New side quest: rear seat upgrades for the kids.
Headrests
Shoulder belts
Found a local buddy getting rid of of an entire 62 rear seat back - needed that for the headrest holder hardware.
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Stripped the upholstery since I’ll wrap it with my existing upholstery. Total pain. Once you get the hog rings off the perimeter, there are some secret hog rings in the middle, buried inside the foam. I could cut them out, but as of now I have no clue how I’ll get new ones in there. I didn’t bother taking a photo, just trust me on this. It sucked. After that I peeled the foam off the metal frame. Just a heads up: it’s glued on, so if you get too aggressive it will rip. Slow and steady with a hand underneath gently breaking the glue bond.
Here’s the naked frame. Must have been from a humid climate.
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So now what? There’s no rot but the surface rust is heavy, and I’m not gonna install it like that. I spent 10 minutes with a wire brush in a drill to get the result you see above. At that rate I might have it sand blasted - it’ll get in the nooks and crannies better than a wire wheel anyway.
I also ordered two shoulder harnesses from Seat Belt Planet which should arrive this week. I have front belts from SBP and they work great. The brown color is slightly more red than either the early or late 60 Cordovan Brown, but they’re pretty close. The issue here will be the cargo panels. On a 60 the panels come all the way to the door opening. On a 62 with shoulder belts the panels end short of the door to leave room for the belt retractor that’s bolted near the door opening. Toyota had a plastic cover for that, but it’s been impossible to find any. I’d take whatever color and spray paint them, but it doesn’t matter … still can’t find any. I think about a year ago I saw some for sale for like $500, which I’m not going to pay.
So for now I’ll stick a set of my own deluxe cargo panels in there, the 62 variety, and run with exposed body work around the belt retractor. That will bother me, but at least the kids will be safer in the back.
On deck: L-tracks for the cargo area. On trails our gear always slides around, sometimes tumbles into the dog, and generally makes a mess. The tracks will give me some options for strapping down cargo. I got a rivnut setter I can borrow as well as some proper hardware and rivnuts on the way. I’d through bolt the tracks but … I ain’t dropping the fuel tank to get under there. No way. If anyone has tips or tricks on this let me know. Where’s the best placement? That’s my main concern, because once the rivnuts are in, I’m committed.