I don’t normally do this but every now and then someone will drop some spam on this blog and I’ll actually read it. Rarely are these worth while bit I did find this one interesting.
The car brand is called SEAT and EXEO is one of its models.
Seat Exeo
The is actually made in Spain at the SEAT factory. Volkswagen has a hand in the build as well. The base platform for this 5 seater is the Audi. Manufacturing started in 2008.
It comes in 4 and 5 door bodies and is considered “a large family sedan”. It is based on the VW Group B7 platform which is the same platform used for the Audi A4.
Wide range of power plants for this car from the 1.6 liter I4 to the 2.0 liter 16v that has the Turbocharged Fuel Stratified Injection set up.
Finishing up the front seats of Mustang and putting them back in the car. Yes, I know I should have gotten all the new carpet and the heat and sound deadening but I didn’t. They are easy enough to remove so not really a big deal. I did notice while the seats were out just how thin the carpeting actually was, there is nothing between it and the floor pans, I’ve got to get those done…soon…soon.
Here’s some shots of the final production.
Drivers seat
Passenger's Seat. This is the one I just finished.
I bumped in to Bill Holtzclaw from Cartersville, Georgia, virtually (Facebook) and he shared a few pics and some detail on his restoration of a 1967 Olds F-85.
Bill's F85
“I am doing a full, frame-off restoration on this 1967 F-85 Club Coupe. It has a convertible frame, 442 suspension, steel crank 330, .030 over with W-31 cam and 2” intake valves, close ratio Muncie 4 speed and heavy duty 3.91 posi rear. It is a radio delete, heater delete, carpet delete car with the factory cloth and vinyl interior. The drive train is built and the chassis is being assembled. The interior is done, the chrome and bright work is done. Next, we’ll pull the body and put it on a rotisserie. It will be two-tone Crystal and Midnight Blue.”
“I’ve had a lot of interest in this project from some of the leading Oldsmobile collectors in the country. It is my version of what would have been a 1967 W-31, which was introduced in 1968. All of the parts to build this car back in the day were available as either RPO options or over-the-counter upgrades. The W-30 package was available as an over-the-counter package in 1967. The W-30 cam and the W-31 cam are one in the same, and the OIA kit will work for both small block and big block cars. So, it was a possibility! ”
The upholstery turned out awesome! He used NOS fabric for the seat inserts. The car was a factory carpet delete car with a near-perfect vinyl floor covering. “I cleaned it and had it dyed the color blue (same as dash pad) that I wanted. It looks absolutely brand new! I had seat belts custom made to stock appearance, and the standard steering wheel came out nice, too.”
Check out the vinyl floor covering
“I had the gauges restored by R&M restorations in Greenville, SC. The odometer was re-set to zero.” The dash bezel was restored by Chrome Tech USA. They repaired the 44 year-old plastic, re-chromed it and then detail painted it. The radio and heater delete plates were purchased from Red Venom Enterprises. “They only make the radio plate, so I purchased two and trimmed one to fit the heater control panel and the PRNDL panel. ”
Bill did the polishing himself
He installed a Sunpro Mini Tach in place of the factory clock. Looks like it came from the factory that way!
Great Job - Bill!!
Final Product
Bill is also the owner of a 1967 Oldsmobile F-85 Town Sedan with “Police Apprehender” package. It has the HiPo 330/320 hp, Heavy Duty Jetaway and 442 suspension upgrades.
Nice!!!
Might be why he’s known as OldsMoBill. “I am also known as the “Oldsmobile Police”!” Bill states.
Bill, I hope you check back with your status from time to time and thank you for sharing.
When you work with and/or drive classic cars there is a never ending battle between old school and technology. Do I leave the points and condenser in or do I go all electronic? Do I update the suspension with coil-overs or go with stock suspension? Upgrade the interior to cloth or go with the vinyl? Many of us face those battles all the time. But there’s one clash between old and new that we just can’t to anything about and that is when new non-car technology clashes with old cars.
Back in ancient times the man went out to gather or kill something to bring home for dinner. That hasn’t changed much, especially in my household. Every week I strike out into the jungle to visit the local gatherers’ spot and cart home something for dinner. The only killing going on is my checking account balance.
Today was the day for our weekly shopping, so I fired up the ’70 Stang and headed out, ready for the hunt. After I was done scouting for “sales” and had enough provisions to last seven moons, the clerk (oh, they don’t call them that anymore…’associate’ is the correct term) took my hard earned provisions(HEY!!!..its tough shopping at the mega grocery – carts speeding around like herds of prehistoric lizards, tar pits of jelly on the floor, ill tempered rival tribes in the gourmet isle…yeah…it’s tough!!), stuffed them in to about 20 plastic bags and dumped it all into a cart. On the way out of the store a couple of clerks….excuse me…associates…said have a ‘nice day’ and ‘thank you’, as I tried to push the squared wheeled cart to the parking lot and my car.
As I popped open the trunk on the Mustang, I remembered the floor of this cavernous opening is covered with the new vinyl (original material) I installed a few months back and nothing else (I don’t carry a spare for drag strip purposes and it wouldn’t work with the tire size anyway). I looked at the contents of the squared wheeled cart and realized that by the time I got home, my gatherings will be all over the place, even if I didn’t drive like I normally do. If I tied them shut, the bags are still going slide everywhere, including into the quarter panel wells, creating a dripping plastic bag full of wine that just moments ago were grapes.
My next option was putting the bags inside, on the vinyl bench seat in the rear and the on front bucket set. Still the vinyl was going to let everything slide side to side and drop down on the floor.
