Hackster's LSA / T56 2 door

[hackster]

Originally Posted by nolift911

Looks really good! - What kind of wheels are you going with? As for a dash I have been on the hunt as well for the last year and no luck thus far, even reaching out to folks/sources in Europe. Just Dashes will do it (although) backed up for 3 months but for $$ - quoted me $1400. They essentially re-mold a new dash based on your old one with new materials(sun/crack) resistant. Since they have to do the vacuum forming I thought it might make sense to get a bunch of people in on it and see if they would give a bulk discount.

Thank you, wheels will be some 3 piece. Really a big fan of CCW Classics, will come down to lead time on the wheels to be honest. I want to have the car done for Davis and LS Fest West. I am torn on the dash situation to be honest. Part of me wants to just have it wrapped in leather with a double french stitch.

Originally Posted by NONHOG

I am sure you already thought of this, but matching your seats would be cool. (dashboard)
https://forums.tbforums.com/showpost...&postcount=357

I am not a huge fan of the flocked look, I am going for classy and period correct on the interior.

Been emailing back and forth with the CCW guy this afternoon. I couldnt sleep last night so got up at 4:30 and got all the wheel measurements done =)

Hope to get the other wheel well buttoned up this evening and start on the seam sealer. Then Carpet and can get the rear upholstery work going.

Sean

[volvoboy67]

I say go for the wrapped and French stitched dash. If you’ve got a really good trimmer nearby, it makes for a very classy and upper shelf finished look. Not out of place for European cars of the era, ala Porsche and Mercedes Benz. I think it would work very nicely with what you’ve done with the seats and the color matched roll bar and bracing. If you hunt for a crack free dash, it will just become a cracked dash someday, since the car will be outdoors for more than ten minutes. 😉 The car is coming along very nicely. I’m excited to see what you come op with on wheels. Any thoughts on finishes/ colors on the hoops and centers?

[2fast242gt]

See you at lsfest! I plan on driving down also!

[Stiggy Pop]

Originally Posted by volvoboy67

I say go for the wrapped and French stitched dash. If you’ve got a really good trimmer nearby, it makes for a very classy and upper shelf finished look. Not out of place for European cars of the era, ala Porsche and Mercedes Benz. I think it would work very nicely with what you’ve done with the seats and the color matched roll bar and bracing. If you hunt for a crack free dash, it will just become a cracked dash someday, since the car will be outdoors for more than ten minutes. 😉 The car is coming along very nicely. I’m excited to see what you come op with on wheels. Any thoughts on finishes/ colors on the hoops and centers?

The '92 dash I put in my 242 was perfect, few years on now and it grew a small crack during storage one winter. It does feel like a losing battle.

[hackster]

Originally Posted by volvoboy67

I say go for the wrapped and French stitched dash. If you’ve got a really good trimmer nearby, it makes for a very classy and upper shelf finished look. Not out of place for European cars of the era, ala Porsche and Mercedes Benz. I think it would work very nicely with what you’ve done with the seats and the color matched roll bar and bracing. If you hunt for a crack free dash, it will just become a cracked dash someday, since the car will be outdoors for more than ten minutes. 😉 The car is coming along very nicely. I’m excited to see what you come op with on wheels. Any thoughts on finishes/ colors on the hoops and centers?

Problem is not making it look bulky and poorly fitting. Still thinking on this one to be honest, I have a mostly crack free dash available locally that I think I am going to install for the time being. I think I am going to go with a black dash getting to be a lot of Brown.

Wheels will be Dark Matte Brown centers and black hoops. Working on either CCW's or some Fifteen52's. Order will be placed by end of day tomorrow.

Originally Posted by 2fast242gt

See you at lsfest! I plan on driving down also!

Bad ass dude, would be awesome to have a couple old Volvos there, Where are you staying?

Originally Posted by Stiggy Pop

The '92 dash I put in my 242 was perfect, few years on now and it grew a small crack during storage one winter. It does feel like a losing battle.

Yep, this is what I keep hearing from people.

Managed to make some pretty good progress last week before heading out to Florida for a quick meeting....

