Interior Comfy Bits

This is the part of the job I was least looking forward to: I'm not very good with upholstery and that kind of thing, I can sew a button onto a shirt but that's about the limit of my competence. Anyway - it turned out rather easier than I thought, and I think the results look pretty good. First thing to do was glue the carpet onto the main bulkhead behind the seats. This was straightforward, I used Evo-stik Impact contact adheasive for all the carpet work, mostly using the aerosol spray dispenser. Surplus overspray was wiped off with a rag dipped in white spirit.

Note the spring clamps holding the rear vinyl bit whilst the glue set.

Next, the transmission tunnel carpets are glued down both sides, and the glue is allowed to set for a good while prior to installing the main transmission tunnel "leather" console. This was quite tough, manouevring it over the handbrake and gear levers, then around the main wiring harness at the front scuttle end. A lot of sweat and strain was used to get this located properly, but once in place, it looks first class. Especially with the gear knob in place!

Next I did the carpets in the boot area. This was quite fiddly but the carpet pieces in the kit were all approximately the correct size and shape, so only a little Stanley knife fettling was required. I removed the roll-over bar and the boot floor whilst doing this job, it made things quite a lot easier. In fact, I think I'm going to leave the boot floor out for now, because it looks like this will make the connecting up of the rear wheel arches and lamp clusters somewhat easier.

After the boot carpets, the next job is to install the natty stainless steel "sill protectors" that fit over the driver and passenger side door sills. You push these into place, then drill through the stainless to match up with the rivet holes in the side panel & chassis rails. I bought a couple of new drill bits especially for this - stainless is really tough to get through unless your tools are sharp. After drilling the holes, I fitted the IVA-required rubber piping strip between sill and panel, plus the "knee protector" metal panels that go just under the dash in front of driver and passenger. These panels needed to be bent into shape a little to fit properly. After this, it's out with the rivet gun and pop all the interior panels together including the rear curved bits by the driver/passenger shoulder, which also need rubber piping.

Note the little "escutcheon plate" to hold the door arm-rest clip.

After this, I laid the rubber floor mats and under-seat carpets, which do not require to be glued because they are held in place by the seat runners. I also installed the 12V cigar-lighter socket in a hole I had drilled through the rear bulkhead between the seats - this seems a strange place to put it, but the wiring harness is there in the boot area and it is actually quite convenient even for the cable to a windscreen-mounted GPS. Trust me, I think it will work...

Next I installed the driver and passenger four-point harnesses. This was easy, but I think I will have to remove the top bolts again when I get around to installing the fabric boot cover.

 Just a minute... There's something missing!

 That's better!

The seats went in easily - where the bolts go through the chassis I had to file down the sides of the penny washers, because the strengthening-rail rivets were too close to the seat mounting holes, but aside from that it was simple. Boy, it feels really, really good to sit in the car for the first time! The seats adjust for position OK, I can reach the pedals fine, and it is comfortable! Bloody brilliant.

Brrrrmmm! Brrrrmmm!

Next up is the front & rear wheel arches, and lighting / electrics. Total build hours so far: 100.