Classic Mini 1275GT gets an interior and earns it's stripes!

Still been working on the Mini when I can... it's taking too long!

Recently, it was time to fit the interior back in. I fitted it, then took it back out again. It's grubby, and horrible, nothing like the original one (it was swapped out sometime in the 90's for a British Open interior).

I looked around for a suitable replacement, and finally stumbled on a company via facebook called Autostitch, who gave me some ideas and a very favourable quote.

The kit arrived after a short wait, and I set about fitting it to the existing seats. I chose not to replace the foam in the seats, as it still appeared to be in good order.

First off I started on the rear seat base. It was easy enough to remove the old upholstery, as it's just held on with some staples...










The foam's in good condition...

The new upholstery is sized up...












.. and once I've got it round the right way (!), stapled in the middle either side, putting the vinyl under a bit of tension ..

.. and stapled round the edge, moving out from the middle, avoiding any uneven tension which may cause it to wrinkle up...










Now, I've never done anything like this before, and it's all gone very well :)

On to the back.












This is of different construction. It's a wire frame, with very scant foam padding! The upholstery is held in place with a lot of small clips. I took a good few photos of the position of the clips, just in case, but I need not have worried...

One note about the clips, the come in two different sizes, a wide (pictured here) which is intended to "grab" two thicknesses of upholstery, where they overlap, and a narrower type, intended to grab one thickness.. 

The new vinyl is again sized up, and fits really easily...

Not bad at all :)

On with the fronts...

Here's a tip, remove the head-rests before un-bolting the seats from the car!

These are the slightly later type of seats, with the latching bar, and the reclining mechanism (oh the luxury!)

First thing is to turn the seat upside down..

.. and remove the rear part where it's folded around the seat base to reveal 30+ years of crap... ugh!

You'll find several little clips, not dissimilar to the ones used to hold the back seat cover to the frame.

Remove the recliner handle (just one philips screw) and the little silver rivet from the other side.

Slide the rear cover from the seat.. Again, the foam is a little discoloured, but hasn't started to degrade.

Remove these two cardboard things from the rear cover, you'll need to put those back in to the replacement cover.

Undo the clips from abound the base of the seat..

Remove the latch level knob (it just unscrews)

Squeeze the sides of the latch bar grommet from the inside, and it should pop out...

And remove the upholstery and foam.

It appears my seat frame was made in the motherland, by Llanelli radiators!!

















Now's the time to paint up any rusty bits on the seat frame.

Installing the covers is easy, just take your time, stretching the vinyl over the seat frame and foam, and knocking the clips back on with a small hammer.

Door cards are a direct fit, although tight in the top slot on the door, which is no bad thing!

You'll need to make some small holes in the vinyl (I used a hot soldering iron) to locate the screws for the door handle.












Finally looking good...

Meanwhile, Lee gave me a bell ...

"My fishing bite alarm has stopped working.. can you have a look?"

... yeah, why not?

The receiver had a nasty case of corrosion, so after a good clean up in the ultrasonic bath, and some microsurgery around the PLL, it was sorted :)


Now Lee is a renowned car  body expert, as thanks for the fishing bite alarm repair, he very kindly offered to fit my side stripes for me, a job which I've attempted to do once, and cocked up (in my defence, more to do with the age of the stickers , which were genuine Leyland ones, and they had hardened over the years and stuck to the backing.) These are aftermarket heritage decals, be very careful where you get them from, as I had some from a reputable supplier, which I returned as the stripes top and bottom were too wide, and the font very wrong...


He didn't even mind about the rather cramped conditions, or the fact it was raining at the time..

It's finally earned it's stripes.










I've also sorted the radio cassette (see here for restoration), now with added bluetooth FM modulator, and accompanying USB and DC sockets...

... and mounted the Multi-function display where the ashtray once lived.

The bezel was 3D printed by my friend Pyers.

(The 3D print files are now available ...
https://andydoz.blogspot.com/2020/03/classic-mini-lcd-surround.html)

In other news....

The engine and gearbox is done and ready to go...

Including this rather nice lightened flywheel, and "orange" Borg & beck clutch, which has just returned from being balanced by the lovely people at MED.














Soon perhaps?