New seats for the CHP

[Wolfe1013]

Well, this goes against the purist in me and possibly some of you, but I had the chance to get a pair of front seats from my next door neighbor since he was switching to leather seats for his Mustang. My '82 CHP now has a pair of black cloth "articulated sport seats" from his '91 Mustang GT. I have wanted these seats (and the whole car) since 1987, so now I have the seats...just in my '82. I don't think it's too far-fetched since they have the low headrest and my seats originally had the actual seating surface in black cloth. I joked with my neighbor that I was going to dye the vinyl French Vanilla on these seats to match the originals.

Let me know what you think. It's only temporary - until I can save the funds to get my originals recovered. From the research I've done, this pair was a fraction of what it will cost me to recover front and back seats. Since I couldn't use the back seat out of the '91 GT without modifying my car - not even the bench seat would work - it looks like I will start with recovering that one first.

I'm off for 4 days now and am going to do some exploring in just a little while. I want to see what the dash pad looks like under that black vinyl and same with the doors and steering wheel. Oh, I still haven't found the build sheet. It wasn't under the rear of the carpet. Odd that I found the primer is brown. Is that the case in all of them? This came from Ford as a black car according to their records. But Ford did paint the white, correct? It's on the buck tags.

Greg

[ImEvil1]

Greg,
Build sheets in my '82/both '83s were taped up behind the rear trim panels (c). Pics of the '82 still in place are in the build sheet section of the main page.

If the records you mention is the Ford 999, they are pretty inaccurate. Your car was definitely a special paint car from the factory.

[Wolfe1013]

Mike, Ron wrote a letter to Ford and they replied with the VIN breakdown. I have that letter. One inaccuracy in the letter though - I believe it says Driver Side Air Bag - oops!

OK, it's warming up - I'm headed outside now. It's out of the 30's now.

[mac88chp]

Not sure about the '82 CHPs but the later ones, mine included, started out as all white cars. The roof and doors were masked off and the black added over it. Sounds kind of backwards as black is the majority color but that's how it was done at the factory. While I didn't replicate this during the repaint of my car, I took special care to be sure that the correct mask pattern on the body was preserved. It was much easier for me because the car was never repainted and other than some rattlecan on the door skins, still had the factory paint intact.

[Wolfe1013]

Boy, did I create a mess this afternoon. Got the dash pad off. Haven't removed the vinyl yet, but it looks like it's black underneath. Also, all three speaker grills are rotted out, so it looks like Ron neatly opened them up before covering them. I only have the driver side radio speaker. Again, no holes in the dash for the bracket that held the shotgun rack and radio mics. I asked Jon in Atlanta and his '82 doesn't have these holes either.

Got the interior sail panels removed. Still no build sheet. I looked behind the water barriers and the insulator pads, too. Nothing but a little old tape residue on the back side of the left panel. Who knows what I will find when I remove the carpet to replace it...

I'm trying to trace down a water leak, so I ended up pulling out the headliner, too. Oh boy!! What a rotted mess the insulator pads were. Just crumbled up and fell. I was vacuuming for a long time. The hole for the antenna has been repaired with what looks like plastic filler. Apparently it was dented in on top to form a concave shape. That was filled in before painting, keeping the hole open. But it's so thick, I can't get a Motorola hole plug in it or even an NMO antenna wire that I had on hand. I had to put the plug back in it that Ron made out of a regular car antenna.

Right now, the dash pad is off, gauge surround is off, headliner is out, sail panels and back seat are out. What a mess. I need to run by an auto upholstery shop tomorrow and pick up some of the headliner insulator pads. Anyone used Dynamat first on the roof interior?

My headliner backer board is still in great shape for its age. Not sure if it's original or not. When I took the right sail panel off, a familiar black wire was present. I got it out when I removed the headliner. It looks like the original CHP radio antenna wire. It went from the roof over to the right sail panel, then down, tucking in under the package tray and into the trunk where it was cut above the right rear shock mount. I take it the radio was on the right side of the trunk?

Making progress.

Oh, btw, only the floorpan is painted brown. And a short way into the trunk area, it's painted black from there back.

[mac88chp]

I'll bet your build sheet is long gone but you'll never know until you pull the carpet. On my car I also found a piece of masking tape hanging but mine was on the body just below the right side quarter window and that's about as close as I ever came to the build sheet that was at one time attached there. Some cars look like they were used for trash cans based on the amount of junk found under the rug....so happy hunting there!

