January 2022 post on Jag restoration progress
I'm afraid this is a rather long post, covering almost 5 months of work. I think the delay has been due to the difficulty of working on the interior trim; many weeks of work produced little visible progress. But things are changing. With the interior done all things mechanical now will come to the front of the queue, and progress will be better. Hopefully my next post will introduce a car sitting on four tires and ready to run, if not actually started. My goal is to have it running, at least in the garage, by my birthday, May 31st.
• Finish boot lid assembly and installation
At the end of my last post I was having trouble getting the boot lid to close nicely in its frame, so I had decided to install the glass in order to stiffen the door and then try fitting it again. Of course, in order to install the glass all of the vinyl trim must be fitted to the door as the rubber seal that mounts the glass fits over the vinyl. So I set to work fitting the upholstery to the inside of the door.
Gluing the inside vinyl to the pinch weld where the glass mounting rubber will lock it in place. The woven edging is just used to hold the edge while the adhesive cures.
More gluing of the trim edge around the window opening.
Like everything else that involves upholstery on this car, this was a difficult job. It looked like it would be easy; two pre-covered panels just need to be fitted to the door and held in place with push-in clips on the bottom and contact adhesive on the top. Unfortunately the bottom panel did not fit. I had to peel back the glued vinyl and cut about 3/8 inch of the fiber board all along one side to make it fit, then I re-glued the vinyl back in place and tried again. This time the holes for the push-in clips did not line up with the holes in the steel face of the door. It was not too difficult to cut the holes in the board a little oblong to make the clips fit. I had to do this on many of the panels that are fitted to the sides of the car. In some cases I drilled new holes in the steel body, and in others I just left the clips out where they didn’t seem to be needed.
Cutting the fiber panel with a hacksaw blade to make it fit the boot lid. The holes for the push-in clips were also off.
Eventually I managed to get the vinyl all in place and was able to install the glass in its rubber channel that goes all around the window opening. Installing the window was easier than putting on the vinyl, at least the glass fit.
There are two chrome covers that fit into shallow cuts in the rubber channel. These covers did not work so well. The cuts are too far apart and the chrome covers won’t stay tightly in place. As of today I’m still not sure what to do about this. If I can solve the problem I will report on it in the next post.
Here the chrome trim pieces are being fit into grooves in the glass seal. The lower half is in but not yet the upper piece. These pieces did not fit well either. The grooves in the rubber seal were too far apart and the chrome piece would not stay in the groove on both sides. I’m not sure how to solve this? BTW, the white strips are reflected ceiling lights!
Actually, having the window in place did not help in fitting the door. It still did not go in with a nice uniform gap all the way around. I don’t know what changed from when I took the door off the car, but it would not fit back on the way it came off. I had to file out mounting holes and make more shims and even use different mounting screws on both hinges to get it even close. But the job is done and the lid opens and closes OK and from across the street you cannot tell that it does not fit perfectly. It’s just one of those things that, as a first-timer in restoring one of these cars, I cannot get it quite right. Fortunately, the latch mechanism works OK.
The finished boot lid from the inside of the car. Boot floor and side panels are also in place in this photo.
• Finish upper wheel arch trim panel
With the boot lid in place I could proceed to install the covered panel above the left wheel arch. This panel covers the boot-lid hinges so the hinges have to be in their final state before this panel can be installed. Here was another case where the push-in clips would not even come close to fitting the holes in the body. Because there are upholstered covers over the hinges and the cantrail screwed down at the top of the panel and the quarter-window latch screwed through this panel, there is really not much need for the clips, so I left most of them out.
The same photo above shows that upper side panel in place with the upholstered hinge covers.
• Installing fuel tank
After all the rear panels, the rear bumpers and tail lights are in, the fuel tank can be bolted in. The real reason I waited on the fuel tank is that it is easier to work on the boot-lid hinges and side panels while seated in the fuel-tank space.
My tank was a new replacement so I was pleased when it mostly fit in to the original mounts without having to cut or file anything. The little sump at the bottom of the tank just barely fit through its opening in the floor, but I suppose even a bad fit is better than having to move the hole.
The fuel tank is installed with new submerged pump and restored level sender. Fuel line has also been installed in this photo.
