Right then better start my '77 S1 project...

[CharlieCroker]

Very good condition, I just want to add a custom touch to the center panel, it's going quite well touch wood. I'll post sone photos of my progress shortly.

[CharlieCroker]

Cheers, just had a day when it all went wrong. Anyway, I've had better success with my doorcards today, I always wanted to add a touch of luxury to the interior and the doorcards are begging out for a lift. I've had a sheet of rosewood veneer around for months and intended to add this to the doorcard panel as well as a piece of velour which will go under a chrome strip and below the veneer. Still need to add the velour but seems to be coming together now, see what you think.

[Herc]

That's looking v promising.  I might even consider something like that for mine.  Have you still got the original dash 'veneer', I can't remember, but had a feeling you did.  If so, how well does the rosewood match with the plastic dash?     

 

Makes me wonder about an upgrade of the dash to real rosewood too, although I 'm kinda sentimental about the rubbish plastic wood finish.  Very '70s.

[CharlieCroker]

Yes, the original dash faux veneer is there and my 'real' rosewood veneers match up very well indeed. Infact if I had enough veneer I could have probably should have done that as well. I've just danish oiled them and they look great. Just need to add the velour and chrome strip to finish.

[mikeeech]

The chrome strip looks great. Was this eBay?

[CharlieCroker]

No, wickes, some sort of tile edging, £4.99 for 2m, plus it has a grove on e back that takes a small bolt which will help with fastening.

[dixi4uk]

No, wickes, some sort of tile edging, £4.99 for 2m, plus it has a grove on e back that takes a small bolt which will help with fastening.

I am blown away with your thinking outside of the box.

I was pondering only the other day of where to secure a chrome strip of the type you are using.

I have thoughts of adding a strip of matching carpet to the lower part of the door card to cover some damage.

Thanks for sharing

[CharlieCroker]

Cheers, I always try to find alternatives where possible and that chrome edge just happen to fit perfectly and to my surprise was cheap. If I have time over Christmas I'll try to add the velour and fit the cards to the door. 

[CharlieCroker]

Anyone want my old rear seats for free? If not they are going up the dump in the very near future.

[CharlieCroker]

I've been able to finish off one of my custom doorcards and I would love to report a resounding success but it's ended up being a bit of an epic fail! Spent bloody hours putting these doorcards together and although they look great on the bench they are not doing for me in the car. 'Balls' I say, time, effort and more grazed knuckles and all for nothing. I'm just gunna put the original center panels back in, I'm pissed off but sometimes you just have to try even if the end result turns out not to your liking. This bloody interior is beating me to a pulp, I'll be so glad when it's finished.

So it's coming out, I wish I had something more positive to post but it's fighting me all the way at the moment. However, on a brightee note I'm just going to focus on an original interior, no custom twists anymore.

[Herc]

Charlie, have you thought about a lighter colour for the bottom half of the insert?  

 

I think part of your issue might be the brown vs red.  Or try some of the cream leather on the lower half if you have any bits left over.

 

I think you have something there, it just needs a little tweaking.

 

Herc

[CharlieCroker]

Just pissed off with them at the moment, spent hours trying to get it all together and as soon as I had it on the door I could see it looked crap. Win some you lose some I suppose, just take this one on the chin and move on. You're probably right suggesting trying a cream panel beneath the chrome strip but I think I'm just going to go back to basics and get the original padded panel back in. I've got to refocus now and get stuck in to get this interior in, it's been much much harder than I had ever envisaged, so glad I never went down the route of reupholstering the complete interior myself.

[mikeeech]

I would go darker on the bottom than what's on the top of the chrome strip. The dark at the top makes the insert look top heavy. Try black... Spray paint it to see how it looks first then redo it.

[dixi4uk]

I agree with others that you have not got it completely wrong. It just needs tweaking.

Perhaps fit the original inserts whilst thinking of a solution.

In my opinion the wood looks fantastic but is it too wide? the chrome strip is maybe too chunky. The bottom half may look better in black as Mike suggests.

It all is a matter of "in the eye of the beholder".

 

I see from your photos on Photobucket that your original insert backings are suffering from warpage from damp or something exactly the same as mine. I havent decided how to tackle this yet, probably replacing the ply backing and the split rivets is the only answer. I did consider wetting the ply backings and placing under a weight to dry out but discounted this idea.

 

Keep it up you are doing a great job.

[CharlieCroker]

Thanks for the advice chaps, I think it will be best to stick to the original panel for now and when I am ready revist the doorcards when I have more time to deal with just one problem. I've taken on too many mini projects at once and things have not worked out as well as I had envisaged. I'm not going to stress about it, just take it on the chin and move on. Apart from the rear quarters the interior could go back in, I just need to carpert the front before I can put the front seats back in, and that is the next mini project.

[CharlieCroker]

For the immediate future I have put the original padded panel back and is now sitting much more comfortably with me, makes me feel that the weekend has not been a total fail. I will revisit these doorcards at some point but for now they are on hold, I still like my original idea of rosewood, chrome and material, but use less foam padding behind the cloth, I think that's where it went wrong, I also think a thinner chrome strip will look a touch classier rather than the strip I sourced. The photos below show the original doorcards and they don't look half bad at all.[br][br][br][br][br][br]Trial end error, that's what it is all about.

[dixi4uk]

Looks pretty good to me as well.

[CharlieCroker]

I see from your photos on Photobucket that your original insert backings are suffering from warpage from damp or something exactly the same as mine. I havent decided how to tackle this yet, probably replacing the ply backing and the split rivets is the only answer. I did consider wetting the ply backings and placing under a weight to dry out but discounted this idea.

