Trimming an Amphicar,

Is it a car or a boat? It's an Amphicar!  A concept car built in West Germany throughout the early-mid 60's. It could do 70mph on the highway and 70 knots in the water.
It was by no means a high performance vehicle, but fun non the less.

The car I'm working on was involved in a fire caused by leaky fuel lines that filled the cockpit with fumes. When the driver turned the key after weeks spent with the top and windows up - ka-boom! Luckily no one was hurt, but the interior was toast!

After a bit of online research, I found that just about everything is still available for these rare ducks ;) However the only interior kits available are only offered in standard/original colour options. Apparently blue trim was never actually available on these. Originally a Blue car would have come with a yellow/white  interior!
So to restore this to what it was, I would have to make all the blue/white components myself.

I started by stripping all the panels, covers, seat covers and making new patterns. Unfortunately All of the panels for the car had to be completely replaced - not just re-covered. The panels were all made from ABS/plastic so they could presumably handle getting wet. But the ABS had gone super brittle and was cracked & broken around every clip hole.
I cut new panels from some 1/8" ABS sheet I sourced locally.
Cutting the ABS to shape the panels took some patients, it's a very dense/hard material to cut - I even broke a bandsaw blade in the process!
I sourced some vinyl locally and got to work sewing and trimming the new trim panels,..

The rear seat components were all made new with covers I made and trimmed to the original wood bases

Here are my new front bench seat covers, I repainted the metal frames and renewed the foam surface before installing the new covers,..

With all the components made, I got to work installing all the new panels and seats. The rubber floor mats were luckily still intact and just needed a good cleaning.

Luckily I was able to source a new top and boot cover in white canvass from an aftermarket supplier,

And there you have it! Another one done for the road - or perhaps lake - I wouldn't recommend the sea. Apparently they're supposed to have all the suspension totally re-greased after every water outing!

Until next time -