• Fuel pump and wiring
The new fuel pump and restored fuel-level sender could now be installed. These fit back in just fine and the wires were already waiting to be connected. I don’t know if I have mentioned before that I decided finally that this was a positive-ground car. I had not understood that at first, but I convinced myself by checking all of the DC motors on the car. The heater fan motor, the radiator fan motor, the windshield-wiper motor and the windshield sprayer motor all ran backwards if I connected them to the battery with negative ground. So the car had to be positive ground. I found this interesting because the battery cables that were on the car when I got it, and they were not the originals, were red to the loads and black to the chassis ground, making it look like it was a negative ground.
Anyway, the fuel pump could be connected either way so I had to make this determination before hooking it up. Positive ground it is!
This photo shows the original battery disconnect warning plate which implies a positive ground car. I wasn’t really sure until I had tested all the DC motors. Interestingly, the engine starter motor will run the same direction with either polarity!
• Fuel float sender and wiring
The fuel-level sender unit is the original, just cleaned up (bead blasted inside and out) and reassembled carefully. It is a simple copper brush attached to a cork float. The floating cork raises the brush which brush wipes along a coil of very small gauge resistance wire, so the sender is simply a variable resister which reduces or increases voltage as it wipes up and down. The coil is fragile but it was not broken and it worked when I got it back together. The whole unit operates submerged in the fuel.
• Boot boards, leveling of dip in floor
With the fuel tank, pump and sending unit installed it was time to re-fit the new boot boards which cover the tank and the spare tire. The boards are 11/32 – inch plywood and the originals were totally cracked and warped and unusable. It took me two tries to get the correct boards from the vendor as there are so many variations on these cars from year to year, and even within the same year. But I eventually received the correct boards and now proceeded to fit them. They actually fit fine.
I transferred all the original hardware to the new boards and they went in fine. But after I got them in I noticed that the floor of the rear of the car had a dip in it. At the forward edge of the boot boards the floor tilts upwards at about a 10-degree angle, which I had not noticed until now.
Straightedge showing 10-degree dip in the boot floor typical of all models prior to the Series 1.5 at the end of the 1964 model year.
I was concerned enough that I posted a question on the Jag Lover’s Blog asking about the dip. The response was that all the cars had that dip until the 4.2 model later in 1964. That model had a riser fitted at the low point in the dip and then another board fitted from the riser up to the hinges of the cubby door. With this modification the floor became flat. Before this all the floors were dipped.
The real problem with the dipped floor, for me, was that it bends the chrome luggage rails that lie lengthwise on top of the Hardura mat that covers the floor. This just seems like a poor design and would make it difficult to slide luggage across the bent rails.
My car actually had the later style cubby hinges that were raised up by the thickness of the new forward board, obviously in anticipation of the revised floor. But I did not have the additional riser or the third board. So I decided to make my own riser and board. I bought a piece of 11/32 plywood at Home Depot and made the riser from a piece of 16 gage sheet steel at the BYU shop. With a little work these parts worked out very well and I now have a flat floor. It is not original, but can be easily removed if I ever wish, for some reason, to put it back in its original condition.
This photo shows the steel riser bar that I bent on the BYU press brake to raise the center of the floor about 1.5 inches. The forward board resting on the riser is also new to create the level floor.
With the new riser and forward board the boot floor is now flat.
• Wiring harness installation
The left and right rear wiring harnesses had been put in back in the previous post. They had to be in place before the side panels could be installed in the back and sides. But now the forward main harnesses had to go in and be connected. These harnesses present quite a challenge, as can perhaps be seen in the photos. The terminal connections of all the wire ends are a significant problem in themselves, and it would be impossible to understand where every wire goes without a good wiring diagram, which I fortunately had. But the larger problem is how to run the harnesses through all the openings and corners of the firewall and dashboard. I had to put the harnesses in and out several times before I came upon an arrangement that looked like it would work. Unfortunately the wiring diagrams are of no help with this problem. It must be solved mostly by patient trial and error.
The three under-dash wiring harnesses are something of a nightmare. I had these in and out several times before finding an arrangement that allowed all the end connections to be more-or-less where they needed to be to make final hook up. My new harness came with several wires that were not in the original, I suppose to accommodate minor variations that existed within the model years.
• Driver’s foot well wire run
A particularly difficult placement of wires was the large bundle going through a hole in the driver’s side footwell. This bundle is so thick it does not want to bend at all, but it must make a sharp bend where it turns and goes through the footwell just under the voltage regulator. I ended up cutting a stick of wood to the right length and forcing it in against the wire bundle from the engine-firewall side of the footwell. By this means I was able to get the bundle to bend and then to fit the vinyl-covered wireway over the bundle. I only hope I did not damage any of the wires or insulation in forcing such a tight bend.
