'79 930 Interior Project

[RSR Racer]

About 6 years ago I acquired my '79 930 from a dealer out west. It was an ex-track/race car that had been "fully restored". I figured there would be issues since is was for sale for over 18 months but, I got it for a price that was worth the risk.

Oh my...it was quite a restoration.....After driving it for a few months, I noticed the new black leather interior was flaking off. Huh, that's not right. The leather under the black paint was Lobster Red - that orange-red that was not common and looked pretty bad with the Petrol Blue exterior.

Upon further examination, the interior panels were incorrectly installed, the rear panel was broken in several places and the door cards were held on with 2" drywall screws. Guess they REALLY didn't want them falling off.

I gutted the interior except for the now black with red speckled seats and that's how I drove it for about a year as I planed and sketched out a new and different interior.

Decided to got two tone using black and grey leather with carbon fiber accents. Started with the seats as that is the only part of the project I was not comfortable doing myself. My bud's father in law is an upholster and gave him the leather, my seat design, a pair of old sport seats in dire need of love, and my wife embroidered the Turbo logo on the leather for the headrests.

Here is what he started with:





And the end result. Maybe not for everyone but I was pretty happy!





That was great motivation to keep going with the project.

More to come...

[ELZ's930]

Cool!

[Tug68]

Great job!

[ApexSonicX]

Sounds like an exciting project! A '79 930 has such a classic and timeless interior—are you going for a full restoration to OEM spec, or adding some modern touches? Would love to hear more about your plans, materials you're considering, and any challenges you've run into so far. Post some pics if you can—always great to see a 930 coming back to life!

[RSR Racer]

If you are a 930 purist, you may want to stop reading now.....

Decided to start on the quarter panel covers as they were pretty small and were both damaged by the "specialists" that restored the interior. Here is the panel before I started. The metal clip in back had been bent and was not installed in the tab in the chassis. All freshly painted black. Ugh:



Splitting off the broken upper panel, you can see the actual color of the "new" leather interior.



Next was to strip off the leather and padding:



Then glue on 1/8" high density upholstery foam and cover with new grey leather. That took a bit of time:



Now to make new fiberboard panels for each side:



Time for a test fit:



This is a hot rod with lots of mods so I wanted an interior that went with that theme and wanted a vintage-modern kinda look. Decided that carbon fiber would really help with that so, designed the panels with hidden fasteners so the carbon panels would have no visible fasteners. This is one of the panels from the back and then the front view. The carbon has a clear plastic tap on it to protect it which is why it is a bit cloudy.





Assembled, the panel looks like this:



Installed on the drivers side:



That's it for now. Lots more to share. Thanks for all of the kind comments!

[RSR Racer]

The workmanship was so bad, I drove the car around like this for a year before I did the interior work. This is after I peeled up the new carpet, cut it to fit properly, and re-glued it. At least the carpet is decent quality. Fortunately glue they used was pretty poor so I could peel it up with a little heat, re-cut the carpet, and make it at least look half decent. Really did not want to buy a new carpet kit!



Doors were also stripped and had rope loops on the latches! LOL. You can imagine the comments about that.

[MTN930]

@RSR - this is fantastic. What a great idea and mod. Looks like you're going to end up with a one-of-a-kind, really neat interior. Keep up the great work!!

Is that carbon fiber stuff simply an adhesive-backed plastic? That's what it looks like, confirmation? And, what did you use for the welt between the CF and covered arm rest?

Well done.

[RSR Racer]

That is real carbon fiber! Not a fan of the fake stuff. I used a square section rubber molding glued to the composite carbon/fiberboard panel. The carbon is bonded to the fiberboard with a two part epoxy. If you look back at the pic with the separate CF upper and the grey lower before assembly, you will see the rubber trim coiled up next to the two pieces.

Here is a close up of how I joined the pieces and the molding:

[RSR Racer]

When I took out the rear panel, it was pretty disappointing to see what they had done to the part. Like the inside quarter panels, it was incorrectly installed and was clearly not a new piece as advertised. This is what I started with:



And what was done to it because the didn't fit it properly:



The lower panel was not salvageable but the top panel looked like it could be reused. However, it was bent and warped at the connection of the two panels so that had to be dealt with first. Pulling off the leather, foam and padding left this:





After figuring out how to re-shape factory door pockets (more on that later), I used the same technique to flatten and square the mounting flange for the lower panel. Using the work bench for one surface and a 2x2x1/8" aluminum angle for the other, I clamped the panel like this:



Then, carefully and uniformly heated the portion of the panel to straighten with a heat gun to 280 F - 290 F while closely monitering the temperature with an infrared pyrometer. Any hotter and you will melt/damage the panel, any cooler and it will not assume the new shape. Finally, let it cool to ambient on its own. If it cools too fast (like using compressed air to accelerate the project, warps come back). It took many tries with the door pockets to figure this out!

To match the carbon fiber panels on the inside of the quarter panels, I was planning on running a band of carbon across the face of the rear panel. The panel had to be perfectly flat or the carbon would show the distortion. I sheared a length of 2x1/8" aluminum bar and glued and riveted it to the back of the panel. This reinforcement would ensure the mating flange stayed flat. Came out like this:





Then cut aluminum panels to fill in the speaker cut outs and covered the aluminum inserts with foil tape to conceal the lines of the infill.



Time for a test-fit



Was pretty happy with the fit so now it was time to make a new lower panel. Ok, outta pic allowance so will continue in the next post!

[krasuskyp]

Damn dude, well done - you do great work...

[RSR Racer]

Originally Posted by krasuskyp

Damn dude, well done - you do great work...

Thanks Paul! It was a bit of a project!

