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MISC INTERIOR PANELS
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A few plastic interior pieces I have not mentioned yet...

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UNDERDASH PANELS
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The knee level dash panels have been swapped over to black...

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KICK PANELS
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Well I got the black kick panels with my interior set from Pull-A-Part. Now stock, most came carpeted from the factory...well mine were no different. They had the carpet glued to their recessed area. Well from years of abuse the installed carpet looked horrible & had to be replaced. So I pulled off the old carpet and pondered what to do. I could replace the inserts with new black carpet, or I could used the Hampton vinyl & install it in the recess.

Well I bet you know what I did!

Yep I cut some custom vinyl inserts. As with my other panels, I sound proofed the kickpanels.

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As I stated prior...

To attach the vinyl I had to thoroughly clean the panel with degreaser to strip off any old trim shine protectant. Then I had to lay out the vinyl on top of the area I wanted to insert it. With a sharp pair of scissors I cut out the basic shape. I then got the heavy duty 3M spray glue and I had to coat both the panel and the back of the vinyl. Once the glue tacked up, I carefully held the vinyl over the panel, to orient it, to see how it should lay to cover everything. I then started at one end and very carefully laid the material down. I rubbed the vinyl down as I slowly worked my way across the panel. I had to be sure the 2 glue surfaces made good strong contact. At the same time, I had to be sure there were no air pockets and that the vinyl laid even and taunt across the surface. Some areas required some stretching to get things to lay perfect. I also used a roller tool. It�s a wooden wheel on a handle. It allows you to exert greater force, in a rolling motion, on an area without causing the material to dent up from you finger tips. It gives a smooth tight finish in corners where your fingers can't get.

From there I had to let things dry a bit. Then I got out my SHARP exacto type cutting tool. I used the ones with the breakable renewable ends. Worked great. See the key is to have the blade sharp so it cuts the vinyl with very little effort. This SHARP edge will cut the material instead of grabbing it and pulling it. If it grabs & pulls it can pull the material away from the fresh glued surface. This will mess up your ends. It can also cause the edges left behind to be wavy & jagged.

The next step is to cover up the cut line. Even the most perfect cuts will not be perfectly even & perfect. My solution for this is black satin cord. I use it as a piping for the seam b/w the red vinyl & the black plastic. It gives you a professional clean edge. It also works as a transition b/w the different heights b/w the surfaces. See the area where I inserted the vinyl were the large recessed areas in the plastic panels. I felt this piping offered a step to bring the two surfaces together as if the red was meant to be there.
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Now once I got all that done, I had to make provisions for my distribution block & fire extinguisher.

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DRIVER'S SIDE
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Ok on the driver's side panel I had previously mounted my distribution block. So while the new and old panels were out I took measurements for the wiring to go thru the panel to the back side. Making the wiring actually go thru holes in the panel made for a cleaner looking install.

Heck in the pic you can barely make out the red power wires!
I also have added a little 2nd gen Firebird to the DB cover. I originally had him on the exterior, but deleted him with the repaint. It seem to be a good home for him!

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PASSENGER SIDE
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Ok on the passenger side panel I had previously mounted my fire extinguisher. So while the new and old panels were out I took measurements for mounting it to the newly covered panel. Now I made a slight correction when I did the install. With my new floor mats the fire extinguisher was mounted too close to the floor. See they were thicker them the stock floor mats. So I raised it slightly and installed its bracket. Now it fits just perfect!

I kept my existing sill panels since they were already black!

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HOME PAGE

Follow this link to additional information on the car not found on this site!
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DIRECTORY FOR RAIF'S INTERIOR SITE
01 Site Overview
02 Power Windows and Door locks
03 Miscellaneous Trim Pieces
04 Smoked Plexiglas Covers, Flush Mounted KITT Light Box
05 Carbon Fiber
06 Carpet Swap
07 Overhead Console
08 Red & Black Seats
09 Seat Cover installation
10 Red & Black Door Panels
11 Red & Black Rear Cargo Panels
12 Kick Panels &Lower Dash Panels <<<
13 Car Motor Sports Mats and T-Top bag
14 Neon
15 Center Console Repair
16 Painted Center Console
17 Dash Repaint
18 Repainted Gauge Cluster
19 Autometer Pillar Pod
20 Seatbelts

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