Driver’s side footwell showing stick of wood forced in place to bend the heavy wire harness through the hole in the firewall. The vinyl-covered wireway is here in place at the top of the outer wall.
• Instrument rebuilds
The next problem was reconditioning of the instruments, or gauges. There are four gauges, oil pressure, water temperature, fuel level, and amperage. They first three are all fairly simple voltage-reading devices, and the fourth shows current level by responding to magnetic field strength in a coil of wire that varies with current flow. I disassembled all of these and cleaned them as best I could, then repainted the cases, cleaned the glasses and repainted the bezels then reassembled them with new seals. I have not been able to test their calibration but I think they all work. If not I may have to buy new ones. They are not difficult to remove and replace because the panel to which they are mounted pivots forward and downward exposing all the switches and gauges with easy access. Quite a brilliant notion on the part of some early Jaguar engineer.
Oil pressure gauge as removed three years ago.
Water temp gauge as removed.
Reassembled gauges going back into the instrument panel. Note all of the restored switches. All the original switches still functioned except the panel-light dimmer switch. All can be purchased as replica parts.
The speedometer and tach I had restored two years ago, among the first things I did on the car. I installed them back in their places with new bulbs for internal illumination. I don’t know if they will work or be calibrated correctly. The tach is an electric gauge that responds to a rotating sending unit mounted on the ended of the intake cam shaft. The speedometer is mechanical and runs on a flexible cable coming from the transmission. I have tested it with an electric drill and it works, at least at low speed.
Tachometer case as removed from the car. All cases were beadblasted and repainted.
Here they are reinstalled on the panel in the car. By the way, the black vinyl on the instrument panel face is the original, re-glued to the newly Zinc-plated steel panel. The little clock at the bottom of the tach I had professionally rebuilt and modernized.
I was pleased to discover that the turn signal switch still works (although I had to do some more work on it after I had installed it in the car). It is a rather fragile unit with a plastic cage that was broken when I got the car. I was able to obtain a new one by calling the supplier to ask about it, as the part did not show up in the company catalogue. The left and right turn switches work now. The high-beam switch also works even without the head lights installed because it turns on a dash indicator light showing high beams. The headlights will not be until the bonnet is put back on, which will be after the engine and transmission are re-installed and the car is running. Sorry I did not get any photos of the turn-signal switch when I was working on it.
• Fuse block connections
All of the vehicle fuses are also accessible with the instrument panel tipped down. There are 8 fuses and the wiring diagrams show pretty clearly which color wires go to which fuse. The difficult part is that there are, for example, about six solid green wires, and two go to one fuse and four to another. So you have to follow the wiring diagram and see which green wire goes to which devise on the car, then do a continuity test to find the correct wire to connect to which fuse. The process actually is not too difficult compared to most other tasks involving wiring. I must have put all the wires in their correct connections because when I connected the battery everything worked as it was supposed to. I did have a little trouble getting a good connection to the terminals on the amp gauge, I don’t know why?
The fuse block connections are all complete here and the gauge/switch panel is being connected. It was rewarding to find each switch doing what it was intended to do as it was wired up.
• Panel switches
The eight toggle switches that mount on the instrument panel as well as the ignition switch, light switch, and starter button were all old and rather corroded. I cleaned them up best I could and installed them all hoping they would still work. To my surprise all the switches worked except one, the panel light switch which has three positions; off, dim, and bright. This switch I could not get to work so I ordered a new one. The new one arrived and works fine, so I have a complete working instrument panel, assuming that the gauges all work and are still reasonably calibrated.
Here is a later photo showing the switches and gauges all installed and working. The ignition switch is original but I had a couple of extra keys made for fear of losing the one key that came with the car.
• Glove box
The flocked glove box fitted to the passenger side of the dashboard was in bad condition in the original so I bought a new one. I see in some internet reading that it is possible to re-flock these boxes and make them like new again, but I learned that too late. If I ever do another I will try the restoration route. But the new box fit OK with a little coaxing and bending. There is no door to the glove box so it needs to look pretty good as part of the dashboard. The glove box and choke lever need to be installed together as they share one fastener. I had cleaned up and re-plated the choke-lever parts much earlier so that assembly was ready to be installed.
New glove box installed in the passenger side of the dash. Note the soft leather driving gloves my brother gave me. These are nice when handling a rather slippery wood steering wheel!
