New Transmission  52                 May  2012

I'm no expert here but after doing this a few years ago this is what worked for me. I've found when you're doing upholstery that you can leave larger spaces between the notches on the straight sections but when you come to a curved area you'll need to have the notches much closer together. If you were to use one long section with no notches in your straight areas it's much harder to get the material to fit right so this is why I use more cuts. Plus when you work alone the more cuts the better. Once you're finished you'll never know how many notches were on the back if you make your cuts right.

There's a trick to doing these cuts because if you make your notch to close to the piece that you're covering, you might see it once you fold it over. I find that if you stay away with your notch by about 1/8" to 3/16" then you should be fine. Good heavy duty sharp scissors are a must here so don't cheap out and use the ones in the junk drawer because you won't be happy.
 

 

 

Here is a close-up of what the corners look like. I know it looks funny but it works. I like doing all the easy areas first (straight sections) and then come back and work on the corners. By leaving that little tab right in the middle of the corner that will go between the smaller pieces on either side of it. I don't know how other people do this but it works for me.
 

 

 

Here is the center piece all covered with material. I also installed my switch panels and I did something extra to the larger one besides polishing it.
 

 

 

I added some engraving to my switch panel because sometimes I'll forget what each one is for. The bottom two have always been easy to remember because I use them all the time but the rest are a different story. This was easy to do at my work and only took me a few minutes. It sure is nice to have a CNC machine to use.
 

 

 

This isn't the best picture but you can see what it looks like in the car. I still need to make a trim ring for the shifter area but I can test drive it like this for now. Also notice the small round item above the switch panel. This is one of the new lights I added along with the two under the dash out of sight. It works pretty good and I'll take a picture of them turned on soon.
 

 

 

I'll need to get use to this new look because it's a little different. I also need a shift knob for this temporary shifter but none of the ones I have will fit because the thread size is to large. But I have an idea of what I might be able to use.
 

 

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28 

29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  41  42  43  44  45  46  47  48  49  50  51  52  53

54  55  56  57  58  59  60  61  62  63