Trim & Body Fittings – Page 3 – Chris Vine

Refurbishing the dashtop

Dec 042012

Overall the dash was in reasonable condition. There wasn’t any significant damage to the vinyl covering the three dash sections which was a relief. Although it’s possible to have them re-vinyled, I’m lead to believe that the textured finish isn’t the same as the original. All mine needed was a good clean. Unfortunately the dashtop vinyl hadn’t faired so well and had taken a fair amount of abuse in the past, so that it was now sporting several long tears around the central console area and needed to be replaced.

It looks as if the tears had started on the underside where the vinyl had been cut to allow it to be shaped to the curvature of the dashtop frame. Over time these tears had propagated to the top side of the dash. Fortunately replacement dashtops are readily available from the usual sources and have a generous excess for bondcing to the underside.

The vent surrounds had all started to rust, presumably from airborne moisture carried into the heater blower

The plastic vents on the underside could be withdrawn once the surrounds had been removed

There’s not much to the removal and dismantling of the dashtop. It’s secured to the bulkhead in four places; at the outer edges and brackets either side of the central console area. The map light fitting was simply removed by drilling out two securing rivets.

The heater vents consist of plastic ducts, which are pushed through slots from the underside of the metal dashtop frame, and painted air duct surrounds. Two self tapping screws hold the surround and duct in place. All the surrounds had started to rust, presumably from airborne moisture carried into the heater blower from the engine bay, and so were to be lightly bead blasted and then powder coated. Annoyingly the powder coaters gave them a gloss finish rather than the requested satin. Hopefully they won’t be too distracting by reflecting too much sunlight.

The various dashtop components ready to be rebuilt I decided to powder coat the metal frame in light grey rather than re-plate it. All that was required was to remove the old vinyl top and clear off any remaining contact adhesive. At some time in its history the car must have been resprayed as there was quite a bit of overspray on the outer two air ducts. I still can’t work out why, as it would have been harder to get overspray there than not! However the overspray came off fairly easily after a good scrubbing.

First the plastic ducts must be refitted into the slots in the metal frame, before bonding the vinyl dash top to the metal frame using high temperature contact adhesive. Once glued in place the edges were softened using a heat gun which allowed them to be moulded to the shape of the frame before being glued to the underside. The final tasks were cutting slots in the vinyl for the air vents before refitting the surrounds and riveting the map bulb holder back in place.

Map light bulb holder

The vinyl only needed cutting at the dashtop ends to enable it to follow the curvature of the dash

Heat can be used to make the vinyl more pliable so it can be wrapped around the edges

One of the popular upgrades many owners are making is to improve the dash lighting by replacing the incandescent bulbs with LED strips. The backlighting of the gauges and the map lighting were fairly poor at best and the bulbs also generated a reasonable amount of heat. Therefore my next task is to install white LED strips to replace the map light and install coloured LED strips in the gauges.

Completed dashtop

Air vent surrounds refitted

Building the bootlid spring

Bootlid, Trim & Body Fittings No Responses »

Jun 142012

It’s fairly common for the bootlid springs to wear and eventually fail. Mine were certainly no exception and the bootlid had never sprung open of its own accord. Each spring should consist of a pack of five leaves but the majority had worn so thin that they’d sheared in two. Hence the lid’s unwillingness to open.

I’d read Eric Capron’s very useful article on replacing the bootlid springs and so it was a job I really wasn’t looking forward to! I’d been meaning to ask Hutsons to do this before they returned the painted bodyshell but, in the excitement of finally having the car returned, I forgot to mention it.

As well as a variety of implements to prise open and hold the leaves apart, it’s a jolly good idea to use some heavy duty protective gloves. Once several leaves have been added the spring force is quite strong and the leaf edges sharp enough to do serious mischief to any fingers left in the way.

The first task in constructing the spring packs is to get the 3/16″ bolt on to the first leaf. I deviated from Eric’s guide as I found it wasn’t that easy to open the leaf sufficiently to insert the bolt with the leaf clamped in the vice. This was partly due to the fact that the vice really needed to be clamped securely to a bench rather than free standing, which made the whole process far more difficult.

To start each leaf, the outer end was pushed until there was just a sufficient gap to insert a flat-bladed screwdriver. The screwdriver could then be turned through 90 degrees, lifting the leaf end away further. This allowed it to be slid over the vice’s swivel lever and the screwdriver removed, see the photos below. A solid bar passed through the centre of the leaf could then be pivoted on the vice body to prise it open. The other end of the swivel lever was hard against the vice body so that it couldn’t rotate.

First leaf : this only needs to be opened sufficiently to insert the washer and bolt. This was quite fiddly and would have benefit from a second pair of hands.

A screw driver was used to prise away the leaf end

With the bolt in place, the remaining springs can be added to complete the spring pack

Remaining 4 Leaf Springs
The spring pack is completed by adding the remaining leaf springs in a similar manner, one by one. A new leaf was opened as before and placed on the vice swivel lever so that it could be prised open using the bar. This time the leaf needs to be prised open much further so the whole of the first leaf can be inserted and the bolt end passed through the hole in the new leaf … it’s much more fiddly than it sounds!

Once inserted, ease the pressure on the bar allowing until it can be removed. It’s a very good idea to loosely fit a retaining nut at this point otherwise the new leaf is likely to slip off the bolt. Now put the bar through the first leaf and prise open. In doing so, the new leaf will also open and finally pop into place. The process is then repeated until all five springs have been added.

If was a surprisingly fiddly job but I suspect the hardest part will be fitting them to the boot hinges. I’ll put that off as long as i can!

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