• Heater box/fan installation
Another assembly that I finished a year ago, and the process is covered in an earlier post, is the heater fan and box that blows hot air into the car’s interior. This unit was ready to install so in it went and with no problems. It fit back in just as it came out, which I found to be unusually gratifying as most parts were not this cooperative. Two flexible cables connect to the heater; one to open and close the air duct damper and one to open and close the water valve controlling how much hot water flows through the heat-exchange coil. I used the original cables and they still work. The mechanical levers that move the cables I had also previously restored by bead blasting and replating all the parts. The little plastic handles were still usable and went right back on.
It is worth noting that almost the only plastic parts in the entire car are the little handles that go on the levers and toggle switches on the dashboard. There are a few other plastic and some fiber parts but they are rare on this car. The vinyl upholstery fabrics make up the greatest weight of plastic in this car. The plastic molding industries were not very far along in the 1960’s.
Heater box as removed from the car. Nothing would move, motor was frozen.
The finished heater box. New foam seal on damper, motor runs well, cleaned up and re-soldered broken wiring. Ready to go back on the car.
The finished heater box installed on the fire wall.
• Electrical success
I will repeat here that with all of this wiring done, when I connected the 12-volt battery everything that I could test worked! The interior light, map light, panel lights, gauge lights, heater fan (high and low speeds), the wipers (high and low speeds and parking), the windshield sprayer pump (no liquid yet), the fuel pump (no fuel yet), the turn signals in the rear, the choke indicator, hand-brake indicator, and brake lights, all worked.
• Door sill vinyl
With the electrical systems at a point where I could leave them, I turned back to the interior trim. The next pieces to go in were the vinyl covers over the door sills. These had to go next as the side panels and foot-well panels cover these. The sills are first covered with a 1/8 inch layer of foam padding which gives the sills a little cushion. This is nice because whenever you get in or out of the car you have to support yourself with your hand on this sill, so it is a little bit cushioned. The green vinyl is glued down around the edges over the foam. Since there are no compound curved surfaces it was relatively easy to get straight, although I still ended up with some wrinkles that I couldn’t seem to stretch out. Upholstery is not really my thing. These sills ae trimmed with a piece of chrome trim running along the outer edge just under the door. The original chrome was pretty badly scratched so I bought new pieces. These are followed by strips of rubber seal just below the chrome to help seal the bottom edges of the doors.
Right side door sill glued in over thin foam pad, with floor carpets also going in.
• Vinyl side panels/door closure stops
The vinyl-covered side panels on left and right sides, just behind the doors, could now be installed. They once again used push-in clips to secure them in place but many of the holes in the panels did not match up with the corresponding holes in the body. But there are other pieces that help hold in these side panels, like the cushioned strips that run below the rear quarter windows, and on the right side the release lever for the boot lid. The panels went in OK without any modification.
On the right can be seen the side panel being installed with the new cubby pocket under the quarter window.
Where these panels meet the edge of the “B” post where the door closes they cover a strip of vinyl that gives a seal against the door when the door is closed. These strips are held in place by three screws that screw into small holes in the body. Here again the original holes in the strips and the corresponding original holes in the “B” pillar sheet metal did not line up very well so I had to do some redrilling. I don’t know what might have moved! The tops of these strips together with the front ends of the cushioned strips that run beneath the quarter windows are covered with little chrome caps. These were difficult to fit back on and also required some redrilling, but eventually ended up looking about as they were originally intended. I will mention here that just before I wrote this I tried fitting the passenger-side door to the car and it hits this strip, preventing it from closing! Looks like I will have to disassemble all this stuff and move these strips to new positions to allow the doors to close. Once again, everything is fastened back in original holes, but even so there is interference that prevents easy reassembly.
This is the clamp-on, U-shaped strip that creates the door closure at the B pillar. For some unknown reason this strip interfered with the door closing even after being re-fitted back in its original screw holes. Something changed but I don’t know what.
• Center console/radio console fitting
Perhaps the worse example of original things not fitting back together is the center console that covers the transmission tunnel. The main problem was this; that the metal frame of the center console hit the metal top of the transmission tunnel preventing the center console from dropping into it’s low and proper position.
My final solution was to cut away part of the transmission tunnel cover and hammer up the bottom of the console sufficient to let the console drop into position. All that was necessary to allow the radio/ashtray console to fit into its proper position so that its mounting holes would line up with the threaded mounts on the car chassis and so the instrument panel could swing down without hitting the radio console.
