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Being a convertible its more important than a coupe interior is I think, its all there with the roof peeled back its all on show.
I just wanted to show people that a good looking interior could be achieved under £500 by being creative and doing it yourself instead of paying out £3-5000 to a trimmer. I'm still on target at around £400 presently.
Thats what Im trying to preach here
Pride in your own work (and save lots of pennies).
Was that including seats, steering wheel, stereo, speakers, carpet, basically, every non standard part in the cabin?
If so well done!
That was for door cards, steering wheel (eBay) stereo (eBay) trim(eBay £40) got a friends wife to edge it, speakers (eBay) re coloured the seats my self .
It can be done if you shop around .
Most expensive part where door cards
The holes were cut for the various furniture on the centre console and bolted on place (or will when the UNF nut set box arrives to match the chrome countersunk bolts...why not metric like the rest of the world! Grrr).
Being a convertible its more important than a coupe interior is I think, its all there with the roof peeled back its all on show.
I just wanted to show people that a good looking interior could be achieved under £500 by being creative and doing it yourself instead of paying out £3-5000 to a trimmer. I'm still on target at around £400 presently.
Okay progress will be accelerated as a show is looming. First jobs were on the black Rover 75 seats I'm using. I removed the headrests and filled in the resulting hole with black panel pins. They look okay for now.
The original Rover seat belts stalks were removed and the secondhand MG stalks bolted on. I put these on the inside of the runner not on the outside to give a little more room as the Rover seats are wider
The Z3 roll bar loop supports have always been an 'eye sore' on my Kalifornia so it was time to remove them. I got out the large reciprocating saw and started cutting around the base. It's not advisable to use an angle grinder unless you cover the plastic rear window, carpets, seats, etc. Unfortunately the blade was worn out and there was not any blades in stock, it was too late to go to B&Q so I had no choice but to cut them off with a hacksaw.
Two hours later...
You have to be very careful not to damage the hydraulic hoses for the roof or wiring loom.
The exposed metal from the roll bar loops was sprayed matt black to stop them rusting. The plastic surround that went around the roll loop and down the sides of the sear were cut down also.
In this picture you can see the roll bar support that was cut off. I had a piece of carpet left from a previous build and was the right colour (not black but dark charcoal).
This was secured by the same plastic studs that secured the original carpet up underneath by the back window. This is to cover the gap left after removing the plastics around the roll bars.
I then spent all of the next morning coming up with a solution to the age old problem of getting a manual gear knob to work with an auto lock out. I found a solution which I will post separately as other auto owners from other forums and makes would like it.
Anyway the centre console was fitted with the ashtray (with hidden switches connected), gear and handbrakes leather gaiters and a new shiny alloy manual knob.
This evening I'm going to clean, treat and feed the leather Rover seats ready for installation. Oh and about an hour of hovering before they can go in! Still aching from cutting those roll bar supports.
It's coming on really well and very informative. I may 'borrow' some of your ideas.
Cheers, Bob.
Hi Bob
Sorry Ive been meaning to complement you on your build, it's just been manic, its looking great. The rear window trim is a donkey to fit right though...good luck with that!
Richard
Quick up date on the clocks - I've eben dragging my heels but I've now got them finished along with the mask that goes behind and gives the illumination colour (red we've gone for).
Lockwood was over 200 quid for one off and came down to 70 quid per unit for small production run so not worth it.
I'm going to try and get these commercially printed over the weekend (so colour fast) and then get the mask bonded on then it's simply a question of cutting and fitting.
Not sure if I should post this on a public forum but can I have photos of Richard knob please
Its okay nick, I get asked this a lot. It seems my knob is in demand.
I will write up the modification this weekend in between shows (Friday and Monday)
Could the mask by produced as a vinyl printed sticker by one of the many sellers on eBay?
the mask has to be in perfect alignment with the main gauge print - there's quite a good online guide I found here which explains it much better than I can but basically the mask is only there to block out residual light spill and give colour to illumination when your lights are on - it's printed on a transparency.
eep: 