[RSR Racer]

Ok, with the shelf panel straight and test fitted, it was time to make the lower panel. Since the original one was destroyed by the guys who attempted to "restore" the interior, I basically had to make a pattern and start with a new interior panelboard. After making a cardboard mock up, I cut the panel and creased it using my pan brake - worked great:



After a few attempted test fits, some more trimming, and a final sanding, it fit pretty well:



The rear metal tab was ripped off the original panel, so, I used some 18ga galvanized steel and made a new one. Then figured out where it needed to go and mounted it to the panel with pop rivets:



Now the fun begins...time to cut some leather and upholstery foam. I used 1/8" high density foam to support the leather, soften the panel and give it some padding. A commercial grade spray adhesive is the only thing to use as it is a high temp glue that won't loosen or give up in a hot car in the summer. However, you get one chance to place it because it does not come off w/o destroying the leather and the foam! Here is the initial set of the black leather on the rear tray panel:



And after finishing the edge:



and clamping the leather at the relief for the mounting surface for the lower panel:



Taking a break, I then installed the new carpet on the backs of the rear seats:





With that done, time to do the lower panel. That was going to be a bit more complicated. Out of my pic allowance so...that is for the next post.

[RSR Racer]

Starting back on the rear panel, the first step is to cut and glue on the foam:





I taped the area where the carbon fiber trim will go to keep the glue off of that part of the panel and to use as a line to align the edge of the foam. The goal is to get the face of the carbon trim to be about even with the surface of the leather.



Wifey did her embroidery thing and it was time to glue the piece of leather onto the panel. Talk about stressful - Making sure the "turbo" logo was exactly where it was supposed to be as well as being straight and level was a trick, especially since you get one chance. Got lucky the first try and did not have to make a new panel!



When the glue dried I could remove the angle that made the relief area for the trim piece:



While the glue cured, I laminated real carbon fiber to the panelboard backing. I did it in two pieces so that the weave met in the center in a "V" so that the angle of the carbon in the back exactly matched the angles on each of the quarter panel covers. Looked like this (there is a protective layer of plastic over the carbon making it look dull):



After securing the carbon panel to the back panel with the captive screws I inlaid in the trim panel, the part was almost done:



Assembling the entire rear panel then looked lied this:



I then turned custom washers on the lathe to secure the panels in the recessed buttons I cut from the foam before the panels were covered. Installing the new rear panel and the seats and the back was finally done!



So, that's it. Time to do the dreaded door panels....left them to last for a reason!

More on that later.

[krasuskyp]

DOOD

srsly nice werk thar - both you & your (muuuuuuch) better half!

dig the center carbon strip tying the 2 side panels together - pretty slick

no turbo script on the seatback carpet?

[RSR Racer]

Originally Posted by krasuskyp

DOOD

srsly nice werk thar - both you & your (muuuuuuch) better half!

dig the center carbon strip tying the 2 side panels together - pretty slick

no turbo script on the seatback carpet?

Thanks! Took a lot longer than I thought it would.

She does great work (and puts up with a lot)!

Yeah, no turbo script on the seatback. Found some ratty ones on-line for mega $$ and didn't want crappy looking carpet in the new interior so went to my local dealer who said "Sorry...NLA". So, it was either pay a ton for an old nasty looking carpet with "Turbo" on it or....

Besides, it already has "turbo" in three places so, I think it gets that across pretty well without it! LOL

[fourblades]

Wow, great work man!

Looks pretty nerve-wracking laying pieces into that upholstery glue.

What is the condition of the rest of the car?

John

[Tug68]

Looks great! Love the color breakup. The Turbo stitching is killer!

[RSR Racer]

Originally Posted by fourblades

Wow, great work man!

Looks pretty nerve-wracking laying pieces into that upholstery glue.

What is the condition of the rest of the car?

John

Thanks! It was nerve wracking laying up the leather. Made a few mistakes and had to redo the foam and the leather one time. Was a lot more careful after that.

It was an ex race car with a mystery history and has some cool mechanical upgrades. After about 4-1/2 years of cleaning up the lousy paint job, adding graphics, building wheels, changing all of the fuel lines, adding an oil vent tank, new turbo and exhaust, and a lot more it is not bad for a driver. Still a work in progress but it is a hoot to drive.

Only thing they did right was to repaint it in its original factory color!

[gsmith660]

Pretty awesome!

[RSR Racer]

As you might expect, the door pockets were bowed badly, the armrest drooped into the pocket and the bottom mounting flange was warped. Rather than replace them when the interior was redone, they just put new carpet with a leather trim piece on the old pockets....didn't even do that very well.

After unscrewing the 2" long drywall screws that held them to the door, this is what I was starting with:







Awesome, yeah?

Never being a fan of the part of the door pockets that extended forward under the speaker grille, I decided to modify them and cut that part of the piece off. Then carefully removed the new carpet and leather trim (easy because the glue they used was terrible) uncovered a pretty sad door pocket:





Considering the cost of new pockets, I wanted to see if there was anything you could do with his odd material with an almost tar-like consistency. Using the scraps I heated them with a heat gun and they got malleable. At 300F you could easily bend the material. Any hotter and it blistered and smoked. Decided to stick to 280F - 290 F just for a bit of safety and to not risk damaging the ancient pockets. So, using aluminum angles, various aluminum forms I made and the workbench I set about trying to reshape them like so:





Also figured out that you have to let the material cool to room temp slowly. If you cool it quickly with compressed air, it did not hold its shape. Also had to repair the broken and missing areas so did that with 0.040" aluminum and a bit of JB Weld especially around the mounting holes:



After cleaning up the repairs, cutting the front of the pocket at the correct angle and making a new part to close off the front of the pocket, they looked like this:





Outta pic space so will have to continue in the next post.