I spent about an entire week messing around with this fit-up problem. It caused about as much grief as stretching the wool moquette material over the rear-wheel arches.
Unfortunately I don’t have any photos of my struggle with the center console. I think it was too discouraging a task to take pictures of it. But it finally went in and you would never guess by looking at it that it had caused so much grief!
• Retrosound radio
The next interesting problem, once the radio console would mount in its proper location on top of the center console, was installing a radio. The original Blaupunkt radio was complete toast, completely unsalvageable. I did some searching on line for an original-looking radio that could replace the Blaupunkt. The best I could find was that made by Retrosound. They make modern radios for replacing any old classic car radio.
The Retrosound radios are available for most popular classic restorations. The model they sell for E-Type Jaguars they say is not guaranteed to fit, but they are pretty sure with some ingenuity it can be made to work. The warning they give is that their radio must be installed with a negative ground, and, of course, my Jag is wired with positive ground. The Retrosound people tell me that that installation cannot work.
Well, that challenge was all I needed. I ordered the radio and started figuring out how to install it in a positive ground vehicle. The radio came and fit nicely into its designated spot in the Jag’s radio console. I determined that the polarity to the radio could simply be reversed (negative radio to ground), if the entire radio console could be completely isolated, that is insulated, from the rest of the chassis of the car. Any conductive contact between the negative ground radio console and the positive ground car chassis would result in a direct short and probably a fire in the car. I could understand why the manufacturer did not want customers trying this dangerous installation.
The radio console is mounted to the car chassis at four threaded locations. Nowhere else does it touch the metal car chassis, except for the antenna mount. I designed four insulators to use on the mounting points that would isolate the radio from the car. I sent a pencil drawing of the insulators to one of my sons who is good with CAD systems and has a Rapid Prototyping machine. He drew up my parts and build me a set of four plastic insulators and I tried them out. Though it was a little tricky to get them positioned correctly (I had to grind out the four mounting holes on the radio console), they did the job and I was able to connect the radio without a short. I also had to make an insulator for the antenna mount so it would not contact the car body.
After all these precautions I added a final safety device, a DPST, 5-amp, circuit breaker given to me by an electrical-engineer neighbor. Both power and ground to the radio go through this circuit breaker so that if there is any short circuit the breaker trips and the car is saved from fire. I installed the breaker, along with a manual switch for turning off power to the radio, in the aluminum panel that fits under the dashboard next to the steering wheel.
With this I can cut power to the radio as if it were connected to the ignition key, but leave the clock function of the radio connected to power directly from the car battery so the radio clock will function continuously. The Jag clock, which is integral with the tachometer, also operates continuously from the car battery.
This new radio is entirely modern, with both AM and FM reception, 6 preset station selectors, two USB inputs, one auxiliary input, Serius Radio connectivity, and Bluetooth capability. I also bought and installed two new speakers that have both base cones and built-in tweeters. The speakers are clear and can be turned up loud for noisy driving and the radio pairs to my phone easily and so will play anything I can play on my phone, where I have a Pandora account. So not much call for broadcast radio listening.
Finished radio console with ash tray. Note that leather on panel face is original. The restoration kit came with vinyl but the leather was nicer so I kept it.
The under-dash panel with off switch and circuit breaker mounted This panel is the original Aluminum recovered with thin black vinyl.
Same panel looking on the inside. This circuit breaker protects in case of a short between the negatively grounded radio console and the positive grounded car chassis.
• Foot well trim
The footwell upholstery consists of Hardura panels on the outside walls and top and wool carpet panels on the firewall sides and floors. The firewall sides and floors also have a heavy hair pad for sound and heat protection. The several panels are held in place with some screws at one edge, but mostly they are free to just flop around. I don’t know how they were intended to be secured but I chose to use Velcro strips with one side of the Velcro glued to the metal footwell wall or roof and the other strip glued to the upholstery. This did the job for holding the material in place and will let me remove the panels when necessary by just peeling apart the Velcro.
The job sounds easy but took me several days to get all the panels cut and fit.
Outside Hardura and roof piece held in place with Velcro strips. Firewall padding seen on end wall and engine side.
• De-mist tubes install
The E-Type is fitted with a defrost system for the windshield. But in England it is called a de-mist system because frost must be so rare on the island. Whatever it is called, it blows warm air onto the windshield through five vents located at the forward edge of the dashboard top. These vents are fed by flexible, wire-reinforced paper tubes that connect the vents to the heater plenum running behind the dashboard.
