Thread: Trunk Upholstery

Since I did the gas strut mod for my trunk lid, I kept noticing more and more how dingy and nasty my trunk was looking. With multiple leaks coming from around the inner and outer tail lights, and the wing, I had to get all of that taken care of, and while this writeup isn't on doing that, it was easier than one would think All it involved was a caulk gun, and window sealant from AutoZone.

With all the water that had leaked into the trunk area, the side and rear panels were stained and nasty, the rear one bad enough that I had to throw it away completely. Add to that there was no floor panel at all, so I was always staring at the spare tire area, and it always made putting stuff in the trunk an adventure. The side panels were stained along the bottom, but that was easily remedied.

Materials Needed:
Black fabric dye (AutoZone)
Flexible plastic sheeting (found it at Lowes in the veneer area for cheep)
Upholstery Tool (AutoZone)
Extra Panel fasteners (in case you break one or some)
Ozite replacement carpet (AutoZone, WalMart, take your pick)
Plasticized cardboard (Have no idea, got it from a friend who was cleaning out his garage)
Utility knife
Scissors
3M Spray Adhesive
tape
available material for mockup


First up is some before shots, the uglyness.





More to come....

First thing's first, I used cardboard to make a simple tracing of the contours of the back side of the trunk, and verified my dimensions with a tape measure. Once I was satisfied that it was going to fit well, I traced the mockup onto the plastic sheeting and cut out the pattern. Once the patters was cut out I lined up the new panel along the rear of the trunk to get a good idea of the attachment points for the upholstery fasteners, which I marked with a marker, and punched holes for. After all that was complete I had this right here:


I kept the fasteners mounted to the new panel so I could cover them with the replacement carpet for a slightly cleaner look. I placed the panel on the sheet of carpet, and cut around it leaving about 1-1.5 inches of material along the border, like so:


Immediately afterwards I sprayed the adhesive onto the the carpet side of the panel and gave it a moment to cure up. Once it was set I went completely around the border of the panel making small cuts in the carpet to allow it to fold over the edges properly, and not leave a white edge when completed.

The next step was to begin gluing down the border, and as you can see the small cuts made everything fit nice and smooth, leaving the front side without a single wrinkle.

With that complete I moved on to the side panels, which were much much easier. They are held in by a couple of upholstery fasteners, some glue, and metal clips around the back seat area. Once removed I went to a well ventilated area and used the fabric dye to make them black.

Part way through the process for comparison:


I suggest that you hit the panels from many angles and with multiple coats to ensure that everything comes out a good even color.

Now for the biggest pain, the actual floor of the trunk. I had some high density Styrofoam in my garage that I cut down to size and used as a new floor for the trunk, sorry no photos of that part. The next step was to make a mockup of the trunk floor to transfer to my carpet backing material.

Which turned out like this, don't mind the gap in the middle, I left it open knowing that the whole floor would have to be covered.


The steps for the trunk are the same as before with the back panel, so no need to rehash it. It was simply a pain due to the size.

Once the dye dries, and all the glue has cured, it is time for reassembly.

Here are some photos of the almost finished project. (the panel on the rear of the back seat is next)

looks good

look damn good. i need to do something cause my tunk is completly bare. i just made a flase floor for it at least.

ill be doing this asap thank u for the write up sir

That came out nice.

Stratton.

looks great now I have to do mine lol