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Interior strip and refresh - paint or custom carpet?
So, I started the lovely project of ripping up the old carpet and sound proofing on my '90 C4. Pictures for the visual folks:
I have 5 gallons of Xylene coming this week to begin the hard part. I was originally thinking of doing RS carpet but began contemplating the idea of trying to keep the interior as minimal as possible and either doing a fashion/nardo gloss grey finish or gloss black and custom fabricate some coverings for various parts out of carbon fiber. I think I'm leaning towards this direction but could use some ideas on how to finish the rear quarter panels and various parts as I like the idea of the projects it'll spawn: all the custom fabrication. If I go down this route, I should be able to still revert to carpet at a later time, right? If I got carpet, I'm thinking a light gray (not plush, I can't think of the name but Singer sometimes uses a similar carpet:
). If I do carpet, I'd upholster the center console in black alcantara.
Other things going on are Recaro Pole Positions in leather (whenever they finally ship), RS door cards (in hand) and upholstering the top part door trim piece in alcantara. I also have metal floorboards from one of our members that I'll be finishing in satin black.
...I was originally thinking of doing RS carpet but began contemplating the idea of trying to keep the interior as minimal as possible and either doing a fashion/nardo gloss grey finish or gloss black and custom fabricate some coverings for various parts out of carbon fiber. I think I'm leaning towards this direction but could use some ideas on how to finish the rear quarter panels and various parts as I like the idea of the projects it'll spawn: all the custom fabrication. If I go down this route, I should be able to still revert to carpet at a later time, right?
Sorry for the poor quality of the pics but I think you get an idea of what I’ve done with my interior. I thought about stripping the metal clean but chose to go the RS rear seat delete, centre console delete, pole positions and a partial roll cage.
I'm about 10 hours in and while I've made good progress, the remnants are making the task of getting everything clean like the above feel insurmountable. Things I've learned so far:
Xylene works very well. Buy a 5 gallon drum.
There's no need to clean the clinging on portions of foam before attacking with Xylene. Get the foam soaked with xyelene, let sit for a few minutes and it'll wipe off in clumps.
Work top down and try to clean up as you go. Any small bits of foam that fall down are still sticky and a ROYAL PITA to clean up. If they go everywhere, you'll feel like you've taken one step forward and two back.
The cabin noise is definitely increased. Increased engine noise is welcomed. Transmission noise is not so welcomed. If I do carpet, I'm definitely putting dynamat over the transmission tunnel.
There's a lot of wires that need to go. What's the name of the material they use to bundle the wires? The main bundle that is on the passenger side (LHD) that runs front to back, if I unwravel that, how do I get to it on the other side? Is this one of those things where I need to remove the gas tank and everything to get to the firewall?
Sorry for the poor quality of the pics but I think you get an idea of what I’ve done with my interior. I thought about stripping the metal clean but chose to go the RS rear seat delete, centre console delete, pole positions and a partial roll cage.
That's stunning, I'm even more in awe of that than before now that I started this project myself. I noticed a lot of the areas in my car are far from smooth, did you sand the interior down to bare metal before painting?
RS lightweight plush in charcoal grey from AppBiz. Bob is fantastic, I messed up and overcut one of the pieces and he had a replacement sent to me express without charge!
I used the 3M industrial carpet adhesive and it was fairly straightforward. My main challenge was getting a smooth carpet surface which meant using lots of foam layers underneath, particularly in the back seat and tunnel areas.
09-10-2019, 04:20 PM
Interior strip and refresh - paint or custom carpet?
