Rusty Bowtie
General Category => General Discussion - Intros => Topic started by: themoose on February 04, 2013, 10:09:09 AM
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In an previous thread I asked about doing powder coating at home and got a lot of good feedback from guys who have done it with obvious success. I've always taken pride in trying to do as much as possible on a project car and learning to do powder coating at home seems to be another step in that direction. All this got me to thinking about some of the other things that can be done at home with a little effort and knowledge of techniques and materials. There are a lot of really great products out there that can make even the most daunting jobs relativity easy for anyone with even basic skill to handle.You can save a lot of money not to mention the pride in being able to say "I did that myself! One of the things that most people shy away from is fabricating a custom fit carpet. When it came time to do a carpet in my 32 the first thing I did was to check with local carpet stores to see what it would take to get it done. The following talks about what I finally did to get the carpet done. I posted this on the HAMB and thought that it would make an interesting topic here as well. Here is a link to the Instabind website that tells you all about the products and has video.
http://www.bondproducts.com/instabind/?gclid=CMSkguDRm7UCFcef4AodhRsAEQ (http://www.bondproducts.com/instabind/?gclid=CMSkguDRm7UCFcef4AodhRsAEQ)
When my project was finally ready for its new carpet I began doing my homework to see who in my area would be willing to fabricate one for me. The floor is totally flat except for a slight hump so I thought that this would be fairly easy and cheap. After checking with a couple of upholstery shops in my area I began to think that I would have to take out a second mortgage to get the job done. That’s when I decided to try to do it myself. I ordered some carpet on line from one of the places that sells it by the yard .I fabricated a template out of cardboard to the shape of the floor area and used it to cut the carpet to size. Now came the major problem……HOW TO BIND THE CARPET. I tried a number to techniques with sewing fabric binding and failed miserably. I was about to give up when my wife told me that she had found a product on the internet that claimed that their process would allow you to easily bind any carpet with professional looking results. After reading a lot of positive reviews I decided to give it a try. It proved to be very easy to work with and the results on my opinion look great. It was so easy if fact that I decided to do the trunk. The product is Instabind and is sold for about a dollar a foot. Has anyone else used this or any other product to fabricate their own carpet? If so, let’s see the results.
(http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq7/themoose524/1932%20Chevy/2010018.jpg)
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That's good info about the instabind product. As for being a do it youself kinda guy that is how I started out. I didnt have a welder, compressor, or any skills to speak of, but what I did have was a large grinder and drill that I used for cutting metal and punching holes. Most of my projects were out of desperation and were bolt together. If I couldn't make the part I would scrounge the local junk yards or my stash of junk looking for the right shape of steell to get the job done. I really miss thoose days because of the skills that kind of build would bring to the table made everything else really easylater on. I guess what I am trying to say is that even the guy that has no skills can be a do it your self kind of guy if he's not afraid to just try.
John
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That's good info about the instabind product. As for being a do it youself kinda guy that is how I started out. I didnt have a welder, compressor, or any skills to speak of, but what I did have was a large grinder and drill that I used for cutting metal and punching holes. Most of my projects were out of desperation and were bolt together. If I couldn't make the part I would scrounge the local junk yards or my stash of junk looking for the right shape of steell to get the job done. I really miss thoose days because of the skills that kind of build would bring to the table made everything else really easylater on. I guess what I am trying to say is that even the guy that has no skills can be a do it your self kind of guy if he's not afraid to just try.
John
Darn right John ....Finding a way to fabricate something from nothing is what I really enjoy.That's what the hobby is all about!
Moose
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I try to do everything myself. it saves money, pays off in pride, and pass or fail is all on you!
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I especially like the guys selling their $50,000 dollar cars..which translates to paying 40K in hired labor and $10K in parts. My family calls me cheap because I hate to buy stuff off the shelf...rather make it fit by myself.
The best part of growing up poor and living in the country...you learn fix, make stuff work and don't panic when the powers goes off!
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Great info Moose. Maybe when I get to that point I'll give it a shot!