Doug's Journal

This car belonged to my son and it really is a sweet car. He lost the desire to work on it and so now it is in my stable. I tried selling it last year, because it has such great bones, it just needs finishing. Which I thought would be a PLUS for anyone out there as they could finish it according to their own tastes - but I was unsuccessful. This is really okay with me because I've had a hankering to get my hands back some restoration work.

Last spring during Moss's annual upholstery sale I purchased a new interior and I'm looking forward to installing it. I have new carpet, new door cards, new door caps, new seat covers, new steering wheel as well as door handles & cranks.

First step is removal of what is there, then repair what's needed and prepare for installation. Lastly is installation.

The seats were really ugly Naugahyde and you can see the original color on the back bulkhead. We had used vinyl paint to paint them tan. Anyways, the seats were removed for refurbishing while the interior is prepped.

As you can see in the photos, it is incredible how much petrified glue is stuck on these panels. I tried using some Acetone to remove it, but it was caked waay too thick. I had to resort to using a die grinder with a wire brush. That works pretty well but is very messy with glue dust flying everywhere.

I also have an issue with a drivers side floorboard. I had paid a local British Specialty shop to replace the rusted floor panel with a brand new Heritage panel. They welded it in, but didn't finish well. So I will be removing the surface rust where they ground off for clean welds, priming them, applying seam sealer, and lastly painting with a top coat. This will happen prior to installation of the new carpet. Unfortunately, I have to do these same repairs on the underside of the car.

I plan on detailing this process in my journal.