Regarding the warpage, I managed to get these much flatter simply by coaxing them back into shape by hand. Then pulling the split clips as tight as possible to doorcard itself on refitting. If yours are badly warped I'd agree with you and go for a new back board, marine ply perhaps.

[dixi4uk]

When I get around to it I think that your method will suffice for my inserts.

From your photos I was surprised how good the inserts looked when refitted.

 

Over the Christmas break I unwrapped my upholstery that I bought a few weeks ago from the cling film it was shipped in. The plan was always to recolour it to match the lighter leather shade of the XJS Recaro front seats I had bought separately. So I was not particularly concerned about any discoloration or slight wear marks.

I had been told, and shown  photos, that there was damage to the leather on the lower corner of the o/s door card and a scuff on the centre console.

What I wasn't prepared for was countless puncture holes, rips and nicks in the leather to repair and a door backing panel that was so cracked and broken that it is at present quite useless until it is repaired and strengthened with fibre matting. I hope the fibreglass sticks to the plastic. I have considered using the original door card plastic backing but the leather on the replacement is so unbelievably dry and brittle I fear this will cause much more of a problem.

My plan is to coat all the leather panels with an olive oil and 25% white vinegar mix and leave to soak in for a month and finish off with leather balm used to soften up the leather tack available from my local farners store. How successful this will be I will see when I come back from Spain at the end of January.

The Autoglym leather conditioner hasn't done much, neither did their cleaner. Very expensive products that do not seem to be strong enough for my project. Good old Fairy Liquid and a nail brush worked much better for the cleaning and I am hoping the olive oil and vinegar mix will soften the leather.

 

I have to very quickly add that I am not complaining about my purchase in any way as the price I paid for the interior was very fair. It is just so much extra work I was not expecting.

 

On a more positive note at least the interior is for an Elite and will fit straight in. Eventually.

 

Onward and upward.

 

Happy New Year

[CharlieCroker]

Are you sure it's 100% leather? My 'leather' interior is made up of an assortment of leather and vinyl, as I've worked on each piece not one item seems to be 100% leather. Regarding olive oil, this degrades after time so if you soak your leather pieces in that it will form mould in cold damp weather, you need to find a non biodegradable oil, I don't know what the pro's use but here is a 'Make your own leather food' link using linseed oil.

 

http://www.miss-thrifty.co.uk/2013/01/31/make-your-own-leather-food/

[dixi4uk]

You are right I can not believe how little of the interior I bought is leather the rest is leatherette. Some parts are a mixture of the two exactly as you say. However, being original is better than the 'apprentice practise' version you had in your car when you bought it! It must have cost a fotune in leather alone.

 

This is where I am in a dilema regarding which colour changing system works successfully on both.

It looks to me that VinylKote 90 is favourite at present. It is the only UK system that the manufacturer guarantees effectiveness on both, that I have found. There are USA products that claim the same but the postage would be prohibitive. Furniture Clinic just seem to claim that their product works on leather although some of their repair products will be needed at some point to repair all those holes I have.

 

Your linseed oil vs olive oil is something I had not considered. I have a gallon can of the stuff somewhere. My father in law (sadly no longer with us) was a painter and decorator in the day and he left it here a few years ago telling me to use it for all sorts of things, most of which I have forgotten..

The link is perfect thank you.

I do wonder what the white vinegar is for, a slight acid to allow penetration maybe? or is it to erradicate that awful old stinky leather smell that old cars like 50s Jaguars seem to have?.

 

Slowhand to the rescue yet again!

Well done and thanks,

Adrian

Edited December 29, 2014 by dixi4uk

[CharlieCroker]

Been working on a few details, my old doorcards had a nice chrome strip which is actually the window brush on the interior side, so I took those off and added these to my new original cream doorcards. To my surprise they came off really easily (nice little spring clips that simply pop off) and went back down nicecand flat.

I thought seeing as I am putting the original panel back in the cards I thought I may as well spruce up the ash trays, so they came out and had a fresh lick of paint, I went with cream to better suit the cream leather.

I also decided to replace the large headed plastic fasteners (which hold the trim rails in place) to smaller headed ones, a small detail but looks better.

Slowly coming together, few ups and downs along the way but getting there. Just carpets, those rear quarters and my stereo install and we should be good to go ready for summer 2015, Happy New Year! All the best , Charlie :-)

Edited December 31, 2014 by CharlieCroker

[cbclotus]

looking great Charlie.i Allways thought the four seater cars are a great shape inside.Reminds me of a jensen intercepter when looking at the rear seats.Keep up the good work .Happy new year ....Mike

[CharlieCroker]

Charlie

Did you fix reverse? It is usually simply that the reversing light switch on the back end of the gearbox has been screwed in too far. I suggest you slack it right off, select reverse, then re-tighten until the reversing light just comes on. Chances are strong that'll fix it. And at a cost of 0p.

Herc

What a hero, best piece of advice I've had on the forum, absolutely worked, I almost bought a new gearbox I eas getting so frustrated with it!

[CharlieCroker]

Been out and bought some carpet today in the sales, got 5sq meters for under £30, nice stuff good colour with a nice texture to it. Scraped and cleaned the floor pan of all the old crap and I've been trying to work out the best way to do this. I'm think a lot of paper templates to make up the shapes. However I want to have the least amount to cuts possible to simplify the look, less is more and all that.

Found this box in the foot well, anyone know what it is for, looks like an addition to control something?