Looking for a few winter projects. I'm going to order the seat upholstery to replace those. Was thinking about replacing the upper black vinyl on my door cards, maybe the lower tan section and possibly the vinyl on the visors. Here's a few pics to show you the current state.







I don't have access to or the know-how to stitch anything though. So not sure the visors would be possible. The black upper part of the door cards looks fairly easy to redo though. The lower tan section looks worn too but that seems like it would require stitching too. Or maybe people have replaced these and have different techniques?

But looking at this maybe I don't need any stitching... https://autoricambi.us/beige-door-panel-pair-1966-78/

Any thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated.

Richard

i ordered door cards from vicks, I got the 2 for 150.00 and reused my chrome trim, and window fuzzy, was fairly simple, and way better than what I could have done. side note I got my door cards in all black, because that's what was on the car, im not sure if they have 2 tone.

I don't have any ides about the sun visor. I need to replace them on my 1976.

best of luck

tony

Richard, I'll be interested in what you learn about the door cards, as I need to do this on my '71. My plan was to get some "marine vinyl" with the appropriate texture and do the work myself. I would replace the fiberboard part of the door card with my own, as it seems like it's fairly planar except where the 3 door handle screws hold it down.

The only real issue that I see is that trapezoidal accent pattern above the door handle. That would be hard to recreate, but I think the way it can be done is with a precision sewing machine and something called "sewing foam" (I could have the name wrong). The idea is that the sewing stitches compress the foam along the stitch line and it creates a nice pattern.

Or you could just buy the door cards from AR!

For the sun visors, I'm guessing the way these were made originally was they wrapped a foam blanket around the internal wire frame, slapped two big vinyl sheets on the top and bottom, put it in a heated press that had an outline just like the end product, "melted" the two vinyl sheets together at that outer edge, let it cool, and then trimmed off the extra vinyl on the outside of the joint. However, this doesn't help us much here. So, I find used ones every so often that are in pretty good condition, and with some cleaning and vinyl conditioner (Armor All), they look pretty good. If you have a better method, I'd be interested in what that is.

-Bryan

Brian's right. I tried rebuilding my sun visors. They are a metal frame with a foam interior that was covered with heat pressed vinyl. It's pretty easy to strip them to the metal frame. I bought some foam and some black vinyl and rebuilt them. The trick was sealing the vinyl. First I glued it, but that didn't look great. Then I sewed them. I'm a lousy stitcher but they were good enough for my driver.

For my restoration I ended up buying a set because I wanted everything to be at a higher level of quality than my skills could achieve.

For someone a little more talented at upholstery work it shouldn't be hard to rebuild a set.

+1, they are not that expensive. Sealing the vinyl so it looks good is quite difficult. Could go with stitched leather, but unless the console is also done that way, will look out of place.

tonys1980124 wrote:i ordered door cards from vicks, I got the 2 for 150.00 and reused my chrome trim, and window fuzzy, was fairly simple, and way better than what I could have done. side note I got my door cards in all black, because that's what was on the car, im not sure if they have 2 tone.

I don't have any ides about the sun visor. I need to replace them on my 1976.

best of luck

tony

Those prices look pretty good.

https://www.vickauto.com/FIAT-PARTS/FIA ... KU-50-2372

Don't include the top black (on mine) section but that section looks pretty easy to recover.

For the visors... yep... will probably just buy replacements.

Richard

RRoller123 wrote:+1, they are not that expensive. Sealing the vinyl so it looks good is quite difficult. Could go with stitched leather, but unless the console is also done that way, will look out of place.

Agreed.

18Fiatsandcounting wrote:Richard, I'll be interested in what you learn about the door cards, as I need to do this on my '71. My plan was to get some "marine vinyl" with the appropriate texture and do the work myself. I would replace the fiberboard part of the door card with my own, as it seems like it's fairly planar except where the 3 door handle screws hold it down.

The only real issue that I see is that trapezoidal accent pattern above the door handle. That would be hard to recreate, but I think the way it can be done is with a precision sewing machine and something called "sewing foam" (I could have the name wrong). The idea is that the sewing stitches compress the foam along the stitch line and it creates a nice pattern.

Or you could just buy the door cards from AR!

For the sun visors, I'm guessing the way these were made originally was they wrapped a foam blanket around the internal wire frame, slapped two big vinyl sheets on the top and bottom, put it in a heated press that had an outline just like the end product, "melted" the two vinyl sheets together at that outer edge, let it cool, and then trimmed off the extra vinyl on the outside of the joint. However, this doesn't help us much here. So, I find used ones every so often that are in pretty good condition, and with some cleaning and vinyl conditioner (Armor All), they look pretty good. If you have a better method, I'd be interested in what that is.

-Bryan

Bryan,
Based on the responses I got and the price of the items it's actually not too bad to replace most items. I'm sure it would be cheaper than getting it done custom.

