Interior Refreshment

Along with probably most other classic car owners, we like to spend ages making the outside look off the car as perfect as possible. Then we tinker with the engine to make it smoother, more efficient, or just do things for the sake of it. We often ignore the interior. Yes we give it a good hoover, spit 'n' polish and the like, but sometimes forget what it really looks like. After all, most of the time, we're sitting on it and not looking at it.

I decided this winter (2008) to change that. First of all, I thought that I needed to replace the carpet. The existing carpet was original, and much of the threadbare areas were my fault! When I was a kid, I always had to sit in the middle in the back, usually, that meant standing on the transmission tunnel, arm on each front seat - just ready to be propelled through the windscreen at the slightest whiff of an accident!

Anyway, I thought if I replace the carpet, the seats are going to look shabby. Oh dear, that means getting the front seats restitched and I can't do that - I'll have to find someone. Then I'll have to dye them black again and feed them to get them supple again.

The front seat belts need changing as they're shabby, and while I'm at it, I'll put seatbelts in the back! The cost of this is going up fast!

Here's some photos of the interior when I removed the carpet. I wish I'd taken a 'before' shot, but I must have been too impatient to remove everything!

Looks shabby doesn't it! There is some welding required at some point if you look carefully down the sides of the inner sills, but it's been like this for a very long time. It was like that when I had the sills done back in 1995. The sills are however very strong. I'll paint them up and waxoyl everywhere to ensure they last longer.
Sometime in the next few years I'm going to buy a welder, teach myself to weld and when I feel competent, I'll fix it myself. Until that time comes, I know it will last.
You'll also see a white patch in the drivers footwell and you should also see 6 rubber bungs - 3 on each side. Where the white patch is, the rubber bung was missing and the resulting hole covered by a piece of scrap metal that appeared to be glued on!! I found the rubber bung under the felt under the back seat!! How on earth did it get there! Anyway, I've jenolited it, put the bung in, and painted it. Hopefully it will now last.


While everything was out, and before I start painting, I needed to clean up the seatbelt anchoring points. Shown here is the buckle anchor for the rear belt. These anchorages have never been used - rear belts were optional extras back in 1971. So all threads were cleaned out to remove old paint and surface rust by running a tap through the thread. There's plenty of taps and dies on eBay for imperial sizes (thankfully!).

Next it was time to paint the floor. I decided to get some Hammerite hammered finish - doesn't show the imperfections!
I had done some searching on the internet around soundproofing and some posts suggested using foam and expressed the qualities of camping mats! other sites suggested using as many different types and as much as possible! so, here you'll see that where I can, I'm actually using both foam and felt. If you examine the gearbox tunnel closely, you'll see that there is foam underneath the felt. You will also see grey squares on the floor, this is Wickes self adhesive lead flashing. Apparently this contains bitumen and has good sound proofing qualities. The idea here is to help to take the 'ring' out of the panel and therefore deaden the sound.
I bought the carpet from Coverdale (www.carcarpets.co.uk). This was excellent, all cut to the correct pattern and ready to fit. Yes it took a nip and tuck there - but so did the original if you look carefully at what you take out!
Here is the gearbox tunnel with the centre console back on. This is an absolute swine to fit. Carpet is flat, the tunnel is not! This is the best I could get it, and actually, I'm really quite pleased. The colour is Gold and is a new colour to the Coverdale catalogue.
While I was at it, I checked out the gaiters and bought a new one for the gear leaver, it's a bit awkward to get the centre console off in the first place, easier without the seats so the best time to sort it out.
The carpet is in now - looks good huh!
You will see that the edges of the footwell carpet is bound in black. When you order carpet from Coverdale, remember to tell them what colour you want any binding done in. I think it looks best if you get it done in the same colour as the interior - goes well with the blackseats.
You'll also see here that I've put the front seatbelts in. The belts are a brand new set from Securon. The Securon website will tell you which belts will fit which car - but order them from your local motor factor and not direct from Securon - they're not setup to sell to the public so you'll pay more! Seatbelt fittings are standard, even in our modern metric world, seatbelts are still imperial - 7/16 UNF bolts hold them in to all cars.

Here it's all finished! I've even put a small lapbelt in the back - well you never know how many Grandchildren I'm going to get (here's hoping) but now I can put 3 in the back and get them into classic cars from an early age!

All the leather has now been stitched and dyed black. I found a great chap, Tim of Tove Trimmings in Towcester. He's spent all his life in the motor industry including Triumph and Aston Martin. To dye the leather, I used a Woolies kit and I found it to be very good. I did find that to clean the leather, because it had never been treated in 38 years, was to use the supplied Woolies cleaner with wire wool. It sounds harsh, but it isn't, it scours the top surface to then allow the cleaners and hide food into the leather to help condition it. You will be amazed at the amount of dirt that comes off, unbelievable! Overall it was a very lengthy process and I must admit, I was pushing it a bit at times - filling the dining room up with leather chairs that had been cleaned, then rubbing in hide food in the lounge in front of the telly! Don't worry, she's still talking to me! The only other thing to be careful about with the Woolies kit is the final step of putting on the sealing paste - don't rub too hard, keep it very light otherwise you'll polish off the dye. It won't be sealed until this step is complete.