A leak from the repeater antenna hole trashed one roof insulation pad and the headliner in my car. I used double layers of "Reflectix" all-purpose insulation sourced from a hardware store to make a replacement pad. This insulation looks like plastic bubble wrap sandwinched between two layers of metal foil and is usually sold by the foot. It's fairly inexpensive and so far has worked out great.

Photos from my restoration album:

http://images116.fotki.com/v716/photos/4/438439/1627859/14Aug05a-vi.jpg

http://images54.fotki.com/v563/photos/4/438439/1627859/14Aug05b-vi.jpg

Yes, the roof antenna wire routes to the right side of the trunk where the GE repeater is mounted on the radio board.

[Wolfe1013]

Thanks, Michael!! I've been sitting here going through your album again and just ran across those photos. That helps a lot.

Also, in this photo - http://public.fotki.com/Classicchp/chp3035/17aug05c.html#media - if it's the right one, you see the rubber "mat" in the forward trunk area. Under that is brown paint in my car and like yours, black from there back to the taillights. That's what the mat remnant I found in my trunk came from. Mine is all but gone and there was no insulator pad under the seat like in your photo album.

There were remnants of insulator pad on the c-pillars behind the sail panels, but nothing more. Can anyone tell me what that was? Same as the roof?

[chp1982]

Greg-
Mine has the same brown color on the floorboards. It is cracked and flaking in some areas. Pretty thick stuff. Also, you asked about my doors. They are black however the white paint carries over to the inside just above where the door skin is wrapped around the door. The tape lines from this are fairly crude. I will get you some pics when I have a chance.

Nice seats but we have to find you some french vanilla stuff quick!

[Wolfe1013]

Nice seats but we have to find you some french vanilla stuff quick!

I do accept donations if anyone has any french vanilla seats they don't need!! :)

Wish I could afford your seats. I liked your idea - pay enough for the seats and the car is thrown in free. heh heh heh

I have other priorities that need to come first after today's ventures - weatherstripping for the doors, trunk and hood-to-firewall; body plug kit and interior screw/hardware kit.

[Wolfe1013]

Weather forecast for today - rain & thunderstorms followed by a cold wind and possible snow flurries. Today will be an inside day, so glad I brought the sail panels, dash pad and headliner inside. I plan to do some cleaning on them.

I did get some Reflectix yesterday. Michael, did you just use 3M Spray Adhesive to attach it to the roof panel?

I spoke with a body shop about repainting just the white for starters and explained to him what I found at the antenna hole in the roof. I said I wanted the plastic filler removed and the hood smoothed out by Dents Away or some place like that. His opinion was that most likely I will need a new roof panel. WHAT?!?! Not what I expected or wanted to hear. Anyone else have experience with removing a dent from the roof?

[28HopUp]

My center antenna hole in the roof was pushed in. The bodyshop pushed it back up from inside the car, and then smoothed it out with a skim coat of filler. I used spray adhesive on the roof insulation.

[Wolfe1013]

That's what I was hoping for, Bill. Right now, I can't even get a rubber plug in the hole OR an NMO mount antenna because its just thick enough to interfere.

Of course, to get an accurate estimate from any shop, I know you have to have the car there for them to see and I was driving the Bullitt when I stopped by yesterday. Hopefully, mine can be saved.

[28HopUp]

Any situation like that can be fixed if you throw enough money at the problem. :)

[Rhino]

My 88 PCSD car had some pretty wicked roof wobble due to the agency mounting the lightbar with 4 bolts directly through the roof. After years of wind drag, etc., it did a number from the Jetsonic that was up there. Someone cheaply repainted the roof with a ton of bondo slathered on - which then cracked like crazy.

I had the dents flatted out as mush as possible from the inside - then they skim coated filler in layers until a nice, uniform, smooth roof was left. Can be done - so there's hope! :)

[litsnsirn]

I know this isn't about the roof, but going back to seats, we probably have at least a few people with '82 cars that need the french vanilla seat covers to be made. Anyone thought about pooling our needs to have someone make several sets of them?

[Wolfe1013]

I know this isn't about the roof, but going back to seats, we probably have at least a few people with '82 cars that need the french vanilla seat covers to be made. Anyone thought about pooling our needs to have someone make several sets of them?

Great idea. I could recover the seats if I just had the covers made up. That would save a chunk of money, too.

Anyone have a recommendation? Who did the seats in the car Riley used to have? Those look really good.

We have a really good upholstery shop here in Memphis, but they would be my most expensive option among several. I can check there and post the results. If others did the same, we could possibly come up with a great source for all of us.