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I decided to re-upholster my HST interior and make it a little more modern.

One thing that didn’t make sense was the rear hatch. If your HST had the stripes that go over the rear deck, those colors didn’t carry onto the hatch upholstery.

The stripe that runs down the center of the seats carried thru down the middle of the hatch lengthwise.

My plan is to leave the vinyl flat and mimicking the deck theme on the hatch only making it fit that theme.

The seats and side panels will get a tuck-n- roll style stitching that will resemble my Virage design.

Below is an example of a rear hatch with a center stripe that doesn’t look right to me.

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I replaced the foam and drew out the design on the foam. It should look like the Virage interior if I can pull it off.

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Rear hatch is done. Blends in well with the rear deck.

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I’ve been staying busy making patterns, gluing vinyl to 1/2” sew foam, sewing colored strips together to form the stripes and fitting each panel to the frames to make sure they will fit nice and tight.

My local embroidery lady is closed till April. We worked together to get the Hydrostream font just right.

I found a home run embroidery place 30 minutes away and she can do my panels right away.
I’m going to just have “HST” put on the panels.

It takes a lot of pieces to put together a multi striped interior.

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Rear seat bottom cushion and side panels are done.
Lots of pieces needed to make a panel.

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Got all the sewing done and installed.
Everything was looking great until the front buckets.

The foam on the shell goes beyond the fiberglass edge by up to 1-1/2” beyond.

Even with firm foam, it can’t hold the sewn together pleats straight.

I removed the pleaded panel from the arm band and started some tricks to relieve some tension. The panel is sitting in place now without curling up. I’ll sew it back tomorrow and see how it looks.

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I’m thinking it was the bulk at the piping AND that I sewed the piping on the arm band THEN sewed the pleated panel to that which caused the issues.

Here’s the comparison.
Now to tear down the other seat.

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And that’s a wrap!!
8 hours to fix the oops..

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Looks awesome! You make it look easy!

Well, the more I do, the easier it gets.

I was getting ready to mount the front seats and “woah!!!” The ski locker hatch won’t come out!!

The seats are 1” off the floor ( Factory height).
The only way it could have been removed would be to slide forward. The rear seat base is too close to go back and rise to get over the front edge of the cushion.

The problem is that the hatch is 3/4” slats with 3/4” cross bracing. It wouldn’t lift high enough to clear the hatch opening frame ring.

I don’t see how this would have ever worked from the factory unless the seats were mounted higher.

Caprice asked if I could cut the hatch into thirds and put piano hinges at the joints.

It was a sound idea and I broke out the chop saw and sectioned it.
Works like a charm!!!
Lift the rear portion up and slide back, lift again and it slides all the way out!!!

[ Post made via iPhone ]