Interior [John]

The plan

Repairing the rust around the windshield required removing the already damaged headliner. The seats, covered with original vinyl, were barely serviceable but would have looked tacky with the new paint and headliner. Three of the four door panels were blown, with the backing board so soggy it couldn't hold a clip, there was no front carpet and the rear floor covering was trashed. Pretty much a complete interior was needed.

A couple of local shops estimated $5,000 to $7000 to redo the interior, and it you take the estimated hours times their standard rates, that's probably reasonable. One place turned it down -- too hard. To be clear, it was a big job:

• remove headliner
• repair rusted out tack strips or devise a new system
• install the new headliner
• recover the visors and reinstall in the newly installed roof beam above the windshield
• install new wind lace around all the doors. 
• fabricate all four door panels and reupholster
• remove all the wood in the cargo area to get at the ripped rear fender covers
• make and install new ones
• reinstall the wood. 
• fabricate, upholster, and install kick panels. 
• remove old flooring from rear seat area, repair any rust holes and apply sound deadener
• cut and install pad and carpet. Bind the edges. 
• solve door missing front door sill protector plates. 

Armando, our body guy, recommended "a lady in Tijuana" who he thought could do the whole thing for $1000, but he recommended we buy all the materials north of the border. Sounded good, except that taking the car across the border to a shop we've never been to, leaving it there for a week or two, solving the language barrier, do we need Mexican auto insurance? -- all sort of intimidating. And we didn't have a real quote from the Mexico shop. We did order and obtain the materials -- replacement tack strips from South Dakota, ready-to-install headliner and wind lace from a web source, two colors of upholstery fabric from a local shop, new draft seals from oldmoparts.com, padding and carpet from another local supplier.

As we deliberated, Ramon, one of the workers at Tony's radiator shop, recommended a guy he knew from high school, also named Ramon (but answering to Raymond). Raymond has years of experience in automotive trim, but he is now semi-retired and might come to your garage or driveway to work. We called him and agreed on a price that was about half the local estimates and double the rumored proxy estimate for south of the border.

The results

Work progressed at a good pace. Weekends we helped out with non-technical tasks like removing the wood, drilling and hogging out new holes for the visors, patching a couple of rust holes in the floor.

The front edge of one fender well had a 3" hole in it,

Veneer on the cargo area floor had been wet, and some of the grain was raised and stained. After removing the wood from the car, we glued some edges down, sanded, and refinished with polyurethane. Not perfect, but it will serve, and the new finish is much more weatherproof that the original.

Raymond got the new headliner in, straight and wrinkle-free. Wind lace is installed, and window garnish moldings cleaned and reinstalled with new stainless screws. The original screws were plated with some kind of brown finish, but the stainless will be fine for this restoration. Phil and I installed the visor supports and they look about right. New door panel boards with new upholstery and new clips are all in. Pad is glued down with removable sections for access to the brake master cylinder and transmission fill and service. Dark brown carpet looks good, receding visually from the dash, seats, and door panels.

Raymond advised adding insulation behind the interior panels to keep the car cooler in southern California heat,

Carpet pad in progress. Clearance under the front edge of the front seat is limited -- no room for pad over that part of the tunnel. Note new door panels with dark fabric on arm rests. Earlier we had the arm rests rebuilt and they were covered with the beige fabric.

Front carpet ready for glueing. The right edge of the heel pad raises for access to the brake reservoir. New kick panels in place.

New off-white headliner installed

Driver's seat

Newly upholstered rear seat, grab handles, carpet. We are reusing the rear door sill plates for now.  When we solve the missing front sill plates, it might be worthwhile to make the rear ones match,

Right rear. We added the upholstery to the metal plate that supports the rear seat pivot. 

And a front passenger view.

Overall effect is very nice. We found the correct replacement (used) dome light with lens and installed it, and got some used but nearly perfect wiper arms and blades on eBay.