WITW - Barn-find Final Edition

[MikkiJayne]

Finished off the seat with another quick clean, then treated with leather conditioner. The plastics cleaned up nicely too



Continued cleaning the dashboard. The column cowling was also a bit grubby



Special sauce cleaned it up nicely



Put the carpet back in so I can put the dash back together tomorrow

[tintin]

And how much do you charge for a bottle of this special sauce?

[Markiii]

So the dash needs to come out to get the carpet out?

[MikkiJayne]

Originally Posted by tintin

And how much do you charge for a bottle of this special sauce?

That would rather rely on me remembering how I made it!

Originally Posted by Markiii

So the dash needs to come out to get the carpet out?

Not the whole dash, but everything in the middle of it as far as the heater box. Radio, hvac panel, centre vent, the radio cage, then everything in the centre console. Of course to get that out, the glovebox, lower dash and tunnel sides also have to come out, so pretty much all that's left is the dash top, steering column, cluster and heater box.

[Markiii]

Christ they make that difficult

[David's8]

Originally Posted by Markiii

Christ they make that difficult

Yes, but they dont expect somebody to want to undertake cleaning to such such an OCD degree A weekly vacuum and an occasional spot of carpet cleaner is the usual standard.

[MikkiJayne]

This is the extent to which one has to go to get the centre console and therefore the carpet out:



Only 1/4 through cleaning the seats but I put the console and driver's seat back in to clear some space, and also to feel like I'm making some progress



Centre console, with the wood trim for the shifter in place as that can only be fitted or removed properly with the console loose, and also the cubby for the menu button (without it's wood) as one screw of that is under the shifter trim



The rest of the wood will go on after polishing. Its slowly becoming a nice place to sit again though

[S81]

Super job as always, And the attention to detail is unreal ( i thought this was just a preliminary refurb? For the time being)

[MikkiJayne]

Originally Posted by S81

i thought this was just a preliminary refurb? For the time being)

Yeah that was the plan, but in order to iron out the kinks I need to drive it about and in order to do that it needs to be pleasant to sit in, which it wasn't. It's likely to still need a headliner since even the Aromatek can't get the smoke smell out completely, but it's bearable for now as it is mostly overpowered by freshly conditioned leather

MoT in a couple of weeks once the interior is back together, and then it'll be off to a pro detailer to see what it's going to take to recover the paintwork

[strummagnet]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

Yeah that was the plan, but in order to iron out the kinks I need to drive it about and in order to do that it needs to be pleasant to sit in, which it wasn't. It's likely to still need a headliner since even the Aromatek can't get the smoke smell out completely, but it's bearable for now as it is mostly overpowered by freshly conditioned leather

Tackling a headliner replacement has to be the most daunting thing for me on a car. I cant figure it out, probably the lack of contortionist ability I have...