The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors 53 interior

Have been working on the 53 last few days. Put a custom headliner in that the wife and I did. A little bit of flames. Also did the back of the cab with some material we got from a local upholsterer. Finishing up the carpet and door panels . This is my first try at posting some photos. Hope I did it correctly.

http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t160/sworden73/

Yes, the picture link works. And what a nice looking headliner. You say you and your wife made it? What is it made of?

Thanks Cletis. The head liner is a piece of abs plastic, with foam glued to the plastic and cut to look like flames. We then glued a piece of faux suede to the foam and plastic. My wife came up with the idea.

coach frank, i had a friend who lived in Washington pa. a few years back. he had a 53 Chevy truck and was a preacher at the Methodist church. i have been thru there many times, iam originally from Maryland and lived in southern pa. fawn grove. still call it home after all these years. btw he bought the truck here in indiana at james dean days and drove it home in a rain storm with no wipers. Ron

Seems like lots of people have been thru Washington,Pa. Because of Route 70. I haven't seen any other AD Chevy trucks around Washington, lately. We were members of a Methodist church in Washington, Avery United Methodist Church ,in fact. Happy to meet you,Ron.

Nice job Coach, if you look at my link of my 51 I finished off the top of the seat frame by making a steel panel, plan to put some speakers in the panel and carpet it, just some food for thought.

Thanks Dan,Good idea Dan, haven't thought that far ahead yet.Wife said we need something on top of the back cab panel. Working on the door panels now. Wife came up with the idea to put a small section of flames on the door panels. Bottom of the doors will have the cherry wood strips, top is black whisper vinyl. Looks and feels like leather. We have the radio and half the speakers in a box behind the seat. Matching boxes for the battery and a small storage box also behind the seat. Wife embroidered a chevy bowtie on the boxes.

very nice............

nice ....
i used to live between zanesville and cambridge oh. on ol 70. been thru washington before myself
tom

Thanks Tom, Had a college roommate who taught in Zanesville, Dave Price was his name.

That's great, Coach-Frank!

It sure would be cool to see the steps you went through ... it looks like a really neat fit! How did you attach the headliner (front, sides and back)?

Thanks Alan, Didn't photo any of the steps, wish I would have now. The front metal and rear metal trim pieces hold it front to back. It is just inserted under the metal strips, not screwed thru the plastic. The sides are held in with the rubber weather stripping. The weather stripping is tight enough to hold it in. I used Camie 397 headliner, trim and laminating adhesive. Got it from a wholesale material store in Pittsburgh. He said it was what most of his auto interior shop customers buy.

Cool. Thanks, Frank.

I added some more photos of the 53's interior. Seat, carpet, and gauge pod installed.

http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t160/sworden73/

The seat looks great, Frank!

You have the same hand brake I have.

I'm making boots out of elk for the hand brake, shifter and brake pedal ... but I'm gonna have the boot wrap around the outside of the trim ring insrtead of inside the ring.

PS - the wood on your door is beautiful! What kind of wood is that ... and what will you be doing on the top portion of the doors?

The wood is cherry. I milled it in my wood shop. The top of the doors have a piece of wood wrapped in whisper vinyl with flames embroidered by my wife. The flames will be very low key like the roof. She uses a thin piece of foam under the vinyl to give depth to the flames. She made a copy of it yesterday with black thread, will try another today with maroon thread. Nice to have a talented wife. Alan, looking forward to seeing more of your leather work. Frank

Thanks, Frank.

I just started practicing with my new industrial sewing machine today ... I got a Tacsew -- See Here

Wow. This machine is really something ... I can sew through eigth-inch plywood like butter!

Alan, My wife has a Barudan embroidery machine. It is a professional embroidery machine that she bought in North Carolina about five years ago. She has done some embroidery on leather. Mostly she does hats ,shirts jackets, and blankets. She has a dgitizing program on her computer with the machine. She can take a photo and digitize it to print out on her machine, and then embroider it on the item. She also is a very good artist. She has drawn some of her own designs to embroider. She does alot of stuff for me and my son. Good woman, and she likes the car hobby.

That's cool, Frank. I was just watching theis sewing show last night where they had this huge "Millenium" quilting machine ... it was awesome!

I had an uncle who use to do embroidery as a business ... he died when I was like 17 years old -- if I had only known! I could've inherited some serious machines!