Seats Are Done! almost...

I "finished" up the seats on Thursday this week, but haven't had time to get some pictures of them, so I made a point of getting some tonight. The upholstery is on, but I need to do a little tweaking to them just yet and then hit them with a heat gun to shrink up the vinyl and work out a few wrinkles.

Overall I am very pleased with them and I think they will look awesome in the wagon! This certainly wasn't the quickest part of the restoration, but in the end, I think the hard work that went into these makes the difference.

Can't wait to get them in the car with the console. I haven't photographed that yet (the black one I showed earlier is from a '68 and I found a "correct" Mercury '67 one) because it looks like I may not add the power locks in lieu of power windows! I have them lined up and hopefully will see them in the next week or so as I need to get the wiring run before I install the seats so I don't tear the seats up working under the dash.

Hard to believe these are the same buckets! Anyhow, here they are!

Seats Are Almost Done...

Only thing left to cover is one bucket seat upper and then I can begin reassembly of the seats. I'm very excited to see all of this in the wagon. Going to make a huge difference in how it looks.

Once the seats are wrapped up and the trim is back on them, I will post a picture of the full setup.

Started to Cover the Seats!

I got started on covering the seats with 4 out of the 10 pieces I need to do having been completed. Lots of work left to do, but so far I am pretty pleased with the final product not that I have it.

More pictures to follow as they are completed!

Seat Covers Are Here!

I was beginning to think this day would never come, but the seat covers arrived this afternoon. After a quick inspection they look good.  Some errant black marks in places that look like they will clean off easily enough, but good.

Now starts the process of recovering the seats. Hopefully this will go smoothly without any issues on fit or workmanship. I'll post some pictures soon...

Heads Are Back...

The heads are back from the machine shop and after I wipe them down and give them a quick coat of paint, they will be ready for installation.

I had the combustion surfaces cleaned up, had a valve job done, the springs tested, shimmed and installed, and new valve stem seals added. $247 seemed like a very reasonable price to me.

I can almost hear the starter cranking the engine ...

Delayed again, but ...

Well, the 5th slipped to the 6th, but the covers are now on their way here. Looks like Monday and I will finally be able to get started on covering the seats.

So, I finally had to get around to prepping them for new covers. This means reapplying the burlap with wire supports. I have found rear seats and bench seats can be an excellent source for large, very clean, original pieces to do your seats. A few hog nose rings and they were ready to cut. Using the hog nose ring cutters that I have to trim the steel wires, I followed the perimeter trimming them, then floowed back up with scissors for the burlap.

On to the opposite side and repeat.

And before the foam can go on, I add a perimeter of 2" thick poly roll cut in roughly 3" wide strips. These will help prevent the covers from being torn by the frame and distribute some of the pressure so they will look smoother along that edge.

Good news is, I shouldn't really have to do much of anything with the middle or third row seats. Hopefully more to post on Monday!