Improved Seating
While most of our makeover tips are exterior in nature, a few interior pieces are significant enough to go beyond cockpit nuance. The proper seats are such an item, and we chose the Procar Rally Series 1000 seats for our Laguna project for three reasons: they had the right look, they were the right price, and they are well built for our purposes. To do a period-correct muscle car, we just don't favor a high-back import-style seat, but we do want head and side-bolster support. The Procar seat isn't excessively tall, and has a nice adjustable headrest in the style of a '60s or '70s muscle car. The lateral support on the seat back and seat bottom are also very effective, while maintaining a period-correct stitching and vinyl style. Pricewise, we paid only $736.90 for a matching pair in black vinyl, including the seat brackets for a '75 Laguna. Most people think these are OEM equipment, but in reality, they're way more supportive, and look the part up close, and from a distance.
Source:
Procar By Scat
310-370-5501
www.procarbyscat.com
Our NASCAR theme stopped at...
Our NASCAR theme stopped at the interior, but the interior still plays a role in aggressive driving. We fortified our Laguna's cockpit with Scat's Procar Rally 1000 chairs. These are more supportive than the originals, and are close enough in style to blend in with a mostly stock interior. We're going to show you the complete interior restoration on Project Talladega in the next few months, so stay tuned for the rest of the details.
The Laguna's interior originally...
The Laguna's interior originally looked like this. The factory swivel bucket seats were long gone when we bought our '75 'Guna, and we might have tried to keep those, but it came with these junkyard Datsun 260Z seats instead. The swivel mechanisms were gone, so our choice was clear: go with something modern, comfortable, supportive, and affordable.
The answer to our prayers...
The answer to our prayers was a pair of Procar Rally 1000 seats, with their corresponding mounting brackets. For less than you can get a single import chair from an Italian company, you can get a period-correct setup from Procar. We spent less than $750 for everything we needed.
The Procar mounting brackets...
The Procar mounting brackets are supposedly designed for a '73-77 GM A-body, but we had to "nuance" the bracket into the correct shape to fit. Compared to other things we've had to do, this presented little difficulty, and we'd easily do it again.
Console Rehab
Some interior components make an important visual statement about your car, and your center console is one of them. At the very minimum, having a crappy looking console can really detract from an otherwise nice car. From a budget perspective, rehabbing a console is so inexpensive that anybody can afford to do it. Our options on the Laguna were limited: you can't get a reproduction one, and NOS items are outrageously expensive, if you can even find them. We could build something custom, like we did with our '68 Chevelle, but this time we opted to do a quick and easy home restoration. All you need is some mild dish detergent, a Scotch-Brite pad, and a can of Dupli-Color HVP106 flat black Vinyl & Fabric Coating.
PHR contributor, Keith "Yeti"...
PHR contributor, Keith "Yeti" Kanak tries out the Laguna's interior after we finished installing the rehabbed stock console, a new carpet from Original Parts Group, and one of our Procar Rally 1000 seats. Hint: The console lid hinges on '73-77 GM A-bodies are plastic membranes, and they rip easily. Ours was ripped too, so we bought a pair of Ace Hardware cabinet hinges, screwed them to the lid and box, and spray bombed them black for an easy fix.
Our stock console looked so...
Our stock console looked so worn out, we thought it was a lost cause, be we gave it a shot anyway. Taking the interior out of a 33-year-old car is like opening a time capsule. We found all kinds of junk that took us down memory lane. We just had to save a gas receipt for 59 cents a gallon!
After disassembly, we scrubbed...
After disassembly, we scrubbed the various console parts with soapy water (using mild dish detergent) and a Scotch-Brite pad. This simple action had a remarkable effect on the appearance, so we also worked the same magic on some other interior parts.
The final touch was a few...
The final touch was a few coats of Dupli-Color Vinyl & Fabric Coating. This stuff is amazing. If it weren't for the split lid hinge, it would've been like new. We also tagged the bottom door panels.
| WHERE THE MONEY WENT |
| Summit Part Number: | Description: | Summit price: |
| SCA-80-1000-51L | Driver-side seat | $301.50 |
| SCA-80-1000-51R | Passenger seat | $301.50 |
| SCA-81140 | Driver-side seat bracket | $ 66.95 |
| SCA-81141 | Passenger-side seat bracket | $ 66.95 |
| Total: | $736.90 |
Quick Trick: Aluminum Graining
Custom-fabricated aluminum pieces can be built in a variety of ways, but how you choose to finish them off can make or break the look. Aluminum doesn't rust, but it does oxidize white. Some more expensive options include anodizing, painting, or powdercoating, but the least expensive (yet one of the nicest) options is graining. This amounts to using an abrasive pad like Scotch-Brite in a uniform direction. The finish will be a soft satin grained look, and will last a few months before oxidizing white again. The trick is to grain your aluminum with a light spritz of WD40. This will shield the aluminum from oxidizing, and give your work a deeper, shinier grain that lasts a long time.
Quick Trick: Powdercoating
If you're looking for a finish that's more durable than paint, such as exterior trim items that are exposed to high-speed debris, or underhood items that see excessive temperature, powdercoating may be a better option than painting or spray bombing. Many of the trim pieces on Project Talladega were powdercoated instead of painted. Most of our window trim, headlight bezels, grille pieces, and marker light surrounds were powdercoated by Extreme Powder Coating in Mesa, AZ (480-832-9034). They matched our satin black paint so closely that it's impossible to tell the difference between powdercoat and paint. The same goes for our Bassett steel wheels, which were powdercoated to a perfect match with our vinyl graphics.