5/6/08
Hiniker GTE Interior

I’ve been on the hunt for a seat pans to replace the horrible galvanized replacements found inside Gary Hiniker’s GTE seats. I wasn’t having any luck finding a set of used Series I GTE seats for donor pans, but I kept looking for alternatives.

A friend of mine with a GTE sent me a picture of his seat pans that were fabricated for his car when he discovered his original pans had cracked beyond repair. The work was done by Orlando Cairo at Eurocoachworks in Fort Lauderdale. The works was top notch, but a little too nice to be hidden under leather and foam!

One of the seat pans they used as a template was still good enough to copy, so Art lent me his seat pan so I could make a couple of copies in fiberglass. Hopefully with a mold, we can make more if we ever come across this problem again.

We’ll have to to find someone who can make a mold off this original part without destroying the original. I promised Art he would get it back unscathed!

Looking at the details of the original part, it was a pretty flimsy piece of injection molded plastic. I bet when Pininfarina designed this seat, the first pan was made out of aluminum, but when the seat went into production, they made the mass produced seat in this plastic material which was not nearly as strong as the aluminum in the same thickness.

I brought the seat pans down to our upholsterer to check it for fit before having the part sent out for copies. I also had a chance to see the progress on the rest of the interior.

They’re doing a great job, and the color is very nice next to the silver exterior color. The rear seat has not been anchored, so the gaps in between the cushions will disappear when things are installed permanently. As with any high end interior, things are installed and reinstalled several times to check for a perfect fit.

The dash is out for painting, but the center console is coming along. It’s so nice to see an interior without any wrinkles. I remember how much I worked on this piece with my car to get it to look this smooth!

With the interior coming together nicely, there are always more details to consider. The kick panels are pretty scuffed up and the chrome surrounds need to be repaired and replated. The raw material for these panels come from the tail panel of a 1957 Chevrolet Belaire, but they’ll still have to be cut to fit. Now’s the time to change these out.

Just a reminder, I’m looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

Previous Restoration Day
Next Restoration Day
Home page