I wanted a finished look all in and around the rear fenders, so I built some 1.25" tubing to take place of the 2x4's for a little extra support and welded those in. Also seam sealed all of the joints inside and out, was very impressed with the SEM seam sealer in tan too =).

Inner fenders got seam sealed, primed, painted and then undercoated.









Just some close rattle can but it all got nice etching primer and most of it will be covered up still trying to pay attention to details for whoever is the next guy to work back there. To the untrained eye you would have no idea that its as modified as it actually is.

Got the exhaust hung after having a buddy weld it all out for me......its the second thing on the car that I have not done myself, he is however a far more experienced welder and it turned out amazing. Only hang up installing was the rear hanger moved and I didnt open the hole for the wideband sensor enough to fit so it had to come back out, get a couple things dialed in and then final install.

Pretty sure its going to hit on the axle tube but I can deal with that a little later.









Got to work on the carpet for the car. I dont love the color, but I love the contrast it has with the seats and the dark brown so Ill run it for now and see if I grow more in love with it as time goes on. What a pain in the ass to install too.



Worked on salvaging the rear deck and some old seatbelt covers I snagged from the twins. Doesnt look terrible.



I finally got around to trying this out and it worked better than imagined. Think it will give me a nice finished look for the rear seat area. Plan is for the seats to get carved up more bucket like and have the same material and pattern as the front seats have on them, just no logos.



Wheels are going to be my stumbling block though, CCW's are 10 weeks out plus shipping. Chatting with Fifteen52 to see if they can get me some quicker, I like both.

I also think I can come up with some work wheels in a reasonable timeframe.

Going to try and get a bunch of little stuff knocked out this week, its almost ready for a test drive and some tuning.

Sean

[Stiggy Pop]

Originally Posted by hackster

Plan is for the seats to get carved up more bucket like and have the same material and pattern as the front seats have on them, just no logos.

very interested to see this. I am having the center section of my recaro's done and have the back seat in my basement. Originally I wanted to swap in a different rear seat but then thought maybe I could 'fake it out' with the stock seat. Carving it up a bit is what I was thinking as well (now I kinda wish I beat you to it )

[t8fanning]

I'm surprised you don't already have a billet dash from the twins at the upholstery shop yet.

[Duder]

Originally Posted by Stiggy Pop

The '92 dash I put in my 242 was perfect, few years on now and it grew a small crack during storage one winter. It does feel like a losing battle.

I can relate; had a similar experience. I bought a perfect brown '87 dash from Dave Barton and installed it in my 242. Always used a reflective sun shade and tried to park the car out of the direct sun as much as possible. The dash still cracked down by the VIN plate and one of the defroster vents after a few months. They are minor cracks but it was sad for sure.

[Harlard]

Ah yes the age old battle against entropy. The answer is always an early dash.

[nolift911]

Going through the same on my 92 - I would wrap it - seems to apply in a lot of situations But seriously even wrapping in the pebble grain vinyl again, materials today are much more resistant to sun/crack and fade then decades ago. I got a price for $300 to wrap mine in pebble grain vinyl.

[white855T]

Originally Posted by nolift911

Going through the same on my 92 - I would wrap it - seems to apply in a lot of situations But seriously even wrapping in the pebble grain vinyl again, materials today are much more resistant to sun/crack and fade then decades ago. I got a price for $300 to wrap mine in pebble grain vinyl.

That's not bad at all. Have you seen an example of work? The dashboard can be repaired as well. Check out this video. I can't shorten link since I'm on mobile. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...kI5GQ8KxLiklkG

[hackster]

Originally Posted by nolift911

Going through the same on my 92 - I would wrap it - seems to apply in a lot of situations But seriously even wrapping in the pebble grain vinyl again, materials today are much more resistant to sun/crack and fade then decades ago. I got a price for $300 to wrap mine in pebble grain vinyl.

That seems like a smoking deal. Were they going to stitch it or one piece?

If I could find someone that could wrap it and have it look great for even $500 I would be all in.

Sean

[hackster]

Huge shout out to Scott and Taylor for letting me raid their parts bin to get this thing put together. They had a once crack free dash that developed a small crack down to the defrost vent. I am sure it will get worse but it was a start.

