Breathing New Life into the Interior

With the mechanicals making good progress, I decided to turn my attention to some of the interior components. I began by taking out the seats. Although they were incredibly grubby, they appeared to be in half-decent condition underneath all the dirt. I spent a good while scrubbing them with a drill-attached brush and some Cif, and the results were brilliant. They came up looking absolutely brand new.

Next on the list was the steering wheel. It was heavily worn, with a lot of the original top coat missing, leaving it looking quite discoloured and tired. Fortunately, I had a leather refurbishment kit leftover from a previous project. I put it to good use, re-dyeing the leather a deep black before sealing it with a fresh satin top coat. Just like the seats, it was a night and day difference, and it looks brilliant again.

I then 3D printed an SSC insert 

Turning my attention to the footwells, the carpets were very dirty, so I decided to pull them out completely. I do plan to replace them entirely at some point in the future, but for now, a good wash was the best plan. I took them down to the local Morrisons, which conveniently has a massive public washing machine. I threw them in with a bit of washing powder, and they actually came out looking really good.

However, lifting the carpets revealed another job to add to the list. The floors underneath had developed a bit of surface rust. I decided to strip out what little sound insulation was left in there, wire brush the metalwork down, and clean it up as thoroughly as possible. Taking a leaf out of my suspension rebuild, I then treated the floorpans to a coat of Armaguard primer, followed by a tough layer of U-Pol Raptor topcoat to keep any future rust at bay. Finally, I laid down some brand new sound deadening material before reinstalling the freshly washed carpets.