Project Marina, Interior Reassembly

Like usual, it’s been a while between updates, but progress has been progressing. Finally, we’re reassembling the interior once and for all.

I had been asked about and pondered for a while, on whether I would be sticking some sound deadener under the carpet on the new floor. I wasn’t going to, but since I was here I grabbed some cheap no-name butyl stuff and got to work.

The main places were the two footwells in the front

The front of the tunnel under the heater

The front wheel wells (where stones would hit)

and finally, the rear footwells

I’m not certain it will do anything, but even if it can stop the floors drumming, that’s a win. It was reasonably easy to apply, although I did do it in winter so had to use a heat gun to get it and the metal warm so it would stick properly. I also grabbed a small rubber roller from the hardware store to roll it out.

With my newly applied sound deadening in place, it was time to lay down some carpet underlay.

I also stuck some underlay over the trans tunnel, hopefully to keep some noise and heat down.

Now, it was the less fun part. The carpet.

The very first part to go in was the rear bulkhead. This has to go in before the rest of the carpet since the main carpet will butt up against it. Thankfully, this was one section of carpet that still existed, even if it was some manky old faded house carpet. I carefully removed them and used them as a template on my new carpet.

A little bit of jiggery pokery had the first bits of nice new carpet stuck in place

Next, I did a quick test fit of the fitted carpet set. This was made by a local supplier. They had two options, UK or AU spec, but couldn’t actually tell me what the difference was. I had hoped it was because the AU spec cars, like mine, have the seat rails welded to the floor, whilst the UK ones don’t.

The other option was that the later 025 AU spec cars have a bigger trans tunnel, which is more likely the difference, but they couldn’t even confirm if that was the reason for the difference.

In the end, I decided to take a punt on the UK spec carpet set as my trans tunnel is the small UK size. The test fit was promising.

But before I got to work fitting it properly, I wanted to refit the rear seat as I’ll need to climb into the car to do so, and would rather not be climbing on the new carpet.

Since I was making the interior nice, I couldn’t just refit the dirty old rear seat. I’ve never cleaned it in the years I have had it, and who knows how many decades it’s been. With the help and advice of my wife, a bucket of hot water, rags, some Jif cream cleaner and a spinny brush on my drill, here’s a quick half and half of the base

This was quite satisfying as the vinyl was cleaning up really well. Its not even the same colour as before.

Once it was clean, for the first time since I’ve owned the car I actually screwed the seat in place. The base is a bit of a pain.

At the back there are two tabs which get screwed to the body

And the front has these annoying hooks that go through holes in the body, and then get secured with nuts

After a lot of stuffing around, I found the easiest way to fit the base was to get the hooks in place and loosely secured, by tipping the base forward. Then you tip the base down, and secure the screws at the rear.

The back of the seat needed a clean next. This had some old contact adhesive running down the side

Which after a lot of work, got a lot better. Not perfect, but its usable

Once again, its a completely different colour to what it was

There is quite a bit of sun damage to the top of the rear seat, and the vinyl just shatters when you so much as look at it, so I had to take a lot of care there. I need to find an OG tartan woollen blanket to drape over it like my old Marina. I was given a nice woollen blanket, but it’s too nice for this old thing.

I have no idea why, but I have no photo of the rear seat completely installed, but the backrest went in easy enough. It hooks over tabs on the body, and then two screws through tabs on the bottom hold it in place.

Now it was finally time to fit the carpet kit. I didn’t particular enjoy this as it took something like 14 hours to do, and was not as straightforward as I had hoped for a “kit”.

The first problem was that there were zero holes in the carpet, which was a pain. I thought they would’ve pre-cut the shifter hole at least, and maybe the handbrake, but no. So to help get everything centered and aligned, I used some brown paper to make a template, and locate everything using the center bolt for the seatbelt receiver

Once I was happy with the template, I transferred it to the carpet

Then i started the scary bit, cutting the brand new carpet

With the handbrake and bolt aligned, I made the first big I cut for the seat rail. I knew I would need to cut these four slots in the carpet, but it didn’t make it any less scary

A second seat rail appears

I did the same on the other side, and using the same high temp ADOS glue as I used on the TVR, I carefully glued the carpet down. I didn’t go too nuts, mainly sticking it down around the edges, not slathering the whole thing in glue.

