Repro Nova arm rest pads?

[Arrowsmith]

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[Bill Rose]

Can you just get a used set of black pads and dye them? There are good vinyl dyes these days. Maybe try Just Dashes for color advise and dye in a spray can.

[70post]

Is the green vinyl the "metallic" or "pearl" type green color or just a "regular" green without that effect?

[Arrowsmith]

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[70post]

I believe that is the "metallic" or "pearl" type vinyl....very typical for the era but by '71 or 72 the green vinyls changed to the "regular" type vinyl.

Yes, "dye" is paint with some flex additives.

Another option is to find some new vinyl (call Legendary or PUI) in that color and have the pad recovered. I've recovered a lot of these pads in the past with new vinyl. Won't use repro pads for my customer's cars....most are fairly hideous (I'm referring to the pads, not my customer's cars!).

Legendary and/or PUI would likely sell you a half yard or yard of the correct grained vinyl. Color should be correct but can't guarantee if it will be slightly off due being new vinyl against aged original stuff. Pre-mixed vinyl paint in that color will have the same "effect" as new vinyl....a potential slight mismatch since it's mixed to the ORIGINAL finish/color. I spray a lot of vinyl paints/dyes.....doing some of the gold right now on some '70 442 interior pieces.

That pricing is a bit crazy but Just Dashes isn't known for low prices :)

EDIT: When I mention "pearl" or "metallic" in relation to this that is just MY labeling of the look....GM just called the colors "green", "blue", etc but prior to '71 or '72 the gold, blue and green vinyls had the "pearl" or "metallic" look I refer to. I also call them "Jetson's Blue", green, etc...since the effect is sort of a "space age" look.

[Arrowsmith]

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[70post]

IMPORTANT - ask them to first send some swatches/samples as they may have some different choices....worth it even if they charge something for the samples.

[Arrowsmith]

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[Therocknss]

I also bought reproductions of my black arm rests and soon returned them because they were not correct. I noticed the material on them seems to match the material on my seats. When I recovered my seats I saved some good patches of that material. I was considering trying to recover them myself. Has nyone tried this?

[Arrowsmith]

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[70post]

I don't know whose armrest pads Legendary is selling...maybe THEY make their own or just resell someone else's.

One problem I've seen with a lot of the repro pads (beyond the cheap looking urethane versions) is the pad is way too tall compared to the originals. There may be other problems but that is one definite difference I have noticed on some.

[Therocknss]

looking at the undersides of my original arm pads, they look like the factory just wrapped and glued the same material as the seats on the armrest. I may give it a shot re-doing my originals

[rlw68]

I've got the same issue in blue :) You mentioned a fix in the build video. What's the plan, dye ?

[Arrowsmith]

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[Mulsanne Blue]

Has anyone figured out what type of material the covers were made of and how they were originally formed? If you've taken one apart, the cover material isn't regular expandable vinyl. It's thin and dense and has little elasticity. To me it looks like a laminate made with some type of durable paper base covered with a grained tight cell vinyl. Similar to the material that originally covered door panels. The stuff has little give and tears if you try enough. I've looked and no one comes close to the making this type material anymore.

I've tried recovering arm rests with regular vinyl on a '70 Camaro; however, they just don't look right. From a combination of glue and stretching the vinyl, they looked to puffy in some areas while the transitions in the bends and tucks came out uneven and not smooth.

Has anyone tried with success vacuum forming with heat on a solid buck shaped like the foam part of the arm rest?