Upholstery 1: Kick Panels

Guacamole Bus Upholstery
Phase 1: Kick Panels

I`ve been eyeing this "almost" sage green vinyl upholstery at Wal Mart for a while now. I finally broke down and bought all they had (a bit under 5 yards) and some spray adhesive to get started on the interior of the Guacamole Bus.

As you can see, the kicks were falling apart, but not completely useless:

The black vinyl just peeled off and is, in fact, in pretty good shape less the small tears on the bottom of the panels.

So I used the kick panels to draw patterns on the vinyl.

When I cut, I left about an inch around the patterns I drew. That gets folded over to give a clean edge to the panels. Then spray a bit of adhesive on both the backing of the vinyl and the surface of the kick panel. Lay the vinyl down and smooth it in place.

And the finished product. (Yes, I knocked some stuff down from under the dash while installing, and I had to go back and straighten the panel on the bottom. I took the pics then my batteries died. But you get the idea.)

Final notes:

I will never do this again straight to the panels. I debated putting some batting under the vinyl, but thought I`d prefer the smooth look of the vinyl straight on the panels. I figured the backing on the vinyl would provide the needed cushion to prevent wrinkles. However that was not the case.

The adhesive soaked straight through the backing and onto the vinyl. That caused the wrinkles you see. For the rest of the panels in the Guac I *will* use 1/4" cotton batting.