Project '69 Headrest Restoration How-To

[bill440rt]

Well, I'm at a little bit of a standstill with my project, so I thought I'd turn to the interior to keep me a little busy. The car originally had a green interior, but was changed to black at some point. I'm changing it to white.

I located a set of front buckets with headrests, in black. The headrests were in overall good condition, that just needed some TLC. I picked up a new chrome band kit from Krusin' Moons, which also included the black vinyl pieces that go on the bottom of the headrests. From what I've been told, these vinyl strips are BLACK no matter what color interior you had. Interesting.

The original chrome bands can be VERY difficult to get off. They are heat-seared into the vinyl, & if you're not careful you can tear the headrest very easily. I spoke to Dennis at Krusin' Moons, and the solution was fairly simple: Use a dremel! So, I removed as much as I could by peeling them off, & the rest I carefully ground off using an air dremel with a carbide bit. Work slowly & carefully, & protect the edges with pieces of duct tape.

[bill440rt]

There were a few cracks under the chrome bands that I filled with vinyl repair adhesive by Permatex, simply found at Pep Boys. Any other imperfections just get covered up again by the new bands.

I then dyed them white. I had some correct Dove White DuPont Vinyl color, but I decided to pick up a spray can of SEM's Super White vinyl color in a spray can to act as a base "primer". That way, I wouldn't have to load on so much of the DuPont color, & it would cover more easily.
They were given a thorough cleaning with Spray Nine, then Prep Sol with an acid brush. Then, SEM's Vinyl Prep was sprayed on, & the parts were wiped dry. The SEM Vinyl Prep both cleans & softens the vinyl so the dye adheres better.

2 light coats of SEM Super White was applied, followed by 3 with the DuPont Vinyl Color. Complete coverage.

The black vinyl strips were applied with 3m's Super Trim Adhesive. The chrome bands are simple as they have double-sided tape already on them. If you dremel the old bands off carefully, you can leave a flat edge so the new bands will adhere better. There are rumors that they don't like to stick too well, partly because there is a "U"-shaped channel in the headrest that the new flat-backed bands do not like to sit in to.
Avoid touching the adhesive tape so the new bands adhere properly.

That's about it. Pretty simple.
I dyed the armrests, sunvisors, bucket seat hinge covers, coat hook, etc pretty much the same way. I was able to find some of the pieces in white like the sunvisors, so they didn't need much to re-dye them.

[histoy]

Very nice job.  The headrests look super.   When I applied the chrome strips to my headrests, the ends that butt together didn't want to stay in place.  My headrests were black, so I used black weatherstrip adhesive to secure them to the headrest.  That held them in place very well.

[tan top]

nice job

[Back N Black]

Great job Bill, are you doing the seats also? I did the opposite i changed from white to black.

[mikepmcs]

Great work!

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Great Job Bill!  Looks better than the repro stuff out there!

[69 OUR/TEA]

Very nice work Bill !!!!

[JimShine]

Did yours have that 3M tape on the back? Mine would have the ends pop off on a hot day. I ended up using silicone to attach them.

[bill440rt]

Did yours have that 3M tape on the back? Mine would have the ends pop off on a hot day. I ended up using silicone to attach them.

Hey all, thanks. Just tryin' to find stuff to keep me busy in the down time. That's a nice little weekend project that anyone can do themselves.

Yes, JimShine. They had that 3M tape on the back, the gray stuff. I've read the posts about them peeling up. I think the trick is to really burnish them on while you're attaching them. Work slowly, and avoid touching the tape. That'll kill the adhesive for sure. If you're careful with the Dremel, you can almost get the mating surface flat enough for them to stick better. I'll just have to keep a watch out in the hot sun for any peeling. Like you said, nothing like a dab of glue couldn't fix, anyways. 

[Shakey]

Looks good Bill - as usual.