My '98 Rover 820 SI Fastback Nightfire

[rovercoup]

leave the paint to cure for a week before doing any rubbing etc , I know that length of time is over kill but the lacquer will still be quite soft. 2000 or 3000 grit is best to lightly flat over the surface and then use meguairs compound, followed by make brand polish and then wax. If you have a DA then even better with correct grade sponge blue or white for compound and then red for final polish and buffing. I would tend to use blue for compound on newer paint and white for existing. excellent progress photos as well. You must be chuffed with your work. if anything like me when I've managed a decent job I keep going back to have a look

[TheVDM]

Hi Steve, thank you again for the advice, I will leave the wing for a while and work on smoothing it down after a week or two, I will also try and patch up the small mark where I have rubbed through the paintwork to try and perfect it.

Next update, today I got out to do the service, I managed to fit the cambelt (my first time) without any real problems and all seems to be running well, all the rest of the service except for the fuel filter went smoothly but I will deal with that at a later date, new front discs and pads are now on, I just need to do the rear pads and the thermostat (had enough today).

I also discovered the reason for my slightly noisy exhaust, the anaconda section is looking a bit naff and is falling apart ... That will be the next expense.

[TheVDM]

Got some spare bits off of Ian (soundrediscover) today including a spare 16" 7 spoke alloy, if nothing else it has kept Lillian quiet for a bit as I commissioned her to clean it

[scoobyh123]

Nice one Jim! I used something slightly different to clean mine :

[TheVDM]

Oh dear, our dishwasher broke a while back and after a few failed attempts at fixing it I got bored and chucked it, It's a good idea though.

[scoobyh123]

Have you heard of freecycle/freegle Jim?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreegleThanet/

That explains better than i can and you could well find a replacement dishwasher for your favourite price on there! I put a lot of stuff on and have had loads too, saves taking working stuff to the dump or whatever!

[TheVDM]

That's where one of ours came from and all the broken ones go to (unless the metal recycler's drive past on the right day), the Thanet group isn't too good due to the high unemployment rate here although we tend to keep an eye out on the Canterbury group as we visit there a couple of times a week for some free dinners with family

[scoobyh123]

Beaten me to it then! Forgot about the high unemployment down there, when i first knew Thanet it was thriving and busy with high employment but last time i was there about 10 years ago i was amazed how it had seemed to have nose-dived.

Free dinners with the family are always a bonus too!

[TheVDM]

Time for some leather seats to replace the cloth ones, the first day working on this saw the front seats fitted.

Tickford seat with the fixing base removed.


After some fun with a pair of pliers I removed the steel frames from the seat bases.


Swapping over the steel frame from the seat bases, i.e. fitting the cloth seat frame into the leather seat. Some cutting and modification required.


After hammering in all the little clips etc... we have this, a tickford leather seat with a different frame in it that matches the mountings on my car.


And with the seat base fitted again.


A tickford leather seat securely fitted to my 820



After swapping out the passenger seat, which kindly unbolted and bolted in like I expected the drivers seat to do.


Luna (our cat) has found a new bed, and an hour or so later she is still asleep on it.



Job done, all I need to do now is get my mum to re-design the rear seat covers, make a new cover for the front arm rest and replace the cloth inserts in the door cards with black leather.

[TheVDM]

Now onto the rear seats, or a start at least.

The old and new base


After modifying the leather cover to accept the tensioned centre seatbelt.


After cutting out the foam to allow the tensioned centre seatbelt and removing/refitting the billion or so hog clips to change the wire frames over.


Rear bench now fitted to the car.


The different headrest inserts.


The spaces to fit the headrests.


The spaces fitted to the leather headrest to allow the smaller insert to fit nicely.


Smaller headrest insert in the larger leather headrest.


Cutting the leather to allow the prongs to fit through as they are closer together.


The headrest back together.


After modifying the other 2 headrest and fitting them to the car.


The seats so far.


The remaining leather to unpick and fit to the 40/60 split seats.


Oh how much fun this is , I can't wait to see it all complete, hopefully another day or so should see the seats completed, then it's the door cards and arm rest.

[Richard Moss]

This sort of thing is actually very satisfying - both the design and the final result.

[scoobyh123]

They look very different to when i last saw them!! Done a fantastic job there Jim,
i know jobs like that are very painstaking but if you finish the seat back etc to the same high standard i doubt anyone will ever realise it wasn't leather from new!

At the moment, you can truthfully say it's "half-leather" !

[TheVDM]

Thank you, it is very satisfying, except maybe the multiple needle wounds

The seats did look a bit old and dusty when I pulled them out of the boot didn't they, after some TLC with a damp cloth and a good half a tub of boot polish they came up quite nicely although there are a few minor cracks on them.

The worst part is pulling the hog clips out and whacking myself in the other arm with the pliers and sharp clip, my left arm is looking a bit emo now. That's the aim, a nice subtle modification that looks natural.

They are definitely half leather for now, although I'm saving the hardest part of the seats for last, hopefully tomorrow will show a new update and some more photos.

[scoobyh123]

Finally found it! Probably too late to be any help now but this tool would help a lot with the hog rings! Maybe you could make something similar to do the same job?

It's hard to believe they're the same seats, hope you're going to give them some hide food as well as cleaning them?

"my left arm is looking a bit emo now. That's the aim, a nice subtle modification" - to the car or your arm??? That's the sort of thing i've tried to do with mine, slightly updated/improved but without detracting from the ideology of it being a Rover.

Looking forward to the photos of the back seat all covered and fitted!

[whitelion58]

Just caught up with some of this thread. Great to see such good effort going into one of our cars. As has been said, that sort of work on the seats can be very satisfying and the result will look great. A nice charcoal carpet set from a late model car would set it off nicely. I have something similar to do to change the front seats in the J plate Vitesse if I ever find some spare time! There are tons of good products out there to bring that old leather to life - watch out for boot polish coming off on your clothes! Have a look for my thread on the red fastback with the special order black interior.

I smiled when I saw your small person cleaning the wheels for daddy.. Reminded me of a day about 25 years ago when I set one of mine, who was about the same size at the time, to clean the hubcaps on our '51 Riley RMA with some steel wool. All was going well till I turned around and saw she had moved on to the front wing... So helpful.

Anyway, good work and keep the updates coming!

Tim