I believe it was @flynbrian48 who posted a thread a couple years ago about an interior for his roadster. One of his suggestions, the burgundy and plaid idea has cost me money this week, and will continue for the rest of this coming month to do so. I've finally gotten my wife to give in and decided to have an actual professional interior put in my beloved '46 truck I've had for 18 years or so. It started with a Vintage Air unit being installed by my local rod shop which was truly bad news for my pocketbook. In addition to the cost of the air, it drove me to want to do a few other upgrades, and when I had to pass through the shop's upholstery area, well, I knew what needed done. I had long ago patched together some fabric from Hobby Lobby and made some crude plaid door panels, but they were definitely not professional. For some reason though they fit the old truck- my daughter felt, as did I, that the plaid tied back to the farm truck look and reminded us of my father who had wore flannel and plaid shirts and overalls frequently. My daughter, when told Rusty truck was getting an interior, requested we find a way to incorporate plaid. So- google and Hamb search, and Brian's thread caught me... and today Rusty truck's new seat went for its first test drive. The shop will be building matching door panels, and headliner within the next couple of weeks, but man, I love the look of Oxblood and the plaid fabric from a '48 Chrysler Highlander package. So thanks for the idea! It suits me- and the old truck. I did discover though that when the seat was rebuilt and refoamed, it was raised about 3 inches. My fat self is gonna have to put a tilt wheel in now too. Can't wait for the rest of the interior to be done. Old truck is getting almost street roddy... but hey, I'm getting older too.
Picked up the old truck from the shop today. I had a tilt column put in so I can be comfortable, as I have expanded in the last twenty years and Rusty has not. They put a headliner in, door panels, new carpet and shift boot, and covered the header panel where the radio is. I had told them the old truck will never be a show truck but I wanted it nice. I am happy. It pretty much checks all my boxes and made the truck a different vehicle to drive, for the better. The cabin is a very nice place to be now. When the Poppy's Patina clear comes in we will get the outside cleaned up a bit, replaced the wheel bearing I heard today, and be good to go for many more miles. Oh, and they found I had an unused button that had at one time been a starter button in the dash. The tech that put the column in is a friend, and he installed an "Aaogha" horn, and paid for it out of his pocket as a gift.. He said, "This truck deserves an Aaaogah horn, and if Bobby (what he knows me by) don't like it he don't have to press the button". I was like a little kid- I hit that button every time I got the chance. Drove the old truck about 70 miles- the air about froze me out (76 outside, ice hanging inside) and greatly reduced wind/road noise/
Well, the new threads hit project creep just as I should have known it would. The simple A/C install led to the interior. The interior looked so good, that the dull patina paint looked shabby so I ordered Poppy's Patina... was gonna spray it, until of course the gun broke and I had to order one. Since it's a wipe-on product, I wiped it on. Not overly impressed, despite following the instructions you can still see some wiping marks. I'll re-spray it soon. Then, it looked so good and I needed tires and one of the wheels was bent...so... one night I stumbled on Summit's website. Before I knew it, I had added wheels and tires in my cart. Of course I left and dithered around for a week before looking again and finally hitting the "buy" button. Today, the newly arrived and painted wheels were joined with the new Kontio Wide Whites, and I ran across a few places to take some pics. I think the old guy is ready to cruise this summer.
The Jalopy Journal
