[car_restoration] Saved From The Chavs! Cherry Red Restoration

[Edp 67 3 Cars]

Just read all of this, great thread. Looking forward to the next update

[NFS 32]

any chance you can draw up the template of the rear quarter carpets? i need to do the same but i dont have any old ones for templates

[SkyQuake 70 1 Cars]

Tristin, you're a seriously lucky guy. If I hadn't popped on here to post up the below photographs, then the original carpet I used as a template would have stayed outside in the bin waiting for collection tomorrow morning. As I saw your post in the nick of time, I've just been out in the rain and retrieved it, so if you want it, I can post it to you if you're willing to cover the cost?

 

So, onto the aforementioned pictures:

 

I realise I owe you guys a serious update, but I've been working on the car all weekend, and I'm tired, so I'm going to bed! Hopefully the following will keep you interested until I've had chance to do a proper update!

 

 

 

 

I am tantalizingly close to that all important MOT!

 

Cheers for reading,

 

Mike

Edited October 27, 2013 by SkyQuake

[Juttie205 123 2 Cars]

Looks stunning a real credit to all your hard work. I would be interested in templates when hes finished with them.

[NFS 32]

OMG, the car looks brilliant, my fav resto thread!!

 

thats great mate thanks for the effort i will PM you.

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

^{Ooooh! That is beutiful! Well done Mike!}

[nveeate 78]

Great job - I went back to remind myself of the Page 1 pics - transformed!

[jackherer 543]

The lack of number plates makes it look like a brand new car that's just been delivered to a dealer. From the front anyway, there are a few non standard things at the back that give the game away.

[Mac Crash 78 1 Cars]

a real testament to what can be achieved with time, effort and a bit of thought... +5

Edited October 29, 2013 by Mac Crash

[_Mike_ 0]

Amazing attention to detail!

 

Cant wait to see the full update!

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

Any news on this? Did it have an mot?

 

Wouldn't mind a few more photos

[SkyQuake 70 1 Cars]

Yeah, you're absolutely right! I owe you photos and the write up of the end of the restoration. I have just been working on my procrastination, and I have to say, I'm getting quite good at it!

 

For now, suffice to say that yes, she did have her MOT. Went through first time, like a charm, and I've had several hundred delightful miles out of her already! I'm totally in love! If you see someone in a bright red pug buzzing round the roundabout with a massive grin on his face, it's probably me!

 

I will finish up the restoration write up soon, promise!

[SkyQuake 70 1 Cars]

Ok, so I've been feeling bad about not finishing the story on here for some time. Obviously I've been busy and blah, blah, blah + 100 other excuses. It just so happens that today I'm off work with a near fatal case of man flu, and so I've completely run out of excuses! I will therefore attempt to write up all of the remaining parts of my restoration. So here goes, apologies if I cover old ground in places!

Firstly, lets talk seats. Now, compared to some of the seats you see popping up on eBay, mine were really quite tidy to begin with; however they were far from perfect. As I mentioned previously, the car must have been owned by a smoker in the past. There were numberous fag burns and holes in the leather and fabric. There was also the usual amount of wear and tear, plus, as normal, the driver's side seat bolster had been converted into a light yellow powder, which I had previously hoovered out of the carpet! They were badly in need of a good wash too, but otherwise, not too bad!





The biggest problem I had to solve was on the rear of the passenger seat. This was a big fag burn, which someone had tried to repair with a patch. The adhesive used had attacked the vinyl, and over time, the patch had fallen off, leaving a dirty great hole!



So, I started with giving both seats a good hose down and scrubb with detergent. This improved things dramatically.



I then attacked the problems in the leather using a leather repair kit obtained from eBay. The kit is from a company called 'Scratch Docter,' and it contains several different compounds for different types of repair. In the pictures below I am using their 'repair putty,' which is basically a elastomeric polymer, which you can scrape into cracks and holes to rebuild the surface. Once cured, it's sanded down and re-coloured using dyes also included in the kit. I also used this to fill in the hole in the rear.





I found that the best method of applying the repair putty was in several coats, sanding in between. This ensured that the cracks/holes were properly filled, without build up on top of the good surface. When you're sanding down the putty you will also remove the very top surface of the leather, but this isn't a problem.



The next thing to address was the knackered seat bolster. Fortunatly, I had a spare tatty passenger seat kicking around from a job lot bought from eBay. Stripping off the seat cover is easier than you might think. Using a set of pliers I prised out all of the clips on the base, and peeled the cover back. It was then relatively easy to cut away the old bolster.



Once I had removed the replacement seat bolster from the surrogate seat, it was clear that it wasn't far behind in its erosion! Fortunatly, I've worked with these seat cushions before, and I know a bit about them. This type of foam is usually a self skinning polyurethane microfoam. On uncovered chairs (like office chairs) the mold is usually heated during curing to form a thicker layer at the outside, but on covered chairs, to save time and money, they don't bother, so you only get a very thin outer layer. This is one of the reasons that these foams start to break up. I therefore decided to try and replace the outer laying, using the only suitable polyurethane I had to hand, a tube of tigerseal! I coated the top surface of the bolster in a thin layer of tigerseal, and allowed it to dry.



