Interior trim V1.1.1

 

This is a work in progress but as the blog is being written at the same time as I am working (for a change), I thought I might as well publish it to make it a live update of sorts. So do pop back in the future to see when I finally give up and set the lot on fire.

What it arrived with

fig1.1


The interior trim was the most openly not finished part of the car. It is a little unclear if this was ever finished. I have the impression that it was at least functional originally then a redesign and update was carried out by a previous owner but they lost momentum along the way.

New switches and the partially flocked dash were mentioned by the previous owner as was the carpet which was placed but not finished in order to at least get out and drive the car.  The dahs pod looked like a new addition and fairly tidy if awaiting finishing.

fig1.2

Fibreglass bucket seats were a necessity for the rather tall previous owner and something I planned to replace before I even bought the car. 4 point harnesses seemed like a sensible idea as this car could be quite fun!

fig 1.3

It was hard to ignore nice little details like the door cards which had been made from alloy sheet and trimmed in the same faux swede as the centre tunnel. They looked smart and were one less thing to worry about. 

Upgrades

The seats

The plan

Needless to say the first thing I changed was the seats. Despite the fibreglass bucket seats (shown in fig1.2) being surprisingly comfortable for a short drive I knew I could do better. 
Initially, I intended to buy some second-hand classic Recaros from an early Golf GTi or maybe and Escort. This idea was soon binned when I realised the seat belts wouldn't work. So I looked at seats with harness slots which all looked a bit too modern save for maybe the modern mini clubman seats and a few similar "retro" inspired designs.
Eventually, Androids' click-bait news section got the better of me and made me notice that Cobra seats had a sale on and that they offer classic seat designs.
I spent far too long on thier website but settled on the fact that they do two seat designs that have harness loops and the price was pretty reasonable. Thankfully before I hit buy now I did shop around a little and found a few Cobra classic CS seats on eBay, still new for a few quid less. They didn't have fancy corduroy centre sections but they were smart and local, so I could get them now for a few notes less than I would have otherwise spent.
Ironically, if you check the video on the reference blog post, I think this seat is what was removed from the car by the previous owner!
fig2.1.1


Fitting

The seats come as in fig 2.1.1 with no rails (they are an optional extra) and four m8 well nuts pre-drilled into the bottom of the frame.

I planned to use the new looking low profile rails that were on my existing seats. They looked like a bolt in so I decided to swap in the drivers seat in a short window of opportunity I had.

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