Part 8: Posh Accommodations - New Valiant Interior

The new foam and vinyl was then installed and attached in the same manner as the rear-seat bottom. Notice the spot on the lower side of the seat? That is the pivot point for the seat back, and a small hole was made in the vinyl for it to poke through.

A cotton-based material was applied to the backs of the front bench seat.

To install the skins over the front seatback, turn half their length inside out.

With the bottom half of the skin folded up, slide the cover over the seatback.

Finish pulling the cover down over the frame, and fold the bottom edges over the frame. Make sure to work out the wrinkles. Then remove the listing wires from the bottom of the original seat skins. Place the listing wires through the hemmed ends at the bottom, and hog-ring the ends together.

Next, slide the inside edge of either seatback into the hinge point at the center of the seat bottom. Do not forget to place the pin, on the outside edge of the seat bottom, through the pivot point on the outside edge of the seatback. Now you can place the clips that hold the outside of the pivot point in place to keep the seatback in place.

The seats were ready to be put into the Valiant, but we needed to tend to a few other things first.

During the installation of the four-speed hump from Auto Body Specialties, we welded two nuts on the bottom side of the hump to bolt our tachometer onto.

We ordered carpeting from Year One in a medium shade of blue. Here the carpet is laid out in the Valiant so we can begin trimming the edges.