[AMC-List] Intersting MACHINE article from: AMCRebelMachine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

["Brien Tourville" <hh7x@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: MSN Nicknamefordamc  (Original Message)	Sent: 1/19/2006 8:33 PM
I too have a Bayshore blue Machine with a blue interior. It took a 
long time to restore the interior, it got to the point where I was 
ready to give up & sell the car. But I stuck with it & the end result 
looks good. Check out the PICTURES part of this site & go back to 
page 2. There are a couple of pictures of my Machine interior posted.
  To paint hard parts in the interior (dashboard, kick panels with 
vents, front inside metal trim around the window, package shelf, rear 
sail panels, steering wheel) use PPG Duracryl Acrylic Lacquer # 13814 
Blue metallic. A good auto body supply store should be able to mix 
this for you.
   To paint soft interior parts (door panels, seats, door arm rests, 
seat backs, dash pad) use SEM vinyl dye elastomeric coating #1625 
Silver Blue metallic. Again, a good auto body supply store can mix 
this for you. Buy a can of PPG vinyl conditioner # UK 405 and use 
according to the directions on the can before you spray the vinyl 
dye. This stuff works great when used correctly.
   Door panels are a huge problem on blue interior cars. I looked for 
12 years before I found any, & what I found were in poor condition. 
The problem is that blue interior panels (seats are different too) 
have a different grain than the black or tan interior cars. So, you 
can't dye black or tan ones blue if you want the interior to be 
correct. That makes it much harder to find them. The panels I found 
were blue, but had been painted black. The front panels had a backing 
board that had completely deteriorated, the back panels were decent. 
The vinyl on the front panels was also very wrinkled, affecting the 
panels about 1/3 of the way up. I started restoring them by removing 
the rotten backing boards. Save them for patterns for the new backing 
boards!! I then started carefully scrubbing the black paint off of 
the panels with a toothbrush, a stainless steel toothbrush, & brake 
fluid. Brake fluid is the only thing that will soften the paint but 
not destroy the vinyl. This trick works great on painted plastic too, 
by the way. After tons of hours I had most of the paint off. I had to 
sparingly use PPG UK 405 to clean the remainder off. You have to be 
really careful with this product when cleaning with it as it can 
soften the vinyl & damage it. I then used an iron (like you use for 
clothes, DON'T tell my girlfriend I did this!!!) to carefully smooth 
out the wrinkles. Next, I bought two different thicknesses of door 
panel backer board from a local upholstery shop. I cut out the base 
first, then used the thinner board to create the raised parts of the 
panel. I glued it all together with contact cement.  Then I carefully 
glued the vinyl onto the new board, using contact cement, gluing 
about 4" at a time. When all this was done I sprayed the panels with 
the SEM dye. If the two chrome stripes are missing from the top of 
the panels, use 1/4" chrome pinstriping, from the auto body supply 
store.  I would guess that I have 80 hours total in the restoration 
of these panels.
   Seats are a problem too.  The companies that deal in old NOS 
upholstery material don't have any of the blue used in the Machine 
left. Legendary Auto Interiors does reproduce both of the types of 
vinyl used on Machine seats in blue. I used their product & it looks 
great & has held up great. A local upholstery shop made the covers 
for me. The bad thing is that Legendary has the worst customer 
service I have ever experienced.  Expect lots of delays & broken 
promises when dealing with them. But, after years of looking, they 
are the only people I could find for this stuff. I have samples of 
this material, email me if you want a sample.
   That is all I can think of right now. If you have any questions, 
ask!!  Scott     


===     ===

   milnersXcoupe
      NEW YORK
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