After that, it was time for the front half of the carpet. This was more of the same; cut a hole for the shifter, glue on the pieces that go on the wheel arches and in the footwell, and then slip the front section of the carpet into place.

Oh and surprise, its a TC center console! I bought this on Facebook ages ago, the seller took my money then promptly ghosted me, after months, I thought it was lost forever but it turns out he was known to some absolute legends on a local forum, who paid him a visit and recovered the console for me. I know the car wasn’t fitted with a console originally, but it wasn’t fitted with carpet either, so lets just call it an upspec.

The final step to fitting the car was to glue the front down, trim the door jams, and then fit the plates that clamp down the carpet

The heal pad is a nice touch

The biggest issue with the fitment, that you cant easily fix, is the wrinkles around the trans tunnel. This is caused by the cut and stitched sections designed to help it fit the tunnel, but its almost like my tunnel was too small and the inserts were sitting in the wrong place. No amount of tweaking was going to make it fit any better.

In the end though, its 100x better than what was there before (nothing) or the house carpet it previously had, which rotted out from sitting.

Its not perfect, but it’s good enough for my Marina.

What good is new carpet, if you don’t have any front seats?

I’ve had both seats in at some point, but for ages the passengers seat has been out of the car, and the drivers seat was only partly bolted in. Now we’re going to fit them both, properly.

First things first though, seatbelts. The car came with both old crusty belts,

I took them out a couple of years ago, and had them rewebbed by an awesome outfit, Autosafe, who rewebbed the belts with new black webbing, cleaned up the hardware, and mixed and matched bits with some spare belts I supplied to make the best pair.

Everything is properly tagged and certified, and comes with the relevant paperwork

I had also sourced a pair of new old stock plastic covers for the top bolt, which has the integrated belt park. These came from the UK with the help of an awesome fellow Marina enthusiast

The car came with one cover, along with a single bolt cap (missing from the new ones)

I had considered the usual option of converting to retractable belts, but there is something about static belts in old cars for me. Its a novelty, even if its not practical.

I gave the bolts and washers a quick cleanup and then fitted the belts

And it clips nicely into the buckle

With the belts installed and working nicely, it was time to clean the front seats and bolt them in.

The drivers seat got the treatment first. This is in pretty average shape, with a couple of tears in the base which have been stitched together with some red twine.

Before cleaning it I flipped the seat upside down and greased all the moving parts

They’re a very simple rail, but with the added complexity of the tilting mech for getting passengers in the back seat. This little lever is what releases the backrest

The lever releases a big hook on each side

The lever acts directly on it, with a rod going to the opposite side

Everything got some grease on it, and is moving nicely. The actual sliding adjustment is very simple, with two independent rails, a U shaped release lever and two pins.

You lift the bar at the front, it disengages the pins and the seat can slide. You release the bar, and it springs back into place, slotting into one of the notches. All of this got greased and then the seat was flipped over for cleaning.

Cleaning up well

I’m very impressed how well these seats clean up

Its like two different seats

So the base got the same treatment too. The decades old tape residue doesn’t seem to want to budge, but otherwise its looking good

After a coating of 303 Aerospace Protectant (all seats got this treatment, it’s meant to treat and protect vinyl), it was bolted into the car

Moving onto the passengers seat, it had obvious had a life at some point. The seat release bar/adjustment was very bent on one side. The left side pin wasn’t even engaging with the rail

Some careful percussive persuation, and it was all as it should be again

This one wasn’t as drastic as the drivers seat, but still changed colour quite well

Which could only mean one thing, the final seat got bolted into place

I kicked off my shoes, hopped in, belted myself in, and spent some time making vroom vroom noises.

We’re very close to WOF time now. It’ll be a couple of weeks, so I’ll have to book a day off work, book it in for a WOF and then I’ll have a deadline for the car to be ready. I still need to do an oil change, drain the stale fuel out of the tank, fit the new wiper blades and then see why the engine top end is rattling, but thats a days work at most.