Perfect choice for a first car. It was my own vintage first car experience (67 MBZ Fintail) that led me to my Amazon years later.

Depending on your budget, if you can't find used interior pieces, you'll find all the items you need in VP Autoparts' site. They also offer repair panels for most of your structural repair in the event that you don't go the local fabricate/repair route. Lots of other sources as well for comparison shopping, though I suspect some of them are resellers of VP parts.

While not exactly a low-cost option, they have a great reputation for quality products.

 

Perfect choice for a first car. It was my own vintage first car experience (67 MBZ Fintail) that led me to my Amazon years later.

Depending on your budget, if you can't find used interior pieces, you'll find all the items you need in VP Autoparts' site. They also offer repair panels for most of your structural repair in the event that you don't go the local fabricate/repair route. Lots of other sources as well for comparison shopping, though I suspect some of them are resellers of VP parts.

While not exactly a low-cost option, they have a great reputation for quality products.

Well I got the car from a family friend for $1500 so I have a couple thousand ready to fix up the rust and major interior changes like the seats and panels. I know about VP and plan on getting the parts from them but my only problem is finding a place that can install them without putting a crater in my pocket.

 

Agreed on the VP option, it can add up quickly but it won't disappoint. I've done 2 Amazons with parts from VP and out of hundreds of parts purchased, only one had a fit issue that was promptly fixed.

Here is your interior: http://212.247.61.152/us/main.aspx?page=article&artno=1201100456

Depending on the condition of your foam, you might consider using an upholstery shop in your area. Door panels are simple to do, seats are tricky for an amateur but any shop should be able to make some nice vinyl or even leather seats without any trouble.

Post pics of the car, I'm curious to see what the rust looks like on it. Where are you located ? If you're in the Southwest, I can definitely point you in the right direction for body panels.

 

Agreed on the VP option, it can add up quickly but it won't disappoint. I've done 2 Amazons with parts from VP and out of hundreds of parts purchased, only one had a fit issue that was promptly fixed.

Here is your interior: http://212.247.61.152/us/main.aspx?page=article&artno=1201100456

Depending on the condition of your foam, you might consider using an upholstery shop in your area. Door panels are simple to do, seats are tricky for an amateur but any shop should be able to make some nice vinyl or even leather seats without any trouble.

Post pics of the car, I'm curious to see what the rust looks like on it. Where are you located ? If you're in the Southwest, I can definitely point you in the right direction for body panels.

I'm located in California.

The foam on the drivers seat is practically not there but the other seats have some life although I would like them to get redone as well because they aren't the best.

How do I post pics? I'm new here ahah

 

Congrats, not a bad choice for a first car. I myself started with aircooled beetles which are easily comparable as far as being DIY learning friendly. I'm also in California, where abouts are you located?

 

Sacramento

Beetles are nice. I personally wanted a C2-early C3 era Corvette when I began my search and still do but my parents said I had to learn stick on a smaller engine and show them I could take care of a classic first haha. I have started to like this car though.

 

Couple safety things. I know who cares about safety things ?
Have a good look at the brakes, they're 50 years old so rotten hoses and rusted lines are possible. Make sure the hand brake works well. They call those "parking brakes" now but they used to be "emergency brakes". For good reason with single circuit brakes that was the only backup.

Believe it or not the windshield can be a problem. 50 years of being slowly sandblasted can really make it hard to see out of at night or driving into the sun. I put a new one on the 66 this summer. Sucks spending the money on something like that but was totally worth it.

Finally the seat belts. 50 year old ones will probably snap if you're unfortunate enough to need them.

Ok safety rant over.

For a seat you might find a used passenger side seat in decent shape. If that's all you need?

 

Couple safety things. I know who cares about safety things ?
Have a good look at the brakes, they're 50 years old so rotten hoses and rusted lines are possible. Make sure the hand brake works well. They call those "parking brakes" now but they used to be "emergency brakes". For good reason with single circuit brakes that was the only backup.

Believe it or not the windshield can be a problem. 50 years of being slowly sandblasted can really make it hard to see out of at night or driving into the sun. I put a new one on the 66 this summer. Sucks spending the money on something like that but was totally worth it.

Finally the seat belts. 50 year old ones will probably snap if you're unfortunate enough to need them.

Ok safety rant over.

For a seat you might find a used passenger side seat in decent shape. If that's all you need?

What do you recommend for brakes? I can tell mine aren't too bad but they aren't great either. They windshield isn't bad at all. I haven't cleaned the car yet due to rust but once I do it'll be fine

Seat belts on the other hand, I will have to install but I'm waiting on finding some original seats that are in good condition

 

Hi and Congratulations on your first car! You picked a good one. I'm a pro photographer by trade and really struggled with posting pics here.
Because it's my trade, I don't use hosting sites for photos and that's a requirement to upload to Swedspeed. Another member recommended "Imgur"
which is free and easy to use. You need to upload your photos from phone or computer to Imgur first. Then when doing a post or reply on Swedspeed,
in the toolbar in post window, the 3rd icon from far right, I believe is a "insert image" button. It opens a window for you to cut/paste the photo image URL into from
Imgur. In the "view and edit post" window on Imgur, it formats the photo url for various uses and there's even one for "BBCode-message boards and forums". You need to do one image at a time while posting, so for each image you upload you have to click the "Insert image" button and put the URL for each photo in one at a time. For sizing, Imgur even has a sizing drop-down menu that has BBC sizing that seems to work great for me. I had to post for many months without any photos before I figured this out, so hopefully this will help. BTW-Ditto on VP for door panels, interior items. I had a local trimmer re foam my seats, fix broken springs, and they used my original covers as a template and I did full leather. Mine's an early car and the seat panels are simpler than your car but I'm really happy with how they turned out. Good luck and Welcome!

original front seats-springs poking through, foam gone, very uncomfortable.

top of rear seat

bottom of rear seat

new leather rear seat

Rear seat bottom at upholstery shop-before adding more foam to front
edge panel of seat to keep original crowned profile factory delivered seats with.

front seats

door panels-original and new ones from VP

Original door panels no tears, not bad except pocket shot and mylar chrome strip damaged

 

thank you for the picture tutorial. Couple of the images you attached aren't working but it maybe cause I'm on mobile. From what I can see they look great

 

Got lucky on my car the last guy did the brakes. But basically everything in the system should be checked for wear, corrosion and rot.

 

Brakes were also the area that I focused on first. Like a good friend once told me you have to stop before you can go. I'm still not happy with the braking performance of the OE setup, I'll be looking for an upgrade in that department in the future.

 

Yes, finding good used seats most cost effective way to go and they don't come up often but are out there. On brakes, mine are as has been said, OK but not great. It seems unusually complicated to upgrade to a dual circuit system using OEM parts from a '68 car. I believe '68 Amazons for USA had dual circuit brakes. And I don't want to go rear discs from 1800 and have to mess with different bolt pattern wheels. There must be a work around to get more safety out of the brakes. I don't mind the drum rears, if they're in good working order they're great, unless you're racing or autocrossing and need more fade resistance.