1963 Chevrolet interior restoration

We have recently completed an interior restoration of a 1963 Chevrolet bel air.

The front and rear seats, door trims and kick panels, were covered in black and grey with a black carpet.

Some special touches included designing the door trims to use the normal push in door trims clips, and the kick panels were fabricated from ply with a steel attachment. The steel attachment was panelled in a half moon shape so as to fit into the door aperture fixture.

The windlace was handmade and blended very nicely to the panels.

Here’s a photo of the 1963 Chevrolet front bench seat before and after restoration.

1963 Chevrolet Door Trims

A good deal of hard thinking was required before commencing the rebuilding of the door trims. The trims have a stainless steel attachment in the shape of a “U” with horizontal arms.

To remake the door trims with horizontal join patterns would have been very easy and would not have been anything to write home about. However, you do not discard nice stainless steel dress pieces, especially when they are original equipment.

It was not clear whether we could achieve a precise fit to the door frames, if we used the original fittings. This caused problems, (not re-inventing the wheel type) but considerable ones anyhow.

To use push in type brass clips, holes had to be drilled into the door frames, where flat areas would mate with the door trim, and the new ply trims had to be precisely drilled so that all clips would match the predrilled holes.

This was achieved and produced a very nice result as you can see below.

Here is a finished off passenger side front trim. You can also see how the design of the trim (chrome strip) separated the top and middle sections. Quarter inch foam is used under all door trim pieces, which gives them a nice smooth look.

Making up the patterns

This was extremely hard at first as the top and middle section had to butt up to each other. Therefore both edges needed to be extremely neat and provide an exact fit. After cutting the pieces to provide a precise edge, and pushing them together in an upside down position, calico was glued over the total butting area.

Then a very neat stitch (from the top of the vinyl) was added to each edge from one end to the other. This pulled the join in so that it would fit neatly under the stainless steel strip.

The bottom part was easy as it was finished off in a straight French seam join .

You can see the cover being fitted here, with most of the bottom already stapled over. The stainless steel had to be temporarily fitted before attaching the cover to the board. A soft piece of backing carpet was used underneath so that it was not scratched or dented.

The back of the trims were marked out to match the bottom join and the chrome moulds which have sliding steel (push over) clips. Then holes were drilled so that the moulds could fit properly (both to the board) and to the vinyl cover.

One photo of the four trims as they were set out on the table. You can see the steel clips under the chrome pieces.

1963 Chevrolet kick panels

These also caused headaches initially as the back part (near the front of the door) was bent to the outside of the car in a half moon shape.

We made the panels with ply and the back area was made from a strip of steel which was panelled into a slow half moon shape. This then fitted very nicely into the steel door aperture trim.

Now we have a very nice set of 1963 Chevrolet kick panels.

You can see the template is fitted here to make sure it is right. The other panel was covered and fitted and the template can be used to make another set if needed.

Kick panels are for sale if anyone wants a set.

Interior photos for you

You can see the finished look here from the drivers side rear. The back of the front bench seat is all black and rear seats and door trims match in really well. Also you can see a photo of the rear section of this 1963 Chevrolet before the front seat was fitted.

The front seats still sitting on the trimming table. Very nice.

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It’s good to see a classic 1963 Chevrolet restoration as these cars are now becoming harder to find.

Yours in classy classic cars,

Cheers,

Bob.

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