With the Suburban sitting in one place for the last couple of years, the sun had taken its toll on the top of the driver’s side door panels. It was not a question of if the door panels would need to be freshened up, but what color? Since the Suburban is getting a full brand new interior, if a color change was going to happen now would be the time. Though I’ll be the first to say I like tan interiors in my vehicles and I thought about changing the color from the original Shadow Blue to a tan had come to my mind, I’m wanting to do more of a refresh to original on this project. It’s funny, even my wife was under the impression it would be changed to tan when we were chatting just last week. Most of the Suburban’s of this era around here in Virginia are either jacked-up, rusted out, parted out, camo’d out, pretty much anything but original. Not that I have a problem with any of the above, because the thought came to mind about a lift/wheels/tires/etc… but that will come with a short-bed 4x4 truck (don’t tell my wife) project at a later date.
In reading all the threads about using the S.E.M. product, everyone said “If you follow their instructions…..” the job would turn out well and last a longtime. Taking other folks advice, the decision was made to use the S.E.M product line and follow the step-by-step instructions on the S.E.M website and video. Since every piece of the interior needs to come out, I’ll take the opportunity to freshen up every piece and not just the door panels. If not, it would be kind of like taking a shower and putting dirty underwear back on. The problem becomes patience, since they recommend several light coats and allowing 5-10 minutes between coats, etc… I don’t have a shop at the house where I can just lay everything out, start at one end, go to the other and get it done in one long swoop. The plan will be to do a couple of door panels a night (weather permitting) and the trim pieces over the weekend. The final step will be to coat each piece with the S.E.M, Tac-Free product to give it a little extra protection.
What’s old saying “Take the amount of time/money you think it’s going to take and times it by two”, so far that saying is coming true! What was thought to be a quick project of about a month or so has now passed the two month mark and the little things keep adding up in time and money.
I’m really starting to feel the time crunch part of the project. The money part is easy to understand, people don’t do things for free, places don’t give parts away and the auto body supplier guy doesn’t say “Here these products are on the house!” The date that needs to be met is August 29th at 10:00am. One of the premier auto restoration places in the world is down the road from my house, “White Post Restorations”. White Post Restorations is known for restoring cars for 1% of the 1% from all over the world. Over the past few years one of their projects has been restoring ten 1956 Chrysler Imperial Limo’s for one of the kings over in the middle-east at a cost of $950,000.00 per-car! Billy Thompson the owner said the average price is $250,000.00 to $500,000.00 to have a car restored there. On August 29th, they are having their 75th Anniversary open house and car show. Though I’m sure the 1988 Suburban will be the last vehicle, on the last row in the back, it will be something that most of the folks can identify with who will come to see the cars and since it’s going back original, it will fit right in with the White Post crowd.
http://www.whitepost.com