1. Replacing front seats/headrests vinyl (my backseat is gone).
https://www.carupholsteryguys.com/categ ... w?cat=2038

2. Replacing both sun visors
https://www.vickauto.com/FIAT-PARTS/FIA ... KU-50-5322
https://www.vickauto.com/FIAT-PARTS/FIA ... KU-50-5320

3. Replacing door card vinyl
https://www.vickauto.com/FIAT-PARTS/FIA ... KU-50-2372

Only thing I'd have to do is rebuild the door cards with the new vinyl bottom section and replace the top section (black vinyl) myself.

Thanks for the advice/ideas everyone.

Richard

rjkoop wrote:Based on the responses I got and the price of the items it's actually not too bad to replace most items. I'm sure it would be cheaper than getting it done custom.

Thanks for those links, and I agree just getting new ones might be the easier route. I always like to rattle around in my workshop and see if I can do it myself, but I'll be the first to admit that sometimes the end product looks as good as new and sometimes it does not.

-Bryan

Hi Richard. I`m kind of like Bryan and want to do everything myself. I did everything on my 80 except stitching the pattern into my door cards and binding the edges on my carpeting. Partly because I have no sewing experience and partly because my wife is an excellent seamstress and wont let me near her sewing machines. It sounds to me like you are on the right path for you. A couple of thoughts.
1) Thousands of enthusiasts have installed premade upholstery kits with excellent results. Warm vinyl is easier to work with. Have a good look at your seat cushion. The driver side is almost always worse than the passengers. To me at my age it is as much about the comfort as the looks. A new seat bottom may be money well spent. Have a close look at the metal frame. Even if it looks good, consider having it reinforced. These seats are prone to metal fatigue. A lot of upholsterers will spray glue a 1/4" or so layer of med density foam over the old cushions to even out the surfaces to eliminate wrinkles. Make sure the spray glue is intended for foam. In some the solvent is too hot and melts the foam.
2) Replacing the door cards is fairly straight forward. Make sure the black vinyl is marine/exterior grade or it will deteriorate rather quickly. If you have Fabricland in your area they stock it and they frequently have sales. It comes in 54"widths I believe but stretches more in one direction than the other. Probably easier to have the stretch top to bottom. I bought a roll end that was enough to do the whole door cards, the rear side panels and the back panel with my speakers in it. I have enough left over to do visors if I decide I want them and I think I spent under $40for the vinyl.
I don't believe any of these tasks will be as challenging as your transmission rebuild. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your interior up to the level of your dash.

davidbruce wrote:Hi Richard. I`m kind of like Bryan and want to do everything myself. I did everything on my 80 except stitching the pattern into my door cards and binding the edges on my carpeting. Partly because I have no sewing experience and partly because my wife is an excellent seamstress and wont let me near her sewing machines. It sounds to me like you are on the right path for you. A couple of thoughts.
1) Thousands of enthusiasts have installed premade upholstery kits with excellent results. Warm vinyl is easier to work with. Have a good look at your seat cushion. The driver side is almost always worse than the passengers. To me at my age it is as much about the comfort as the looks. A new seat bottom may be money well spent. Have a close look at the metal frame. Even if it looks good, consider having it reinforced. These seats are prone to metal fatigue. A lot of upholsterers will spray glue a 1/4" or so layer of med density foam over the old cushions to even out the surfaces to eliminate wrinkles. Make sure the spray glue is intended for foam. In some the solvent is too hot and melts the foam.
2) Replacing the door cards is fairly straight forward. Make sure the black vinyl is marine/exterior grade or it will deteriorate rather quickly. If you have Fabricland in your area they stock it and they frequently have sales. It comes in 54"widths I believe but stretches more in one direction than the other. Probably easier to have the stretch top to bottom. I bought a roll end that was enough to do the whole door cards, the rear side panels and the back panel with my speakers in it. I have enough left over to do visors if I decide I want them and I think I spent under $40for the vinyl.
I don't believe any of these tasks will be as challenging as your transmission rebuild. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your interior up to the level of your dash.

More great info. Thanks. But don't forget...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0RTD7250II

Kidding. Comfort is very important as well.

Richard

I guess all we can do is strive for both

I just traced the pattern and hand stitched the detail into the door cards. I used a remnant of marine vinyl from Jo-Ann's Fabric and an
$8 sheet of thin exterior grade plywood so it cost me about $25/$30 to do both door cards. It's really not that hard to do. Finding the short stainless steel T50 Staples locally turned out to be the hardest part.

The visors needed the metal wire frames welded so I slit one end of the cover, slid the covers off, welded the wires back together, slid the covers back on and used a hot knife in a soldering iron to heat seal the ends back together.

The sewing machine is mine from before I got married so no problems with the wife when I need to use my sewing machine.