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Ferrarinut
USA
1489 Posts |
 Posted - 02/06/2015 : 08:30:47
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And now for the interior. As I mentioned, I was extremely lucky to meet one of the best upholsterers in the country, Stu Tifft. Stu has been doing upholstery work for over 30 years and most recently was working for Bruce Canepa of Canepa Design. Google Bruce or Canepa Design, very well known in the collector market and racing. Stu's "typical" subjects are multi-million dollar cars and many of his interiors have been done for Pebble Beach Concours cars. He did the interior on the first Duesenberg, many Mercedes 300SL Gullwings and roadsters, countless high dollar Ferraris and many Porsches including 917Ks, 908s, 910s, 911RSs, 911RSRs and on and on. I am certain my little T coupe was the least valuable car he worked on. Stu told me the next project after mine left his shop was the Porsche 917K #21 Le Mans winner currently being restored. I met Stu through Mark Smedley. Stu resigned from Canepa Design and decided to move from Scotts Valley, CA to Loomis, CA and wound up buying a very nice property just behind Mark Smedley's home, you can literally walk to his place from Mark's, what are the odds? Mark is currently restoring a 1967 Porsche 911S race car and had an appointment with Stu for late last year. He still needed to do some work on the 911S before taking it over to Stu's so he offered his appointment to me. I jumped at the chance. Initially the plan was to just do the sport seats with new matching vinyl but with plaid or houndstooth pattern centers as was done on many early 911s. When Stu began taking the seats apart, it became apparent they would need complete rebuilds. Stu completely disassembled the seats down to the frames and began the work while awaiting samples from Germany to match the brown vinyl. You can see the seat bottoms below, the elastic webbing was barely holding on. Stu made new webbing and attached with new clips.
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Ferrarinut
USA
1489 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2015 : 08:34:18
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The side bolster frames had to be reinforced.
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Ferrarinut
USA
1489 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2015 : 08:36:33
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The new foam would be hand sculpted, a very tedious and messy job!
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Ferrarinut
USA
1489 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2015 : 09:41:10
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Samples arrived from Germany and Stu chose the best match which turned out to be leather, not vinyl. Mark Smedley recommended the leather, despite the original material being vinyl, he said this upgrade would be an acceptable and more desirable way to go. The wool plaid center material was sourced from Sierra Madre Collection. You can see the materials on Stu's big work table.
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Ferrarinut
USA
1489 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2015 : 09:41:52
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Starting to take shape.
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Ferrarinut
USA
1489 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2015 : 11:05:43
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Ferrarinut
USA
1489 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2015 : 11:06:17
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Finished sport seat shown without headrest. The number of hours and skilled required to achieve this level of finish cannot be captured by just a few photos. Stu is an artist whose work must be seen in person to fully appreciate. I decided to have Stu do the headrest and rear seats as well.
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Ferrarinut
USA
1489 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2015 : 11:24:54
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While the seats were out, it made sense to replace the dirty and badly faded carpet. When Stu pulled out the rear jump seats, he was able to pull some of the carpet out from a protected area that retained the original mocha brown shade. He was then able to order a perfect, original match with correct German material from Autobahn Interiors. Stu would then cut new backing material and finish the edges with the same brown leather used on the seats. The final result was stunning.
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Ferrarinut
USA
1489 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2015 : 11:37:42
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One small but significant detail to correct was the original, factory decal in the right rear quarter window. The original was badly chipped and dried up. Fortunately Sierra Madre Collection had new ones.
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Ferrarinut
USA
1489 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2015 : 11:46:17
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Another recommendation that Mark had was to change the original steering to the smaller 380mm 911RS wheel. You can see the difference below. The RS wheel is also thicker and does not feel like you are driving a bus.
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daniel
Germany
30 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2015 : 15:14:09
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What a beautifull car and nice restauration..but please don't do too many "changes" . I really can't stand the super new front seats, they just don't fit the rest of the car and especially not the rear sets. Simple brown like the original would be a better way.
Another small thing are the rear horns/bumpers...how about chrome ones with rubbers on top, should also be a little more authentic I guess...anyway great car and nice projec, will follow with interest. |
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Ferrarinut
USA
1489 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2015 : 16:06:44
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| It's ok Daniel, not everyone will like it. That is what makes the World go around. The real Porsche collectors in my area are crazy about this car and the interior. The houndstooth was an option in 1973, you will see it often in the 911S models. |
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Ferrarinut
USA
1489 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2015 : 16:25:26
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| I should mention, all original parts are kept and can be reversed if desired by the next owner. I also have plenty of leather remaining, a full hide if someone wanted to do the door panels and recover the sport seat centers in leather. When I sell, it will have a list of "options" like a new car. I will share photos of the restored, correct 6" Fuchs soon. I also changed tires to the correct vintage Michelin XWXs which are VERY expensive now. Coker Tire purchased exclusive rights to the XWXs. |
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914joe
USA
206 Posts |
Posted - 02/07/2015 : 05:42:26
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Love everything about this car... Your doing great taking care of that baby. I think the seat inserts are perfect too. If you ever need a kidney or extra finger let me know and we can trade:)
think small |
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Anthrax
USA
111 Posts |
Posted - 02/07/2015 : 06:55:05
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I don't know Joe, You being in the tree business and all that might need that finger in case the chain saw gets away from you.
:-) Just saying
Mikey
NB to Mike McM. That is one schweet Porsche!
quote:
Originally posted by 914joe
Love everything about this car... Your doing great taking care of that baby. I think the seat inserts are perfect too. If you ever need a kidney or extra finger let me know and we can trade:)
think small
Mike Schmidt
Millington, NJ |
Edited by - Anthrax on 02/07/2015 06:56:59 |
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MiniWerks Porsche 911T 1973.5
