Project Lemon Drop: anything but stock!

[Joe Pass]

Wow...very cool

[jugernot]

I watched a few YouTube videos about sewing upholstery, because I wanted to give making my own door panels a try. I bought vinyl that matched my seats, scrim foam, and upholstery vinyl thread. I was finally able to sit down at my wife's sewing machine and give it a try. Keep in mind I have not used a sewing machine in 36 years and this is the first time I've tried to make any type of automotive interior.

I have to say it wasn't as easy as it looked on YouTube. The sewn straight lines weren't so straight and sewing two pieces of vinyl with foam scrim backing doesn't work so well on you average home sewing machine.

All in all my wife said they didn't look to bad. I'm gonna set it aside for now. The wife says she has a "serger" that should help with sewing multiple layers. So we will give that a try later. OR I'll find an upholstery shop to make them for me $$$$.

I was trying to save some money by doing it myself, but the amount of time it took to these pieces has made me think twice about doing it myself. Aw well we'll see.

Stay tuned

[68 Four on the Floor]

I've always thought to do upholstery you needed an industrial sewing machine. More power to punch thru the multiple layers. They don't bad for a first attempt tho. I've always wanted to do my own as well. Keep at it

[jugernot]

A few months ago I was surfing the interweb and found www.ricksupholstery.com, who made a door panel I liked. I reached out to them and they agreed to made me some for me using the vinyl I had that matched my seats. They also recovered the door handles I had.

I was very pleased with the way they turned. out.

For the past few weeks I've been tinkering with them so they could be installed. I took my original black door panel trim, media blasted and then polished them. initially I intended to buy new chrome ones, but I was happy with how they turned out. Instead of using the screws that held the door panel trim in place, I installed insert rivets. which held them nice and tight to the door.

When I had the door panels made, I asked that they not put any holes in the vinyl for the door handles, door pulls or window cranks, because I had not yet committed to a particular style. I also thought about changing the electric window switches.

Today, I decided it was time to make forward movement on the project. The only big surgery that was needed was to cut the holes for the electric window switches on the new door panels and the best spot was where the original window cranks were located. Im not sure if I like the billet door handles. I might try something more original looking

Voila, what do you think???

I'm happy. I scrapped the door speaker pod and long custom fiberglass door handles. I will have to move the speakers to the kick panels and instead of 6.5 inch speaker, I will probably use a 5.25 or a 4 inch speaker. Not sure yet. It all depends on how much floor space they take up.

Oh the white lines near the switches are just chalk lines.

[Joe Pass]

Looks Awesome......glad see your progress....

[jugernot]

Originally Posted by Joe Pass

Looks Awesome......glad see your progress....

Thanks Joe. Sorry I have not kept in touch. We'll have to get together some day. Maybe go to a swap meet.

[Joe Pass]

Sounds good....I will be selling at the SR Vets building tomorrow swap meet 6 to noon....

[jugernot]

Originally Posted by Joe Pass

Sounds good....I will be selling at the SR Vets building tomorrow swap meet 6 to noon....

OH, Well now I will have to go. I'll see you tomorrow then.

[Jason7121]

Door panels look great. What year arm rest is on there I like them alot better than my 71 arm rest.

[jugernot]

Originally Posted by Jason7121

Door panels look great. What year arm rest is on there I like them alot better than my 71 arm rest.

55-66 COMPLETE ARM REST
I got them from Brothers Trucks and had them recovered.

https://www.brotherstrucks.com/55-66...tinfo/ARX6600/

[jugernot]

IT"S ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ran some wiring from the harness to the radio unit in the back of the cab, plugged it all up and it powered right up. So Happy.

Now just have to hook up the amp, sub woofer, and figure out what to do with the front speakers.

Then rap the rear speaker box with vinyl

[Palf70Step]

[Joe Pass]

Great to see you today at the swap meet...I checked on the drop springs and it looks like 63-72 are different than 81-87 or at least what I can make of it on the CPP website....I'll do some further checking and thanks again,
Joe

[jugernot]

Originally Posted by Joe Pass

Great to see you today at the swap meet...I checked on the drop springs and it looks like 63-72 are different than 81-87 or at least what I can make of it on the CPP website....I'll do some further checking and thanks again,
Joe

Good to see you too. Hopefully you sold off all your stuff. No worries about the springs. they're not going any were, except to your place if you can use them. Let me know.

