Hammering the Snagging list!!

Right then - time to fit the last of the carpets, the harnesses and the seats. Having drilled the holes for the harness eyebolts in the floor the next job was to drill the holes for the seat runners. There are witness marks on the floor of the body for these holes - I drilled these one at a time checking the next hole lined up before drilling. Eventually all the holes were drilled: The next step was to lay the carpet in place and cut holes with a punch for the various bolts:The harness eyebolts were bolted up first:Now it was time to fit the passenger seat. There are 5mm spacers to fit under the runners at the back and 25mm ones at the front:Access to get all these on the bolts and the bolts through the holes in the floor is a bit limited and a little patience is required.

With the passenger seat in place it was time to turn my attention to the drivers seat, this being complicated by the handbrake taking up nearly too much room!. Whilst cutting the carpet for the bolt holes you will also need to remove the bit of carpet that sits under the handbrake bracket to ensure the handbrake is mounted firmly:Before bolting the handbrake into place I fitted the leather gaiter which is held in place with an escutcheon plate which is fixed after the handbrake is bolted up. Shame it will all be hidden by the seat!With both the seats in I fitted the harnesses and the footwell carpets. And that's the cockpit done - apart from a gearknob and fitting the steering wheel.

End result:Time to consult the list for tomorrow.

More Carpets and Some Leather

Time for the last big piece of carpet - the rear bulkhead. This was carefully lined up and taped into place before sticking down in a number of sections:Whilst waiting for the for the Evo-Stick to dry ready for bonding, I busied myself with investigating how to fit the seat runners. These need two areas of the seat bottom cutting out to accommodate the seat runner mechanisms:Once cut out everything fits a treat (you will need to shorten the operating wire):Just need to do the other seat now. Next up was to trial fit the leather trim panels:

The bulkhead panel is a tight fit and holds down the tunnel panel. However it needed a bit of modification to achieve this. As received the bulkhead panel fitted tight against the carpet and needed a few mm taken off the bottom to accommodate the tunnel panel underneath. This can be easily done by unsticking the leather and carefully removing a few mm off the bottom edge with the Dremel:The bulkhead panel needs two "secret" fixings to fix it to the bulkhead. To do this mark out the carpet with tape in line with the centre of one of the quilts on the panel and on the tape mark the centres of the two fixings before drilling a small hole at each location:Next offer the panel back into place and mark through from the boot:Next take your Dremel (with the depth stop adjustment fitted!) and cut out two keyhole slots to take an M5 button head bolt:To make the bolts easy to get into the bulkhead itself you can open up the holes in the bulkhead to, Say, M8 and use a repair washer on the back. I can't carry on with fixing these two panels as I need some stainless plate to make a couple of brackets and some stainless self tappers and cup washers. We'll come back to these panels in a few days.

Having come to a bit of halt with the leather panels I thought I would trial fit the handbrake:

Wired it up and the operation seems to be OK - need to fit the last piece of floor carpet and gaiter to finish.

Where does the weekend go? just left this afternoon for a tidy up. Once you get the carpet and leather in you can't help but get bits everwhere from drilling etc. So I tend to clean up every other day to keep on top of the mess!

Down in the Other Footwell

Here we go again - a bit more fiddley and with pedals in the way. Floor carpet placed in position for extra drama!

Down in the Footwell

Managed to sneak a quick hour in the garage tonight. This saw the passenger footwell bulkhead carpet fitted:

This was followed up by jamming myself in the footwell to fix the heater hoses to the outlets - here's an upside down action shot:

Getting out afterwards still takes me a while - even after all this practice!!

More Carpets

Carried on working towards the final installation of the dashboard. This necessitates fitting the side carpets as a) the trim finishers fit between the dashboard and the scuttle sides b) it would be difficult if not impossible to fix the carpet to the sides of the body above the level of the bottom of the dash with the dash in place.

So after lots more evo-stik and the knocking on of door seals it was done:

I also drilled a couple of holes adjacent to the fuse box for the fitting of the mechanical temperature gauges:Which reminds me.... I need to trim some cable ties!

The remaining jobs before the dash goes in are to fit the footwell bulkhead carpets - connect the heater ducting to the heater outlets and fit the washer jet.

Cockpit Carpet - 1

The next job is to final fit the windscreen, and this includes fitting the steering column support bar. The steering column support bar has additional fixings onto the top of the transmission tunnel. So....... in order to complete the above, the tunnel carpet needs fixing first. This is a large piece of carpet and would become unwieldy if covered in Evo-Stick in one go!

I lined the carpet up - then carefully folded up the rear section - sprayed adhesive and then glued just the top down. I then folded up the front part - sprayed the remaining length of the top and glued that down.

It was then a matter of spraying each side in turn and sticking down working away from the change in width of the tunnel in both directions:

The sections of this carpet that then stick into the footwell sides will be done later (need to figure out what to do in the footwell extension on the drivers side!).

Having 10 minutes to spare before tea... I fitted the the wiper spindles:I have not fully tightened them up as they will need rotating to suit the position of the wiper Bundy Tube:

Boot Carpeting Nearly done

After a bit of deft work by my wife the fuel pump and filter box out is now carpeted and fits a treat - just needs the top piece glued on:

Whilst I was in there a quick flash around with a scalpel tidied up the carpet around the fuel filler:

I just have to fit the valance piece that fits under the boot lip and over the lights - needs a bit of alteration to do it the way I want. And finally - before I forgot - I fixed the flexible fuel line with a p-clip:

Boot Carpeting Progressing

Bit by bit the boot is getting carpeted. It's a slow job due to the fact that it is now dark and cold(have to open the garage door and work from outside as my garage isn't long enough! to do it inside in the warm!):

The box out for the fuel pump and filter is not-standard GD fit so needs carpeting from offcuts. This needs some bespoke bits of carpet cut and trimmed with leather to match the rest. Fortunately my wife is a dab hand with scissors and a sewing machine:

The Dog is not much help though - it's only good for stealing things (tools, nuts, bolts anything chewy made from rubber) and hiding them in the garden!

Roll Hoops Complete and Boot Carpet Started

Another day another milestone. First task was to fit the small side pieces of carpet to the back of the boot and fit the boot floor. I can thoroughly recommend Evo Stick Time Bond. Just like the normal stuff only you can slightly adjust stuff instead of it sticking fast. I can also recommend a respirator - I found this out only after I started to hallucinate!

Now this is where the false floor comes into its own. I cut some plastic "washers" and fitted them onto the roll hoops and then fitted the roll hoops AGAIN!:These were then taped in place and the roll hoops removed (AGAIN!). The boot carpet was laid face down on the floor and false floor laid face down on top of it. It was then a simple task to cut round the insides of the plastic "washers" with a scalpel. The washers were then removed and bonded to the back of the carpet. The boot floor was refitted, the carpet slid into place and the roll hoops fitted AGAIN - BUT FOR THE LAST TIME!!The carpet needs sticking down yet - but it has turned out quite a good fit with no wrinkles or gaps:Whilst fitting the roll hoops (FOR THE LAST TIME!) I fitted the extra long shock mounting bolts for the hoop U-bracket. This involves a bit of faffing on as you need to remove the other shock mounting bolt to get enough clearance to get the longer bolt in:So there we are - rolls hoops done - just need a bit of a polish now:
Phew!