Then I remembered back to when I shopped with my mother as a kid and the vinyl seats in our old Chevy Biscayne. The saving grace there were the old school paper bags that stood up straight and were packed heavy to stay in place. Their square shape allowed for the use of effective load master techniques that kept them on the seat or upright in the trunk. Then I thought,”I should have gone with the cloth over the vinyl.”
I’ve been preoccupied the last few days I haven’t kept up with my articles. Since this is the Average Guy’s..etc., then you’ll get this next part.
Thing’s happen in life (a.k.a. – Lemons) and you just have to deal with them. The goal is always make the best of the circumstances (a.k.a. – Lemonade).
Earlier this week I lost my job with the company I worked in for the past six years. This is not uncommon in these economic times and there are many average car guys and car gals in the same boat. Many of those people have project cars and these end up being put on the back burner or sadly end up being sold. As car people we all know this happens and hopefully the car goes to good home. Hold on before anyone drags out their savings and offers to purchase my Mustang – I’m not there yet. But it will put my major plans for it on hold for a bit, which is a darn shame, because now I seem to have extra time on my hands to accomplish all those mod, not true a week ago.
So for the better part of the past week I’ve been setting up my job hunting network and getting it in motion. Now it time to wait it out and see what pops up. In the meantime I’ll have more time for writing and doing the little left over projects on the Mustang. I still have the passenger’s seat to re-upholster and the front air dam to put on (I’ve had that in the box for years). I can install the polished aluminum alternator bracket I worked so hard on and have yet to install.
And……. I am project managing the restoration of a 1975 Standard VW beetle – pro bono. Here she is:
1975 VW Standard Bug - New Project.
More to come on that.
So unless you are Jay Leno (I hate that guy!!! – not really, I’m just jealous – I want him to hire me to keep his cars driven and shiny and search out more cars for him..hey..there’s an idea!!!! “Dear Mr. Leno, I’m a car guy and I currently find myself with some free time so I’m applying for…..”) you dealt with circumstances like job loss or lack of funds to finish or keep that project collector car. But remember you can take it slow on projects – it’s OK to slow down and if you have to give up that beautiful machine, keep the memories and there is always tomorrow and another car in your future – you have to believe that and work toward it.
I like off –beat cars. By that I mean, the ones nobody thinks about immediately. Some of those are cars like, Studebakers, Edsels, and Mercurys.
A few years ago, actually shortly after we moved to Tucson, AZ., I was at the local Safeway and I saw this black car moving through the
parking lot. I was on foot and I hurried to the end of the parking row to see if I could catch the manufacturer and
model. To my surprise that sports-roof-like, long black car was a Mercury Marauder!! It was beautiful. I’m still not sure what
year it was but I believe it was a 1969 and possibly an X-100, but I can’t be sure.
'69 Marauder
I’m not totally unfamiliar with Mercury’s, having lived with grandparents who for years would only buy
that Ford brand – mainly the Marques and other 4 door models. Frankly back then I wasn’t all that impressed.
But the Marauder, like the Cougar, wasn’t your grandparent’s car!
So coming up is my write-up on the Mercury Marauder.
I thought I’d take a minute finish up the write-up on the very first upholstery job. I finished it up a two weeks ago and really missed driving the Mustang, but that’s what happens when you do your own work and you can only fit it between all the normal life stuff that needs to get done.
Yes, as I was reminded twice by a couple of car acquaintances, I used a kit, some say they aren’t much different from slip covers, but as you can see in my shots here that’s a bit of an understatement.
Now these next two videos are not all that great but I think you can see the removal of the back and the fasteners. I’ve worked with these type of fasteners before in my father’s body shop (back in the early ’70s) nearly all door panels and seat back were fastened in that way. They work really well but bend them (and they do bend easy of they aren’t aligned with the hole and pressure is applied) and you’ll have to spend sometime reshaping them, even then they might not hold properly, or replace them.
Check out the videos:
Here are a few more photos and the finished product. Not to bad for my first one. I have the passenger’s side to do.
With the plastic seatback removed.
Needed to remove the back release
2 piece
release removed.
Helpful hint: All the hardware and fasteners have to pass through upholstery. Rather than try to cut holes, I made X cuts and pressed the screw or hardware through. This made it as tight as possible.
Markings on the Foam
Good shot of the cloth sleeve with the wire passed through.
Here you would pass the hog wire while in the hog-nose pliers through the cloth between the upholstery and the wire. You then have to shove this down between the two pieces of foam and grab a spring.
Finished product.
Replacing the seat track was done before I married the bottom and back. Placing it back in the car was a little tricky..until I figured out that moving the set on the track was the way to get the studs to drop back in to holes in the floor board.
Over all this was not as tough as I thought it would be. The passenger side will be quicker. I’ll post the final product on that side.
After removing the seat track I had to remove the seat stops.
There are two and easily removed.
Next I started removing the upholstery wire. These pliers hook inside the wire and separate them for removal.
Removal
Here are the wires removed. They can be reused if you want to straighten them out.
Wires
Mostly removed.
Part way off however one small deal to handle
Thinking I was on the down hill side with the removal of the old upholstery, I ran into……the …..tuck!!! This consisted of a wire running through a cloth sleeve and the wire is attached to the springs with the hog wire.
Top Arrow is the cloth sleeve with the wire running through it. Bottom arrow is the hog wire crimped to the springs underneath.
Basically the tuck is how they separate the bottom of the seat and the cushions edges, which with vinyl that helps keeps you backside in the seat during those high-speed maneuvers.
Ok, this was the learning seat. I was too busy learning to do too much photography so I’ll to more with the back to this seat and the next.
BUT…………………………..here is my very first seat bottom..completed.