There is very little room for these tubes behind the dashboard, they are a tight fit. And they have to be cut to length and bent to fit around all the other stuff that is down there. And to install them, they have to be first attached to the vents in the dashboard top and then lowered with the top down into position through the wires and various openings under the dash. It almost requires two people to install these, one to lower the dash top and the other person lying on his or her back under the dashboard guiding the tubes through their paths to their connection points at the heater plenum.
I had purchased new tubing as the original tubes were rotten and broken and not usable. I fitted the new tube pieces first with the dashboard top un-finished, just to get all the bends and lengths working. The next step was to recover the dashtop and put it into its finished position.
De-mist, or defrost tubes installed on recovered dash top. These have to be installed first on the top then passed carefully down behind the dashboard and connected to the tubes coming from the heater plenum which is part of the firewall.
• Dashboard top cover and installation
I had purchased a new dashboard cover about three years ago, almost with my first purchase of replacement parts. My old top was cracked and large pieces of it were missing so there was no chance of reusing it.
The new cover consisted of a rigid foam pad with a formed plastic cover over it made of thick, stiff, sheet plastic, apparently thermoformed to shape and then glued to the rigid foam. The new top had been sitting around my house for almost three years so I wondered if it would even still be workable, fortunately it was.
Putting the new cover of the steel top frame was at least a two-person job requiring a good heat gun to warm the stiff plastic sheet and bend it over the edge of the steel frame, contact cement to glue the rear-facing (facing the cockpit) edge of the top, and steel push-on clips for the other (forward-facing) edge. My son, Ned, came to help me.
He is good with this kind of hand-fitting, stretching and gluing work. Together we managed to get the cover on, though not as cleanly as professionals would have done. But most of the work is invisible beneath the top so small imperfections don’t really show unless you know exactly where to look for them. For a first-time effort I think we did OK.
The newly covered dash top with defrost vents installed and ready to put on the car.
The dashboard top mounts to the car chassis through holes that fit over threaded studs welded in the top. There is no way these could have moved during the restoration process, but somehow with the new cover on and the top re-mounted in its fixed location, the chrome trim strips that cover the extreme left and right corners of the top would not fit back together at all. I think the problem was the new rigid-foam pad that came with the new cover. The foam must be thicker and extend further towards the rear of the cockpit than the original.
New dash top in place and looking good except the chrome trim pieces would not fit on the new corners.
My solution to this fit-up problem was similar to what I have done on several similar occasions, I ground away the chrome trim pieces (left and right sides) until they would fit and mount back in their original holes. I hate having to grind away original metal, especially when it is chrome plated, but there was no other way to fix this except maybe to cut away the offending rigid foam, which would have meant destroying the new top and the next new top would probably present the same problem, so, grind away. The finished job looks OK. No casual observer would notice anything unusual about those corners.
The chrome corner trim pieces cut to fit the new top. The right side also has the passenger grab bar which goes over the corner trim. The grab bar is the original leather-covered item. It looked good enough to keep.
Forward view of new dash top installed. This finishes the dashboard and makes the interior look more like a real Jag.
With the new dash cover installed the car’s interior took on a whole new look. It now looks like a real car, in particular a new E-Type Jag! Only the windshield is missing now and the inside of the car, for the first time in three years, looks like a Jag again. A very satisfying milestone in the restoration journey. I just had to sit back and admire it for a while, especially with the steering wheel temporarily in place (it will have to be removed again for some interior detail work) and the new radio playing my Pandora tunes. A most satisfying moment!
Fully assembled interior. Note the map light is lit because there are no doors to hold the door-jam switches in which turn off the light.
• Seat install
To finish off this milestone moment I had to put the seats in. The seat runners had been previously restored with new Zinc plating and the seats had been re-upholstered in original leather and moquette materials (plush and beautiful) and they went back together without much trouble. The seat runners had to be reassembled, which I had to do more than once to get the rollers in the correct positions, but with those done everything fit together. With the new upholstery both on the seats and on the door sills and the center console, the seats are tight in their places and do not slide easily, but I don’t anticipate doing much seat-sliding as I think I will be the only driver of this car while I live. With the exception of the doors the interior is now officially finished. (The doors will necessitate some interior rework, of course, but that can wait for the next post!)
New (recovered) seats in place with new custom-made seat belts.
