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'00 Samabar Van Custom Interior

Discussion in 'Subaru Sambar' started by aomorisambar, Oct 10, 2013.

  1. aomorisambar

    aomorisambar Member

    I decided last night that I will do a complete overhaul of my van interior. Luckily I have what’s called (at least here in Japan) the standard "Sambar Van," which is primarily marketed towards companies (construction, delivery, ect..). This means that basically the stock interior is pretty bare, no carpeting just rubber mats, limited plastic pieces; most plastic is mainly covering seatbelt reels and bolts, and the seats are what I believe called A type with no head rest; even with no experience I feel this as making my upholstering a bit more straightforward.

    I have already begun removing all the panels and plastic and plan to start sanding and prepping for paint tonight (pics coming in a few hours). I am still deciding on colors so I plan to get everything primed and think about colors throughout this process.

    I have many ideas of what I want to do with the interior, but am still searching out and putting together a scrapbook of pics and ideas. One thing I love about the sambar is that the rear seat folds down completely flat which I feel I want to incorporate into my new design, except I feel like I want to desert the bench seat and go with a bucket seat design with a console between them. I have never done a project like this so I will be learning many new tricks and methods (looking forward to leaning fiberglass). I also look forward to learning about all the new places to obtain materials locally in my small city in Japan.

    Unfortunately this is my daily commuter vehicle so it might take me longer than most to complete the project, but I will continue to post my progress in this thread until completion. Throughout this I am sure I will have plenty of questions for you all, and I am open to any suggestions anyone may want to provide.

    I got a lot of planning and a lot of work ahead of me. Encouragement always welcome!
     
  2. muddy moose

    muddy moose Member

    Sounds like fun man. I have friends in the Philippines and Hong Kong. A lot of mini's in both places and a lot of awesome custom work. Looking forward to watching your progress. Good luck to ya bud
     
  3. aomorisambar

    aomorisambar Member

    Sorry I never posted up any pics, Ive tried resizing files and what not, but nothing seems to work to get them to upload. I wil be starting a blog where I post pics and discriptions of my progress. I will keep updating this thread when I update the blog.

    So far I have primed and began painting the body interior; I decided I will go with black satin finish. I have started searching for a good sewing machine for upholstering, and this weekend I will be hiting the junk yard to get a head liner for a sambar van so that I can use that for my new headliner. Ive also began making new backing for all my side/door panels that will be covered with the new upholstery, I thought about getting panels from the junkyard as well, but the backing on stock panels is very thin, cork board, type material and I want something more sturdy that wont break if I need to remove the panels.
     

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