Hello everyone,
Posted a similar question in the "Body" section.
I'm setting up for rubber/plastic reproduction. What interior parts do you want all reproduced?
I'll go out on a limb and say just about everyone needs hood release handles, but what about gauge clusters? Ash trays? Dome lights?
The dome light was used in Ford products too, so I don't know if there is much market for dome light parts.
Hood release handles and speaker grilles would be great.
Speaker grills would be good. The little plastic covers that clip on the upper seatbelt mounts always seem to go missing, those might be kind of cool.
On the hood release handles, you would have to come up with a better design than the originals. Folks including myself have adapted hood release handles from early 90s Hondas for use in the Eagles, they have proven to work pretty good.
Thanks!
Speaker grilles! Excellent suggestion. Don't know why I didn't think of that. They're all so brittle.
Good to know about the Honda handles, might have to take a look at those to get some ideas. Also good call on the seat belt mount covers, I'm missing one myself.
Here is the link to the Honda hood release handle:
https://a.co/d/gi3j8xq
That handle looks pretty good, and it's aluminum! Not sure I can compete with that.
Sounds like you'll have plenty of other things to keep you busy! Looking forward to seeing all the things you reproduce, I ordered one of you ball joint kits today!
Sun visor mounts would be good as well. Also dashboards.
Lots of good ideas. :occasion14:
Sun visor mounts are pretty doable. The full dashboard would be tricky...but could be possible using a skinned foam. Definitely some of the smaller plastic pieces of the dash.
The additional floor mounted gauge clusters are something I'll look at as well. I know those are always in demand.
Vangremlin your kit ships tomorrow! Thanks for the support.
Great suggestions everyone.
hi, speaker grilles are already reproduced. check out www.johnsonproductionjp.com. I got a couple sets. Very nice. thanks gz
Quote from: amcfool1 on October 02, 2024, 11:32:26 PM
hi, speaker grilles are already reproduced. check out www.johnsonproductionjp.com. I got a couple sets. Very nice. thanks gz
Are those the same for the front doors and rear cargo area of an Eagle wagon? I knew those were the same, but I thought that they weren't useable in one of the places on an Eagle. I'd check my car, but it's 1700 miles away.
Front door speaker grilles are different than the rear ones. Looks like Johnson Production has the front ones (and I agree, they look quite nice) but they don't have the rear ones.
The plastic sleeves for the driver and passenger seatbelts. They are two-piece articulated pieces that hold the buckle so it doesn't slip away behind the seat. With age they like to crumble into chunks.
Armrests are another item that should probably be reproduced as well, because the plastic in the back of them brakes over time and they can end up coming off in your hand when you close your door. The smaller dash pieces like the part that goes under the steering column and the one that the radio and HVAC controls come through would definitely be nice as both of those pieces are missing parts on mine.
hi, johnsonproductionjp.com has a couple of neat armrest repair panels, check em out, both front and back, good luck, gz
Right. Sound like dash pieces of all kinds would be wanted! Good to know.
Making things in black or white will be easiest. Color matching is going to take much longer to develop. For the time being I'm going to focus on getting as many parts available in black as soon as possible and wait for feedback on if specific colors are desired. Once the molds are made for a specific part they can be produced in any color.
Padded/foam materials, such as armrests, headrests, and dashboards, are a possibility for the future, however the process to develop and produce high quality "skinned" foams for that purpose is an intensive and expensive one. It's something I can look at in the future.
I fully support people having to dye the pieces themselves. I think the radio surround dash piece would be good as well. I think the biggest thing is going to be cost for most people.
All of the dash pieces were black to begin with and then painted to match. As for the rest of the interior pieces they were definitely whatever color the interior of the car was.
There's a bunch of strange idiosyncrasies and unreliable information when it comes to the plastic parts used. For instance you'll often see articles claiming the fender flares are made of "color-matched plastic" to "reduce production cost", but they're not. The plastic is black and they're painted to match (at least on the Canadian-made cars). Same with the bumper corners, the base material is black and they have a flexible colored paint on them.
As for the dash, certain colors seem to be painted and others seem to be colored plastic. It's extremely confusing. My 85 wagon has a red interior and many of the dash pieces seems to be actual red plastic. However I pulled the same parts out of an 83 wagon with a blue interior and many of the same parts were black, but painted blue. Did they change when production moved to Canada? Was blue plastic harder to make? Or did those parts get swapped at some point? Considering how hodge-podge it all is I hope people will be a little forgiving of a few black parts here and there.
My 86 has a red interior and it seems like everything was red originally. The bumper ends were definitely black and then painted, but I'm
Pretty sure the flares were white and then they were painted. At least mine were.
You're right it's very confusing. I'm in the process of replacing my dash with a different one out of an 85, because mine crumbled like a dry cracker when I went to do my heater core several years ago. I have the maroon interior, parts of the dash are maroon and some of it is black parts that have been painted maroon, whereas the rest of the plastic trim is all maroon through and through. But the new dash I got is beige painted onto a black dash and the car it came from had the beige interior, so I think they picked and chose what was painted and what was dyed depending on the color.
89 MJ, You know, I don't doubt that your flares are white underneath! I thought they were all black, but I'm not sure of anything anymore!
Maddog, I think you're right on the money. The picked what they colored and how and us mere mortals will probably never know why. Honestly it's part of the reason I love these cars, they all seem almost homemade...like no two are alike.
It is really weird that most plastic things were black, like the dashboards and plastic valve covers, but the flares were white. Especially since it seems like the valve covers and flares are the same material.
I think, but I'm not sure, that the valve cover is some type of thermosetting plastic (i.e. you can't melt and reform it) like bakelite, epoxy, or polyurethane; whereas I'm pretty sure the fender flares are Kraton, which is a thermoform plastic.
I could be wrong, but I'm not going to try and melt my valve cover to prove it!
Hahaha, I don't blame you there. I had heard before that the flares were Kraton. I just know the valve covers are not great.
Yes the valve covers are problematic to say the least. There was a half inch of grease on the passenger side of my 258 when I bought it...and the front diff...and the front cross member. I spent hours scraping it all off with a putty knife. Must've been at least two pounds of oily dirt.
Replacement plastic valve covers are something I could also do. They would probably be significantly tougher than the originals. Inlaying a metal flange stiffener and o-ring seal would also be possible for the ultimate improvement. Would anyone buy them though? Probably not when you can pick up a metal one so cheap.
They would be cool to see, but probably wouldn't only end up on purist restorations. If they were $50-$75 or so, you might do alright with them though. But that probably won't pay for making them and your time.