Trim Items

Its always the trim and interior you do last, and in my experience you rush it as you are desperate to drive the car. Well at the moment as I wait to hear from the paint shop I have a forced layoff from working on the car directly, so I am concentrating on getting the trim items ready to fit when done, so there's no pressure to rush them and forever put up with bodges!

I have also realised how close I am now to finishing the car, I suspect I won't quite make my May deadline, which is the 2nd anniversary of the date the car first arrived home, but the jobs left to complete aren't many, and if I am correct are as follows:-

1). fabricate exhaust system
2). fit roof lining
3). fit heads and carbs
4). finish brake line to offside front brake caliper, and bleed brakes
5). fully test electrics, and fix things that don't work!
6). fit bumpers
7). finish leadloading to bonnet
8). fit wiper arms and blades
9). fit the rest of the interior trim and seats
10). fit radiator and fan
11). fit power steering pump and alternator

Apart from the final comission and test, and the exhaust system, thats probably only 10 or 11 days work, but a lot will need to wait until the paint rectification is complete, however items like the power steering pump can be stripped and rebuilt in the interim

So back to the trim items.

I wanted to complete the parcel shelves, which as you may remember were in a very sorry state. The driverside was all torn, so I stripped it to the component parts and cut out new pieces of millboard

I used the hole punch to cut the rivet holes for the bifurcated rivets, after using a stanley knife to cut the millboard. The new rivets are shiney steel, so I bought a Frosts metal blacking kit

and after dipping the rivets in the appropriate solutions as instructed I ended up with this

24 nice black rivets. After some struggles aligning everything, and then worse still working out how to clamp the rivets and fix them in place, an almost new driver's shelf

The passenger side one was complete, but squashed! However I reasoned that as it was really just thick cardboard, I could wet the cardborad, make it pliable again, and then hold it flat where required with some weights. This is how it ended up, just needs a coat of paint now

The next job of the day was to strip the chrome items off the rear seats, so they can be sent to a plating shop. So it was off to shed with a few tools and strip this lot off the seats

I suspect that lots going to cost a few pounds

The rear seats are in good condition, but need cleaning, and the black velour has faded a little, I am going to try some fabric dye on this. The backings, that form the load area floor, and indeed the load covers over the spare wheel and tank are in poor condition, the wood has warped, and the carpet is rubbish

So I stripped off the load strips, which are an aluminium channel with a rubber insert, and removed all the boards, it was fun finding the hidden fixings! I was going to recover the seat backs myself, but the carpet set I purchased is poor by the original standards, the carpets do not all have the bound edges that they should have, so after discussions with Aldridge Trimming all the boards, with carpet remnants are going off to be remade, accurately and with similar material to that which Triumph used originally, not some nasty synthetic carpet. They need the lot (as patterns), so there was no point stripping them further.

While they are away I will (gulp) polish and straighten the aluminium strips ready for refitting. They are also going to make the rear wheel arch carpet trims, and supply me some carpet for the footwell backing boards I made, and a few other bits of good carpet that I am missing.

hours worked now 797, 7 today 
costs now £14840, metal blacking kit £40, refitting tyres £50, parts last week £20