In Part 1 I talked about the mechanical work I did to get Rosie up and running again. But that wasn’t the only preparation that was necessary. The carpets were coming up and the interior panels were water damaged. I also knew of a few rust spots that I wanted to take care of before they became problematic.
The process started with pulling up all the carpet, which didn’t take long, since they were already working their way up. Next started the long and tedious process of removing all of the interior paint. In most places it came up easily with a wire wheel on an angle grinder, but all of the sheet metal seams were sealed with a blackish shellac that took far longer to remove. Every time the wire wheel touched it, it would liquefy and spread out, spattering the clean metal. Solvents helped, but ultimately it just took lots of grinding and scraping to get rid of it all. Last came ripping out the old insulation, a gummy, tar-like layer that only responded to a paint scraper and a lot of elbow grease.
Once I finally got down to bare metal, I started doing rust repair. I found a few holes in the floor pans that I hadn’t known about, in addition to the spots that I was aware of. I cut back the rust, treated the remaining areas with rust reformer, riveted in sheet metal patches on the few larger holes, and sealed all of the edges. I also took extra time to paint and undercoat the bottom of the foot wells and inject cavity wax into the enclosed spaces that tend to be vulnerable to rust on these little British cars.
After the sealant was dry, I started priming and painting the interior. I used inexpensive black automotive spray paint on the floor pans, since they would be covered in black carpet, and color matched Flame Red on the upright panels, to help maintain consistency with the rest of the car. Two coats of primer, three coats of paint, and two layers of clear coat. The finish was a little rougher than I would leave it for the exterior, but I figured that would be good for the various adhesives that would be used to reattach the various parts of the interior.
Next was installing new insulation. The whole body of the car is made with one or two layers of sheet metal, which means that it is great at transmitting engine and road noise. The insulation, a foil-backed butyl, deadens the vibrations, significantly reducing noise. It also acts as thermal insulation, helping to keep the heat from the engine bay out of the cockpit, and important function in a car that has no air conditioning.
Installing the carpets was next on the list. I had a pre-cut carpet kit for the car, but after test fitting it, I realized there was little chance of me installing it over the curved surfaces of the wheel wells without it being obvious it was an amateur job. So I farmed that out to a small auto upholstery shop nearby. Unfortunately, the installer managed to incorrectly install the piece over the transmission tunnel, and cut it to make it fit, rendering it unusable. Fortunately, I had decided to use rubber floor mats up front, and the shop was able to recreate the piece by cutting and stitching the unused carpet floor mats.
The last step was to install the new panels. While some of the panels went in very easily, others did not have screw holes in the right places, and I had to make some modifications. I also had the misfortune of breaking the housing of the bonnet release cable when I was reinstalling it, requiring a new one to be installed.
The interior looks great, and all this work, along with the new seats I installed last year, will pay off on the trip by making the experience of being in the car for over 100 hours that much more enjoyable.