The next job was to find a decent windscreen fitter, enquiries led to an expert in Hertfordshire, however he was unwilling to travel to Norfolk as he would apparently lose money, so I had to use a national company, they made a good job of fitting it, and where much cheaper than the expert.

Original wheels where then repainted, a set of cheap tyres attached (as I was on the look out for alloys) wheel trims cleaned, and attached.

Now it is time to trim the car, I obtained a new carpet set in brown, after fitting new floor sound and vibration damping, available from most motor paint suppliers and waxoyling the cills and chassis sections, Tan trim was fitted to the A Post under dash, windscreen rail, and B posts. The carpets where then glued to centre tunnel, B post and inner cills, I cut new boards for the rear parcel shelf and up the sides of the rear deck, these where then trimmed and fixed in position using black PK screws. The loose carpet sections where then fitted.

                              Interior Trim under progress.

New seat belts where fitted to the rear shelf and then the tan back panel was cleaned and refitted to rear bulkhead. The seats where giving a good spring clean, some of the fabric was floppy, so I re-stretched the covers taughter and re-clipped under the seat, runners where cleaned and greased and seats re-fitted, I followed my policy of replacing all bolts throughout the car. 
I could not use the seatbelt warning lights as the replacement seatbelts sold by Rimmers Brothers and others do not have sensors fitted, I could have used second-hand seat belts but with safety in mind thought it best to use new.

                             The Seats Cleaned up very well.

With all the carpeting now complete the hood could be fitted, this was cleaned and re-blacked and then re-fitted, the rear finishers to the hood where re-painted and fixed and new hood fasteners attached.

All plastic items where then giving good doses of cockpit cleaner to bring up a good finish before fitting them, a nice Christmas present of mahogany style finishers for the dash and Ashtrays and a TR8 style steering wheel where also fitted, which gives it a nice touch, if only BL had used a few embellishments like this. My mad daughter bought me furry dice and Brut! Which she said added a period touch, she thinks I am Carlos Fandango!

Next the bonnet was re-hung, and locks adjusted, retaining hooks fitted and water jets piped up, I treated the bonnet sections to some waxoyl and fitted bungs to most of the holes.

I next tackled door re-fitting, these had been completely stripped for painting, the black parts where stripped and re painted and quarter light glass re-fitted and sealed, time consuming but worth the effort. The glass channel felt and door seals where in poor condition so these where replaced, along with the rubber stops and glass guides, these are details usually overlooked, but help to make the car watertight, I did not have the special tool to replace the glass seal spring clips, however taking a grinder to an old screwdriver I fashioned a useful tool, this saves paint damage when fitting retaining clips.

Door handles and locks where cleaned, the black recessed part was re-painted, and handles and lock rods re-assembled, I am glad I made notes and drawings for replacing all this.

The door glass and winder mechanism was then re-fitted, again a tricky job, especially if you grease the runners first, I had grease everywhere in the end, glass is slippy when you have greasy hands. Once complete the doors where then re-hung and adjusted, locks set up and the door-wiring harness from the second-hand loom put in.

I obtained new Tan check door panels, the old ones being rather water stained, these where fitted with new speakers and covers, and the door lights where fitted and connected.

Again here was found another wiring mystery, following the Haynes diagram I could not get the door lights to work, tracking back to the old loom this was again wrong, but now in the loom under the dash centre panel. It is lucky I could again borrow a tool for pulling out the terminal pins on the plugs and sockets. 

                                        Interior Complete.

With the end now in sight the boot was re-trimmed with black carpet, new boards being cut and carpeted, the rear cruise lights where fitted, along with a new aerial, I also fitted a fire extinguisher to a side trim panel.

The boot lid was re-hung, seals fitted and lock adjusted, help was needed here to avoid paint damage.

With the car now complete brakes and clutch where filled with fluid and bled, everything checked for leaks, all bolts checked and torqued, and the car is ready for its first MOT in 7 years, this produced a failure certificate.

The left hand rear brake cylinder had sprung a leak, also the unions on both sides where leaking despite my checking for leaks. The cylinder was taken apart, seals re-inserted and refitted to backplate, I could not tighten the unions any more to cure the leaks as the copper brake pipe kit as supplied had short unions, hence the spanner fouled on the back plate, forcing it be at an angle thus damaging flats. I cut of the short unions, obtained longer ones, and re flared the longer unions to the pipe. I could now get a spanner on properly, and thus tighten enough to cure the leaks without damaging the flats.
 
 A re-test secured the MOT Certificate. Time for some open top motoring at last after 2 1/2 years of work. First trip was a local drive to the Desert Rats war memorial near Brandon as a test run.

                   Newly Restored on First Run.

Click here to go back to homepage-Home

                                                                                 Click on Arrow to go back to Top