You may think that this was nuts, but I assure you, there's method to the madness! This actually worked really well, and I thoroughly recommend you do the same to protect your seat bolsters! One thing I would say is that it does make the foam slightly firmer than it is without. Next I re-attached the bolster (stuck with tigerseal, of course!). Pulling the seat cover back into place is more difficult than removing it. I found the best technique was to thread a cable tie throught each of the metal chains, and pull them up against the seat frame underneath.



Once the cable ties are holding the whole lot in place, you can put back the metal clips. I broke several metal clips in the process of doing this, but fortunatly, it seems, a bent nail will work just as well!





So, the final stages with the leather repair kit, are to re-colour the leather & repair putty, before treating the surface for either a gloss or matt finish. I mixed a very dark grey to match the existing leather, and then sponged it onto the affected areas. The biggest problem with this is keeping the colour of the red stitching. You have to be extremely careful not to colour the whole lot by mistake. After the colour coat, the leather looks pretty awful, but don't panic. You then go over it with a finish coat, and the whole thing comes to life! Finally, I chose to go over literally all the leather with AutoGlym leather care. Here's the result. A massive improvement, I think you'll agree!

Driver's Side (with repaired leather and bolster):



Passenger's Side (with repaired rear patch):



Obviously it wasn't possible to completely repair the big hole. There was no way of recovering the texture, so the repair is a flat surface, but I think it's about as good as I'm going to get without replacing the entire vinyl panel!

Ok, so moving on from seats. Wheels.

The car originally came with a full set of five 1.9 wheels, an assortment of speedlines and SMRs. I also ended up with a few loose ones from the previously mentioned eBay job lot. I had several to choose from therefore:



Unfortunatly, they were all a little bit tatty, so I decided to part with some more money. I part exchanged a set of four for restored powder coated ones from Tony at GTI distinction. I have to say, money very well spent!





Hmm, now we're starting to get nearly there! The last major task was putting the iconic trim back on. After purchasing two of the diabolically overpriced trim kits from eBay (I now know Farmer can get them cheaper!), I then took to tackinging this.







This is certainly a dark art! I found the easiest way to fit the star washers to the studs was to squeeze them up using a socket and a g-clamps, with a piece of rubber to protect your trim.





The spring clips on the door trims are an absolute pig to fit. There's no way you can use tools without scratching your paint, so it's fingers or nothing, and after doing all of the clips, it's no fingers! Vicious! But worth it!



As for the red trim strips, they were really tatty. Lots of stone chips, kinks and flaking paint. I cleaned and scrubbed each trim strip, and banged as many stone chips out using a flat punch. I did my best with the kinks by hand, and by using a small flat screwdriver to prize out the lip on the inside. This is really difficult, and you have to be very careful not to simply snap the strip! I then ruffed up the strips with abrasive, primed bare patches, and sprayed them in cherry red.





You'll also notice that I purshased one of those expensive richmond tax disc holders, and very carefully resprayed that too, to match the car! Sad! Guess who hadn't heard about tax discs going obsolete!

Which pretty much brings us to the finished article! There is some post MOT stuff to talk about, such as mud guards, but as they're not finished yet, I'll leave you with the following images of her just before MOT day.

















Many thanks for reading,

Mike

[Anthony 1,003]

That's really nice, a credit to your hard work - well done!

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

Very nice mate

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

*Applause* looks gorgeous that. I also did my own seat bolsters with tigerseal and like you say makes them a bit firmer so they sag around the firmness over time :/ Also sprayed my red strips with halfords cherry red. One thing about the seats is I "think" they were originally satin (dull) not shiny. But they look amazing well done mate

 

Is your dash grey and everything else black?

Edited March 11, 2014 by Slo

[yippeekayay 18 1 Cars]

looks great... did you sell the sunroof abomination... my essential, as fitted by peugeot, with an external mounted electric motor is visible to the naked eye due to the abomination that was there departing a few years ago in a gale force wind, induced by a passing HGV on the fosseway...

[Juttie205 123 2 Cars]

Stunning if my cherry red dimma comes out anywhere as good as this I will be happy.

[nveeate 78]

Fantastic work - congratulations on a lovely car.

[cybernck 402 1 Cars]

Outstanding work! A pleasure for the soul and a feast for the eyes!

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

Brilliant work Mike! Stunning little car! Enjoy!

[Rock Lobster 28]

Amazing results! Very nice looking car indeed mate. Very impressed to say the least!

[Lowercase 56]

drool...

[calvinhorse 870]

Excellent work! The leather restorer is incredible stuff!

[GTIRussia 0]

Amazing result! Can you give links for materials you used for leather restoration?