49721 Interior Restoration Underway

Hi,

After a couple of months of thinking about it I have finally begun the restoration of the interior on my 84 GTS QV. This car has lived all its life in the SE USA [Florida, Alabama, Texas] and for a lot of that time with the roof off. Consequently, even though she only has just over 37000 on the odo the interior has taken a lot of abuse from the sun and heat.

I figured I would document the process here. I have learned a lot from such postings from others and figured it is about time I contributed to the cause. I'll be contributing to this thread in an ongoing fashion as work moves along.

So here goes............

I started by doing a photo survey of the interior so that I could have some decent before and after shots. I'll have more time later tonight to post the interior removal process.
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Over the weekend I removed all the leather bits from of the interior and transported them to the upholstery shop this morning.

Here is what happened:

I started by removing both seats. Pretty straight forward task involving 8 socket cap bolts. The two at the front of each seat can be accessed by moving the seats as far back as they will go. The two at the rear can be accessed by moving the seats as far forward as they will go.

With the seats removed, I next removed the seat rails from the seats. There are two hex bolts at the front of each seat and two socket cap bolts at the rear of each seat holding the seat rail mechanism to the seat [see pic].

In my case the passenger seat presented a problem. Some PO had obviously attempted this task in the past but had stripped the crap out of the rear socket cap bolt closest to the console. This bolt sits down in the rail so that a typical bolt extraction socket, or vice grips cannot get purchase. I found that a #5 bolt extractor [see pic] did the trick nicely. These bolts are 8x10x1.25 with a thin head and are available from T.Rutlands [part # 40294407]. I will need to order one.

With the seats out, and rails removed, I turned my attention to the passenger door panel. Start by unscrewing the plastic knob on the door lock mechanism. Next remove the one bolt [rear] and two nuts [mid and front] holding the armrest on to the door, and remove the armrest. There are still 5 screws holding the door panel to the door, two at the rear that are obvious when you open the door and look down. The other three are hidden in the door carpet; one about mid way along the door, below the map pocket, one at the front of the map pocket below the door leather, and one at the lower front corner of the door [see pics].

With that hardware removed the door panel easily slides up and forward to come off. The same routine works on the driver's door with one wrinkle, the electric mirror control. Before you can remove the door panel that control need to be removed. With the armrest loosened you can easily reach underneath and push the mirror control out of its slot [see pic], you can then remove it from its connector and remove the armrest. When it comes to the point of removing the door panel you will need to wiggle the connector through the panel. I found that you can turn it sideways [see pic] and get it to wiggle out quite easily.
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Next came the center console.

The forward section of the console is held to the floor with 4 screws. Once removed you can easily slide that section out. [see pic]

To get the rest of the center console out is a bit involved. It starts out easy, simply open the ashtray, remove the tray, and unscrew the two screws holding the ashtray to the console [see pic]. The whole center instrument panel is now loose and can be lifted a bit to see all the wiring etc. underneath.

Before we get to that however let's next remove the clock and oil temperature gauge. Unscrew the two screws holding the clock panel to the console. Stick a finger in through the ashtray hole and push the clock panel out of the console [see pic]. you can now disconnect the clock and oil pressure gauge from the wiring harness [see pic].

With the unit removed you can remove the gauges from the mounting plate by simply unscrewing the knurled knobs and disconnecting the oil temp gauge from the clock. At that point both units can be pushed through the mounting plate and removed [see pic]. My clock as you can see is in bad shape and will be sent in for repair. The bezel is clouded badly, and although the clock runs the reset knob is not connected so I cannot set the time on the unit. I'll return to this topic when I find out where to send it.
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Next, I removed the window controllers by simply pushing them up and out of the panel, then disconnect them, remove them and reconnect them underneath the panel for safe keeping. You will notice that the driver's side control has up and down arrows on it whereas the passenger side control does not. I don't think this is correct. I guess I'll have to source some new ones as these are pretty tatty in any case[see pic]

The A/C control knobs are held onto their shafts by small Allen screws. Loosen those off and remove the knobs [see pic]. You can then unmount the controls with a 13 mm wrench. You will need to hold onto the switch underneath the panel to stop it from turning around.

Next comes the cigarette lighter. This thing is held in place with a spring mounted assembly. You can lift the panel up a bit, grab the base of the assembly and turn the metal retaining base until it releases [see pic]. you can then put it all back together and slide it beneath the panel for safe keeping.

