Interiour

The dashboard we did after some period pictures. We used as many period correct parts as we could. The door was cut from an original Jaguar dashboard. 11 layers of clearcoats went on it.

The lock and the hinges are also period correct parts. jut like the chrome stop.

The Innocenti window system gave us a bit of trouble...

Thanksfully the trimmer was lazy to cut the winder's hole on the leather. His misstake was our gain :-D.

Period original steering wheel, retrimed in Connolly leather.

NOS Britax inetria seat belts make the final touches on the interiour.

Assembly 4.

Though most of the parts were rebuilt before, there were some that escaped :-).

The sticker needs to go back after repaint. Although it is not visible once assembed, but I KNOW that it is there :-D.

Although we replaced the original points with an electronic ignition system, we painted the coil black, and camouflaged it with a period correct sticker.

Our Porsche project left us with a bit of race quality CV grease. Why not using it on the Mini :-)?

All switches were taken apart and cleaned to assure good contact.

Nice detail is the sticker on the wheel. We did it after the remains of the original sticker.

Assembly 3.

The painter forgot to paint this panel matt black as it was originally.

The Benelite grille looks fantastic, with the nos Lucas fogs.

Never too late to start a carrier!

Thick felt went under the Wilton wool carpeting.

The gear lever is a period correct accessory, with a better angle to match the higher siting position of the Aston Martin seats.

6 layers of clearcoat went on the restored venier.

A bit of cheating: a retro looking coil.

Had a bit of trouble with the repro remote servo unit, but a some drilling and voila!

Front seats

At a point we decided to use only oldschool Connolly leather for the interior, as it must be the closest to the original hides of the era. This decision has proved itself basically right, but the picture is more detailed now. Due to the old (vegetarian based) tanning method, the leather is uneven in thickness varying from 0.7-1.5mms. It is a bit more rigid than modern leathers, but what makes it really complicated to work with, is the fact, that is can only be stretched a very little bit as anything above the minimal, the color becomes uneven, revealing the natural color of the hide. Quite challenging, but at the end it came out nicely.

Most of the parts of the seat are original. We only made a few changes. The most important being to replace the cardboard backing to an alloy one. Without that step, the back of the seat would not look too impressive. We also kept the original thickness of the foams, just added a bit of padding to bare metal parts.

Parts arrived from 2nd companies

Assembly 2.

Assembly 2.

Unfortunately non-original, was made in 1972.

Installing the headlining is a delicate task. Needs a lot of patience. 

And some "special" tools, like these clamps from the stationers.

And this hot air blower aka hair drier :-).

With the help of this device (thanks to the Best Ever Possible Wife), the worst creases can be smoothened. The rest will disappear with time and  

Gauges

The gauges were original and mechanically sound at the first glance, but obviously had to come apart for refreshment. There is no worst then a giggling speedo or a sticking temp gauge in a nice restored classic.

The voltage stabilizer is a delicate thing. It prevents the temp gauge and the fuel gauge to read faulty due to the varying current in the charging system. Although it is a simple design, it work just as well as a modern electronic device. 

Normally we get our items plated by a company, but such fine and small items as the gauges or the carburetors, we do here in the workshop. 

The speedo gauge internals were badly stucked due to the old grease. We took the mechanics apart as much as possible, but still could not get it cleaned completely, because some parts are riveted and there is no real way for dismantling and reassembling it correctly.  

For these cases we have an ultrasonic cleaner. Normally ten to twenty minutes tend to be enough, but the gauge was so badly stuck, it stayed in the tank for 1.5 hours! Now it works fine.

Stickers have to go back after the plating of course.