appliances fit into the console, so the resin doesnt actually make the spaces for these smaller, they should still be the same size, they might appear to sit slightly back from the final finish as the outside of the console is going to be thicker but they should still fit. Hopefully anyway, no doubt something will prove me wrong. The radio surround is one which may cause trouble all right cause I had to drape the cloth into the double din space and this might be tight.

koolio1234 · Post by **koolio1234** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 4:12 am

Nice work martyjer, It looks great and that colour reminds me of the colour of my fto. v v v

martyjer · Post by **martyjer** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:15 pm

It would go well with your fto actually koolio, whats the colour? Presume its a metallic base with candy red over?

sublime19 · Post by **sublime19** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 11:18 pm

martyjer wrote:It would go well with your fto actually koolio, whats the colour? Presume its a metallic base with candy red over?

its BROWN

martyjer · Post by **martyjer** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 4:08 am

UPDATE:

Its been a long day of trimming and tantrums, cutting and cursing! Finally got around last night to applying the final laquers on the pieces for the console. So today was fitting day! Been a long wait but now its done! There was a lot of adjusting and minor details to be made good. Its as good as I can get it now and I wasnt happy at the way it fitted at the start of the day but kept at it and only finished it now, and can say I'm pleased with it finally.
Naturally a couple of things tried to stop me, my gear stick wouldnt go back into park properly firstly, the button wouldnt pop back to the right height, got that sorted as it was a case of screwing down the white surround for the nut a bit more, simple enough. All the appliances and gauges fitted straight away, but trimming was needed to make the lower console fit proper against the upper console, and around the double din unit to make it flush to the edges. The rubber grommet then decided to give me grief, but I wasnt having any of it and made it fit with the help of a scalpel!

So I suppose, the pics;

Before;

Units out;

Upper console with items fitted;

Gear stick surround fitted;

Upper console fitted;

COMPLETED CONSOLE!!!!

Now I've still got the hood for the gauges over the steering wheel to complete but I'm happy I've got this far for today!