The Speedster - Seat Upholstery & Installation

One of the steps I was most concerned with on this build was the upholstery of the seats. Originally we planned to have it professionally done, but put simply, funds don't allow right now. Hence, I attempted to install the upholstery set that came with the kit by following the less-than clear instructions. All in all they came out well. There are some wrinkles in the seat sides, but that was a necessary evil as I trimmed the padding so someone of my size could fit comfortably in the seats, which were apparently designed for midgets.



The first steps were the easiest... Putting a pinch moulding around the sharp edges of the fibreglasss buckets, cutting the oval cutouts from the seat back, installing plywood strips for stapling purposes, and installing seat sliders. Mine were from EMPI and worked very well. The bottom seat upholstery is actually a separate piece, pulled over a plywood base, glued, stapled, and later bolted down to the bucket...

After seeing it done by Danny Gray on the motorcycle shows on TLC I used an electric "turkey" knife to trim the foam to shape.
I used a small sanding pad on my die grinder to rough up the fibreglass in preparation for glue.

The vinyl is stapled to the inner strips, then stretched around the foam and glued with spray glue on the backside. The wrinkles are a result of the reduced side bolstering, but I tried to make it consistent on both seats and I actually like the look.

The rear seat was pretty easy. Basically a 1/2" plywood base, cut to fit the roll bar, 2" foam on top trimmed to size, and the pleated vinyl stretched over the assembly and stapled.

Here are the finished seats. I wasn't comfortable with just the glue holding the vinyl on the backside. I fashioned plywood strips, then stapled them (believe it or not) to the fibreglass with my air stapler. The fibreglass actually clinched the staples, so there is no way to pull them out! These cleats do a great job of holding the vinyl against the glue.


The door panels are 1/8" MDF, cut to size, with vinyl glued in place, then screwed to the door with stainless screws and fancy washers. The speakers were screwed in place and wired through plastic conduits looped around the hinges.

These shots show everything in place, with the rear seats covered in more custom cut and bound carpet.

Speedster Carpet Fabrication / Installation

The Speedster kit came with a pre-cut and bound carpet kit... Unfortunately the red colour wasn't going to work with our scheme. The style of the carpet was also incorrect, being a cut pile rather than a loop carpet. After some convincing from Vanessa I agreed to make a new carpet set. Here are the results.


The pictures above show the original kit and the basic installation instructions from CMC.Back in the winter I traced the parts from the kit onto our new carpet. Recently I cut out the shapes, then sewed a carpet binding from Fabricland on all the visible edges. Unfortunately when I tried to install it, some pieces were way off. I wound up completely modifying some of the pieces and adding a lot more binding than the original kit...

I also spent time sewing boots for the e-brake and shifter from vinyl, also from Fabricland. I came up with my own pattern, then sewed in velcro to attach them to the carpet.
In time the fibreglass components will be painted, likely with a textured rubberized coating. These images show the binding and the stainless hardware I used to install the carpet. I also used PL Premium to hold the vertical parts.
Just as I was finishing the interior I ran into problems with the pedal assembly, requiring a whole new accelerator pedal, lever, and modern style cable. Funny enough, some of the simple carpet patterns did not fit well, but the floor piece with the complicated cutouts for the pedals fit on the first try!

Once the carpet was done I started working on the seats and their installation... More to come!

Catching Up on Speedster Progress

I've been a little behind on updating the blog... These pictures were taken nearly a month ago, on March 15. That's when I decided to mate the body to the pan.

As you can see, before I did the mating, I connected the newly-chromed roll-bar, and prepared all the bolt-on brackets where necessary.

Since these pictures were taken, I've installed the steering column, bolted the body to the frame, installed the fuel system, and begun the task of wiring the car. As of this week, the car can be started with the key, and the generator is connected through a firewall-mounted regulator, and is charging.

I also connected the master cylinder, adjusted the drums, and bled the brakes.

The car truly runs like a dream. The new muffler makes a really deep growl at idle. I can't wait to open it up and see how it sounds!!!

The next task is to finish the wiring, which I am modifying considerably from the harness that came with the kit. I've been taking some liberties and improving things. So far I've eliminated about one metre of wiring from the entire harness, and lots more to simplify!!

Speedster Work Begins Again

Well, I pretty near did it! I promised myself I would not work on the Porsche kit until the basement was done this winter... You've read of a few other diversions here, plus the fact I installed a complete FI system on the Westy recently. But the real fun has been getting back into the Speedster.

I converted the list of hardware from the CMC instruction manual into metric sizes and sourced all the nuts, bolts, and washers from Brafasco. Total cost was about $120 for a whole box of stuff, individually bagged by size.

Next I lifted the body back off the pan and set it on saw horses. From that point it was fairly easy to install the hood hinge supports and the hood hinges. Since the latch was already installed by the PO, I now have a working hood!

I also removed the roll bar and sent it out for chrome. I found a shop in Scarborough and made a deal. I'll report the price and quality later, right now the ball (and the bar) is in their court.

With the pan out in the open again, it was an easy task to install the new exhaust and J-Tubes. I wasn't happy with the J-Tube for the drivers side. It seemed a little askew and needed some persuasion to fit, but given the distance between me and the supplier, I just made it fit rather than send it back.

In our parts stash we have a complete set of VDO Royale series gauges. I drew out the gauge locations, then cut the dash and installed them for fit, as well as installing temporarily the rubber eyebrow over the gauges. In the end I decided the oil temp was the least important gauge, and we eliminated it because we were running out of space. It was also important to me to have idiot lights for the generator and oil pressure, despite having the gauges, so I installed 1/2" surface mount lights for these warning lights, as well as those for the signal lights and high beams. I also found a great deal on a Sony AM/FM/CD and installed that in the dash as well. Here are some images:

On Monday night I got the passenger side roll bar support installed, with some minor modification, and need to do the same on the drivers side next. This gives the roll bar something to bolt to on the rear connection. The front bolts right into the frame members.

I also dissassembled the carb from the engine and am working on rebuilding it. We're going to run the engine for a bit before we put the body on the car - it's much easier to work on while it's fully out in the open.

Before I mate the body to the pan I also want to finish up some work on the pedal cluster, and pre-drill the front body support for easy installation. I think I can have the body on the pan, ready for bolting, by the end of the week.