Next in line are the fan, hazard, wiper speed and rear defog switches. To get these out first remove the plastic buttons [see pic]. These just slide straight up and off with a little bit of pressure. If they are in good shape they can easily be reused. Next carefully hold the ring in place, I used some circlip pliers for this[see pic], and reach underneath to turn the switch body a little to get the ring turning. Take the ring off and push the switch down through the panel. You can then re-attach the ring and keep the whole unit under the panel in place for safe keeping. Of course you will want to make note of the orientation and order of the switches to make life easier on the reinstall later.

Finally we come to the climate control sliders. As with the previous switches start by removing the plastic buttons on the sliders. Then push the panel forward an up to disengage the steel plate at the rear that holds the panel to the center console [see pic]. Turn the panel on its side and you can see how the controls operate. The plastic bezel, the part you see from above, is connected to the metal retaining clamp with screw 1 [see pic]. You need to undo that screw and disconnect the lever from the bezel. You next remove screws 2 [see pic] and push the bezel out the top of the panel. You can put the whole thing together again and tuck it down in the console for safe keeping. You need to repeat this for all four climate control levers.
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Now disconnect the shift gate plate. It easily rotates and can slide through the panel [see pic]

You can now remove the control panel and this is what is left behind at this point [see pic].

Looking at the panel, after removing all the control plates, you can see how badly the leather has been bleached by the elements over the years[see pic]. The interior code on the bill of sale, and the Monroney sticker is 3228E Saddle II, which matches the unweathered leather beneath the control plates. Amazingly the leather in those positions is still soft and supple whereas the leather exposed to the sun has been destroyed. Great vote for sunscreen.

There are still a few more things to disconnect before removing the center console. The first is the antenna control sitting on the driver's side of the E-brake handle. It comes out the same way the window control switches did and can be reassembled and tucked underneath for safe keeping.

Next are the 7 screws holding the console to the floor.

Then disconnect both seatbelt receivers. The passenger side one is not strictly necessary, but the driver's side most definitely is. The driver's side receiver also has the seatbelt latched detector attached to it [see pic] which you can remove.

Now comes the E-brake. First unzip the leather sleeve[see pic]. Now you might think you can just slide the center console up and over, but alas it will not go. Even with the E-brake pulled up full and the shift level in reverse the console will just not make it out [see pic]. You may be tempted to force it but DON'T do it. The last thing you want to do is crack the fibreglass casing, and really the next step makes extraction of the console a breeze.
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Now for the E-brake........

First locate the connection to the E-brake mechanism at the base of the E-brake lever system. You will see a rod through the base of the E-brake lever held in place with a cotter pin[see pic]. Remove the cotter pin. You will find that no matter what position you place the E-brake handle in you will not be able to get that rod out of the lever [see pic]. Here is the trick: in the pic you will see three numbered bolts that hold down the E-brake handle. Remove bolt 1, loosen bolt 2, loosen bolt 3. You will now be able to rotate the E-brake handle and get the rod out of the lever [see pic].

With the rod disengaged you can pull the E-brake handle into a vertical position[see pic] and easily slide the console off with zero effort.

So that is it. We now have all the leather, except the dash, out of the car [see pic].

The dash on this car is a Euro brown leather dash and is in fairly nice shape amazingly enough considering what a mess the rest of the leather is in. Actually the arm rests are also in good shape. They are the same leather as the dash. Must be a different type of leather, or perhaps treated differently.

At any rate...that's it for tonight.

Paul
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Hi Crowndog,

I have been following your amazing restoration project. I'm honored to be able to put up something you might find useful

Best of luck with your beast.

Paul

 

Hi Big Red,

Nice to hear from you. I need to get back up to the great white north for another amazing meal with you guys. Take care man,

Paul

 

Hi Scott,

You can bet I'll have her out at Coffee and Cars as soon as I get this done. It will be awhile yet as the "while you are in there" list is already growing [window regulators, seat belts, weather stripping, etc. etc.] But when we next put our cars side by side I will not look like a tired old beast next to your spectactular Euro.

Take care,
Paul

 

We are doing all the headliners, including the targa top. A couple of issues with that top are that one of the fixing pins has broken, or at last the rubber material has cracked off it [see pic]. Also both gaskets, right and left, are in pretty sad shape. I was able to get a new fixing pin from Recambi and T.Rutlands actually had the gaskets for a reasonable price
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The tonneau cover for the targa top has four clips that hold it to the mounting points in the car. These clips have a plastic button like press on top, that is black and is pressed with a cavallino [see pic]. Unfortunately one of those black button like tops has disappeared. Should be fun to find. We are having a new cover made as the old one has pretty much had it after 30 years of fun in the sun.
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Oro Chiaro Met For 104/C is the Glasurit paint code.

Translates to gold clear metallic.

Here is what a 29 year old blonde should look like
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