Pedal Pushers Pullover Prep
It took more bus trips than I care to take in a given two-day period, but between yesterday and today the TI went from a painted shell to a full-blown car with carpets, door panels, door seals, permanently installed seats, seat belts…. Even with the hours I had to spend on the bus, I decided a few days ago that it was more efficient to farm out these jobs than to try to do them myself, and I’m glad for this decision. Jesus Angulo took care of the big things (installing the carpets and door seals), small things (repairing the headliner where it was coming apart), and a half-dozen other pieces that needed an upholsterer’s expertise.
He also finished the Sprint seats, which look good but will still need some mechanical attention. I’m somewhat amazed by how basic (and flimsy) these seats are, considering the engineering that went into pretty much every other part of the car.
Here’s a shot of the more or less finished job.
This is about as bi-chromatic as a car gets. Carpet is a Wilton wool kit from World Upholstery. It's nice, if a little prone to shedding. I probably should have gotten the dark grey but this shade still works.
Installing the door panels was a learning experience. I am very glad I bought a set of upholstery screws a while back – they made the job much easier. With the TI’s two-part door panels, it seemed easiest to install the lower part first, and then the upper part. When possible I used existing holes for the screws, but the beautiful thing about real upholstery screws is that they both drill their own hole in the backing metal and do the fastening part of the job too.
My main mistake was to start with the driver side door. I should have chosen the least-used door (passenger side, rear?) and worked my way around.
It took about 30 minutes to install the panels on the driver door. The other doors were quicker and in general look better.I'd gone to the bank between this photo and the one above, that's why the Giulia Super is facing the right way here.
And then I moved back to the rear door:
The left side is done. The donor seat I used while all this work was going on weighs somewhat less than the seats that came out of the car. I'm not sure why that is.
And the right side, done:
These went on more quickly. You can see one of the Sprint seats still in the car here. Hey, it's all in the family.
And last, a view of the newly installed front seats:
This photo makes me happy. The colors are actually a little darker than they appear here, but generally everything came together well. Yes I know I'm missing a steering column cover.
I drove the car to the gym and Trader Joe’s tonight. What a difference new seats make. I’m pretty sure these are overstuffed by an inch or so, vertically, but we all know what happens to seats after a fair amount of use so I’m not worried about that. I also kind of prefer to sit higher up in a car, which may explain my predilection for Alfa sedans.
There wasn’t a real rush to get all this done today, but tomorrow is the annual Pedal Pusher Pullover Rally (http://www.thepedalpushers.com), a day-long drive around the East Bay hills and countryside, and I really wanted to take the TI this year. I may or may not get the bumpers and some other trim bits installed beforehand, but seats were a definite requirement. Something like 70 cars have registered for the drive, all from the 1950s to the 1970s, so it should be a pretty amazing day–expect photos in a future post.
