Something neat in a can

We completed a job today at the shop and I was impressed with the way it turned out. A customer had brought in a ’77 Midget and it didn’t run and the interior look a little worse for wear.

It was pretty easy to get it running, and we fixed a few other bits to make it dependable, but the best thing came in the interior. It was the autumn tan color on the seats and carpet. The seats were in pretty good shape, but were badly faded. The carpet was shot. We pulled the seats and old carpet. Cleaned and rust treated the floor, and then put down new insulation and a new carpet kit. So far just business as usual.

But then came the seats and panel kit. They looked twice as bad against the new carpet. I remembered what Dan Hoering, one of our customers, did to his seats, he painted them. So with three cans of vinyl paint in hand, Desert Tan color, I set out to paint the seats and all the panels. I first cleaned all the parts with acetone to get rid of all the oils and dirt, and then I painted them. To my surprise, it was easy, and it looked really good. The tan set off the darker tan of the carpet, and the finish seems to be very durable.

All in all it was a great upgrade and it cost very little. If you have any questions, send me an email. I would have supplied pictures, but they haven’t taught me how to do that yet. They showed me how to upload pictures!  Here they are:

You  can see in the image how the old color was a drab brown.  The new tan color offsets the interior perfectly!

Here’s a picture of a seat I painted as well.