I picked it up Friday night and got to work on Saturday, disassembling the dash vents, vin, speaker grille.

I have used this process in the past with excellent results. Wash first with purple power, scrub with a red scotch brite pad and purple power, dry part and heat it up, heat up the can and spray several very light coats. It keeps the part from getting glossy and keeps the texture in the plastic part.



And here is where I started on Saturday morning.



Once I got the dash in I got to work on getting that bad ass cluster all built and put together. For those that have not seen it, this thing is seriously a work of art.



Getting there, First look of the dash bolted in.



By the end of the day I had a fully installed dash and console. There is a lot of little detail work to make highly modified look simple and tasteful.

This is the inside of the glovebox,

Pic is hard to tell but the OBDII port is mounted on the exterior of the box and just pokes through, the connector is for OBDII can bus interface for the race pak setup. The white wire is for data logging the AFR's. Behind that is a flush mounted USB port for programming the Race Pak dash configuration.

MIL Light is flush mounted in the top corner of the glovebox opening.



All assembled and functioning.









I also spent a bunch of time fighting with the stupid TCM controller. Long story short, the e38 ecu and OS I am running doesnt like having the VSS input straight into it, so we are having to run a TCM controller, send the VSS into the TCM controller and from there over can bus into the ECU but when I hook it up it corrupts the Can Bus so working with Jolt to see if he has a different solution.

If all goes well this thing should be ready for some tuning in the next few weeks.

Sean

[slow240]

My God that looks just too good

[122power]

Is this the new car for the front page?

[My 75 survivor]

You do fantastic work , but You lost Me at TCM,e38,OS,VSS,Can Bus, and Jolt

[nolift911]

Originally Posted by hackster

That seems like a smoking deal. Were they going to stitch it or one piece?

If I could find someone that could wrap it and have it look great for even $500 I would be all in.

Sean

It was a wrap - no stitch. There may be a little friend discount tossed in there - yours looks great!

[hackster]

Originally Posted by slow240

My God that looks just too good

Thank you!!

Originally Posted by 122power

Is this the new car for the front page?

Appreciate the high praise man, lets see how it turns out in the end =)

Originally Posted by My 75 survivor

You do fantastic work , but You lost Me at TCM,e38,OS,VSS,Can Bus, and Jolt

Thanks, I can get in the weeds a little bit, but its how I keep learning.

Originally Posted by nolift911

It was a wrap - no stitch. There may be a little friend discount tossed in there - yours looks great!

That is a smoking deal, maybe take you up on it on the next one or when this one develops more cracks.

Kind of a **** show of a week, sometimes you win sometimes you loose. Bought a new steering wheel and the dish that I thought would work great is just not enough and the wheel is too close to the turn signal and windshield wiper lever.

Managed to work on the can bus issue and pretty sure I made it worse.

I did manage to get the rear seat and door cards picked up from the upholstery guy. Have a little spot on the top of the seat back that needs redone but can do that down the road. Other than that turned out great. Pretty much what I had in my little pee brain.

Pretty sure nobody needs this many pics of a volvo rear seat but I am excited about how its turning out.

Not sure about the black handle yet, but all brown seemed to be a little bit too much.



Isnt this how you are supposed to put a seat in?







And the whole thing together.

[Vol242vo]

Absolutely stunning, no other words. I’d say you certainly achieved what you set out for as far as the back seat goes. Looks phenomenal!

[Stiggy Pop]

Any pics of the rear seat foam before it was covered?

[soclosenotnear]

Originally Posted by Vol242vo

Absolutely stunning, no other words. I’d say you certainly achieved what you set out for as far as the back seat goes. Looks phenomenal!

Seconded

[M.H. Yount]

How are the rear seat-back "inserts" held in place?

[NONHOG]

Black arm rest look good to me.
Has OEM vibe.

[white855T]

I think if you did black accents on the seats(the horizontal parts), it would look really sick and custom. You would probably have to swap the armrest on doors to match.

[towerymt]

If I take my shoes off first, may I climb into the back and sit on the rear seat? Someone has to try it out. I don't want a ride, just a sit.