[Jason7121]

55-66 chevy truck thanks for info

[68 Four on the Floor]

Good to see you back on the horse

[jugernot]

I decided the move the 6.5 inch component speakers to the kick panels. So after working on them a little bit at a time over the past weeks and then all day yesterday, I was done.

Because of the under the dash 67-68 E-brake handle, I had to designed the pods around it.

the initial layer was an old T-shirt, then two layers of fiberglass mat. Then a layer of body filler and lots of sanding. Then more body filler and more sanding. A little more body filler to fill the pin holes and then some wet sanding.

My intention was to cover them with vinyl, but I sanded them to a nice finish so they could be painted if needed.

I was happy and proud of the way they turned out. Finally some forward progress......Yeah

So today after a little more wet sanding, I decided it was time to put the speaker components in and see how they looked. The tweeter fit great and so did the cross over. But then when I was trying to put in the 6.5 inch speaker, I got a sudden kick in the stomach. I was confused. I felt that I did everything to make sure this configuration was going to work. I then realized there was one thing I didn't do when building the structure of the pods....................................



I didn't take into account the depth of the speaker..................Doh

So when I put the speaker in the pod it bottomed out. The depth of the speaker is 3 inches. The depth of the pod is 2 inches.


Stay tuned for Speaker Pod 3.0..........................TO BE CONTINUED

[jugernot]

Here are some pictures of how they looked installed in the truck

[RRR18]

Very nice.

[gringoloco]

Super clean!

[Joe Pass]

Great work....if you need help painting, give me a yell...

[jugernot]

Thanks.

I ordered another set of component speaker that are 5.25 inches and have a depth of 2.2 inches. I will try to get them to fit in the pods that I made (I have an idea about how to do it), but if that doesn't work, well I'll start over. Maybe, somehow, I could include the trans temp gauge that is mounted under the center of my dash.

The important thing is that I'm learning something.

Thanks Joe. I may take you up on that and a little engine tuning..(its idling a little rough)




Oh on another note............. I have a big package coming in the mail. Something long over due for the truck. You'll have to wait and see what it is...








.

[gringoloco]

Can you remove part of the backing plate? Maybe a ring spacer?

[jugernot]

Originally Posted by gringoloco

Can you remove part of the backing plate? Maybe a ring spacer?

Good question. Prior to building the pods, I made a couple of extra MDF speaker rings. The only difference was the ones I made was that they were not recessed. I put the rings on the pod ( had to use 2 to get the recessed look I'm after) and decided it just looked ridiculous. It made the speakers stick out way more than I wanted.

[jugernot]

Time for an update,

Speaker Pod 3.0 is complete. I used a 5.25 component speaker set. This time I made sure they fit before I did all the fiber-glassing, body filler and sanding. I think they turned out nice, however it is going to be fun trying to wrap them with vinyl.

I didn't like the standard gauge bracket that housed the transmission temperature gauge. I also had a radio control pod that needed to be mounted somewhere. I came up with an idea to put them under the steering column, but in a way that they could be seen and operate while driving. I'm not 100% sold on it yet, but it turned out nice. This I will probably have painted yellow to match the dash.

For the longest time I have wanted to mount the Accuair E-Level control to the top of the center console. The biggest thing to over come was a way to run and hide the cord. I pick up a used broken console lid and used it for mock up. I came up with idea, using 3 pieces of 1/4 inch MDF to sandwich to cord within the middle piece. I then ran the cord through inside the console lid and had it exit at the lid corner, so it would not get pinched when the lid is open. Happy with the way it turned out, I transferred everything over to the good console lid and then did my first vinyl wrap of the MDF pieces. I attached the vinyl wrapped pieces to the console lid from the inside of the console lid. I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Now for some pictures.