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Atom's Amazon Wagon Project Update Thread

I’ll put together a longer post once I get some better daytime pics tomorrow. Got dark fast today

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Oh, and test stickers!

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Dash is spot on dead sexy. Love the chrome strip between the black and red. If you’re selling those stickers put me down for one.
 
Dash is spot on dead sexy. Love the chrome strip between the black and red. If you?re selling those stickers put me down for one.

Was trying to give a nod to the Amazon dash.

These ones will just be give aways. Was trying to see what the turn around time and quality was for having the stickers made. I?ll have some for sale before too long. Hopefully some shirts too. I need to fund this build somehow.
 
So, I took some pictures and then I just got in a groove and stopped. Here’s what I did take. The first step in wrapping a custom part is to try and to note potential problem areas and come up with solutions in advance. Such as..

Where the vinyl comes around the end of the dash I’ll need A) a recess for the vinyl to lay flat with the surrounding area and B) a way for the two colors to interface with each other when the chrome strip ends. I laid some double back tape around the edge of the end caps (3M double back is about the same thickness as vinyl), then bondoed up to it. And I cut a slot for the two vinyls to “tuck” into.

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The next problem areas are any deep recesses. The least stress you can induce to the vinyl the more likely it is to stay down. The solution there is to twist/pull the vinyl in other areas to create slack for tucking into the recesses (no pic, sorry)

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Pocket areas with tight radiuses will almost never get vinyl down in them. The fix is to make an insert to fit in that will allow you to cut slots right up to the radiuses. I do this by machining plugs that are oversized for me to fill up to, but the low tech way would be to use whatever part you’re going to use in the final part, wrap it with masking tape, then put a strip of double back (to create vinyl space) and body up to that.

This is the glue I use (I buy it five gallons at a time, but you can get it in smaller sizes online)

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One trick I do is to mask off areas that I’m not wrapping the first time so when I’m wrapping the first half I’m not fighting the vinyl sticking to where I’m not wrapping

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Then my technique is to spray glue lightly (I use the $15 Harbor Freight paint guns) to both the part and the vinyl. Wait for it to dry completely. I mean completely. Then lightly spray a second coat on either the part or vinyl (usually the part) and then stick. When possible, I heat the vinyl from the back side. When you heat from the front you risk melting the vinyl before getting it all stretchy. By heating from the back you almost completely eliminate the possibility of “burning” the vinyl

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I haven’t completely decided what I’m going to do on the end caps, but for now I just glued a piece of suede on

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Custom loop carpet floor mats shown

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Next is to re-upholster the door caps two tone with the chrome strip and finish the cluster surround trim
 
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So, I made this fancy phone mount and Music, Spotify and Pandora don’t support landscape mode. Boooooo

I can understand some separate apps since they’re cross platform, but Music? I figured since it’s native iPhone I’d be ok.
 
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Check to make sure you don't have your auto rotate locked to portrait

Spotify goes to landscape on my Android phone. but maybe its different for Apple

I checked. I use rotation lock fairy often, but it?s not on right now. The home screens and both navigations work in landscape, so right now I just start the music and turn on Waze. Then adjust volume/tracks from my watch.
 
Build note: BMW regulars probably already knew this, but only the gauge numbers are backlit. The needles use the front lighting that comes from about the row of idiot lights. I relocated my idiot lights to the center stack since I needed to shave back the cluster depth. I had turned the lights on to make sure I could see the illumination, but I hadn’t driven it in the dark before yesterday morning. I’m on the way to work and look at the gauges to realize I can see all the numbers, but not what speed I’m going or how much gas I’ve got or anything. Hahahahahaaaaa! I’m in the process of making a new bezel to clean up the cut edges, so I’ll try and integrate some lighting there. I just need it to not be SUPER bright. Maybe red LEDs shining through tinted acrylic or something.
 
I was pretty happy with my P1800ES chassis swap until I met you and your project. I feel like a total slacker now! So, I'm just going to lie to myself and say that I will up my interior game next winter!;-)
 
So, one unfortunate part of building a car over time instead of all at once is that even when things look good, you might need to take a step backwards to take a step forwards. In this case, it’s the carpet. I had to pull out all the freshly wrapped/painted parts.

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The factory carpet has thick foam to “level” the floor glued to the back. To get it off in one piece I took an old blade for my vibe saw and ground the teeth off so it was basically a putty knife.

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A) I want to use loop carpet

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and B) I want to make the carpet kit similar to how the stock Amazon’s is. In separate pieces. Since my machine can’t bind carpet, I’ll be cutting/layout a few pieces at a time and taking them to my buddy to get the needed edges bound. The rear piece needs no binding so it’s the first to go in. Next is the trans tunnel which only gets bound around the back of the trans tunnel then basically two long floor mats that are bound around three sides (the fourth tucks under the sill plates).

I started with the rear and tunnel pieces first. I’ll get the tunnel darted and bound then trim the floor pieces.

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Before anything goes in for the final time, I’ll do a bleach water wipe down of the floor, wire brush any surface rust and put on some converter, then bleach, steam and extract the foams to kill any germs.
 
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