Dear Iain, Jim, Walt, and mid-60s Buick caregivers who are in for the long haul,
Years ago I had a guy do my dash pad, seats boxing, and rear armrests in the same color 'tan' vinyl. It looks great.
My door panels are original, except for the driver, which I did poorly in the same tan vinyl.
The reason I didn't order fronts is 1) you have to buy both 2) If I did, then I would have 3 different vinyls going on.
I have thought this one over many a time considering my options. I honestly cannot come up with a reasonable plan that I like. I am somewhat budget and time constrained.
My favorite plan has been to order the original fawn color from legendary (it does match well to the originals, though the originals are faded a bit) and do my best upholstery job on it. I would then have 2 vinyl colors but one would have to look closely to tell. Of course, I don't have dielectric sealing equipment so I would sew to pleats. Possibly tuck n roll style.
Just to add one more thing, the front bench has seen some wear since it was done, and the substrate is toast. I really should have had it re-sprung. The guy used cloth pinpoint, he said it was original to an impala. I am not sure if that is truth.
so, what would you do?
You situation is basically universal. All these cars have been changed over the years and we have limited resources. Those resources include money, our FYI skills and time on task, and the overall time to complete the changes you are after. In your case, you probably can afford to allow Ruthy to be "work in progress" for a quite a long time.
So perhaps you should try to decide where you ultimately want to end up with Ruthy and put up with the compromises as you work your way toward the final goal. If you really want Ruthy to be very original, perhaps you should put up with the mismatched vinyls and replace what you can at this point and move on to replacing the rest eventually.
The other thing you keep in mind is exactly how original you want Ruthy to end up. You've expressed interest in bucket seats and that is a very desirable upgrade. Ultimately, it is really hard to stick to originality if you want to enjoy driving your car. A friend of mine recently restored a 1957 Bel Air right down to the stock transmission. However, not having an overdrive makes the car very unpleasant to drive on the freeway. After having gone to so much trouble to get a stock transmission, he has ultimately concluded that enjoying the car is more important than originality.
So take a little time to decide what you want Ruthy to be like say 10 years from now. You can then try to decide how you'll get there and how impatient you are to get any particular upgrade completed.
I hope that's some food for thought.
Cheers, Edouard
