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I’m sure most of you are looking at seat reupholstering options. The painted vinyl clearly doesn’t stand up to the sun that well. That being said, you can paint the vinyl seats with Federal Standard 34094 and the color matches well. The paint doesn’t come off and the vinyl is still flexible. Kind of a cheap fix to hold you over until you can get them reupholstered.
I was speaking with M1163 about this earlier and he advised just using a canvas fabric instead and I think that would be wise unless you are trying to keep everything stock for collector purposes. I’m going to use the hell out of mine so I don’t mind making a few changes from OE. I contacted a company called Fabric Wholesale Direct and they sent me a couple swatches for $1 or so. The two I got were the closest they had to a CARC 383 “match”. One of them will do for my liking. (Photo with contact info below) I will also be installing seat heating elements when I do the reupholstering. It’s a cheap way to stay warm on cold mornings. If you have any experience with military heaters you will know that they are less than impressive and primarily intended for windshield defrosting. We had a hose that we would hook up to one humvee vent and pass around for warmth. These vehicles just aren’t designed with comfort in mind. I have a circulation disorder after contracting frostbite so I have to work around that and heating elements do a fine job.
Just a side note, I had a gallon of Federal Standard 34094 mixed up for me at Home Depot. The paint is a perfect match and goes on nicely with a pneumatic paint gun. I also got an automotive matte clear coat that I will try out to protect the paint. If any of you have found the correct stenciling do let me know. I need to paint all the lettering and numbers back on. This vehicle has 1/2”, 1”, 2” and 3” lettering/numbers so you will need those different sizes for painting.
I also attached a photo of my painted roll cage and skid plates. It matches the original 383 well! I will let you all know how my matte clear coat experiment goes. I’ll be testing it on the skid guards first.
I was speaking with M1163 about this earlier and he advised just using a canvas fabric instead and I think that would be wise unless you are trying to keep everything stock for collector purposes. I’m going to use the hell out of mine so I don’t mind making a few changes from OE. I contacted a company called Fabric Wholesale Direct and they sent me a couple swatches for $1 or so. The two I got were the closest they had to a CARC 383 “match”. One of them will do for my liking. (Photo with contact info below) I will also be installing seat heating elements when I do the reupholstering. It’s a cheap way to stay warm on cold mornings. If you have any experience with military heaters you will know that they are less than impressive and primarily intended for windshield defrosting. We had a hose that we would hook up to one humvee vent and pass around for warmth. These vehicles just aren’t designed with comfort in mind. I have a circulation disorder after contracting frostbite so I have to work around that and heating elements do a fine job.
Just a side note, I had a gallon of Federal Standard 34094 mixed up for me at Home Depot. The paint is a perfect match and goes on nicely with a pneumatic paint gun. I also got an automotive matte clear coat that I will try out to protect the paint. If any of you have found the correct stenciling do let me know. I need to paint all the lettering and numbers back on. This vehicle has 1/2”, 1”, 2” and 3” lettering/numbers so you will need those different sizes for painting.
I also attached a photo of my painted roll cage and skid plates. It matches the original 383 well! I will let you all know how my matte clear coat experiment goes. I’ll be testing it on the skid guards first.
Attached Files