szercer

Pulled everything out to dye and put new gauges, carpet, weatherstripping in the 76 and had some serious downtime waiting for parts. Any tips or resources on how to speed up my reassembling process? I labeled and bagged some parts but the majority is not... I'm waiting on a new ecklers catalog because I remeber some diagrams they had in there that weren;t bad, but I'd like to just go get it done.

Fevre

Buy a complete interior screw set, no searching for teh right screws and they are all labeled. A little trick I came up with is to cut a 1/16-1/8th" peice of vac hose and thread it up on the screws that go into the vinyl peices, this acts as a cushion to keep the screw's washer from pushing into the vinyl. The washer covers the hose so you don't even see it.

A C

I have had my interior apart so many times, I actually just throw all my screws in a box and simply know which screws go where. The advice I have is to be very careful with your original soft trim parts. The repro's look good when you get them, but the vast majority fit like crap. The screw holes don't line up (if they even have ***** enough to pre-tap them), the panel contour is not correct, and there are large gaps. Nothing fits like the stock pieces. One other piece of advice....be real patient. Re-assembling trim parts is a tedious job, especially when things don't line up. Don't force things, take a night off when you get frustrated and come back another time. I am in the middle of my interior re-assembly as well. Good luck! :cheers:

AC


[Modified by A C, 7:28 PM 8/1/2003]

Sun King

Yes! Just finished Wifey's '79 interior...
1- have someone around to support the radio portion of your dash while installing the ctr. console, and it will line up even if it's aftermarket.

2- make sure to install the seat belt components before the seats :banghead:

3- the repalcement screw kit is worth buying! :yesnod:

szercer

thanks for all the tips, I do have the screw kit so it hsouldnt be that bad, I'm just dreading trying to figure which panel goes in first and such... My rear seatbelt is giving me trouble not fitting with the new carpet padding I think, maybe I have it in backwards, the box faces the rear of the car, I think?